This Friday?  Really? Oh boy is that ever exciting.

And I'll tell you why.  A) I'm far too lazy to bother with actually formatting it so it'll probably be reams of text with the occasional picture.  B) is more important as to why it'll be horrible.  It's going to be mainly me talking about whatever the current incarnation of Football Manager is.  C) Probably when I'm not talking about FM I'll be talking about Paradox Interactive strategy  games.
 
Naturally I play other things, but right now, although I'll happily throw in a few songs on The Beatles or Metallica Rock Hero/Guitar Band games, or a couple of laps on Forza 3, I'm just not playing much else.  I've finished Mass Effect 2 twice (or is that 3 times?  I forget) now, I've finished Dragon Age Origins and the DLC, and while I have been going back to play through Half-Life 1 for the first time in quite some time I'm on a break from it.  But as far as new games go, I'm between titles right now and that is perfectly fine by me if I'm honest.  Because Football Manager 2010 is the best video game ever made.
 
OK, it isn't really, I'm falling into hyperbole there.  But it does make me want to click continue more than any other title I've played, even more than the Civilisation or The Sims games, and Heaven knows that they are very moreish.  But as much as I am a sucker for a game with interesting dialogue, a sense of humour and an intelligent narrative, nothing can come close to the emotions that I feel playing with a glorified spreadsheet as the naysayers dismiss it.  Their loss I say.  Developing those youngsters into international players, your star striker suddenly deciding he hates you because you asked him to stop shooting from the half-way line, winning the Blue Square Premier, getting raped by some hopless Estonian outfit in the Champions League, they all cause joy, heartbreak, anger, frustration, elation, surprise and sheer monitor-smashing rage.  And much like what I ask from the music I listen to it is the emotional connection I want from a game, and that Sports Interactive manage this when the only things my players say to me is "give me more money" and "I want to move to a bigger club" is testimony to their position as the best developers of a sports game in the entire video game industry.
 
I've been playing these damn games since about 1997 and still get excited when we win the league, still bite my fingernails as the clock ticks towards 90 and you are 1-0 down and about to get relegated, and yes, still swear quite audibly an awful lot.
 
So kudos to SpInG.  Anyway, less writing, more playing, my Monza team are in the Serie C1/A title race and next up are Vicenza!