My Review of Football Manager 2009

Afternoon everyone,

As some may recall, I have actually made a 10,000th post thread before. However, when the Good Player & Team Guide off topic thread was deleted, a lot of my posts were. So this is actually the second time I've reached 10,000 posts! Like I did in the GPTG when I wrote What is needed when assembling a good team?, I decided to make my 10,000th post worthwhile.

Everything that I have said below is my own opinion, and I am sure that there will be people who don't agree with any of this. As such, I would welcome any feedback on anything that I mention below, in fact I would encourage it! That's all from me, and below is my review of Football Manager 2009.

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New Features

3D

For the first time ever this year, I decided to play Championship Manager. I'm sure some others around here have also played the game, and I am also sure that I was not the only one who thought SI's first attempt at this was very impressive compared to Eidos'. Whilst Championship Manager may have implemented a 3D view to matches as far ago as 2006, they have failed to develop this and the players still look like they should be on table football.

This makes the quality of the 3D on FM09 very impressive in my eyes. The players are realistic, and even though they it is not exactly FIFA or Pro-Evo quality, for the first attempt I do not believe that SI could have done much better. The question now, of course, is can they develop the 3D on future games? In my opinion, the answer is a definite yes. I expect to see all aspects of the 3D, both in the realism of player movement and in the quality of the graphics.

Honestly, which of these looks more lifelike? Bear in mind that the FM screenshot has been zoomed in, whilst the CM is full view.

For me? No competition.

Press Conferences

Press Conferences were perhaps the most over hyped new feature that SI have implemented for a good couple of years. Whilst SI employees told us that the Press Conferences were interesting, realistic and generally a great new feature, very few players of the game found this.

I am with those people who believe that they are actually a huge disapointment. Whilst the idea in principle and the layout of the conferences, are excellent, the lack of common sense used by both reporters and managers shows that they are a feature that, despite having a lot of potential, are in need of serious development before they become what we were told they would.

I played Manchester United as Arsenal. The majority of the questions before the game were fine, exactly what you would expect from a press conference in real life when two big teams play each other. However, you would not expect the same questions when you play Hull in the Carling Cup - which is what seems to happen in Football Manager. The answers that you can give to these questions are terrible. Not only are several of the possible answers completely irrelevant to the question that has been asked, but you generally know which answer is going to be right without even reading the question!

There is a lot of room for improvement in this area of the game. Media interaction is a vital element of football in real life, but the press conferences we currently have are no where near that - however the base is there for them to be developed on.

Assistant Manager Feedback

Although I appriciate that the Assistant Manager Feedback during matches could be very useful, I have never used it. Why? Well, there's two reasons. Firstly, it isn't exactly in the most accessible of places with the tree menu. To make it more useful it should, imo, have its own section.

Also, I fear it could have made the game too easy. I have no idea if this is the case - I prefer to do everything tactically myself - but feel that, if you have a good enough assistant, you could pretty much do what you're told and come out on top. I've no idea if this is the case, however that is the impression I get from it.

As I haven't used this more than a slight glance when I got the game, I obviously can't be too critical of it.

Transfer Rumours

I have to admit, I like this feature very much. Although it doesn't add anything to the game, and is purely cosmetic, I find it realistic how my team can be linked with both players I have scouted and with players I have never even heard of before. For instance, I was earlier linked with a regen rightback from Valencia, who I had never heard of. However he was quite talented, so I snapped him up.

Despite few managers admitting it, newspapers will be a good source to find out about players you may not have heard of before. The transfer rumours page acts like a newspaper, which actually makes the scouting section of the game more realistic in my eyes.

User Interface

Otherwise known as the skin, this was one of the most disapointing parts of the game for me.

Even though the colour scheme in FM08 was disliked by the majority, little was changed for the release of FM09.The skin on Football Manager was a silvery blue, wheras the colour on the 2009 version of the game was a silvery green. Although this produced a little less strain on the eyes, many still complained that it was too bright. I agree with this comment. Personally I feel a game should have a different look as often as possible, even if it was the same layout just

darker.

