It must be really hard for the developers and publishers who decide to make a football management game with there being such an overwhelming leader in the field, however EA and the developer Bright Future have boldly attempted to improve on last year’s edition and bring out Fifa Manager 09 and like last year it is a good attempt but not up to the quality of the competition. Essentially the game is the same in that you put all your details in, then pick the team you wish to manage, negotiate your way through pre-season, including some friendlies is you want to play them and then start the season itself. During all this you can buy or sell players, loan them and try and find the best formation for your team while trying to keep not only your players but the board of directors happy. How this differs from other games is in things like this version gives you a full 3d match to watch (if you wish – you can just have a text option or the result if you prefer) also you can if you wish, be a player manager which means you actually get to play in the game itself as you would in the Be A Pro mode in Fifa 09 etc. If you wish you can also take the ultimate challenge and start a club from scratch trying to build it from the ground up and get it into the leagues and beyond. As with last year there are irrelevances to the game in the form of the Manager’s private life. Do you or don’t you want a girlfriend? Are you going to learn a language in case you want to manage abroad at some point? Do you want to learn golf to impress the directors? All irrelevant as, as far as I can tell it makes no difference to the game itself but I guess it makes it more realistic. The 3d match is probably the biggest difference to last year as it has had a full graphical overhaul or although it is not as good as say Fifa or Pro Evo it is actually very good for a Football Management game. It actually reminds me a little of LMA Manager that used to appear on the consoles in the way that it plays. The substitutes, tactics etc screens have all been given a fine tune to make them easier and quicker to use. Quite interesting touches are actually things non-football fans would probably take no interest in. For example at the end of a season you are given a list of players for teams that have been relegated that you can perhaps get for a snip and the depth of the comments you can make to players and the media is also very good. Graphically this has to be (at the moment) the best football manager game out there. The 3d game is good although thankfully you do have the option to either speed it up or only show interesting highlights. The menus (of which there are loads) and all cleanly presented and easy to use and the graphics for the players on their info screens are good for the well known players. I say this because a good percentage of them have just been given generic graphic likenesses. Sound wise the music is annoying apart from the Grandstand theme, which invokes memories for the older player but thankfully, can be switched off. The effects in the 3d game are good however.
Overall this is an improved attempt on last year although bugged. It actually crashed three times on me within the first hour and a half of play so I would expect there to be a patch out shortly and in the meantime I would recommend you save and save often. The matches played come out with reasonable results as you would expect and the improvements/differences to last year’s title are all to the good of the game. However, in a year where all the EA Sports games that have been released have improved this is only to be expected.
In all honesty it is not as good as a certain other game because for me it dosent hit the emotional and immersion levels of Sega’s title but having said that this is a great alternative and one that I would have no hesitation in recommending, providing you have patience as it is a long game and will take you hours to even just finish one season. An improvement and on this showing I cannot wait until next year’s edition.
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Windows 
