Over 30's Gaming

Where do i start with Football Manager? (Worldwide Soccer Manager in the US)
I'm sure you've already heard of it by now and if not then you've been living in a cave somewhere. Previously known as Championship Manager this title has been the number one selling football management game for well over ten years.

Please note that due to developer disagreements a few years back Football Manager is NOT to be confused with Championship Manager. CM is a poor mans imitation of the real FM, the name having been retained by Eidos when the developers split. Read the full story here

If you are at any level whatsoever a football (or soccer) fan then you simply MUST play Football Manager. The game is a work of pure genius as far as i am concerned and i challenge you not to fall in love with it and lose countless hours trying to lead your team to glory.
Whether you want to take charge of a giant such as Manchester United and go for a grand slam of trophies (and world domination) or you want to start abroad or in the lower leagues and work your way up the managerial ladder, Football Manager has something for everyone. There is an inherently magical feeling associated with leading a minnows team (in my case Accrington Stanley) up through the divisions to the big time, which cant easily be explained here. You need to do it yourself to truly appreciate the sense of achievement you get.

In its very basic form,Football Manager is a glorified spreadsheet its true, and a newbie can find himself overwhelmed by the amount of statistical team/player data on offer. The key to remember here is, it is entirely up to YOU whether to use this data or not, and HOW you use it. Every manager is different and you will develop your own style too.
The player data in FM09 is so accurate and well researched it is not unknown for real life managers to scour the database to look for potential players!

Here's a list of key features in Football Manager 09 (the latest incarnation):-

• 3D Match Engine - This year's match engine has seen more testing than ever before having been extensively beta tested in Football Manager Live for the past year.


• The famous Football Manager match engine can now be viewed in full 3D with motion captured animations the players. Sports Interactive has been working on the 3D match engine with the support of SEGA Japan's football development team who provided the motion capture data and some of the animations.


• You can now watch your matches in 3D from multiple camera angles and re-watch any part of the match by fast forwarding and rewinding the action using a new match time bar that flags the key moments in the game.


• The old 2d view of the match engine is still there, especially for those people whose computers aren't powerful enough to take advantage of the 3d views.


• TV View - Watch your matches in new full screen TV view and customise your match day screen with widgets to view the information you need as a football manager, be it player performance, match action zones, pitch radar, latest scores and many more.


• Assistant Manager Feedback - Pre-match and in-match feedback from your Assistant Manager on how the team is performing and your player's motivation levels, as well as hints on how your tactics are working and how you could outwit the opposition's tactics.


• Improved Media - SI have worked hard to reflect the greater impact the media has been having in recent years on the world of football, in the in-game dealings with the press. The game now features more news stories, more detail and greater media interaction than ever before, creating an even more realistic simulation of the football world.


• Press Conferences - Attend pre-match and post-match press conferences with local and national journalists and build up relationships with them over time, but choose your answers carefully because they could come back to haunt you in the media at a later date.


• Transfer System - Completely new and re-written transfer system code, providing an even more realistic simulation of real-life football transfers.
  Transfer Rumours - View the latest news on what players are being speculated on, and who's said to be interested in securing their services.


• Board Confidence - Following on from its addition in Football Manager 2008, board confidence has been expanded and improved. In addition, the board will now also feedback to you on your squad harmony and the club's stature in the football world.


• Preferred Moves - Train your players to learn 'preferred moves' to add to their game. For example, train central defenders to not dive into tackles, or wingers to do stepovers before crossing the ball.


• Female Manager - For the very first time you can now play as a female manager. All of the text in the game now also has a female gender so the game represents female managers and staff in the game in the correct gender.


• Realistic Finances - SI have listened to feedback from all of their researchers to try and model every single financial area of the game correctly for each country, including transfers, staff wages, budgets, ticket prices, season tickets, competition bonuses and club sponsorships.


• Updated Competitions - Fully updated for the new 2008/09 football season with all the latest league, club and player data, featuring over 5,000 playable clubs from over 50 countries, and around 350,000 players and staff from around the world, drawn fresh from the famous Sports Interactive database.


• Widescreen Support - As a result of usability testing on Football Manager 2008, this year sees widescreen support for the game for the first time, as well as lots of tweaks to the user interface for easier navigation.

My missus hates me playing Football Manager. It is so easy to get drawn into this virtual football world that its not uncommon for me to lose entire evenings playing, only disturbed by shouts that its 3 AM and i should be in bed!
There is also a thriving Football Manager community on the internet which regurlarly provides data updates, graphics, sound bytes, editors etc etc, which can only improve your FM experience.

