Football Manager 2008

[Dan]

FOOTBALL MANAGER™ 2008 ANNOUNCED WITH A HOST OF ALL NEW FEATURES...

The most realistic representation of the challenging world of football is back and set to hit PC and Macintosh before Christmas 2007

LONDON (July 27th, 2007) – SEGA Europe Ltd. today announced that Football Manager™ 2008 for PC and Apple Macintosh will be in stores before Christmas 2007. Football Manager™ 2008 is the next iteration of the prize-winning Football Manager™ series developed by world respected studio Sports Interactive. The latest version of Football Manager will be fully updated for the new season and will allow players to select their favourite club or international team and guide them to glorious success by putting them through Cup matches, Leagues, European Championships and even major international tournaments, with over 5,000 playable teams from over 50 countries.

Fan feedback on the previous version of Football Manager™ was, as always, taken very seriously by the Sports Interactive team, resulting in over a hundred new features, including a brand new advisory system to help new players through the different aspects of the game. This makes Football Manager™ 2008 the most accessible Football Manager™ yet, without losing any depth for the more experienced player.

"With Football Manager™ 2008 we're once again raising the bar in the sports management genre." commented Miles Jacobson, Studio Director of Sports Interactive. "With dozens of new small features and larger things like a complete revamp of international management and the new match flow system, we're really looking forward to seeing the reaction from people when they get to play it on release."

With all-new features, improved gameplay and a depth only seen from Sports Interactive, Football Managerä 2008 offers a management simulation that is second to none. To whet the appetite of every Football fan, SEGA and Sports Interactive have unveiled the key new features available in Football Manager™ 2008.

New features for Football Manager 2008 PC/Apple Macintosh

Match Flow – The largest change to match-day in a Sports Interactive game since the introduction of the second match engine. Match flow brings more atmosphere to match-days with match previews, team talks, opposition player instructions, the match itself, half time and post match. These now seamlessly follow on from one another, with no more pausing to make tactical changes, and a mini-radar pitch whilst making those tactical changes to keep you in touch with what's going on in the match

International Management – The international management gameplay has been completely revamped for Football Manager™ 2008, including, but not limited to, media improvements, international retirements, player interaction, international scouting, improved pool selection, captain selection and a separation of international and club morale for players.

Easier to Use – A much cleaner skin, a brand new advisor system to help players through various areas of the game. A new notes and notebook system, better button positioning for simpler navigation and an updated tutorial and manual. Also, coach reports make taking over a new team easier, and the new calendar system lists all important dates throughout the season. These all help to make Football Manager™ 2008 the easiest Sports Interactive game to use yet.

Confidence – Players can now easily tell what the board and supporters think about their performance in the game through the new confidence section. This gives players feedback not just on their current progress in competitions, but also their financial management and signings.

Transfer Centre – A new way of managing all current transfer and loan bids for a players club, both incoming and outgoing, making it easier to compare bids and reject or accept them.

Match Engine Improvements – A greatly improved match engine, once again utilising the footballing brain of former ..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Republic of Ireland international player Ray Houghton as well as other tools used by real-life managers to make the most accurate simulation of football in a computer game. The ability to change the pitch dimensions at the start of the season to suit players styles of play better has also been added.

Awards re-write – An overhaul of the awards system inside the game which is not only more accurate now, but also includes new awards such as the European golden boot, and a "best eleven", which shows the all-time (in game) best eleven for all teams and nations.

Finances revamp – To reflect the changes in modern day football, Sports Interactive have updated the finance area of Football Manager™ 2008 to better reflect the ever changing football world, with more information available to the manager too, including, but not limited to, corporate match day income, season ticket news, investment funds, improved sponsorships, collective win bonuses, and the ability to move around funds from the wage budget and transfer budget (and vice versa) at any point to help you in your quest for the ideal squad.

Fan days – The board can now arrange fan days to boost ailing attendances, or for matches that are likely to attract a low crowd, with a long term affect to attendances if all goes well.

Expanded media – More media and feedback than ever before, plus more detail in existing media, and a new competition news section to find out what major things are going on in all league competitions

Regenerated player photo's – All in game generated players now have pictures using FaceGen technology to give each player more personality, and the ability for the players to be seen to grow up in front of your eyes as the game is going on.

Faster – Saving and loading is now significantly faster, with network gaming faster and smoother to play, as well as tactical changes and match reports being quicker than ever before.

Football Manager 2008 for PC (XP & Vista) and Apple Macintosh (OS10.3.9 and above) is set for release before Christmas 2007. For further information please go to www.sigames.com or the completely re-vamped www.footballmanager.net website. For all SEGA assets please visit www.sega-press.com .

