Hi everyone, the Iron Man website has just gone live! At the moment its just the English version but we should be getting the likes of the French, Italian, German and Spanish (or FIGS as we say in the trade) up very soon - plus more!

To get to the site go to: www.sega.co.uk/ironman where you can see a rather snazzy trailer - you can catch and throw missiles at things… MISSILES! - and find various other details about the game.

Part 1: Make me a Superstar

Can I take an extraordinary 17 year-old, and make him into a household name?
Kazuya Sato, a youth with no previous first-team experience and attributes that were adequate at best is my subject in this extensive (and highly scientific) case study. I aim to play him at right-back for every game he is eligible for, from the age of 16 until he bows out from the beautiful game. He takes all my free-kicks, throw-ins and corners, as these are the only areas in which his attributes suggest he excels. (Set-pieces corners, free kicks and long throws are all around 19 out of 20). Every two weeks I will take a snap shot of his progression ( a page on each players profile that charts how players attributes have risen or fallen over their career) and of his senior performance stats to see how he has developed. By specialising my managerial skills in set pieces, I hope to create a dead ball maestro on a par with Sinisa Mihajlovic or Zico.

So, allow me to introduce Kazuya ‘the Future’ Sato:

Part II coming soon!

Here at SEGA online HQ, a considerable number of the staff are involved with the Football Manager Live beta test. Of those that play, nearly all are avidly into the game and fiercely competitive when it comes to their carefully crafted team. As you can imagine, bragging rights are a valuable commodity where ‘inter-office derbys’ are concerned. Any win or loss is magnified hugely when your opponent is right next to you, or on your instant messenger contacts list. In my case, my ‘neighbouring club’ was one Dynamo Dave FC, with ‘Sega Mega Dave’ Kempshall at the managerial helm. Dynamo Dave were the kind of team that considered a couple of draws ‘a bad run’ and saw each victory as an opportunity to let the world know things were going well (thanks for the good news, Dave).

This is what it must be like to be a Tranmere fan on Merseyside, or a Brentford fan in South West London: permanently in the shadow of my wealthier, more successful neighbouring clubs. The Periodic updates on the successes of Dynamo Dave FC were already a familiar daily familiar event, and were getting more and more frequent. “Dynamo Dave are going from strength to strength”… “Sergio Ramos is really suring up my defence”… “I’m back up to 3rd in the rankings”, etc etc. Thank for the great news, Dave!

In the transfer market, where ever increasingly large sums of money were being splashed out by Dynamo on suitably glamorous superstars, they dwarfed my modest purchases. In the rankings, where his team hovered around the top ten mark out of 300-odd teams, there was also no doubting that Hearts were the minnows to Dynamos giants. For the record, Electronic Hearts stand at 177th, and have yet to win any trophies. I’d get into the office and have the dubious pleasure of hearing how Dave had won another multi-million pound competition, and consequently splurged the riches on a world class wonder kid or established household name that had long been on my wish list.

So, imagine my horror when I was drawn to play Dynamo Dave FC in a tournament called The 50 Champions Cup for a spot in the last 16 of this world cup style competition with the winners picking up a cool £1.16m in prize money. After all, my head to head record against Dynamo was less than impresive:

My thoughts turned to the giant-killing heroics of Barnsley as I saw it as an opportunity to upset the odds, and the form of my not so quiet neighbouring team.

I made sure my best XI was available for the match and tinkered with my tactics to accommodate for the inevitability of being under pressure for most of the game. My defensive line was deeper and more aggressive with both marking and pressing, and I instructed Hearts to play counter attacking football with a powerful target man that would hold up the direct passes that I channelled through him. As the game kicked off, I knew I was actually in with a shout. My smash ‘n’ grab Sam Allardyce-inspired game plan had Dynamo on the back foot early on, harassing him when he did have possession, and hitting him hard on the break when I won the ball.

The rolled-up-sleeves approach paid off as an early headed goal by my Italian target man Allesandro Tulli meant I had a 1-0 lead as the whistle blew for half time.
The conundrum was whether to protect this slender advantage and try to stick it out until the final whistle, or chase that crucial second goal. I decided to keep things as they were, and if I got to 70 minutes with the score the same, then it would be corner flag tactics and time wasting ‘til the finish. To my horror, within moments of the kick off I conceded. Theo Walcott skipped through my defence as my tight-marking instructions drew them out to chase decoy runs from the opposition’s two strikers.

 At this point, I felt deflated and could sense an impending collapse in my performance. With the whoops of delight being most audible from my neighbouring address, the match began to attract the attention of the rest of the office, adding to the genuine ‘cup match atmosphere’ that had been palpable from the off. I’d like to think it was the gathering crowd that spurned me to push for a winner, but the reality was as simple as just wanting to put one over a mate!

At any point during a match in Football Manager Live, a manager can call a 1-minute time out during which they can regroup and adjust tactics and make subs without the clock continuing to tick. This minute was my lifeline with which to shift the balance of the clash back in Hearts’ favour. Whilst all-out-attack is usually a pretty foolhardy approach, this was just the kind of Hearts-on-sleeves occasion that merited a rush of cold blood to the head. The effects were almost instant, as the unexpected switch in strategy saw Dynamo pinned back, and not one but TWO goals in quick succession fire in from my star striker Mateo Jaramillo.

The last 20 minutes were even tenser, as the game was brought back to 3-2 after a second from Theo left the match poised on a knife’s edge. But, with some hoof ball time wasting tactics, I held on and pulled off a giant killing feat taking Electronic Hearts through to the last 16.

It’s moments like this that set the Football Manager Live experience apart from previous games. The sense of heated competition that shines through when you have this many people chasing the same goal can only come from mass multiplayer competition. Likewise, the rewarding feeling that comes from negotiating with other manager for a mutually beneficial deal could only come from an MMO.

Meanwhile, the desk next door hasn’t been quite so boisterous…