It Turns Out I Don't Like EA Sports

This is a combined status update/review of some of the games I mentioned that are clogging up this very PC. I hope to show that you needn't discount a game because it has the wrong year in its title, or because it was downloaded from a freeware site. And by the same haggis I hope to show that new games in a series are not necessarily better than the ones they replaced. So make yourself comfortable, obtain some kind of cheese-based snack, and prepare yourself for many paragraphs of pointless drivel. Or leave now, while you still can...

Football Manager 2007 : I've just installed the 7.0.2 patch update, so I'm starting a new game. Think I might make a Rosewood Park Football Club, and stick them in Conference South and see how they do. No cheating this time. Just using the players it gives me to try for promotion and maybe some silverware (the Johnstones Paint Pot is probably my best hope). I'm deleting the save file for my made-up Plymouth City team, as they are winning everything, and its getting a bit boring. And as for my pre-game edited Liverpool team, I won't even bother, as there's not going to be any fun in beating everyone 8-0, only to then have to reload when I lose 1-0 in an FA Cup semi-final against Rochdale.

FIFA Soccer Manager : A game from 1996/97 that was bought in Lidl's for £1.49 a few years ago. Its not the most advanced game in the world, but seasons only take about 20 minutes to complete. I've got a couple of save files going on this, most of them already with bursting trophy cabinets, such as my Dundee United side who were the Champions League winners in 2000, after I got them promoted from the first division, and my Plymouth side who started in the third division, and by 2007 had won everything there was to win. Its not hard to do well in FSM, since there's a fairly straight forward strategy to follow whenever you start a new game:
1) Find your players best positions, and put your best 11 together.
2) Sell the dead weight and get a loan in to buy new, better players.
3)Try and get through the season with your skeleton squad
4) Buy the young, cheap players that are generated at the end of every summer.
5) Win your way through until you have enough cash to build a huge non-tiered stadium, since you get nearly the same number of seats for about a twentieth of the price.
6) Once your team is in the top division, buy rubbish players on the cheap, and sell them for extortionate prices because they are now top flight players.
Eventually you'll have enough money from ticket sales and transfers to be able to pay well over the odds for any player you want, including those not transfer listed, thus creating a young uber-team who will beat anyone.

Grand Prix Manager 2 : This has the 2008 update, so my BMW squad have got Heikki Kovalainen
and Nico Rosberg driving for them. Nico was my test driver last year, but when we were half way through the season, it turned out that Nick Heidfeld was signing for Red Bull Racing, and by the end of the season he'd taken his newly won championship with him. The team were not happy, but we won both championships the next year, and he crashed in his third race putting him out for the season.

Cricket Coach 2007 : I stumbled across this after linking from a freeware site to its homepage, and found that it was a free download. That turned out to be the demo, which makes sense, but all the same I persisted and acquired a free copy through means unknown. Its very much like Football Manager in layout, which causes me to think that a lawsuit may be on the way, but its still very good, despite its spreadsheet proportions. I'm playing as Somerset, of course, and I'm half way through my second season, having signed Shane Warne and Inzy as my overseas players.

Brian Lara International Cricket 2005 : I made good use of the downloadable player editor with this, so that a team comprising of me, Cannard, Clayton, Badger and Robby D (plus others) won the Champions Trophy in Manor Gardens colours. I think I'll start an Ashes tour next, and give those Aussies a lesson in virtual cricket. This game is far better than EA's offering (the originally titled "EA Cricket 2005") which just depends on licences from the cricket boards and first-class teams, rather than creating a playable game, as is the case with...

FIFA Manager 2008 : EA's attempt at a football management game, following in the footsteps of their previous goes at the market (the aforementioned "FIFA Soccer Manager", three "Total Club Manager" branded efforts, and the current "FIFA Manager" series which started in 06). In many ways, a more complete game than Football Manager, its a kind of RPG/sports management/business mogul game. Little touches like spending your money on a swimming pool for your new semi-detached house, and a more involved sponsorship side. But since you don't feel so involved in the football part of the game, its not nearly as addictive as Football Manager, which has led to many lost weeks. Like EA Cricket, it does have the licences for the top teams and tournaments, but all that means is you get a nice logo in the corner, and it says "FIFA World Cup" rather than the Football Manager equivalent : "World Cup", which can be put right with a few minutes of database editing anyway.

Chart Wars 3 : A game where you own a record label, sign bands, get them to tour, write songs, release singles and albums, and get them to promote them. I keep it simple by having just one band on my label "Fossil Records" (geology joke there). There are all kinds of things you can do to edit this games database, like add new bands, venues, festivals, awards ceremonies, and labels. Which I have. My current band "Slide" have had 3 number twos in a row, after touring for a year and releasing singles which reached the dizzy heights of number 54 before they became well enough known to appear on Jools Holland. Chart Wars doesn't really have any graphics. Its basically a bunch of tabs and buttons to get you through menus until you get to where you want to be. Very good for a game that is distributed for free by a programmer who now works on Football Manager.

Popscene : Make your characters, form a band, perform on the street/small bars/bigger bars/clubs, get signed, and release some records. Its quite a nice way to pass the time, but the graphics stop it from being as involving as other music management games.

Rise Of Nations - Thrones and Patriots expansion : Buy this game. Don't download the torrent, because if you do they'll stop making them since they think no-one is interested in it. It is an amazing game. Essentially Age Of Empires, but better. You go from a load of peasants with sticks, to being able to fire nuclear weapons. And you should always be the British, as I am being in my current Conquer The World campaign, as everybody knows the British are the best at everything. Much better than the poncy Yanks, and their French statue.

FIFA 08 : Recently deleted to make space for the Football Manager patch, I feel it deserves a mention. FIFA has been with us now for many years now (I think since 1993, International Soccer with David Platt on the cover), although my first experience of it was seeing FIFA 96 (Jason McAteer) in Pink Planet in Weston, the first one I played was FIFA 97 (David Ginola in his Newcastle days), and the first one I owned was FIFA 98 : Road To World Cup, which in my opinion was the best FIFA game ever (with Beckham on the outside, and the much-missed 5-a-side option on the inside).
Anyway, FIFA 08 was a good game, but not great. My all-star Plymouth Argyle side, with edited strip to include the Ginsters logo that EA omitted, were flying high in the Premier League. But FIFA 08 is pretty much just FIFA 06 with updated squads. Yes, they added new stadia, new clubs, new strips, and a few new modes for padding, but it is in essence its the same game engine as 2 years ago, which is a long time in computer graphics terms. And there will always be the argument about which is better : Pro Evo or FIFA. I'm leaning towards Pro Evo now, for much the same reason I prefer Brian Lara to Cricket 05, and Football Manager to FIFA Manager. EA depend far too heavily on their expensive licences to get them sales, whereas the other developers (Codemasters, Konami and Sports Interactive) always put playability above superficial touches, many of which can be altered after sale anyway.