Football Manager returns to Xbox 360 again this year to make all of the hardcore football fans out there spend even more time on their consoles, make no mistake, if you aren’t a fan of football then you will not like this game, however for those of us that live and breath the stuff, this could be the only game we will need this year, well apart from GTA IV obviously.
One of the things you can count on with the Football Manager series is that on the face of it nothing ever seems to change much and in general the interface is practically the same, as are the controls, however once you get deeper into this latest games in the series, you start to notice the small little differences and it is these that make this one of the most compelling and realistic sims out there.
This years version introduces some great new features, the biggest of which is match flow, this basically introduces match previews, team talks and opposition player instructions before the match and during the match you are now able to easily access your tactics, all while watching the match on a scaled down pitch radar. Once the match is complete there is now an analysis which basically shows you how the experts view the days match. These new features work really well and allow you to easily decide on and make the action you should take if things aren’t going you way.
One of the other main changes this year is to the way international management is handled, this is now more interaction with both the players and the media, you are also able to choose the captain and club morale is brought over to allow you to see if your players are in the right frame of mind for your upcoming matches, although to me this section of the game still does not have the same feel as managing a club.
Finances have also been given a revamp this year, you are now given much greater access to the clubs financial situation and are able to move monies from your transfer kitty to your wage budget or visa versa should be getting in a bit of a tight situation.
Other improvements include new awards, improved scouting, coaching and a new advisor system to help you get used to your new team, however all these new changes aside it is still the same old formula that has appealed to hard core football fans the world over for many years.
If Football Manager 2008 has one problem then I guess it is that only football fans may see the appeal, and even then if you have never played this game before the controls could be quite difficult to get used to, this is certainly not a pick up and play game, it does take quite a bit of getting used to. The loading screens can also be a problem, this is a game that requires a lot of patience and is probably best played when you are winding down at the end of the evening.
As usual there are hundreds of clubs and players represented within the game, and everything is perfectly up to date, I was amazed to see that George Burley is even represented as Scotland manager, which is quite impressive considering he only got the job a few months ago.
To me Football Manager is as perfect as ever and the changes only help to enhance the already brilliant features, not everyone will get on with this game but then it isn’t aimed at everyone, it’s aimed at football nuts like me and in this respect it’s going to be top of the league for a very long time.
