Football Manager 2008 (PC)

Author's product rating:   

Gameplay/Playability
Graphics
Sound
Value for Money
Longevity

Advantages:	A fantastically fun and addictive game which will have you hooked
Disadvantages:	You may not leave the house for months

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Every year without fail I head out and buy the latest football management sim from the almighty Sports Interactive on the day of release. This year was no different, and as soon as I finished work on the 18th of October I went straight for the shops to get my hands on Football Manager 2008 - a game I'd get to know very well in the weeks and months post-purchase. It has now been over two months since this game was released, yet still I continue to play it extensively and am enjoying it just as much as the moment I first put the disc in my laptop.

I had been looking forward to purchasing this game for some time and was not to find myself disappointed when I finally did get my hands on it and began to play. Football Manager 2008 is everything I had been expecting and more, the best computer game I have ever played to date. I often wonder how Sports Interactive and going to outdo themselves from season to season and worry some years that although the names and faces may change; the gameplay will not. So far, so good and as yet this has not happened. Each year, Football Manager continues to show it's worth and my annual spend of £25 is always extremely well justified.

- Team Choice -

Once more, domestic choice for management is exactly the same as it has been for the last few years with clubs in the top 6 flights of English football able to be managed. This therefore gives you the option to manage clubs from any of the following English League's; Premiership, Championship, League One, League Two, Blue Square Premier, and the Blue Square North/South. In total there are over 5000 playable teams, totalling more than 50 countries from Europe, Africa, Asia, North America and South America. It is a fantastic choice, with Football Manager 2008 also being the only game that allows the player to compete in several of the largest footballing competitions in the world such as the World Cup, European Championship, Olympic Games, and Copa America.

- Gameplay -

If you've played any of the Football Manager games before (or Championship Manager 03/04 or earlier), then you will pretty much know what to expect here as far as gameplay is concerned. Each year the game is given numerous updates and improved no end, however if you're played one of the games in the series then you're basically able to play them all. Navigation from screen to screen is simple, with everything laid out nice and neatly in front of you to be clicked on. A simple tap of the space bar loads up the next screen, and a click of the mouse will smoothly take you to the page you're after.

The fantastic thing about Football Manager is that whether you support a Blue Square South minnow squad such as Lewes, or a Premiership giant such as Manchester United; you have the opportunity to take charge of your favourite team and make those vital changes that you'd love to in real life and get to view the consequence of your actions be it bad or good. I for instance like to take charge of my beloved Oxford United and guide them up the league structure, something that does not look at all likely at current in the real world. What I'm basically saying is that the world is your oyster as far as club management goes here as there are so many teams throughout the world you're able to take charge of, and however large or small the club you choose to take on is entirely up to you.

Whilst playing the game, scouting other League's for players is a painless process whereby you assign one of your scouts to a League of your choice, and each week they attend a game and compile a report on who has been particularly pleasing in each of the games they have attended. This can be a useful tool for poaching talent from the lower Leagues at small costs and integrating them gradually into your team so that they get used to playing at a higher level and flourish. Obviously it is not always the case that players are able to perform at a higher level, however through bringing in many a player from the lower Leagues on the recommendation of my scouts many a star has been born. Whilst having the ability to scout specific League's, there is also the option to scout whole countries and regions, whereby you send a scout off to a particular region of the world for a few months and they come back to you with news of the best players they found in that specific area of the world. The scouting tool is a vital area of the game which is not to be ignored, an extremely useful feature which can benefit your club management massively.

The 'Affiliated Clubs' feature is now in it's second year and is now even better than it was in the last edition of the game. This is no doubt a feature which will continue to progress and further as the years go by, a useful tool for nurturing young talent at the club and making sure that they are gaining first team football at a lower level and improving their game, rather than having their talents wasted by playing no hoper's week-in, week-out in the reserve league. Whilst sending out up and coming stars to 'Feeder' clubs on season long loans, you can also benefit from having a 'Parent' club in a higher League and bringing in players on loan from them in order to bolster and further enhance your first-team. Another bonus of this feature is that each season the 'Parent' club will provide its 'Feeder' teams with a substantial payout of money, something which can prove invaluable for the purchasing of new players and enhancement of the squad during the close season.

