FM 2014: The Best of an Expensive Month for gamers

by Chappers  9/10/2013 | 9:28 0 Posted in FM 2014, Opinion, Other Stuff 

If you’re anything like me an expensive period is on the horizon, October and November are massive months for gamers but hand on heart I am looking forward to Football Manager 2014 the most!

With all the hype around the new FM, not to mention the launch of the XBOX one, new Halo, Call of Duty and games like GTA V & Fifa 14 already grossing millions of sales our bank accounts are getting pounded but how do you know what to spend you hard earned cash on first? Lets investigate.

For me this period is all about 5 key releases: GTA 5, Fifa 14, Xbox One, Football Manager 2014 and COD Ghosts.

Obviously the first two on that list are already up for grabs and I’m sure many of you out there have already bought them but if you haven’t here are my thoughts.

Fifa 14 is the best version of the game I can remember, it really is, but only a certain type of player will think this.

For example, I play like the real world teams like Arsenal in the game, slow, methodical, technical play, passing, through balls and finesse opportunities with a solid back line.

My Fifa buddy is more direct, a counter attacker who isn’t the best finisher but relies on the sheer number of chances generated by lobbed-through-balls and crosses to win games.

The new Fifa is massively beneficial to my style of play and the in-game seasons reflect that, I can’t lose a game on Professional but my buddy struggles to get over mid-table even though we are the same team, if anything they would always be better than me on previous Fifa’s.

If you enjoy the technical side of football, this Fifa is the best one yet. If you don’t its just another evolution for you and you probably wouldn’t notice the difference if you solely played online.

For me this is an essential buy and apart from FM, should be the first on the list.

Our order of priority – 3rd

GTA 5 has taken a shed-load of time to develop and all the hype leading up to it speaks volumes as its a masterpiece, I can actually say it’s the first game in the series that i have not been able to put down from start to finish, the online play is also epic.

The only gripe I have is the length of the campaign, though the side-missions are a pleasing distraction, the actual game-play is only a few days work for those of us with jobs. Whether I think this because of perceived opinion of the other GTA’s (in the fact I thought they were ridiculously long because I never completed one) or its ‘as standard’ I don’t know.

The game is definitely longer than many other campaigns I have taken on in other games but I was expecting more and I was expecting to be able to spend more time roaming and causing havoc.

Our order of priority – 4th

The XBOX One isn’t far away and I for one have already pre-ordered mine.

I’ve always been an XBOX man, never once owned the dreaded Playstation so it was a natural progression for me, especially with a new Halo in the offing (which would have made this list if it had a release date).

This new version has been coming for a few years and IMO it’s a bit soon to bring it out as the technology advancements coming in the world of tech are monumental, Microsoft could have waited another 9 months and capitalised on those but hey ho, I’m sure this will be an industry leading console for years to come.

Our order of priority – 2nd

I felt slightly let down by the last COD instalment, I felt the online play wasn’t as good as the previous release, largely because of the small and claustrophobic maps so I wait with bated breath for what the new Ghosts has to offer.

Of course the campaign will be awesome, they always are, if a little short.

I’m sure this will be one of the flagship releases for the XBOX One and the graphical advancements that will come with it may see this game being slightly more astronomical than it would have been on older consoles.

Our order of priority – 5th

Last but not least, Football Manager 2014.

What could we possibly say here that would be new to you, not much, you are here because you love the game and so do we.

All I can say is I hope the likes of us, the veteran FM players are satisfied with the new updates because I for one felt let down by FM 2013.

The game seems confused in the fact it tries to be as ‘real’ as possible without actually trying to be real. Ultimately the game is fantasy until things like the 1-20 stats are ditched for real scouting knowledge.

Its either a ‘game’ or its a management ‘sim’ – which one is it.

That said the game will be epic, it will tick a lot of boxes and I will spend hundreds of hours sitting in front of it, I just wish SI listened to the cult following that the game has built up.

Our order of priority – 1st