Tip 1: With regard to tactics - KISS! (Keep It Simple Stupid). This is especially important early in your career, do not confuse your players with too many individual instructions, keep things simple and play as a team.

Tip 2: Hook up with a mate online and take charge of your favourite rival clubs. This is something i do and it makes for an intense and stressful managerial career - just like the real thing!!

WARNING, Football Manager is addictive and may ruin your love-life!

Real time strategy games (RTS) are hugely popular, and rightly so. This is a genre which is more time consuming than your standard shoot em up or action game but is a thousand times more satisfying. If you are looking for a quick gaming 'fix' then this is probably not the genre for you - the learning curve can often be fairly steep. However if you are willing to invest a certain amount of time into them, RTS games can be infinitely enjoyable and rewarding.

The basics of RTS:

• Build a base


• Culitivate/Grow an economy


• Build an army


• Spy on your enemy or sabotage them


• Destroy your enemy's base and march to victory!

These steps sound simple enough but its the sheer scale of the games and the HUGE number of different ways of acheiving your goals which makes them both fun and strategic simultaneously. No two match-ups are ever the same, especially if you play online.

RTS games come in a variety of flavours from Classic Wargaming, Futuristic, Historical, Mythological and even Fantasy. There is something for everyone and below are just a few of my all time favourites.

The Command & Conquer series



Command & Conquer games have placed themselves firmly in top position in the all time history of Real Time Strategy gaming. The very first iteration was back in 1995 with Command & Conquer - Tiberian Dawn and the latest release is 2008's Command & Conquer - Red Alert 3. Each and every game in-between (barring the poor FPS launches) is steeped in quality and you are assured a great game whichever version you buy.
Originally developed by Westwood Studios with two warring factions, GDI and the evil NOD, C&C has grown over the years and various other factions have been realized. From the mighty Chinese to the scandulous Russians and the fantastic 'fanatic' Yuri and his army of followers. As diverse in tactical strategy as they are fun, C&C games are the stuff of legend. If you've never heard of 'Tiberium', where have you been?!
My own personal favourite of the series is Command & Conquer: Generals and the Zero Hour expansion pack released back in 2003. At the time, wargaming had never been so much fun and i believe Generals stands up to the test of time very well. I still have the occassional blowout from time to time, nothing i've found yet can recreate the feeling of sheer power when rolling in an army of mammoth tanks to destroy an enemy's base - or sneaking in an engineer to disable an enemy's power supply seconds before a battle

The Lord of the Rings - The Battle for Middle Earth 2



Ok, i'll admit it. I'm huge fan of the Peter Jackson LOTR movies and may be a little biased here. But then, you show me someone who isnt! This game only made it onto my list as fans of Tolkien (as i am) will absolutely love it.
Although originally released in 2004 by EA, BFME 2 is still a great game today, and is the best choice available for fans of Tolkien & RTS alike.
Set mainly during The War in The North (appendices from The Return of the King) players take control of one of seven completely different factions, each with their own Hero's, strengths, weakness's and strategies:

• Men of the West


• Dwarves


• Goblins


• Mordor


• Isengard


• Angmar


• Elves

It is then up to you to build your economy and army, whilst defending your own base and attacking your enemies. Attacks are rewarded by earning highly destructive Palantir powers which when fully utilized can obiterate an enemy's forces. This is a great idea as to an great extent it prevents players from 'turtling' and games becoming boring.
My personal favourite army are the Elves. If given sufficent time to upgrade resources the power of the Elves is unrefutable. However, many online players know this and will attack consistently to prevent you from ever reaching this level of power.
Online games are the life and soul of this title, and matches can last anywhere from 5 minutes to over an hour depending on how well matched you are.
The learning curve for BFME is about average, it is easy to jump straight into the game and be competitive but takes a long time to master the intricacies of battle.
If you've ever wanted to take control of Gandalf or Aragorn and lead your vast armies to victory over the evil Mordor then now you can. Likewise if you feel like taking control of Saruman and destroying Middle Earth with the power of the Balrog, nows your chance!

Overall, a fantastic game which Tolkien fans will adore and strategy fans will admire.

The Total War series



Now, i'm not even sure if the Total War series of games can be classified as Real Time Strategy. But since they involve large elements of RTS and i love them, they've made in onto my list :-) The series includes, in chronological order:

• Shogun: Total War


• Medieval: Total War


• Rome: Total War


• Medieval II: Total War


• Empire: Total War

Each game, although set in a differing era, shares the same basic principles. Basically the game plays out on a map of the world with each faction competing for power and territory. It is turn based and with each turn a mulititude of decisions must be made, such as which soldiers to train, what equipment to research, where to raise/lower population taxes, where to send your spies, who to suggest alliances with etc etc. There really is depth here beyond compare and the game can be played in whichever fashion you so desire, be that through diplomacy, trade alliances or war.