I feel that one area in which the game has developed is that it is now far more difficult grinding out a result. Football Manager is no longer a game that you can leave to run whilst you go off completing other tasks, returning to find that your team hammered the best team on the game 7-1 despite your absence. Tactics are now more of a massive focus as regards gameplay than ever; get them wrong and you could find your team on the wrong end of a high score line. Get them right however and you could most certainly see your team overturning superior opponents, something which is always a joy to behold.

One major glitch I have noticed in terms of gameplay is the fact that far too many goals are ruled out for being 'offside', although more often than not - when you watch the replay you find that your player was quite clearly onside when the ball was played and that your team have just been cheated out of important points/wrongly knocked out of the cup. The plus side of this is that it happens to the computer run teams just as much as it does your own, so although it can be massively frustrating when it happens to you, it's always a laugh when you get one over the computer.

- What's New? -

When comparing this game to Football Manager 2007 and it's predecessors; there are a number of key changes that have been brought in for this latest edition of the game which I love so dearly. Before I purchased the game, the one which stood out to me most notably was the addition of 'FaceGen Technology'. This new addition for the game means that players generated by the computer are given faces, faces which with time age before your eyes, and frequently undergo changes of hairstyle. It's amusing to watch as your favourite youngster gets rid of his trademark floppy fringe and opts instead for a ridiculous frizzy style which makes him look completely alien. On the downside - it can be a bit of a nightmare when you look to your youth team to find the in-form player with the spiky hair, only to find that no such player exists any more and that the player in question in fact is now a skinhead.

Another addition to the game I feel is massively successful is that of the element of a collective win bonus. At the beginning of the season you are given the option to set how much you wish to pay the squad at the end of the season should they manage to win the league/cup etc. You can give either a 'high','low', or 'normal' win bonus which could influence your teams performance in the cups they enter or the final position in the league. If players have the added incentive of a 'high bonus' come the end of the season, then perhaps they will go that extra mile throughout the season in order to secure the teams promotion to the next division and to net themselves a tidy profit in the process.

Although somewhat insignificant, the In-game all-time best eleven feature that has been implemented for this latest edition of the game was another area that pleased me greatly. For each and every club on the game, you can now look at the eleven players deemed to be the best in their positions that have played at the club, something which as the seasons progress can be interesting to see as you can judge as to whether they are a team in their prime, or a squad on the decline with predominantly a 'Best Eleven' of players whom have now moved on to bigger and better things.

A number of existing elements of the game have been given improvements this time around including in International Management, in the notes that can be made on players, and also in the ability to see the confidence that the fans and the directors have in you over the management job you are providing. As an international manager, it is now possible to attend games in which players in the international squad will be performing in so that you can view their progress to make informed decisions about what squad is best to pick for your next international game. An excellent 'notebook' feature allows you to easily view and track any notes you have made on players, laying all notes out neatly on the page making it easy to view and keep a track of what you have commented on players. This is a useful feature I feel as each season when players come up to the youth team, the youth manager makes comments on whom they believe has the most potential of the players becoming a part of the youth squad - so making notes allows you to easily access and track those players and view as to whether or not they are proving themselves to be potential stars of the future. My favourite update however has to be that made to the 'Confidence' sector of the game. There is now the ability to view what the fans thought of each and every game that has taken place, the transfers that you have bought in to the club, the financial situation, and also how the fans deem your progress in the league and in each of the cups that you take part in each season. It is great to canvas supporters opinion, and is really quite pleasing to see when you look to this page and take note that the fans are pleased in every aspect of your management.

