FIFA Manager 10 may look better than most football manager style games but in essence it is basically the same as the majority out there. Ultimately it is a minor upgrade of FIFA manager 9.
When I first installed this game I was met with a message which informed me I needed to download the EA downloader in order to complete the install, fair enough I thought, but what happens if you don’t have internet access? This is a problem I find with many games out there at the moment. The designers think that because the majority of their gamers have internet access they can forget those who don’t!
Anyway onto the game itself. To be honest I have not played many manager type games and was a little rusty with the controls and options available. Now the manual included with the game was incredibly vague on what you could do with the game, only focusing on the ‘great’ new features which it had incorporated. The game itself has a beginners mode, but again it is vague and half the time you feel like you are clicking buttons for the sake of clicking buttons. Basically this game is not first timer friendly, which is a shame because when you get further into the experience it becomes incredibly addictive.
There are a few glitches and minor annoyances to be found within this game. For example user created patches are no longer allowed. Basically this means that the game can only be enhanced by shelling out funds to the developers if you want to update your teams in accordance to their real life counterparts. And the online mode is glitchy and unresponsive at times. It actually feels like the game was a half hearted attempt to get the product out in time. Now I know that games have a deadline to meet, but a couple of extra weeks in order to iron out the bugs and this game could have been so much more than it is.
I also feel that with the amount of information that can be put into games these days, they could have included a lot more in the way of teams. There are a fair amount, but I get the feeling that I would have enjoyed the experience more if my local football club had been included. Instead we have a consortium of songs that have nothing to do with football in some cases and 3D graphics of your avatar which do nothing to enhance the gaming experience. Why not keep it simple and make a proper manager style game?
I actually find myself running out of things to say about this game. It is for all intents and purposes a substandard manager game that is for expert players of the genre only. Come on EA, release a new version of the manager genre which will appeal to a larger group of gamers and you could have a major hit on your hands. Oh and don’t include multiplayer unless your sure you have ironed the kinks out of it first!
VideogameUK verdict: 6/10
