To celebrate hitting the unbelievable milestone of 3,000 subscribers I have chosen a selection of top games I've picked up over the last couple of years, added in some choice new titles that I've really enjoyed playing on the channel and bundled them all into one big giveaway! I will draw FIVE winning entrants on the Gleam.io competition page and up to FIVE entrants through my YouTube Community competition post up to a maximum of TEN winners in all. Each winning entrant can choose one of at least twenty one great games to take away and keep. NOTE : The same prize list is used for both YouTube and Gleam.io entries but entries made on the YouTube post will have precedence in choosing a game key prize. All the games that aren't picked by the winners in this giveaway will be rolled forward into future giveaways on the channel. So, even if you don't win today, keep an eye on Ajaxpost Plays for further chances to grab an awesome game! See below for the full list of games in...
I have never seriously followed football or, indeed, any sport. My parents were not participants and at best infrequent watchers.
Sure, we would indulge in the Saturday afternoon TV ritual of World of Sport for some horse racing or wrestling - that's the proper British style of wrestling combat, not the American show-business nonsense. Rounded off, of course with the run-down of the football results, mainly to see if we had won anything on the pools!
Through my teens I became a little more aware of football, though in three quite specific ways. Firstly there was that good feeling when someone from your own area became successful, I was always rather pleased to hear when a local team had some success which, to be honest, didn't happen very often as Berkshire was not home to many world class teams!
Secondly, footballers were starting to become celebrities. Certainly a world away from the mega-stardom that they would come to be afforded some years later but back then they would sometimes appear outside the sports pages and the more 'attractive' (or notorious) ones would feature in picture posts and, fit young men that they were, some of them looked really good!
Thirdly, and perhaps most relevant to today's story, I was becoming something of a numbers geek and the tables and figures that were a feature of the game fascinated me. A club's progress could be plotted, you could chart their success (or not), probabilities could be calculated. I had hours of fun simply tracking my favourite teams.
The years passed, I go to university, enter the world of work, and all these 'childish' pastimes have been left behind (except, of course, I still kept an eye out for any particularly good looking players in the papers and magazines 😉).
Them, sometime in the early 90s a work colleague hands me an illicit copy of a PC game called Championship Manager - probably Championship Manager 93 but it could have been the first one or maybe Championship Manager 2 but I think I started with one of the two earliest releases.
It all came flooding back! Those first games were a wonder of numbers and statistics, you could compare and contrast, you could mix and match to create an optimal combination of attributes to counter the skills of the opposition. I was hooked!
Having succumbed to the 'free trial' I then purchased pretty much every new release of Championship Manager from then on. When the developers Sports Interactive split with publishers EIDOS although I did buy Championship Manager 5 I, like most players, soon switched to stay with the development team and what became Football Manager.
Although the game developed with each version to become a more accurate and intimate representation of 'the beautiful game' I still have very little idea if what I was doing in the game made any sense at all in real terms but juggling those numbers and seeing them somehow turn into positive results continued to fascinate.
As the game grew in popularity it also became more open and user generated assets such as 'face packs', more realistic kits, ground photos, etc., made it even more the completely immersive experience.
The last version I played for any real length of time before my game playing became almost entirely dominated by Sim and Tycoon style simulations was Football Manager 2010.
Although my Steam library shows that I also have Football Manager 2012 and Football Manager 2017 I actually spent very little time with either of them. I just wasn't in the right frame of mind or ready to commit the amount of time that they required to relearn the core mechanics.
Then, at the end of June, I picked up the Humble Racial Justice Bundle which included Football Manager 2020. A few days ago I started playing it, discovered that I could leave most of the decision making to my assistants until such time as I decide (if I decide!) to get into it properly and become more familiar with the vast array of numbers and options that are now available.
I am hooked again!
Although I love being able to share my enjoyment of PC games, as I have practically no understanding of football itself, am rather late to the game, and the fact that this game probably doesn't particularly appeal to most of the subscribers and viewers of my YouTube channel I decided not to create a full blown Lets Play series for it.
However, since the game does allow me to record the highlights of the matches I play in the game I have created a playlist of video highlights for anyone who wants to see how a complete novice fares when put in charge of a professional football team. I am only promoting this series through this Blog and my Twitter and Instagram accounts and the videos will, for now at least, remain 'unlisted' on my YouTube channel.
Though, if you are interested, you can still check out the videos uploaded so far on this playlist:
Let me know if you enjoy these videos and if you think I should make them public by publishing them on YouTube.
Through my teens I became a little more aware of football, though in three quite specific ways. Firstly there was that good feeling when someone from your own area became successful, I was always rather pleased to hear when a local team had some success which, to be honest, didn't happen very often as Berkshire was not home to many world class teams!
Secondly, footballers were starting to become celebrities. Certainly a world away from the mega-stardom that they would come to be afforded some years later but back then they would sometimes appear outside the sports pages and the more 'attractive' (or notorious) ones would feature in picture posts and, fit young men that they were, some of them looked really good!
Thirdly, and perhaps most relevant to today's story, I was becoming something of a numbers geek and the tables and figures that were a feature of the game fascinated me. A club's progress could be plotted, you could chart their success (or not), probabilities could be calculated. I had hours of fun simply tracking my favourite teams.
The years passed, I go to university, enter the world of work, and all these 'childish' pastimes have been left behind (except, of course, I still kept an eye out for any particularly good looking players in the papers and magazines 😉).
It all came flooding back! Those first games were a wonder of numbers and statistics, you could compare and contrast, you could mix and match to create an optimal combination of attributes to counter the skills of the opposition. I was hooked!
Having succumbed to the 'free trial' I then purchased pretty much every new release of Championship Manager from then on. When the developers Sports Interactive split with publishers EIDOS although I did buy Championship Manager 5 I, like most players, soon switched to stay with the development team and what became Football Manager.
Although the game developed with each version to become a more accurate and intimate representation of 'the beautiful game' I still have very little idea if what I was doing in the game made any sense at all in real terms but juggling those numbers and seeing them somehow turn into positive results continued to fascinate.
As the game grew in popularity it also became more open and user generated assets such as 'face packs', more realistic kits, ground photos, etc., made it even more the completely immersive experience.
Although my Steam library shows that I also have Football Manager 2012 and Football Manager 2017 I actually spent very little time with either of them. I just wasn't in the right frame of mind or ready to commit the amount of time that they required to relearn the core mechanics.
I am hooked again!
Although I love being able to share my enjoyment of PC games, as I have practically no understanding of football itself, am rather late to the game, and the fact that this game probably doesn't particularly appeal to most of the subscribers and viewers of my YouTube channel I decided not to create a full blown Lets Play series for it.
However, since the game does allow me to record the highlights of the matches I play in the game I have created a playlist of video highlights for anyone who wants to see how a complete novice fares when put in charge of a professional football team. I am only promoting this series through this Blog and my Twitter and Instagram accounts and the videos will, for now at least, remain 'unlisted' on my YouTube channel.
Though, if you are interested, you can still check out the videos uploaded so far on this playlist:
Let me know if you enjoy these videos and if you think I should make them public by publishing them on YouTube.
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