The RTS part of the game comes into play when two opposing factions collide over the same piece of territory. The game itself switches from the map of the world view to an isometric battlefield view, and you as General, are in total control of your armies. Unlike the games mentioned above, there is no base to build/defend here (that was already done on the world map screen), instead here it is pure tactical warfare - so you better be prepared to think quickly and strategically. Do you flank your enemy or go head on? You outnumber the enemy but are they better equipped? How do i make use of the battlefield to my advantage? There are literally hundreds of ways to play out each battle, each one ending differently.

This game, whilst much slower than a regular RTS is a real heavyweight and is fantastic fun to play. You will need to invest time heavily to get the most from it but if you do then the rewards are hugely satisfying.

So there you have some of my favourite strategy games of all time, to enjoyed no matter what age you are. Whether you share or disagree with my views please feel free to leave your comments. Happy Gaming!

In the above posts i have listed some of my favourite games to play alone or with a buddy or two online. These games are for intended for the slightly more serious games willing to invest a few hours a week playing.
So what about for the more casual gamer? Get a few buddies round and get the beers in, this list will suggest some of the best games to play whilst drunk!(or a little tipsy at least!)

Nintendo Wii

Ok, so i know the Wii itself isnt actually a game. But, pretty much anything on the Wii is best played with a few beers or even better, completely blind drunk.
Lets take a couple of examples:

Wii Sports: The popularity of Wii sports is astounding. Never before has making yourself look ridiculous been so much fun or become so competitive with the favourite sports in this title being Boxing, Bowling and Tennis. Throw a Wii party, get the beers in, arrange some drinking forfeits for the losers and you are guaranteed a great night in.

Warning: It might be wise to re-arrange the furniture before playing on the Wii as things WILL get broken!

Mario Mart Wii: I absolutely love Mario Kart, it is up there as one of my all time favourite games. Best played socially over a few beers with friends you will be surprised just how intense this friendly, lovable game can get. I've seen shy, timid "wouldnt say boo to a goose" introverts turn into highly competitive " Overtake me and die" monsters playing this game! Get the beers in and the forfeits ready, this one could turn nasty ;-)

Warning: If you save that red shell specifically to shoot your missus yards before the finishing line, dont be surprised if she wont talk to you for a week afterwards!

Singstar (Playstation)

Admit it, you've always wanted to be a popstar! I think at some point in each of our lives we've all dreamt of being the next Michael Jackson or Mariah Carey. Personally, i wanted to be George Michael but i do all my singing in the shower due to having a voice which sounds like ive swallowed a cats choir.
Thats why i've put this down as a great drinking game. Few of us have the confidence to sing in public, whether we have great voices or not. So let a little dutch courage go to work and duet with your mates on Singstar!
Some of my very best nights in ever have consisted of 'playing' Singstar with friends. We warm up over a few games on the Wii then switch our attentions to Singstar to finish the night loudly and proudly belting out our favourite hits.

Even if you 'think' you dont like singing, i challenge you to get involved with Singstar and a few friends and NOT have a good time. Its impossible!

Warning: Close all the windows and doors and make sure the neighbours are out before you start - or may get an unwelcome knock on the door from the noise police!

Pro Evolution Soccer

Now this one is aimed more towards the guys, but hey girls dont like video games anyway right?
(Before i get inundated with hate mail from female readers, i'm only joking ok?!)
I've chosen Pro Evo over Fifa Soccer simply because of it more intuitive nature. Basically, its a much easier 'pick up n play' type game and therefore lends itself to the drinking game genre quite nicely.
I have a couple of friends i play regularly at Pro Evo, and always with a couple (read:lots) of beers to hand. We even play before a big night out so as we've already had a couple of drinks before we even leave the house and are ready to p-a-r-t-y! We play like this:

Score a goal - opponent has to down his drink
Yellow Card - offender must drink two-fingers
Red Card - offender has to do a shot
Offside - offender drinks two fingers.
Win the Game loser must finish his drink

These are our standard rules, although we do tend to introduce new ones on a per night basis. If this doesnt sound like much then just you wait until you play..

Warning: You will be blind drunk in under an hour, guaranteed!

Remember, drink responsibly but most of all - Have Fun!