November 13, 2009

FM-Britain’s community roundup takes a look at the recent happenings around the Football Manager scene - informing our readers of the latest and greatest FM2010 content posted on the web. We’re committed in promoting the highest quality material, even if it’s not here at FM-Britain!

We may have cornered the market on the most in-depth tactical information, but definitely support our friends in the community who provide you with great downloads, guides, articles, graphics and more. We’ll try to give a shout out to as many of our scene partners as possible, but don’t feel bad if something wasn’t included this time… there’s always next week!

SortItOutSi.Net Gets A Facelift

www.sortitoutsi.net (known to most as “Susie”) is one of the longest running websites in the Football Manager community and last week, they have upgraded their look. If you were following them on Twitter @sortitoutsi, the conversion over to the new design caused a bit longer downtime than expected and there are still a few parts of the site & forums that are not fully functional. Don’t worry though, it’s still probably the best spot to check out if you’re new to the scene and need some kits, facepacks and logos for your current FM2010 game. The forums are still as active as ever and FM Britain’s tactical think tank members are also around there talking tactics. I look forward to seeing all the new features Rob has planned in the coming months. (Rumor has it that one includes linking social media platforms into your FM2010 network games!) Definitely bookmark this site and check back often! I sure will be!

What club should you start out with in FM2010?

FM-View answers this with their recent article Inspiration For Who To Be. Sure, you can question their grammar skills, but Zabier helps those Football Manager users unsure of where to start their first save on the new version of the game. Breaking down 10 different styles, flavors, challenges, etc. it’s a great read for many who load up FM every year and choose the same journey again and again. Why not try something different?

Personally, I’d like the “Hometown Glory” type of adventure where you take your own city’s club and see how far you can go with them. Unfortunately, I’m in the football wasteland of the United States and have no “home” club to do this with… this being the case, I think I’m going to run with Zabier’s penned “Breaking Europe” journey and start my next save with Tottenham. (quiet down LLaMas - I’m not one of you spitting animals!)

Exclusive FM2010 Interview with Miles Jacobson of Sports Interactive

Our foreign friends at FM Greece had an exclusive opportunity to speak with Sports Interactive’s Studio Director, Miles Jacobson during his promotional visit to Athens. Presenting FM2010 to the FM Greece community personally, they even streamed the video live for the world to see on UStream and I enjoyed it immensely. The “Greek Gang” also sat down afterwards for a shorter one-on-one chat with Miles and have put all the photos and videos from this day up on FM Greece. By the way, it’s in English folks! (it’s pretty easy to find on the site even if everything else is in Greek)

In the Q&A session of the presentation, my favorite part was when Miles was asked when a Greek language version will be released. His answer was pretty much “when the Greeks stop pirating the game and actually buy it!” Ouch! It’s understandable though… Sports Interactive would definitely spend the money on additional foreign language versions, but it has to be worth their while on the sales figures. In any case, we implore our readers to watch out for illegally distributed copies of FM2010 and let the developers know about it by e-mailing [email protected].

Download Club & Competition Logos for FM2010

On the community-created download front, FM-Base has recently released their massive 9,000+ Club & Competition Logos for FM10 graphics pack. For those that want to have an even more realistic feel when playing Football Manager 2010, I’d definitely recommend this download. Sean has also posted detailed instructions on how to install these files in your game - read it in case you’re not familiar with the process. Because of this graphic pack’s massive size, it’s actually being distributed via torrent so that should do wonders in the download speed. Just please seed it afterwards and help out others!

Join the FMClub at the Official Football Manager Website

The FMClub is back for the new Football Manager season. All those of you that have purchased FM2010 and Football Manager Handheld 2010 are eligible to join the club where you will automatically be entered into monthly prize draws at www.footballmanager.com.

Last year, the official website gave away high spec laptops kitted out with stylish Football Manager skins, a pair of customised Nike Total 90 football boots and a Michael Owen signed England shirt just to name a few. Currently, they have the ultimate piece of Football Manager history, a limited edition FM2010 Table Football game! The closing date for this prize is on November 30th and they’ll be offering up plenty more limited edition Football Manager related prizes over the coming months, so definitely sign up there right now!

FM-Britain’s Follow Friday

This is our chance to give a “shout out” to some of our friends in the Football Manager community across the social media landscape. If you aren’t on Twitter or Facebook… have you been hiding under a rock the past few years?!?! Sign up and get with the times!

I’m on both platforms all the time chatting about FM2010 and FMLive, sharing links from around the scene and helping users out with their Football Manager related problems. I humbly suggest you follow us on Twitter @FMBritain or become a fan of ours on Facebook and join in the conversation! In addition, here’s a few more quality members to check out:

@LosWonderkids - the always entertaining guys from www.loswonderkids.com

@alexbrfc - writes a great FM story blog at http://alexbrfc-fm-blog.blogspot.com.

@FootManLive - the official Football Manager Live account pumping out useful community links

Do you run a blog/website? Did you write a good FM-related article or uploaded an entertaining video? Have you created an awesome graphics pack? Let me know! E-mail me! Maybe next week your content will be featured here in the FM-Britain community roundup!