Grounds for divorce
January 28, 2011 § 4 Comments
I usually try and avoid writing in the first person, but for this there isn’t any option. This is a break-up song; it needs the self-indulgence of the all-feeling “I”. So, please bear with me while I explain why, as soon as this is published, I will be uninstalling Football Manager 2011, and I will not be returning to the series.
The first thing that I should make it clear that this is not a statement on the quality of the game. It is, considered dispassionately, magnificent; the finest installment since they decided to really ramp up the feature-cramming. Where 2009 and 2010 were often unbalanced and janky affairs, the rough edges and counter-intuitive stumbling blocks diminishing the experience, 2011 is a triumph.
And yet, and yet. My disillusionment is down to one tiny new aspect of this glorious behemoth, and as hard as I have tried I cannot find a way to reconcile myself to its existence. It was, for the game, an inevitable and necessary step towards greater realism, but it’s broken me.
Fucking agents. « Read the rest of this entry »
