Football Manager 2009

So, hey, Sports Interactive have decided that being as they're adding a 3D engine, easily the equal of the one seen in "Fifa Road To World Cup 98", to their game, that the loyal fans of Football Manager aren't, as we've believe until now, ardent followers of mainly one PC game only who tend to play it for 60 hours a week, perhaps pausing to play a quick bout of Pro Evo/FIFA on their solitary remaining friend's PS3. Nope, they're actually die hard gamers who have the top of the range PC's one would need to play, I don't fucking know, "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare" or some bullshit. So unless you want to cough up £60 for a new graphics card, you can't play FM09. Even if you were going to ignore the 3D match engine complete with footballers running like Albert Steptoe.

Good work SI. Possibly your finest hour since the shop release of CM3 had every game ending in a 7-1 victory to your team.

I added an errant apostrophe to that post, and I don't even care.

the demo is fucking awful, what with the random crashes and an injury engine based on Passchendaele 1916.

The 3d engine is quite nice but I think, with all the info availble during a game, it may have disappeared up it's own arse.

I mean, I'm used to SI releasing any old shit as a demo and then coming up with 712 patches in the following months, but even so...

this one really takes the cake yeah, and it's a shame as there are some lovely little touches in there.

My work laptop runs the 3d engine well enough, and it's a $400, 3-year-old business-quality laptop. Plus, you can turn the 3d match engine off.

Re: crashes, they're releasing a patch on release day.

Re: injuries, I haven't noticed a problem. Three injuries three months in, two of which were minor. About par.

Possibly it's my fault for owning a Mac, but the demo also has a bug whereby if you pick up something on the tactics board, it refuses to let you put it down again. Suspect they may have been keeping their eye on FMLive as priority over this, to be honest.

But still, I'm having a good run with Fleetwood on FM08 at the moment, so I'll be happy to keep that going a bit.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2008/nov/14/championship-manager-joyofsix-football

since the shop release of CM3 had every game ending in a 7-1 victory to your team.

nah, best feature of that game, and an option that should absolutely be in current incarnations.

so, I have it here, and....I can't even get into the box, this red button thing just won't fricking open. I am at work so it's npo big deal, but is this some sort of "you're too stupid to play the game" deal?

i can't believe someone got paid to write that Guardian article. that's the good life, right there.

they never took the sodding security tag off - so I've had to destroy the box - idiots

Did it come out today there? I have to wait until TUESDAY in Canada, ARGH

Oh well, back to my Millwall game in 08 which is going swimmingly, 20-game unbeaten streak right off the bat (still unbroken)! I don't know what I am doing right, but daaaaaamn! Paul Robinson (not the GK, the DC) is, inexplicably, a legend!

I have it, it is installed.....every time I go to launch it through steam.......it tries to update again, and can you get on th SI forums? Like heck. This is ridiculous.

As soon as I said it my 20-game unbeaten streak broke, figures. Also broke: my legendary striker's leg.

I take back everything I said about injuries in FM09 though, played more of the demo this weekend... Passchendaele 1916 is pretty fucking accurate. Almost my entire first team has been out for a week or two at some ponit, and half of them are out on 2-3 monthers. Games frequently end with a 10-man squad due to injuries and no remaining subs.

ok, so i've this ordered after finally overcoming some pc issues.

what's the verdict on those of you that've been playing it? have patched inmproved the injury problems? anything else i should be aware of before it's too late to cancel?

yeah. it is a lot better. i am enjoying it, perhaps not as much as FM08 but nonetheless i have played a lot and had some fun.

hot damn that's good enough for me!

Although I haven't played it for some months now, '09 is definitely a large improvement on '08. The injury problems have been patched on the first update already, so that should be no problem. I don't care much for the 3d mode, which I instantly switched off (I just want to 'manage', I let the gameplay go by at full speed), so I can't tell you if that's any good. But the program did improve, for me especially in speed, it seems (I used to have those agonizingly long waiting periods during play, but waiting time seems sliced in half).

3D will be turned off straight away for me too, so all i'm hearing from you sounds good.

soooo.....Football Manager Live, anyone?

It's shit. You have to wait a month to be able to do anything (i.e. one month to make your scouting a little, little bit better; one month to make your training a little, little bit better etc. etc.) and basically is just conning the obsessed to carry on playing it for years, hoping they will eventually put a half decent club together. Or so I've been told by my old flatmate, who is one of those obsessed. After about six months it stops being incredibly frustrating, downgraded to just "frustrating".

champ mang going down the in rainbows route this year I see

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/35422/New-Champ-Manager-goes-on-sale-for-1p

Wouldn't pay 1p for that shit.

Meanwhile tho, downloading the FM 2010 demo, maybe I will need to go run to shops tomorrow and buy the newie. Looked forlornly round Gamestation today but sticking rigidly to the official release date, obv. I skipped 2009 but I'm feeling a real yen to get into this one.

just in case you're still on the fence, this should help you make up your mind:

http://www.runofplay.com/2009/10/28/football-manager-2010-just-got-a-lot-more-interesting/