Padchuckr

The latest and greatest in the long running series of Sports Interactive football management simulators. Is it the best thing since sliced bread? Most definitely, if you love football.
I love Football Manager, much as I loved Championship Manager before the changeover. It’s a brilliant game, not so much for the painstaking and brilliant research that goes into it year on year or the continual improvements every edition has, but because nothing so fantastically captures the essence of football. The sense that it’s all part of some grand mathematical scheme, and that you think you know what’s going to happen, you think you’re on top of it, then Sheringham and Solksjaer score one each in injury time, or Gerrard fires off a forty yard screamer that Shaka Hislop never sees coming, or Zidane turns around and nuts a mouthy centre half. It has the highs, it has the lows, it has the WTFs and what’s more it’s not even that hard to get into.

So what’s so good about the new version? Well not much that wasn’t good about the previous ones. There is more detail in the media interaction, there’s more ado made of your personal set up when starting the game (for instance I filled out the Create Manager truthfully, and lo and behold many of my players at Manchester United balked at the prospect of a coach younger than they are). You can now interact more with the players, rather than just bollocking them, and you can see the feedback from your team talk to see who needs the carrot and who needs the boot flung at their head during half time. This level of personal interaction adds an almost RPG element to the proceedings; will you be a nurturing boss like Sir Bobby Robson or David Moyes, a ruthless wheeler dealer like Big Sam Allardyce, a snide media player like Wenger or a boot flinging foul mouthed beast like Fergie, the choice is yours and each approach has merits.There are no ifs or buts. It’s the definitive footie management game, bar none. If you like footie management games it’s a must have, but if you do like footie management games then you probably already knew that.