Compelling Soccer

One of my favorite things to do in any sports game is to play the role of GM. As a typical know it all, I like to think I hold the blueprint from which the worst team in sports could find it's way to prominence. Plus, it combines one of my other favorite video game genres, RPGs, into sports. Nothing is more satisfying than finding a diamond in the rough and turning him into the player you always believed he can be. And without the problems of having actual personality and the media to deal with, the fictional sports world can be your oyster.

The FIFA manager modes have always interested me because the soccer landscape is so different from the american sports. Every player is available provided you have the right funds, but there is always a way to handicap yourself readily available. Plus you can have fun with promotion, league cups (little League One side against those Premiership giants) and of course European cup action. Unfortunately MM usually was lacking in some way that made it a winner; one bad bug in FIFA 07 didn't allow you to gain better sponsorship deals to get better players as you progressed up the chain. But I hoped this incarnation would prove to be the best yet.

I broke out Leicester City in honor of one of my co-workers from there. They're an okay Championship squad after making it back from first division but going into the year didn't look like top draw stuff. It is cool that they have differentiation between the sides in terms of budget and wages. For example, former Premier leaguers Newcastle have a huge 34+ million budget to begin compared to Leicester which is down around 4 million. Even in division two, Notts County reflects their supposed spending ways by having over a million in transfer funds to begin with opposed to most of the squads which are in the hundreds of thousands, you know, in case you want to channel your inner Sven.

As in past manager modes it isn't easy to start with the top tier teams. Your reputation will blow and you will be subjected to increased scrutiny. In other words any slip ups = sackings. Leicester was technically out of my league to begin with but not so good that I'd get sacked after a poor start. They also had the money to get some players, though I wouldn't be breaking the bank for anyone.

So onto the nitty gritty. First off, the transfer options. The last time I played a FIFA game, FIFA 07, they had the very annoying "bid" system which limited the players you could target. There are no such limitations in this one, though the board will limit the players you try to sell. This one is going to be a major deterrent to my roommate playing manager mode as he loves to turn over rosters, but I have no problem with it since no manager is going to rip out the whole roster over two transfer windows.

The board providing money for transfers is a welcome change from FIFA 07's money from endorsements. Sponsor deals are there, but are supplements to your initial cash, which is good. Also your wage budget is set separate, meaning you don't have that coming out of your transfer/upgrade budget. I've heard that the budget is some what glitched as getting promoted doesn't provide an increase to your funds. This would be frustrating if true, but nothing new to a FIFA game as I mentioned. I remember in 07 being up in the Championship with Notts County and still getting the same endorsement deals as I got in league two.

Transferring players is finding the sweet spot with the team and the player. The team is just submitting a bid; every player should have their price. Just expect to overpay if the player is listed up for sale. The player can be harder, especially if you are an inexperienced manager. Players tend not to want to join you unless you pay them handsomely if you are just starting out. That's another deterrent for starting at a top side.

One thing FIFA could really use is a youth system. Because they lack it, the addition of young players comes through your scouts finding talent. This can be a bit imbalanced. In prior FIFA games, the players they found were usually pretty awful. This year, I've found 5 scouted players. The first one was a borderline starter immediately, at the time anyway. Then I upgraded the scout. The next four players I got were so good they immediately became rotation players. Now, three of the four are constant starters and one is in a 50/50 time share. This wasn't even the case of them being slightly worse than the current crop but their age making them worth it. They were as good as my current starters and in some cases, 14 years younger.

This tends to make things a tad imbalanced. It could make things interesting when you are starting out at a lower tier team though, where it might make the most sense to have your acquisitions be scouted players. Since you won't have a ton of money for transfers and they'll not really want to go to a lower tier side with a no name manager, getting those young guys could make all the difference in the world. It does make me think about wanting to start over with say a team from MLS or a bottom end Euro squad, but we'll see how I feel after completing the season with Leicester.

There do seem to be a lot of annoying glitches in FIFA 10's manager mode. I haven't encountered any yet and am trying to take precautions to make sure I don't. There is one game breaking one apparently, but hopefully my precautions allow me to avoid be affected by it.

The other thing that people have complained about is Form. Basically players can get a boost of rating if they are in good form, or a drop in their base rating if they are in bad form. Most of my players tend to end up in poor form, so I tend to just accept that as their ratings and move on. It's something that needs to be improved for future games. While I understand that it encourages you to play your squad more frequently, nearly every player who doesn't play and dominate shouldn't be in bad form. Really, the only player who stays in good form is Richard Sukuta-Pasu because he scores a goal a game. Again, I don't think it affects it that much, but it's annoying to see it.

All in all, manager mode is a solid effort; not nearly as bad as those on the FIFA board make it out to be. But those expecting the depth and complexity of Madden or the NBA 2k series are not going to find it all that impressive. It's close to being a real good effort, but like every year, is still missing something to make it a great product. Overall, I'm finding it loads of fun, so it can't be all that bad.