Edited July 28, 2007 by Dan

[wozzi]

Screenshots: http://fm08.footballmanager.net/en/article/100/1584.html

Sounds like another good update with a few new features. Some of the updates seem a bit pointless while other's like the regenerated player photo's sounds like a nice idea. I'll be buying.

[Dan]

That skin looks so much cleaner and nicer than the current default.

Looking forward to this one

[King Ellis]

Meh, nothing really jumps out at me and I don't particually like the skin. It seems a little freeware-ish. Must bw the grey.

To be fair I probably will end up getting it though this time around I dunno how urgently I will be doing so.

[new_era]

Very freeware look about it as TheEllisComplex said.

The improvments to the game sound good though.

Looks like i know a christmas present somebody will get me :ohwell:

[Guest Mr. Potato Head]

International management...hopefully there's a lot more to it than just what they listed, but it's nice to see them starting to address it.

I'm sure I'll be coming into possession of this at some point, God (and Kou) willing.

[The Kraig]

Kick ass. One thing they didn't mention, which I hope they do add, is removing of the competitions that don't actually exist, like the Israeli Super Cup, the Icelandic Super Cup, and some others. And maybe allow players to see the rules of competitions more clearly, and maybe even a little text explanation of the competition, how it started, who were the founding member teams or first winner, etc. That'd be pretty cool.

I also want to see the addition of more international competitions for the smaller nations which do actually exist, but aren't in the game, like the Caribbean Cup, COSAFA Cup, CECAFA Cup, CEMAC Cup and there's quite a few more. It would make international management a bit more realistic than continental competition and World Cup qualification (with random friendlies). Even adding the VIVA World Cup would be kind of funny, and since FM isn't a FIFA game, I doubt they could do anything about it, although it would be difficult to implement, as most the the VIVA nations don't actually exist.

I'd also like to manage U21, U20 and U19 teams, that'd be pretty cool as well.

I wish I could work at SI.

[Thomas]

When I saw the screens for FM Live I was hoping it wouldn't also be a similar skin for FM08, but it seems to be. Not sure if I like it yet.

[Bigal]

Meh, a bad skin won't put me off; there'll be alternatives available for download within weeks.

[The Quasi Juice]

Kick ass. One thing they didn't mention, which I hope they do add, is removing of the competitions that don't actually exist, like the Israeli Super Cup, the Icelandic Super Cup, and some others. And maybe allow players to see the rules of competitions more clearly, and maybe even a little text explanation of the competition, how it started, who were the founding member teams or first winner, etc. That'd be pretty cool.

I also want to see the addition of more international competitions for the smaller nations which do actually exist, but aren't in the game, like the Caribbean Cup, COSAFA Cup, CECAFA Cup, CEMAC Cup and there's quite a few more. It would make international management a bit more realistic than continental competition and World Cup qualification (with random friendlies). Even adding the VIVA World Cup would be kind of funny, and since FM isn't a FIFA game, I doubt they could do anything about it, although it would be difficult to implement, as most the the VIVA nations don't actually exist.

I'd also like to manage U21, U20 and U19 teams, that'd be pretty cool as well.

I wish I could work at SI.

[fourstarfizzle]

Yeh, skin looks a bit shit, hopefully someone makes one similar to teh FM2007 one, I like it and it's easy on the eyes.

[therockbox]

The skin looks much less complex than 2007's, so hopefully that means it'll be easier for fans to make them. The problem with 07 is that some bits are ridiculously overcomplicated to skin, which is why there weren't as many good user made ones, especially compared to previous versions.

[Dan]

Demo tommorow, fuck yeah.

[Summers]

I can't wait. FM07 doesn't seem as good, what with having 08 round the corner.

[CarlitoJay]

http://fm08.footballmanager.net/en/article/101/1682.html

Demo out now.

[Lord Nibbler]

First new feature to impress me; you get a higher budget the greater your ambition for the season. As Pompey I'll get £10m as default, but if I tell the board I think we can win the league, they'll give me £16m to spend. I assume failure to meet (or at least come close to meeting) those ambitions would result in me being sacked.

[Guest Mr. Potato Head]

Have they ever said that Toronto FC would be accurately represented in 08?

For that matter, can someone who already has the demo just tell me if it is?

[Lineker]

What a game.

The facegen is just awesome, imo.

[Legend_Killer33]

So i've started downloaing the demo. But there were two, a 500MB one and a 100MB one. I chose to download the 100MB due to my broadbands shitty download speed. but I was wondering, what am I missing out on by downloading the smaller file?

[Lord Nibbler]

Graphics, and a greater choice of leagues to start in. The Vanilla just has Scotland and England.