Addiction

2010

1 Toy Story 3

2 Inception

3 Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

4 Kick-Ass

5 Avatar

6 The A-Team

7 Iron Man 2

8 Shutter Island

9 The Expendables

10 Salt

11 Daybreakers

12 Hot Tub Time Machine

13 The Losers

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So I understand many of you will be on your last FM10 legs. You've lead your home team to the Champion's League. You've made Gary Speed the world's first 200m player. You've won the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, B and Z, the Hungarian Second Division and Hadjuk Split. You've probably started a Liverpool game. You've signed Romelu Lukaku several times. And now, with FM11's shadow casting over the forum, here are some ideas and challenges to get the most out of your management. Who knows, you might end up falling in love with it and never wanting to quit. There's a rehab for that.

Bare in mind there is no real leaderboard or points system - this is just some ideas so you can get the most of out of FM10 while you still can, before it becomes obsolete.

Fifteen ideas below to get some things churning, feel free to recommend your own.

1: Unemployment Challenge - On Speed

So I'm sure most of you have heard/attempted/completed the Unemployment Challenge. If not, it's exactly as the title suggests - you start off unemployed and have to build yourself up to managing one of the top teams in the world. It's a ridiculously popular challenge, and it's done every year. This is that, but with a twist. Instead of having your rep and past experience being Automatic and Sunday League, it's International. You're a legend who's out of work, and you want to see who's hiring. Usually, you'll end up starting at a Championship side and who knows? By the end of the season, Premier League, Serie A and La Liga big boys might come calling.

2: Build Your Own

This involves you assembling your own team. Remove Portsmouth/Hull/Burnley, set all of their players to Free Agents and delete the club. Then, create a club, place them in the Premier League with no players and give them a budget for £200m and a wage budget of 300k a week and go nuts. Buy 25 players, a squad capable of surviving the league. It'll take time to gel, so survival might be your only option.

3: The Minnows Cometh

There's those teams in a division that have either not done anything for years. They've just sat there. Mid-table season after season, never pressuring, never pushing. Just there. Well, bollocks to that. You're here now, you're changing it. Take the club from wherever it stayed before and lead them to the promised land, European football. To make it interesting, if you don't get 6th or higher, you're out.

Teams Available:

EPL: Bolton, Birmingham, Fulham, Blackburn, Stoke, Sunderland, West Ham, Wigan

La Liga: Racing Stander, Malaga, Deportivo, Zaragoza, Osasuna, Espanyol, Almerica, Sporting da Gijon

Serie A: Atalanta, Chievo, Napoli, Catania, Lazio, Cagliari

4: For Managing There, You Want Bloody Shooting!

Arsene Wenger, Brian Clough, Alex Ferguson, Jose Mourinho. Your task is to mirror the achievements and accomplishments of these managers. Whilst not being exact, you must be very similar - for example, when Fergie led Aberdeen to glory, lead a similar Scottish mid-table club to glory. Where Cloughy started, you continue. For Mourinho, win the Champion's League with a Portugese club, then go onto bigger horizons. Any manager this is applicable for, as long as they have the history and the success to determine it.

5: Don't Spend, Don't Sell

Barebones challenge here. Don't Spend or Sell for your first season and see how you can do.

6: Bjorken Shafen Ein

Remember the Swedish Chef from the Muppets? Imagine him, in full Gotenburg kit, celebrating their victory in Europe. Get as far as you can in the Europa League or Champion's League with a team in a country that is not:

England, Germany, France, Portugal, Spain, Scotland, Italy. Also, not Shaktar or Zenit.

You could use one of Andy_DU's leagues to make it interesting.

7: BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Win the World Cup/Get to the final with an African team. Really, that simple.

8: World Series of Soccerball

Become manager of an American football team, and lead them to glory. Win the World Club Cup, basically. Then leave. Because no one cares about football over there.

9: WINNING THE SHIT OUT OF THESE LIMEY COMPETITIONS

Win the World Cup with the US.

10: Zeroes to Slighty Bigger Zeroes

Take control of the smallest team in a league (minimum second tier, lowest rep) and manage them as high as you can.

