By Kieron Gillen on October 15th, 2009 at 10:36 am.
“OH YEH!” to quote Gareth Los Campesinos. The Football Manager 2010 demo is out, featuring Foot-to-ball boss-man antics in the English And Scottish league. The biggest changes since last year include a new match tactics system, a match analysis tool and MULTI-BALL ACTION! Well, probably. Anyway, you can get it from here. And find the footage-free but melodrama-high trailer below…
15/10/2009 at 10:39 y2rich says:
I think I've finally grown out of these games. Only took 14 years.
15/10/2009 at 12:34 Freudian Trip says:
The problem is that as I’ve got older and have less time available the series has got slower and slower and slower. By FM2015 it wouldn’t surprise me if you had to start a season in September and wouldn’t finish till the real-life Champions League final.
15/10/2009 at 10:49 Ian says:
I need to give this demo a thorough once-over. Didn’t much like the demo last year but bought the game anyway assuming it’d win me over. It didn’t.
15/10/2009 at 11:25 Super Bladesman says:
A massive revamp this year, loving it. An absolute classic tbh, though I’m hardly an impartial observer.
15/10/2009 at 12:14 y2rich says:
Don't say things like that. I don't have the time for this game now I'm no longer a skiving student type.
15/10/2009 at 14:50 LEEDER KRENNON says:
revamp? do tell more.
15/10/2009 at 14:56 Lilliput King says:
They changed the colour of the title menu.
15/10/2009 at 15:03 Jockie says:
Well, the frontend has been revamped, the tactic creation is no longer a mass of sliders, it's more about setting a players role in a team. For instance a central midfielder can be a ball winner, box to box, deep lying playmaker, advanced playmaker etc and you choose whether you want them to be defensive, support the attack or all out attack within those positions. I think underneath that it still uses the sliders, but it sort of sets them up for you. It's a lot quicker and easier to use than the sliders, but you can revert to them if you want more control over your players.
It's easier to change tactics and give instructions to your players on the fly during a game, with the touchline advice thing. Also new is the backroom advice feature, where your staff underline the teams strengths and weaknesses in comparison with each opponent. They also recommend players to fill gaps in the teams to a higher degree than previously.
I wouldn't say it's a total revamp, but at least this years features seem like they will play quite a big role in moving the game forward, unlike some previous features which are still in and still rubbish (I'm looking at you team talks and press conferences).
My biggest disappointment with it so far is that Darren Bent has 13 finishing, look at the leagues scoring chart SI!
15/10/2009 at 15:06 Heliocentric says:
I knew a guy who was a deep lying playmaker, the ladies loved him and he loved them back.
15/10/2009 at 15:42 Ian says:
Having not followed FM10 news much I went and looked at some stuff the video I saw of the tactics creator looks great. I found in the recent version or two that there were a few tactics that worked an absolute charm if you managed to stumble upon them.
I really hope this works because it’ll mean I can spend less time fiddling with sliders and hopefully getting on with the game.
15/10/2009 at 15:20 Dante says:
I have a longstanding love affair with Football Manager, so much so that I probably won't donwload this demo for fear that it'll make me buy the full game and ignore all the sumptous winter releases I've promised to play with freinds.
15/10/2009 at 15:20 Pijama says:
THIS
IS
FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOTBAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!
(I kinda hoped you RPS folks were more passionate about the beautiful game. SHAME ON YOUS)
15/10/2009 at 16:04 EGTF says:
THIS
IS
SPREADSHEEEEEEEEEEEETTTTTTTTSSSSSSSS
15/10/2009 at 16:20 Ian says:
@ EGTF: You leave our spreadsheets alone.
15/10/2009 at 16:40 OGRank says:
I will start playing these games again once they will let me import my savegames from the version of the previous year.
15/10/2009 at 17:09 Tom says:
I love the demo and immediately pre-ordered it. And about it being slow, I don’t know how you usually play it, but I get through a season in roughly 14 hours (which fit nicely in two weeks). You could do it a lot faster, but now, thanks to the tactics editor and the match analysis, it could take more than twice the time I usually spend on a season.
Still, two weeks until the real fun start. I’ll probably spent the first hours on scouting the new database. Already looking forward to it.
15/10/2009 at 17:17 Duffin says:
This is going to destroy my degree.
15/10/2009 at 17:25 Mr Bismarck says:
Long time fan of the FM(CM) series all the way back to the Amiga, but haven’t enjoyed a version of FM since ’06. UNTIL NOW. Got the demo and I’m loving it like a fuzzy sock filled with kittens.
I should be able to play this and keep some semblance of a social life provided the release date isn’t anywhere near The Void’s…
Oh.
15/10/2009 at 17:38 y2rich says:
It destroyed mine. There was something so satisfying about defeating my housemate in the Champions League final 4-3 after being 3-0 down at half time.
15/10/2009 at 18:36 Owyn says:
The demo is awesome.
Love the new skin and the whole new tactics thing. Trequartista? Yes please.
15/10/2009 at 21:03 Jimbo says:
Anybody notice the ‘EXCLUSIVE! FREE! EXCLUSIVE! FREE COPY OF FOOTBALL MANAGER 10! EXCLUSIVE DAILY MIRROR OFFER FREE ONLY TODAY FREE!’ in the Mirror today? I think it’s this demo.
15/10/2009 at 21:25 mootpoint says:
Now the only thing I hope for is a quick button for setting up your own team in the lowest division and giving it players automatically. Then spend the rest of the (real) year getting them to champions league. As it stands I have to spend half a year just picking players I’ve never heard about :)
16/10/2009 at 18:12 Johnny Go-Time says:
I know very little about football so I don’t care about the accuracy of player stats and salaries etc…But when Championship Manager 2010 came out recently with their “pay-what-you-want” I tried it out…And I love it!
But games of this ilk are not easy to just jump into for 20mins…Can somebody tell me why I might like this game better than ChampMan? Thanks…
16/10/2009 at 18:52 Jockie says:
@ Johnny
I haven't actually played this years CM, so I may be a bit off base here. But the reason I choose FM over CM, is because the team behind it have been developing and refining their game since around 1994, their match engine & tactical knowledge is as close to real life as you'll get. It actually scales pretty nicely in terms of being overly complex and friendly to beginners at the same time this time around also and the new interface is slick.
The demo is half a seasons play, so i'm sure you'll find out whether or not it's for you in that time-frame (It'll take considerably more than 20 minutes)
17/10/2009 at 03:37 Johnny Go-Time says:
@Jockie:
Ok Jockie, thanks…I will give it a try after my CM season wraps up, see if I can tell the difference…
17/10/2009 at 08:40 y2rich says:
Add into the fact FM uses the same scouts for player stats as professional teams use and they as has been said, they've been working on this game for something like 16 years whereas CM in this design has only been going since the SI/Eidos split 6 or so years ago.