Game: Football Manager 2010
Publisher: Sega
Price: £29.99
Pros: Another sterling management performance from SI Games.
Cons: Losing several days/weeks over the course of the next 12 months.
Verdict: One of the must buy games of 2009.

Brian Clough once said “I wouldn’t say I’m the best manager in the business, but I was in the top one.” In SI Games’ sheepskin simulator, Football Manager 2010, you’ll be given the chance to emulate the goals of Clough and his peers throughout a career of football management, from the lower leagues, all the way up to European super stardom.  With Championship Manager 2010 finally mounting a viable alternative to Football Manager after last years of practically not showing up, and sales of the franchise ‘exceeding expectations’ with its latest release, have SI Games rested on their laurels or pushed on from last years rather disappointing outing?
This time last year, Sports Interactive’s PR department were in overdrive, promising more features than ever before, including a new, much anticipated 3D engine and the most complete managerial experience ever seen. To some degree those promises were delivered on, but even the most ardent of fans of the franchise would admit it was quite underwhelming.  Most disconcerting was the 3D, engine which could only be described as primitive at best.  As one would imagine, this time round, the PR firm has been somewhat more subdued, instead only promising a better game all round, and with Football Manager 2010, they have definitely succeeded.  However, as with any success there is still plenty of room to improve in the future.

The first thing that hits you is just how much prettier the game is. The game is awash in a sea of dazzling white and crisp, cool colours. This is not just a new clearer skin, but a whole new, more functional layout. Gone are the vertical navigation menus we’ve seen throughout the history of the series, replaced with a more free-flowing, drop-down menu style. Though this redesign could be viewed as beneficial, it quite possibly could confuse those who’ve become so accustomed to the old menu style. Whilst the game is still the same as those you’ve played before, a few options have been moved around to make for much more logical navigation from screen to screen. Essentially, it’s not as intimidating for those new to the series, while still adhering to the demands of those who’ve lived and loved Sports Interactive’s games for over a decade. It may take a while for gamers used to the series to warm to it, but once understood, it quickly becomes the best all round layout to make its way into any sports management game, ever.

Football Manager 2010 is not only a stark improvement visually, but under the hood it is a much different animal as well. In previous installments, many people, myself included, would often be afraid to run any more than one or two leagues featuring a large database of players, for fear of instant PC meltdown. Curiosity however, got he better of me, so with this in mind I put Football Manager 2010 to the test and tried running the game on a large database with a number of leagues running.  With eight leagues active, from the lowest leagues, because nobody likes to miss out on potential talent, I started a new game. To my shock, database generation was almost instant. The days of 20 minute database creations now seem further away than reality would have you believe. But that was only the first test. After all, what good is a huge database, if the game becomes either too slow to use, or so unstable it becomes prone to crashes? So you can imagine my surprise when the game loaded even quicker than my Football Manager 2009 save, running just 3 leagues! Crazier yet, I was able to zip from screen to screen as if I’d only chosen the bare minimum of what was available.

There can be no denying that Football Manager 2010 as a game is built much more on small tweaks and touches from Football Manager 2009 than an all out revolution, such as that we’ve seen with Championship Manager 2010 this year.  So if you’re familiar with previous titles, there will be nothing too different, but that’s not so much a bad thing. After all, it only needed some key tweaks in the first place. One area that has been improved hugely is match day games. Gone are the bare minimum of options leading up to and throughout a game day. They have been replaced with a copious amount of new and improved options, from enhanced back room staff feedback, such as how certain players can improve areas of their game, to a tactic creation wizard where you can set playing styles for the team.

Two of the largest changes are new features that will soon become invaluable to any budding manager. Firstly, the option to define a players role, setting players as deep-lying playmakers or box-to-box midfielders, ball winning players, poachers, supporting forwards etc… There are now so many options available in setting up your team that you can truly create a playing style, from the silky smooth style displayed week in-week out by the likes of Arsenal and Barcelona, to the more robust styles displayed by Stoke City or Bolton Wanderers. Secondly, there is finally an option to coach from the sidelines, a feature sadly lacking in the previous outing. Now you have the option to truly roast your players for doing a bad job, telling them to focus play around a certain part of the pitch such as down the flanks or to shoot on site, or for those trying to hold on to a win, drop deep and clear the ball. All choices are made on the fly and you can clearly see players moving the ball around accordingly. You’re even able to stack various commands such as defending deep and breaking on the wings. Using these feature become a truly important part of the experience and is the real breakthrough of the new features available in the game.

Unfortunately, for every area that is improved, there are sadly some that have remained the same. Everything from the lackluster 3D engine we saw last year is an improved, but still not overly impressive, despite the inclusion of new player animations, stadias, and weather/pitch degradation. Though graphically it’s still a little disappointing, they’ve left the 2D mode in, which ironicly enough, has proven incredibly popular with many. However, one can’t help but feel that in a day and age where graphics are better than ever, it does feel that these 3D engines should at least be on par with those we saw on consoles over a decade ago, rather than those of an older generation. Another area severely lacking in functionality is the scouting section, which has remained the same now for far too many years and is in dire need of an overhaul. It’s functional, but nothing more than basic, especially when compared to the fantastic mode included in Championship Manager. For a game built around unearthing the latest footballing wunderkind, it seems a rather shocking oversight to have not improved it.