11: Pascal Chimbonda Would Be Proud

Have an entire new team implemented within three seasons in any club. This does not apply to players that begin in the reserves/U18's.

12: NATIONALIST FUCK

Only buy players from one country. Fairly simple, really.

13: ULTIMATE NATIONALIST FUCK

Only buy players from one country that is not the country your team originates from.

14: Mix-Up Mowtown

This is a long-winded one. Download one of the several free agents databases. Then, create a new game using any major league. Then holiday for a year. Take over any club you desire in the top flight. This will give the game a fresh feel.

15: Director of Football

Inspired by Walnut's thread a few weeks/months ago. You do all of the things a director of football would - decide tactics, transfers and everything else in the transfer window months. However, you are n01245 471154ot strictly a manager. You merely sign players for your team and tell them how to play. Your assistant is the real manager here, so pick a good one. You must go on holiday when there is not a window open, and hope for the best.

And that's about it. These are just a few ideas I came up with a few nights back for you (and indeed myself) to get the most out of the time left on FM10. Bare in mind there are a lot of other challenges and competitions spread around the forum, these are just if you do not have anything else left to do and are bored of normal management.

Review: Alan Wake

It's occasions like this where you both feel sympathy and empathy for a developer. Remedy had four years to create an exclusive, so whatever happened, considering the hype that was built over, it was always going to be accused of disappointing or feeling lacklustre. On the other hand, I'm not quite sure what took Remedy so long to finish it. Maybe it could have been the lighting, or textures, because it seems like this could have easily been put out last year, maybe even in 2008. If Bethesda can make Fallout two years after Oblivion, Remedy could have done this quicker.

Alan Wake is set in an episodic format (think Siren: Blood Curse for the PS3) and is six episodes long, lasting roughly ten or so hours. It's a rather enjoyable psychological action romp, with some startling scenes, some 'WTF' scenes, some scenes that really get inside your head and some that are meant to be epic, but end up falling slightly flat. Basically, Alan Wake pretty much represents the average TV series - even including 'Previously' scenes and voice overs. It's set out very much like a movie in the style of Stephen King but ends up feeling like a mix of Misery and Lost.

To put the story simply: Alan Wake and his wife Alice go on a holiday to Bright Falls, as a get away planned by Alice to get her husband out of his two years writers block. When Alan finds this, he's not exactly happy and storms off - giving the villain just enough time to steal his wife and send Mr. Wake on a rescue adventure. It turns out that it was all a trap - it was part of a story that he doesn't remember writing, and it's coming to life in front of him. The trick is to give the villain more and more power - this is the first of Alan Wake's flaws. The villain is un-interesting. She's just generally rather bland, with no real depth or complexity, and she generally doesn't pose much of a threat. She's holding Alice, but that's no match for your torch.

The game is mainly set around a day and night cycle - at day, you're fine and free to travel around...as uncommon as that is. At night (which it is 85% of the time) you'll be attacked by Taken, the dark forces that can only be repelled by light. The enemies however are also slightly bland - they're all defeated in the same way and barely any pose more of a threat than any other. There are no real boss monsters to talk of, no real major enemies - just a succession of samey dudes, attacking you with worktools and being destroyed by brightness.

Alan Wake's biggest problem by far is repetition. Virtually everything in the game is repeated at least once - the enemies, the driving sequences, the birds that seem to have a remarkable similarity to the Kryll from Gears 1 - but surprisingly, it's only a little niggle in the game. The repetition is no where near Borderlands level - whilst it is all pretty samey, I can't really think of how else the game could have changed it. There's only so much you can do with a day and night cycle and a writer - but as I said, a boss fight wouldn't have gone a miss.

Due to all of these 'problems', you may be surprised to hear that I actually really enjoyed Alan Wake. It's not the horror psychological ride it could have been, but my comment at the start deems that irrelevant - some bits are generally just jumpy moments meant to give a quick 'AH!' before resorting to normality, but some are brilliantly timed and give a great psychological spook. It's fun to play, and whilst I was going through it, I barely put the game down during the weekend I played it for. I recommend you at least rent it, even if for just a few days, just to see Bright Falls - if you take nothing else away, at least you'll agree it's interesting.