- Sound -

This is an area that has once more been ignored as far as updates are concerned, and in my opinion is a definite development area for the furthering of the series. Although during matches you get the cheering of the crowds, and the celebrations when a goal is scored - still the people at Sports Interactive refuse to further personalise the sounds so that they are club specific, and regardless of what team you manage - the sound always remains the same. To implement a system whereby you could hear fans singing club specific chants would be fantastic. Although it would require going to each and every teams ground included in the game and making a recording of fans singing their hearts out, something which would be somewhat of a mammoth task - I feel that in the long run it would be worth it and would increase my in-game enjoyment no end.

Another potential sound update could be to have computer generated player chants so that whilst playing games, fans could be heard cheering the names of the best performing players in the squad. On the flip side to that, fans could also be heard booing players when their form is poor, or booing players of the opposing team. This would add so much more depth and realism to the game, and although I spend far too much of my time playing the game already and clearly could not love it much more so - I feel this would be a massively beneficial update.

- Graphics -

Aesthetically the game has undergone somewhat of a makeover for this seasons edition. The game looks more professional than ever, and the colour changes that have been made to the games 'skin' is in my opinion fantastic. Although it could perhaps be argued that the game would benefit from having 3D highlights, bad 3D highlights would detract from the games exceptional quality, so perhaps to refrain from implementing this change for a few more years would be a wise move. That said, I'd definitely love to see my teams goals in full 3D glory - and the sooner Sports Interactive make this addition to the game, the better really. Each in-game month, there is a 'Goal of the Month' accolade awarded, with the top three goals from the previous month named and listed. The ability to see these goals in their full glory would without a shadow of a doubt be superbly pleasing.

Given the lack of graphical complexity, this therefore means that you don't need to have the latest of computers in order to enjoy this fantastic football management sim. You will however need to have at least 750MB of hard drive space available, 256MB of RAM, a 1.2GHz processor, and must be using either Windows XP or Vista as an operating system. In this day and age this is not a massive ask and most laptops and computers will meet this criteria.

- Longevity -

Two months on and still playing the game just as much as ever; I would say that the longevity of Football Manager 2008 is pretty vast. Given my addiction and love of the series, I will no doubt be playing this game right up until the day that Football Manager 2009 is released and perhaps even beyond that date as well. Once you get going on a game, you watch the seasons tick by and see your side develop and progress. It's a fantastic thing to watch, and you just want to keep on going and going to see just how far your team can go. The ultimate goal is to become the best manager in the world and make sure that every major trophy is gained along the way; this is something I aim for each and every year. Once you've won each and every League and Cup possible, it's generally advised to move on and start a fresh. The frustrating thing with doing this is that you have to return to the beginning of the 2007 season and once more trudge through the seasons with your team of choice; something which can be somewhat of a chore if you've completed a large number of seasons on your previous saved game. Having said that, playing Football Manager is never truly a chore and although it can be hard to adapt to at first; once you get going you once more find yourself fully immersed in the Football Manager world, and peeling yourself away from the laptop can prove quite difficult. Toilet and lunch breaks become non-essential tasks when you're a Football Manager addict; every vital second is precious and any time not spent playing the game should be seen as a moment wasted.

Final Thoughts

The mere fact that I buy this game every year without fail has to count for something, a routine that I have now been immersed in for a full decade. Football Manager 2008 is bigger and better than ever, and I would without a doubt wholeheartedly recommend this game to everybody out there. Even if you've never played any of the games in the series before, you will find the game easy to play and there will be no requirement for sifting through masses of manuals in order to work everything out. Not only is it the best football management game out on the market, but it is also in my opinion the greatest computer game ever to have been released. There is just a massively addictive quality about Football Manager; a game I know full well I am not alone in being a slave to. Football Manager has no doubt been the ruining factor in many a relationship over the years; a heaven to the player whilst a hell to the partner. Everyone is always mouthing off about how they could do a much better job themselves as the England boss and this game gives them a prime opportunity to put their money where their mouth is. With the game now more realistic than ever, it has never been a more satisfyingly authentic task to prove your credentials as a football manager.