The layout of Football Manager 2009 is clear. But is that good enough for a game played by millions? I wouldn't say so. Everything looks very dull, simple and fairly easy to create. Now, I've had a go at skinning in FM09. I know that it isn't the easiest task in the world, but for people paid to create these I would expect better.

The fact that many members of the forums made skins that were widely prefered by Football Manager players says everything to me - it shouldn't be the case that randomers are making smarter, cleaner looks than the professionals.

Truth is, prior to seeing the FM10 skin, I agreed with those who said that the game was starting to look more like a spreadsheet!

That brings me on to the FM10 skin. Although, like its predecessors, it is very bright, the layout looks extremely tidy and is shows that the graphics team have seriously raised their game. The improvement was much needed, admittedly.

2D

Although the 3Dimentional apperance of the game exceeded expectations, 2D - in particular 2D 'Classic' - went downhill more than could have ever been expected. Not only did the pitch size get reduced dramatically - with ad boards and the time bar taking up a lot of room - but the speed and smoothness of the game also lowered.

As someone who prefers to play 2D to allow me to see exactly what each of my players is doing, this was the most disapointing part of FM09 for me. I'm not expecting any changes to 2D in the future, with 3D taking most of the time. It just seems amazing that, when the performance of 2D on FM07 and FM08 was so good, the quality could have reduced so much in just one year.

Activation/DRM

Well, I can't be too critical of this, seeing as I activated with no problems and have had no issues since.

However it would take an idiot to say that this has worked like planned. The sheer amount of 'I can't activate' threads that have been around General Discussion since the game was released is incredible, and it obviously points out that the activation process will need a lot of work before FM10.

I am sure that this won't be dropped from the game - it is essential in stopping pirates getting hold of the full game even before paying customers get it - however if it is to have less problems next year then I would say that there should be a lot of work done to develop. I'm not involved in the gaming industry, I have no idea if this is possible. However, going by the amount of customers who couldn't pay £30 worth of game, I would say that sorting out activation should be an issue pretty high on the agenda.

Database

Once again, SI have proved that they have by far the best database in the whole of the football gaming industry by having so many players in the database that even some non-existant players were included!

Although some deemed the Mascio issue very important and unrealistic, truth is that one hiccup in the database can not possibly result in such a good research team being put down. The database is arguably the best thing about SI's game, and is the reason that so many people will end up going back to Football Manager, no matter what they say.

With up to date information and extensive research for countries as small as Reunion or as well known as Spain, FM is miles ahead of its competitors in this area of the game.

Patches and Bugs

This is a very big part of the game being disliked by so many. Although some have said otherwise, there have been various bugs such as the incredible amount of injuries, the 'Bojan bug', the Italian crash and the Co-ownership bug which have, for many, made certain leagues or even the whole game unplayable.

Whilst the three patches that SI have released have fixed a large amount of these bugs, they really should have been picked up on during testing. The beta testing team is quite large now, with people from these forums, which shows that reducing the amount of bugs is important to SI. This can only help the game to develop.

I do think that the game, when it was first released, was - to put it blankly - rubbish. If that was the first FM game I had played, I can assure you I would not have played another. I feel that the release of FM09 as it was will have put off some customers, both first time and long serving, forever.

Final Review

There can be no doubting that this game has had problems, some of them much more serious than others. Some are plainly those that make the game slightly less enjoyable for some - such as interface issues - whereas some are those that make the game terrible, so you don't want to play it any more.

I haven't had any huge issues with the game. I've spent the majority of my time editing the apperance by making facepacks and editing the skin to make it easier on the eyes for myself.

FM08 was fantastic for me, I had two amazing saves that went past 2020. I think, partly, that is to blame for me not enjoying FM09 as much.

I have huge expectations for FM10. Whilst that may be surprising, given my views on 09, I firmly believe that Sports Interactive can make a great game if they focus mainly on improving existing areas of the game rather than adding small features.

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If you've managed to get through all that, well done and thank you! I'm sure I've missed out a few bits, so I'll be developing on this when I find something else to comment on.