THE VERDICT:

Alan Wake - 8.5/10

Le Collection Chez SamStar42

Xbox 360:

Assassin's Creed

Assassin's Creed 2

Band Hero

Batman: Arkham Asylum

Battlefield: Bad Company 2

BioShock

Borderlands

Call of Duty 4

Call of Duty: World at War

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Crackdown

Dead Space

Dragon Age: Origins

Fallout 3

FIFA 09

FIFA 10

Forza Motorsport 3

Frontlines: Fuel of War

Gears of War

Gears of War 2

Grand Theft Auto IV

Guitar Hero III

Guitar Hero: World Tour

Halo 3

Halo 3: ODST

Halo Wars

Just Cause 2

Left 4 Dead

Left 4 Dead 2

Mass Effect

Mass Effect 2

Metro 2033

Midnight Club: Los Angeles

Mirror's Edge

PGR4

Prince of Persia

Red Faction: Guerilla

Resident Evil 5

Rock Band

Sega Superstars Tennis

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

Street Fighter IV

The Beatles: Rock Band

The Orange Box

XBLA:

3 On 3 NHL Arcade

Battlefield 1943

Braid

Castle Crashers

'Splosion Man

South Park: LGTDP!

Shadow Complex

Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition

Trials HD

DLC (Shut Up I Count It):

All WaW Map Packs

F3: The Pitt

F3: Broken Steel

F3: Point Lookout

F3: Mothership Zeta

WT: Few Songs

Every Halo 3 Map Pack

GTA4: The Lost and Damned

L4D2: The Passing

RB: The Killers Track Pack

RE5: Lost In Nightmares

TBRB: All You Need Is Love

TFU: Hoth Pack

Crystal Ball Review: Greenday: Rock Band (2010)

[We have entered a state of flux. We are now seeing the future. Please stand by.]

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Space Year 2010
September Ends

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Oh man, this year of gaming so far has been amazing, but the main advantage came in the form of rhythm action. I thought we couldn't have improved on last years seven minor games - but with the surprise announcements of Guitar Hero: Nirvana, Guitar Hero: My Chemical Romance, Guitar Hero 6, Rock Band: Trackers Unite, DJ Hero: DJ DJ and Rock Band: Avril Lavigne at this years E3, it's a good year to be a rhythm actionist. on fan. But before next month's Band Hero: La Rouxhits store shelves, I thought it would be a good idea to review this week's newest: Greenday: Rock Band.

I can honestly say it's really good. The guitars actually feel plinky plonky, the drums crishy crashy and the singing douchey. You can also customize your rocker, to give his as much stupid eyeliner and as many retarded spikes as you want. Yay! Guitar Hero: Nirvana should have had this, instead of, you know, the really weird note writing bit.

The track list, you ask? Well, there's only five songs on the actual game to start with, but we've been promised more as DLC, just to show that Harmonix cares about its target audience by supporting its games long after release! Never mind for now though, because after you play 'American Idiot' over and over again, you'll wonder what you ever did without it, and why you haven't heard it in so long!

If you've played The Beatles: Rock Band than you'll know that you can collect pictures of the fab four's career. However, in a new, spinningly fashionable idea to make the game innovative, you can now collect bits of sincerly depressive fourteen year old emos and put them into your songs! Yay!

Easily the best part however is that you get to create your own tribute band, with all the realistic style, such as getting harrasment letters, being called a fag on YouTube and angry men in suits turning up at your door demanding a cease and desist! Yowzer!

At the end of the day, this is clearly the best iteration in plinky plonky plastic since Simon. I've got to go now, as the new innovation Triange Hero has just appeared under my door.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III

I figured I'd post it up, if anyone cared to look at it. Spoilers for the two Modern Warfare's are all over this, by the way.

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Act 1: Apocalypse Now

Mission 1: Health Insurance (Soap McTavish) [Moscow, Russia]
Following the ending of MW2, Nikolai takes you and Price to a hospital in Moscow. After healing, the Russian goverment find out that American soldiers are in the hospital, and send in their army to finish you off. After a narrow escape from the hospital and an explosive drive away through the Moscow Metro System (during which you are open to attack for the whole time), you discover that from the now mostly destroyed US, people have turned against each other in a quest for food and water, and that through it all a resistance force has been created, in an attempt for glory.

