Football Manager 2010

I find its still hard as frick. I played for 3 hours yesterday and got 1 win. I'm looking forward to the challenge though.

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I play it. I started with Fingal in the Irish First Division. I may be able to offer some tips. I've been addicted to those games for years.

I struggled at first but started anew and really took my time. I listened to staff advice and tried to pay attention to most details as possible (pre-match, a monthly feedback meeting, etc.) I don't mess too much with training or anything.

Also, scout, scout, scout. Get your scouts out and you can find great players for free transfer.

No. The games are simulated (the graphics are ok) although you control the tactics, not just the lineups and the formation, but also whether you're playing a more attacking style, countering, playing long ball/short passing, playing a high line, etc.

I wondered how much fun it would be knowing that you don't really play and I still really liked it. The transfer market is so much deeper than a normal soccer game. You run the team completely, you have to worry about not just having the transfer money but also balancing the wages, whether you want to bring in young players and invest in the team's academy, etc. Its real deep, at first it seems a bit too deep.

Its fun taking a team up through the leagues to the premiership (or up to La Liga, etc.), I never really played with a Premiership team originally, tried Man City once, paid Barca something absurd like 350 million over 4 years for Messi, he refused to come and I turned it off.

I've been playing what is now football manager (previously it was called Championship Manager, although CM is a different franchise now and not as good) since the 94/95 version, I was about 11 at the time. I knew frick all about football tactics (my 3-3-4 never seemed to work) and thus I found it difficult to win the league even with the best teams, as I learned more I got better.

The main thing that's always marked the series out is the incredible depth of statistics and the general reliability (i.e. the accuracy) of the results. I guess I've fallen out of love with it since it's become a lot more complex, I preferred the days when the action was described by a single line of text. Then they moved to a 2d top down view were you could actually SEE the players, purists like me were aghast. Now it's 3d! Crazy!

In terms of value, these games are right up there, people really get obsessed, spend hundreds of hours playing, it's been cited in divorce cases and such. For $20 you could end up with a bargain.