Over the last couple of weeks, SI have slowly been releasing different pieces of information about the new Football Manager 2009 game which is due for release in November. Alot of the features can be first unearthed by subscribing to the Football Manager Podcast, where Miles Jacobson takes an hour out of his Thursday to eat crisp, drink alchopops and talk to friends about the world of Football (sounds like a night at the pub), but Miles will also go through a number of features to keep us listening.
Distance Running
For those statistic obsessed Football Managers, we have a new number to the spreadsheet that greets us everytime we load up the game. This time we can see the distance that your players are running within each game. The feature will probably do more for player selection then anything, now we will be able to present the evidence to the players who just aren’t trying enough within the team and replace them, I like it and it will certainly make it easier for me to make decisions about substitutes during the game or see in which areas of the field your players are getting run about too much, causing them to tire.
Improved Team Reports
Team reports have been something that I have found useful since their introduction in 2008, especially when you first arrive at a new club, you can see at a glimpse where you team needs improving and the up and coming players you should keep hold of. But now you assistant manager will be able to give you more information then that, he can even suggest players for you to buy now. But is this taking the games AI involvement with the manager too far? I will have to play with it before I truly know what I am talking about, but I feel that this is starting to bridge the gap between you playing the game and you just following a series of instructions to success. Indeed it probably does happen in real life that assistant manager will be able to suggest players though so maybe not all bad and hopefully all this will rely on the quality of you assistant manager.
Award History
Awards that you team get will now be stored so that you can look back and marvel about how good you have done over the years. A new feature that will help you gloat to your mates or analyse how players have done over the years. But I think just a little bit of window dressing, good implementation but nothing that will change the way we play.
Returning from holiday
More options then you can shake a stick at, now if you play the game in holiday mode? I don’t understand why you would (when was the last time you seen Alex Ferguson taking a break during the seasons proceedings?) You can now apply for jobs in certain leagues instead of applying for everything (although you still get this option). The only way I would find this useful for myself is when I have been sacked or resigned from a club, it can tire when you have to endlessly hit continue or when going on holiday, it returning you with a approach from MK Dons after you have won the Premiership and World Cup 5 times in a row with Millwall and San Marino. I can now narrow it down to a particular league my skills will be best utilised within, but again another one of those features that will just come in handy.
Improved Player Ratings
An addition that has come from the Football Manager Live development, player ratings during games will have decimal points, for the die hard statisticians another good introduction. Once again it will help improve the decision making during games, it can be so hard when you are looking at ratings and two players have a 7 but you need to replace one and for a long time now FM has been crying out for the difference between a good 7 performer and a bad 7. Because if your team is winning you will more then likely or not see alot of 7’s in your side and miss a weaker link in the side and quickly lose your hold on a game.
Pick Your Feeder Team
At last you will be able to ask for a specific club to be linked with in this years game. As you have had to do so far, you will still need to get gain the boards confidence before they give you such powers, but now you won’t have to rely on the luck of the draw to get to the teams such as Crewe who have a great youth policy. But also teams abroad and teams you want to loan players to it would make more sense for the big clubs to give their players better experience playing for the better clubs.
Ask if a player is loanable
You have been able for some time put in enquiries of the availability to buy certain players, but now you can find out if you can loan players. I think a fantastic addition for the lower league managers, as when I am in the lower divisions I will go through team upon I will go through team upon team to see if I can loan one of their youngsters. Enquiring will make negotiations much quicker and easier. Or those players who are hardly playing in the first team, but would fit in fantastic for yours despite that tight budget.
Improved Stadium Expansions
Football Manager strangely has always expanded the stadium during new seasons, this would rarely happen in the upper leagues, causing you to lose money as seats are unavailable during construction and it takes that much longer. SI have made expansions quicker and more realistic by allowing the workmen in after the last home game of the season.
No More B Teams
Now the B teams will be separate entities in themselves, B teams are mostly associated with management in Spain and now the B teams will be regarded just as affiliations of the giant teams, I am guessing this is what happens already in the real world. I don’t know what difference this will make as this is as much information as I have got and I have no clue how this will play out in the game. Will you now have to loan you first team players to the B teams or will you still be able to drop them up and down like a reserve team? Only SI has the answer.
Rules Fully Shown
Just a little bit of house keeping for SI, making sure are gaming experience is as real as possibly can be. Rules will now be displayed for individual competitions such as the French ‘Joker’ Rule. Can anyone actually tell me what this is?
The game is looking better and better each time you see it, a fine balance between new features and the improvement of the old ones. I am really getting excited now about the new game and have high hopes that it will definitely live up to being one of the best games SI have ever made.