Mission 2: Sinkbowl (Travis Marks) [Colorado, US]
You are Travis Marks, a member of the US Resistance, armed to the teeth in an attempt to take out what remains of the Russians in the US and to win back the glory for the nation. You find out that the Russians have a rendez-vous point in a local fair. The objective is simple: Find and destroy all Russians in the fair. You drive to the point on a motorcycle, before tracking down Vladamir Makarov - who escapes through a rollercoaster. You follow him on the rollercoaster, getting a shot hitting him the spine, disabling him. However, he is carried to the helicopter by his guards, as one of the henchmen places C4 near the end of the track. It explodes - you and your carriage fly off into the distance.

Mission 3: Night Fair (Travis Marks) [US]
You were rescued by a teammate (Holmes), and on the back of a truck, heading towards Michigan to find a Vietnam war veteran (Cregg) with possible information of how they come to own several weapons of mass destruction to wage war on Russia. However, after reaching it, it was a trap - the NamVet was paid greatly and promised the safety of his family. The Russian armada attack in force, but after fighting through bravely and finding Cregg, his family are dead around him and he is kills himself in front of you. You pick up the nukes, and leave.
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Mission 4: Welcome Party (Soap McTavish) [Manchester, UK]
The RAF Airforce (specifically Captain Welbeck) welcome Soap and Price back, and offer him 3 new recruits for his new Guerilla force. A rogue agent is found in the midst however - who shoots four soldiers dead, before alerting the Russians of his position. They attack Manchester, bombing it to hell, whilst Price, Soap and two new recruits Jake and Swift fight off Russian planes in two AC-130s. Whilst there, the Russians get a lucky shot on the pilot, and the plane starts going down. Soap and Swift take the opportunity to jump out, and land on an incoming plane. They jump down, stab the top of the plane, and hold on for dear life. Swift falls. Soap begins to slide off -and does, before being grabbed by Price. Jake is still there, but Swift is no where to be seen. On the radio, an important message is broadcast: The United Kingdom has declared war on Russia.

Mission 5: Defiance (Frank 'Swift' Saunders) [Unspecified]
You wake up in a darkened room, tired and injured, with only a TV and a man on a stool smoking a cigerette. The declaration of war comes through, and the man stands up. He kicks Swift, several times, before shooting him in both kneecaps, and stabbing him in the leg. He calls himself 'The General', and claims that 'No one shall forget the Uprising.' He pours gasoline all over Swift, lifts his chair up, and opens the door - revealing a Berlin landscape. He lights him on fire, and then kicks him over the edge. We watch, as the ground comes closer, and closer, and closer.

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Mission 6: 'Breaking Dawn' (Travis Marks) [Moscow, Russia]

Travis Marks and six others are selected to get to the heart of Moscow - after riding a hi-jacked boat from the US to Moscow, you are tasked with one objective: Go down to the center of the metro, rescue the two kidnapped from the ferry, and plant the explosives collected from Cregg under the 'War Room'. You do so, and escape on the ferry - before 'The General' hijacks your boat, driving it into Berlin.

Mission 7: 'The Cobra and the Snake' (Soap McTavish) [Moscow, Russia]

The team (comprised of Price, Jake, Welbeck and Soap) go with the RAF due to Operation Roulette - crash a mafia owned casino in Moscow, and fight their way through to find Codename Snake Eater, who is supplying guns, money, soldiers and tactics to the Russian army. After parachuting into the heart of the city, things start going to hell real fast - the explosives planted in the previous mission go off. The tower starts falling, and the team (with Price carrying Snake Eater) has to escape as quickly as possible - through the elevator, and jumping into the opposite tower and then into the plane, piloted by Nikolai. You drive away, as Moscow explodes in the distance.

Mission 8: 'Uprising' (Soap McTavish) [Berlin, Germany]

Welbeck detects a distress signal coming from a US freighter, and follows it - into Berlin. As they arrive, walking through the city is almost tranquil - until you reach the city. American flags are being burnt, soldiers are gathering - to watch a public execution of Travis Marks, initiated by the self proclaimed 'Fuhrer'. Battle the way through the towers, to find a steady sniping position - your job is just to take out the executor, and the Fuhrer. But things are never that easy.