On a note for concern, there are some flaws present from the start. On every new game that was started, there were players moaning about how you deal with them in team-talks, even if you praise them for mauling the opposition 5-0. Some more player specific praise would be a welcome addition to future iterations of the franchise, if only to stop this happening all the time. There also seems to be a lack of reality in some matches, and although nothing is going to be perfect all the time, the ones encountered were more than a little odd. An example of some of these problems were present in my very first match, where playing as Manchester United, I had Gary Neville, a right-back who has scored only a handful of goals in his entire career and not score a goal, but a 30-yard screamer off of the woodwork! Further illustrating inconsistancies, Ben Foster, the Manchester United goalkeeper, rocketed in a free-kick from 85 yards! Although ‘he never meant that’, those kinds of things just shouldn’t happen and most definitely never in the same match.

Overall though, I do absolutely love this game and know I will play this several times a week, right up until Football Manager 2011 and quite possibly beyond. I do wish they’d add more new things, especially scouting and set-piece support, both of which are done better in other games.  It would also be nice to reduce the number times you see silly things happen such as players moaning over nothing or getting the most random goal scorers. However, with all that said, it really is purely nit-picking at a game which edges closer to perfect every single year. This game will cause yet more divorces, break-ups and arguments due to its ‘one more game’ nature, but then, do you really need a relationship with this game in your life?

Today the full track listing for MTV Games and Warner Bros. Lego Rock Band has been announced.

In addition to the retail game, there will be a Rock Band Lego Store allowing users access to downloadable content that’s playable not just in Lego Rock Band, but across all Rock Band Music games. Players will be able to purchase songs from the Lego Store that are available in the standard Rock Band music store that are viewed as suitable for all ages. This will also continue for all new songs released for Rock Band in the future, with Lego Rock Band suitable being highlighted in the item descriptions.

Players will also be able to export their songs from Lego Rock Band to the hard-drive, allowing them to be played within all Rock Band Music games for a nominal fee using the technology originally implemented to export songs from Rock Band into Rock Band 2.

The tracks featured in home console versions are:

• All American Rejects, “Swing, Swing”
• The Automatic, “Monster”
• Blink-182, “Aliens Exist”
• Blur, “Song 2”
• Bon Jovi, “You Give Love a Bad Name”
• Boys like Girls, “Thunder”
• Bryan Adams, “Summer of 69”
• Carl Douglas, “Kung Fu Fighting”
• The Coral, “Dreaming of You”
• Counting Crows, “Accidentally in Love”
• David Bowie, “Let’s Dance”
• Elton John, “Crocodile Rock”
• Europe, “The Final Countdown”
• Everlife, “Real Wild Child”
• Foo Fighters, “Breakout”
• Good Charlotte, “Girls & Boys”
• The Hives, “Tick Tick Boom!”
• Iggy Pop, “The Passenger”
• Incubus, “Dig”
• Jackson 5, “I Want You Back”
• Jimi Hendrix, “Fire”
• Kaiser Chiefs, “Ruby”
• Katrina & The Waves, “Walking on Sunshine”
• The Kooks, “Naïve”
• KoRn, “Word Up!”
• KT Tunstall, “Suddenly I See”
• Lostprophets, “Rooftops”
• P!NK, “So What”
• The Police, “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic”
• The Primitives, “Crash”
• Queen, “We Are The Champions”
• Queen, “We Will Rock You”
• Rascal Flatts, “Life is a Highway”
• Ray Parker Jr., “Ghostbusters”
• Razorlight, “Stumble and Fall”
• Spin Doctors, “Two Princes”
• Spinal Tap, “Short & Sweet”
• Steve Harly, “Make Me Smile”
• Sum 41, “In Too Deep”
• Supergrass, “Grace”
• Tom Petty, “Free Fallin”
• T-Rex, “Ride a White Swan”
• Vampire Weekend, “A-Punk”
• We the Kings, “Check Yes Juliet”
• The Zutons, “Valerie”

The tracks featured in the Nintendo DS release are:

• All American Rejects, “Swing, Swing”
• The Automatic, “Monster”
• Blur, “Song 2”
• Carl Douglas, “Kung Fu Fighting”
• Counting Crows, “Accidentally in Love”
• David Bowie, “Let’s Dance”
• Europe, “The Final Countdown”
• Good Charlotte, “Girls & Boys”
• Iggy Pop, “The Passenger”
• Jackson 5, “I Want You Back”
• Kaiser Chiefs, “Ruby”
• Katrina & the Waves, “Walking on Sunshine”
• KT Tunstall, “Suddenly I See”
• P!NK, “So What”
• The Primitives, “Crash”
• Queen, “We Are The Champions”
• Queen, “We Will Rock You”
• Rascal Flatts, “Life is a Highway”
• Ray Parker Jr., “Ghostbusters”
• Spin Doctors, “Two Princes”
• Sum 41, “In Too Deep”
• Supergrass, “Grace”
• Tom Petty, “Free Fallin’”
• Vampire Weekend, “A-Punk”
• We the Kings, “Check Yes Juliet”

Lego Rock Band is compatible with all existing Rock Band and The Beatles Rock Band gaming peripherals.

Having taken a radical new direction upon release a fortnight ago, Need for Speed: Shift received a warm reception from many gaming critics. Now gamers can check out the demo before purchasing the full game, thanks to EA rather kindly providing a demo, which will be released on Thursday.

Featuring the world famous Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps as well as a London City street track for testing your racing skills and 5 super cars for testing your mettle, the demo promises to be quite in-depth. This should go a long way way towards showing gamers some of the many improvements that have been made. It will also show off the new in-cockpit view that delivers a more true to life, realistic racing view, that is truly staggering.

The cars featured are of true racing stock:

• 2006 Lotus Elise 111R
• 2006 Pagani Zonda
• 2008 Dodge Viper SRT10
• 2008 Nissan GT-R
• BMW M3 (E46)

Hopefully there will be enough to convince you to part with your hard earned cash and further sink your teeth into a more traditional racing game.

The demo will be available on both the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live from Thursday, October 1st and is currently available on PC.