What happens when someone who professes not to have looked at anything football related since the Panini sticker album for Mexico 86, decides to make a football game? You get Behold The Kickmen, the upcoming game from Dan Marshall, the brains behind Ben There, Dan That!, Gun Monkeys and The Swindle. …
I am a big fan of the Football Manager series, and I think that in many ways the new 2012 edition is one of the best versions of the game to be released for a few years. However, in my long-term career game I am starting to reach an impasse where I am going to struggle to achieve my desires. …
I love this time of the year, the football season has just kicked off again, the roads are still quiet in the morning because all the kids are on holiday, oh and a new Football Manager title is announced. Following on with the usual numbering system Sports Interactive have announced that they expect Football Manager 2012 to be available before this Christmas. …
I’ll be honest from the off, I started the FIFA 10 demo expecting to be disappointed. For all the talk about how the series has drastically improved over the past couple of years I was skeptical of what the new version was going to be like. I played theFIFA 09 demo last year after getting caught up in the hype surrounding the game, it left a bad taste in my mouth and I quickly turned back to ProEvo. This year I finished playing the demo with a broad grin stuck on my face.
It is a small demo in some ways, you can only play a ten-minute exhibition match with a variety of top European teams (plus Chicago Fire) inWembley Stadium, but, you can play as many times as you like and your stats are recorded in the widget on the menu screen. You get a small amount of information on the new and improved game modes such as the enhanced ‘Be a Pro’ mode which now covers both club and country and ‘The Season’ which lets you play through a full season of domestic and continental games without the hassle of handling team finances or training.
The matches though are where FIFA 10 shines, it feels much better than the clunky FIFA 09 demo from last year. I think it is fair to say the new fangled 360 degree player movement is the main factor in this. Why it has taken so long for full 360 player movement to be introduced I don’t know, regardless player control is a much more dynamic and fluid experience that it has been in any other football game I have played.
Even when Barcelona were trouncing my Bayern Munich side 3-0 I still enjoyed it, and after lowering the difficulty and thumping Olympic Marseilles 4-0 with Chicago Fire I knew that this game had finally come good on the PC. I do fear that the high-defconsole versions of the game will provide a better experience, but I am looking forward to what the full game has to offer. Judging from the main menu there will be a lot to play around with and right now, I cannot wait.
Football season is back, and that means we will be getting heaps of football games coming out this year even though they are labelled 2010! It is madness but it is that special kind of madness we are all used to. Apart from all the other chaps here who don’t seem to care in the slightest about the grand old sport.