Mission 9: 'World War III' (Soap McTavish) [Luxembourg]

Travis has been executed. Germany has declared war on France, the US and the UK. The RAF and the Navy have the US and UK under control, so you must stop Germany invading France, through any means necessary. On foot, in car, in the air and on the ground - you have to stop them advancing.

Mission 10: 'The Fourth Reich' (Soap McTavish) []

The Fuhrer (Jens Harmann) has piloted to Afghanistan to pick up 'some weapons'. The group follows him, wherein he can pick up the 'Incinerator' - a nuclear bomb thirty times as powerful as Hiroshima, capable of being shot at and reaching the US, effectively destroying the US and the UK in one hit. Follow him, take out the bodyguards, kill 'Scorpion' before anyone else gets the chance.

Mission 11: 'Sinking Ship' (Soap McTavish)

It was a trap. France has fallen. Poland and Bulgaria are at war. Civil War in Spain. North Korea and Japan have joined with the all too powerful Fourth Reich, controlled by Russia and Germany. The team have to escape via speedboat - can they be fast enough escaping from the mighty grasp of the Fuhrer?

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Act 3:

Mission 12: 'All But Dust' (Soap McTavish) [London, England]

The Secret Service have the last information to win the war. Albert Stone, the current Prime Minister, can initiate an attack on Germany - powerful enough to sink the entire continent. However, this would also mean that the UK and the US would be too radiated to live in due to the weight of the blast. Take the weapon ('The Beatle') to him, through the streets being shot at in a high octane chase scene.

Mission 13: 'Till I Collapse' (Soap McTavish) [Washington, US]

Stone was assassinated. The bomb was stolen. The last resort has been reached. Reach FBI headquarters, and collect the Annihilator - a weapon that will literally rip the world open by destroying the core. Travel through to Washington, teaming up with the US Resistance as you go - and locate the weapon amongst the destruction.

Mission 14: 'Air Force One' (Soap McTavish) [The Vault]

Fly to the Vault, Germany's hangar flying over Russia and collect the second part of the Annihilator - which is in the Fuhrer's hands. Battle through the vault with Price, to the top - in the open, thousands of miles above the world.

Mission 15: 'Doomsday' (Soap McTavish) [The Vault]

The final showdown begins to decide the fate of the world - you versus the Fuhrer. The mission goes like this. You meet Jens Harmann on the roof of the Vault, thousands of miles above the Earth, in the open air. You brawl - a stab in the leg, a kick, a punch and a dodge and smash and Harmann ends up gripping to the side of the hangar. You stamp on his fingers. He falls off, screaming. You pick up the other part of the Annihilator, and connect them. Price comes running in - after you detonate. From below, the world erupts. Missiles detonate coming out of the worlds core, ripping it asunder. The Vault shakes. Price falls. In a desperate attempt to save Price, you reach out to grab him - but miss. He too falls. The vault begins to spin - you hold onto something. It continues to spin, falling - we see the damaged Earth from below, as we get closer - before crashing.

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Re-cap:

Act 1:

1: Apocalypse Please - Escape the hospital.

2: Sinkbowl - Find and kill Makarov at the fair.

3: Night Fair - Find Cregg and collect the weapons of mass destruction.

4: Welcome Party - Collect your team and stop the attacking Russians.

5: Defiance - Try to escape the clutches of 'The General',

Act 2:

6: Breaking Dawn - place the weapons in the metro.

7: The Cobra and the Snake - Find the mob boss Snake Eater, and bring him back to base.

8: Uprising - Assassinate the executor and the Fuhrer.

9: World War III - Defend France and Luxembourg by stopping the invading Fourth Reich.

10: The Fourth Reich - Follow 'The Fuhrer' into Afhganistan.

11: Sinking Ship - Escape Afghanistan.

Act 3:

12: All But Dust - Take 'The Beatle' to Albert Stone.

13: Till I Collapse - Locate the Annihilator.

14: Air Force One - Stop at nothing to find the second piece of the Annihilator.

15: Doomsday - Save the world.