Unlike the England team, FM 2008 delivers time and time again...
In this latest iteration things have been made easier for the novice. There’s plenty of help thanks to a number of tutorials and on every page you can now click on tutorial help and enjoy a range of hints and tips, which are extremely useful, even to a seasoned fan.These new tutorials do make the game more accessible to the FM virgin and for them and those who are being reacquainted with the series navigating the menus has also become more user friendly, as well as looking much easier on the eye. Following feedback from the community; the skins now look crisper and have been tidied up slightly with some of the layouts being rearranged with shortcut buttons being added and more than one way to reach a piece of information. This now means that moving between menus is smoother and quicker than ever before
For those who have never experienced the Football Manager franchise, the clue is in the title. You take over the management of whichever club you decide and control every aspect of its day to day affairs, but more importantly you build, train and motivate your squad throughout the season in the hope that you’ll win a cup or take home the league trophy.
There are a number of new additions worthy of a mention, some of which you’ll probably notice immediately and others which are more subtle. One of my favourite upgrades is on match-day where you can now navigate the tactical menus during the match, whilst still keeping one eye on the action. There is now a mini-radar, which allows you to keep an eye on the game whilst changing team and individual player tactics without needing to keep hitting the pause button. Ultimately, this means that matches have more of a flow to them and don’t really need to be stopped and started every few minutes like you may have done before.
Off the pitch there are plenty of new enhancements, including real pictures of player’s faces on their profiles, which age over time (I wonder how ugly Wayne Rooney will look when he’s 40?) and the option to run fan days (Kids for a quid) to help boost flagging attendances. The inclusion of a new confidence section shows you what is expected of you in the league and various cups and gives you an indication of how the board and fans feel about the way you’re managing the finances.
By way of a slider, you can also see how fans feel about new signing you’ve made and also existing players. In addition to the slider, the confidence section also show comments from fans or staff, so if you’re star striker isn’t performing you may see the coach making the suggestion to get rid of him.
