I had uninstalled it. It was out of my life. I thought I had beaten the addiction. But much like a smoker craves a cigarette even years after putting out the habit, Football Manager 2011 had a hold on me.
I had returned to the normalcy of my life, you know, human interaction and the like. Then one day I started feeling congestion and a cough coming on. Like the day before, I had started the morning confined to the sofa, drinking tea, surfing through the channels on my HD TV. As is normally the case with day time television, I could find nothing to watch.
And that’s when it all went wrong. I went to the cabinet and grabbed the Football Manger 2011 PC install disc. I had soon rendered an in game avatar of myself as a tactically sound Italian with an astute fashion sense.
Faced with the difficult decision of which club to manage, I decided I would take on the task of restoring Liverpool to domestic glory. Surely I could do no worse than Benitez and Hodgson.
The first step was cleaning up the mess of some of the signings I felt were largely inadequate. I tasked my scouts to scour Europe for a proper defensive midfielder, and somebody who could hug the touch line and run at opposition full backs. The updated negotiations and presence of agents (and their personality affecting negotiations) further added to the drama of the game. For whatever reason, Miguel Veloso’s agent made the proceedings far more difficult. But once I had my man, I felt that much more satisfied.
Of course I also had to set the training schedules for my squad. Player’s can be placed on individual training programs, and with 14 new areas of training, the level of attention you can shower on each individual player is ludicrous.
The pre match tactical considerations can consume a lot of time. With the ability to instruct every single one of your players, as well as customizing instructions on how to deal with each player on the opposing squad leaves a lot of room for tinkering.
While the 3D graphics engine is a huge step up from what we’ve seen in the past, it’s still not pretty. But then again, if I wanted a beautiful simulation of the game I’d stick with FIFA 11 for Xbox 360.
Beyond dealing with the day to day hassles of management, this game always has you scouring every corner of the globe for the next break out star.
If you value the personal relationships in your life, I strongly recommend against playing this game. It’s that addicting. It’s that good.
