Football Manager 2009 Review - Review of FM2009, the Latest Installment of the Football Manager Series

Football Manager 2009 is the latest chapter in one of the most popular PC gaming series ever to hit the shelves. This latest version was released on November 14^th and is sure to be a Christmas bestseller. For football fans outside the UK, the game is also known as Worldwide Soccer Manager, and the game is also available on Playstation Portable.

This latest version of the football management simulation had promised some improvements and enhancements to previous versions, and I covered the most significant changes in my review of the FM2009 demo. While I felt the demo version was a little rough in places, how does the full retail version stand up to scrutiny?

Things did not get off to a good start and the installation of the game was fraught with problems. Firstly, the DVD game key, which is printed on the rear of the manual uses a dot-matrix style font, which made it hard to decipher some characters and it took a couple of attempts for the software to accept my game code. The font makes the letters 'O' and 'I', and the numbers '0' and '1' appear almost indistinguishable.

As if that wasn't enough, SEGA, the game’s publisher had implemented an online verification system based on the unique DVD key of the game disc. However, it was nigh on impossible to have the game verified online due to network traffic, but also to some erroneous errors in the verification process.

On my first attempt at verification I was told by the game’s verification system that my particular game key was in use and the verification would not proceed. Upon trying again, I wasn’t able to connect to the verification server and this was the case for the next hour or so, before I managed to connect only to be told that my game key was in use! I’d have laughed if I wasn’t so annoyed. After a complete uninstall and reboot of my system, I reinstalled the game and this time managed to get the game verified correctly.

SEGA have since issued an apology in the wake of the verification fiasco, blaming higher demand than what was expected. Given the game’s popularity in previous incarnations it was a shockingly bad error and SEGA really should have known better.

But, with the game now installed and verified it was time to download and apply the first of what will likely be several patches. Once that was done it was time to kick-off the game proper.

Football Manager 2009 gives the player the choice of over 5000 clubs from over 50 countries. As before the game can be customised to suit the player’s PC, allowing the player to choose database size, manageable leagues and other choices, including fog-of-war attribute masking.

Players of FM2008 will notice that the interface for Football Manager 2009 hasn’t had much of a revamp, other than the implementation of a new skin. The in-game menus are all located in the same place, and contain the same options as before so for those already familiar with the game, things are easy to pick the game up. New players too will find the game easy to follow as the menus and sub-menus follow a logical order, so game options are easy to find. The only stumbling block for new players will be the sheer depth of information available, which some players may find overwhelming. Given time, however, it all fits into place and the experience is both immersive and addictive.

FM2009’s big selling point, and the one which has divided fans more than any other has been the implementation of a 3D match engine. The 3D match engine proffers the player with the ability to watch matches played out using full 3D rendering, from a variety of camera angles, rather than the traditional and simplistic 2D, top-down display of previous incarnations. The traditional view has remained for owners of lower-end PCs and/or laptop play, as well as for purists of the game.