Football Manager 14
From: Sega
For: PC
Three and a half stars (out of five)
You see, I'd LIKE to give you the full rundown of Football Manager 14, and to comment on all of its pleasures and idiosyncracies, and to give a rating that truly reflects the title's strengths and weaknesses.
But where am I to find the 22,753 hours of playing the game that would require?
This is why, despite being a fan of football and of football gaming, I have never really been seduced by the pleasures of the Football Manager series, even if it is obviously brilliant.
I'm a fairly shallow gamer. FM is the antithesis of shallow. It's so ridiculously deep it should come with a warning.
For this reason, the series is ultra-polarising. You either worship it or you just don't get it all.
Let's try to find some middle ground.
So, FM14 is the latest in the world's most popular football simulation series.
It allows you to control teams from any of 117 - yes, 117 - actual professional leagues.
You can make all the decisions for that team. And I mean all.
You set training schedules, cook up tactics, recruit and remove players, talk to the media, hire new coaches, and so on and so on.
There are plenty of tutorials and tips, but my gosh it can be intimidating. And difficult.
There are two modes in the game, one for the hardcore players and one for newbies, but even the simpler one can send you barmy within minutes.
If you have the patience, press on. For this is a game that rewards those who have stamina and persistence.
Its attention to detail is truly staggering. The player database features tens of thousands of real-life professionals, each with hundreds of statistics and personality traits.
The real guts of the game is in building a team through scouting and canny transfer market dealing, working out how your team should play, probing for weaknesses in your opposition.
The super-enthusiasts will find FM14 brilliant, of that I have no doubt.
The rest of us?
Look, give it a go. It's all a bit overwhelming but you might eventually get the hang of it.
The final words go to gaming writer Alasdair Duncan, whose description of FM14 on the Destructoid website says it all:''It overwhelms you with information and makes you eat all drunken armchair punditry you've spewed whilst watching your favorite team. No, you couldn't do a better job and Football Manager 2014 is going to prove it.''
