As a long time fan of the Sports Interactive series, I always look forward to playing the latest Football Manager games when released. Football Manager 2010 was no different, and when the FM2010 Demo was released I was very excited to start playing as my team of choice, Oxford United. It didn’t take me too long at all to get to January in the game, and having now started a new demo game as Manchester City; I feel that the time has come to provide my first thoughts on Football Manager 2010.

The first thing that strikes you about Football Manager 2010 when you start playing is the new interface. For a number of years now the Football Manager look has remained pretty consistent, the interface has now been completely revamped however and looks very impressive for it. I must admit that I had got very used to the old interface, and when I first played FM2010 the new look therefore came as quite a shock; it didn’t take me long to get used to the new interface however, and I do in fact feel now that it has been improved, and Sports Interactive has made the game even stronger in this area.

When you sign a new player in FM2010 you can now choose to hold a press conference, and this is a very cool feature to have been added to the game. Each year Sports Interactive just keeps making the game better, and this is definitely one of the new features that I’ve been incredibly impressed with having played the demo.

The 3D match engine looks to have been improved, and in addition to this, crowds have been added to enhance the game’s realism. One thing I have picked up on about the FM2010 Demo crowds is that when managing Oxford United none of the fans wore yellow shirts, and yet managing Manchester City there are plenty of sky blue shirts in the crowd (and plenty of shirts in the crowd for the opposition side also). Not really sure why the Oxford fans don’t wear shirts and yet fans from the Football League do but there you go; maybe this is something that will be resolved for when the full game is released. It would also be a nice touch if every in-game stadium was an accurate representation of the real life stadium, one step at a time though I guess, and I suppose it’s not too bad a situation when your home ground is given four sides rather than its real number of three.

There are some very interesting new features with Football Manager 2010, small tweaks that have made my favourite football management sim even greater, and once again Sports Interactive appears to have put together a very impressive game. It’s easy to shout touchline instructions in the middle of a match, the game seems more fun than ever to play, and overall here I definitely feel that some very positive tweaks and changes have occurred.

The initial signs are strong with Football Manager 2010, and I now can’t wait to play the full-game when it’s released. Football Manager 2010 is a game that I can most definitely see myself spending many happy hours playing over the coming weeks and months.