My launch-day breakout tryout of Football Manager 2007 and the most memorable review I’ve written for Ciao!.
It absolutely destroyed the viewership records and still remains my most viewed article. Incidentally, it was the first to feature screenshots, so maybe most readers came just to look at the pretty pictures.
In truth, the popularity is more likely connected to the fact this was also the first review to air right on the product’s official launch day. I was involved in the game’s beta testing and got the retail version from a store that released it a few days before the planned street-date, so I was more than ready for a zero-day analysis.
Both football and management games get far fewer coverage than most other titles, so the combined genre of football management is relatively neglected, making this review one of the first available. I guess eventually someone in a giant forum linked to it and nonchalantly changed my career in writing.
It was a pretty good piece too, if I do say so myself! As far as I am concerned, this is the ideal way to review Football Manager. Ironically, this has kept me for reviewing any of the sequels. Keeping the same style would be too much of a rehash, but changing what I consider ideal doesn’t sound too smart.
I suppose I’ll give it a go once I concede I can’t possibly top this.
