List of improvements you have noticed, between FM2009 and 2010

I think such a topic would be quite interesting.

On my hand, so far, I'd note:

- Time saved (games are faster, also with less clics to do, time between games are shorter with less useless news)

- We now see which opposition have been done

- Colors added in shape (%) during a game

- I read loan offer have been made better, didnt have the time to see that yet but its something i really was expecting

- And many other things, that after only a few games played i forgot (should have written them before writing this message^^), so to be continued (in every single detail ideally)...

Tactics are much more intuitive, touchline shouts also help a lot. The shortcuts during the match also make it easier to give instructions and make subs in-game.

I sat down this evening with FM10 for my first extended session with it. Once I got over the tabs (and over my frustration at having to use older drivers for my card), it's only fair to pass on some of my thoughts of praise:

-3d match engine is much more polished in appearance.

-Much faster performance - both in terms of the 3d match engine and in terms of processing. Hopefully this optimisation can be further increased - the difference for my 2.4 ghz/512 mb ram PC over 09 is very, very noticeable. Hats off to the guys responsible.

-Feedback from backroom staff - absolutely brilliant. Answers a lot of the criticisms on this front from those of us who were vocal about it in 09. Please now try to standardise this kind of plain English into other aspects of the game.

-Analysis of games made easier with pro-zone style graphics.

-Tactical wizard just takes the biscuit really - I mean seriously, feed in anything you like and in a blink of an eye get it turned into game engine instructions. Combine it with the touchline shouts and even the most basic of tactical knowledge and grounding in tactical theory leads to brilliant results (my missus set up a tactic with her team Lincoln and won all her friendlies - first time she's ever played the game).

This is the best FM/CM I've played. Honestly, it is - I really didn't want to stop playing, but with a patch so close and me needing to 'fix' the game with mods I'll have to start again anyways.

If some of the long-standing bugs are nailed (*whine*please talk to ATI about their legacy Radeon drivers' issues with the 3d match engine SI), as well as some of the game-breaking bugs for some users are fixed (that's a certainty), then this is a brilliant platform from which to consolidate current features and iron out some of the remaining creases.

Overall, the 3D match engine is great. (Attacking looks fluid and crisp, but defending is sloppy and terrible. I can't say how many times I've watched a midfielder waltz into my box as the defensive midfielder set to mark him, who has great stats, merely watches him. Corners are another issue. There is ALWAYS a free man from the other team in the box, can't figure out how to fix it.Any help here would be greatly appreciated. However, sometimes players will make good tackles at the perfect moment. Really strange.)

-Performance is another one already said. It's much faster. FM09 would have a few seconds pause after doing things, in this one it is almost instantaneous.

-48 Month option for buying players.

-Better keepers. Sometimes mine or the AI's will dive with godlike speed to make a save, but until the defending issues are fixed, I'm not complaining.

-The positions. I didn't like always having to set the sliders, guessing as to what the ME considers ideal. Now it tells me what is needed to be a winger, attacking midfielder, deep lying playmaker, box to box midfielder, etc. I'm not entirely sure if setting a player to a certain position, such as a midfielder to "Ball Winning Midfielder" gives them the proper instructions, but a bit of looking at their slider instructions has made me think it does.

I think it is an improvement overall. However, it seems much easier, probably only because the defenders are poor. My team (At. Madrid) scored 100+goals in La Liga, first season. My 2 best strikers had something like 50-60 goals between them. The only thing that often ****es me off is when I concede or score stupid goals. Which does happen more often, but I'm confident a patch will fix it.

* 3D match engine is much less robotic than 09

* Backroom meetings are nice and tend to be helpful more often than not

* With the new tactical editor I finally know what I'm doing and what I'm asking my players to do (the fact the match itself doesn't always reflect those instructions is another story...)

* Touchline instructions are fine. I'd have liked a "run out the clock" option (which is, to me, not a synonimous of "timewasting")

* I'm sure the ProZone style analysis tool is very useful too, but I just haven't found the time/patience to use it properly

All in all, I can definitely say the premises for a huge step forward are there. Too bad the match often becomes a total mess, and it's almost impossible understanding what is going wrong and why... No matter how many adjustments you do, if your team is getting steamrolled by a weaker opponent, chances are you're not going to turn the tables.

So, I'm quite satisfied with what I can see through the usual coat of annoying issues, which will hopefully be limited (or fixed?) with the next patch