Thanks,

Jammy

I was going to do an exact same thread with my views, last week

Just never got round to it

Although, you have got it pretty much spot on, for most of the things, although, you should have talked about there being no competition for regens on the game from any teams

Good post, although I have to say I only skimmed parts of it.

My review:

It's not perfect, but I love it.

Great post Jammy I have to say that i agree completely with all of your points there, you've hit the nail on the head with every single point that you made. Constructive criticism is a good thing in my view and threads like these will only help to make the game better

Solid review, and I agree with it all

Very good post Arsenal_2111. I found myself nodding in agreement to much of what you have said here.

I've made my views on 2D, press conferences and speed in FM09 well known on the forums, so I won't repeat any of these opinions again here.

It's funny that I am actually trying out FM09 again after a break of around 2 or 3 months and finding once again that it is a very flawed but, at the same time, a very good game.

Like you, I felt FM08 really was a fantastic achievement and I had a really long and satisfying save game on it. I enjoyed FM08 so much that I actually went back to it again recently.

I've come back to FM09 just lately mainly because I wanted to have a really good save with St. Albans City on it. I programmed the data for them and I really wanted to play with them and have a great save game. I'm disappointed that all of my saves have led to disappointment previously but perhaps I will be able to get something out of this one.

For what it is worth, I'm quite ambivalent about FM09 at the moment. I'm hoping I can at least have one really good save on it before I put it to bed permanently.

Happy 10,000th post!

Regards,

C.

You should look at the new Championship Manager 3d engine before you say they have not advanced.

Don't agree with it all but all issues are well expressed and reasonably put.

Thanks for all of the comments so far!

You should look at the new Championship Manager 3d engine before you say they have not advanced.

For something that has been in the game for almost 5 years now, you would expect them to have developed the 3D prior to now. I've no idea what their plans are for 3D, so can't really comment on that.

Very nice post and agree with most of the point. 100% agree with the Press Conference part, i really hope this is improved in FM10 (Which i have no doubt it will be) as it is a very nice feature.

Meh, 10,000 posts plus "a lot more that went missing" in just over 2 years = Little or no life!

Seriously though, great review

Now my turn - I still love it, how many other times can you spend £20 to £30 quid and get the same amount of hours entertainment that FM can? Not many, and FWIW im not talking about any other games, more like cinema, bowling, drinking etc.

Bring on FM2010!

You should look at the new Championship Manager 3d engine before you say they have not advanced.

CM's 3D engine is not only not finished, but for a forthcoming game, so cannot be compared to one that is 9 months old (ish) now.

Plus, we haven't seen it past a vid prepared by its makers, and apart from the decent graphics, I thought it was terrible....like REALLY terrible.

You should look at the new Championship Manager 3d engine before you say they have not advanced.

It looks nice and shiny, but the actual ME is poor from what we've seen. Mr Meredith even said that they hadn't started on the defending yet

Good and fair review.

Very good post

You should look at the new Championship Manager 3d engine before you say they have not advanced.

I agree, and also IMO FIFA Manager 06's 3d match looks better than FM09's. Personally I think they could've done a much better job first time, but the rest of the review looks solid.

I agree, and also IMO FIFA Manager 06's 3d match looks better than FM09's. Personally I think they could've done a much better job first time, but the rest of the review looks solid.

Obviously you're entitled to your own opinion, but can I remind you that FIFA is a game that has been developing it's 3D for years. It probably uses the same people from the Playstation/Xbox version to make it.

Very good post!

Obviously you're entitled to your own opinion, but can I remind you that FIFA is a game that has been developing it's 3D for years. It probably uses the same people from the Playstation/Xbox version to make it.

It is actually the ME from the previous FIFA game apparently.

Best FM09 review I've seen, perceptive, honest and I think sums up the general opinions of FM fans very well.

It is actually the ME from the previous FIFA game apparently.

I thought that might be the case - thanks

Thanks for all the comments still

To be honest, I don't find that much wrong with it bar a few small glitches and I thoroughly enjoy it.