Even though I haven’t been around the scene for a while, it still usually reaches me when a new version of this super-mega-trend game among all wannabe managers comes closer to release. The demo was released today and surprisingly the big expected buzz is even calmer than Newcastle’s trophy hunting. So surely I had to check it out and I got the demo via torrent. Installed the game which nowadays takes longer than it should, but a part of me understands it as there’s so much data to extract. Finally the game installed itself and I was ready to give it a go so here’s a small review of what I saw in it with my 10 year experience within the scene and the world of Football Manager and Sports Interactive:

You Got The Look?

Of course the first thing that really pops out is the new lighter look. From the previous dark grey/green look it has moved to a really light, even white look. It looks soft and even though there’s plenty of new shortcut links, it somehow feels nicer and gives you a quick access to wherever you need to go to. Yet the number of shortcuts, that are by the way located below the menu now, is somehow disturbing as you really need to get used to it and learn which one leads where.

Hey, are you a new user? Here’s a tip anyway…

First thing you get is the new Advisor popping out in low right corner giving you tips. For me it’s pure annoyance so I try to find out how to disable it. Couldn’t a simple tickbox around it so I let it be and hoped it wouldn’t come back any time soon. But the next screen I open, had it again. I closed it and it finally asked if I wanted to disable it once and for all or just remind me on certain issues. I think this is a good thing anyway. More experienced users shouldn’t mind about closing it a couple of times before getting rid of it as the new users or managers, whichever you prefer them to be called, stumble upon the world of Football Manager, it is quite handy.

Next I went on to check my news and I was quite glad to see that the main window actually showed 2 news in one view. You had the active news in the main area and then two small boxes below it. The left one being a news selection box and the right one showing the news that occured prior to active news. A small change, but one of the many nice ones that will be explained as we go on…

Looking For New Life Forms

Of course I had to have a quick look around the places that usually have new features so I headed over to Preferences to check out the settings. They were nicely arranged just like in previous versions, but wait! There’s something new! I couldn’t help to notice that since to us Finns the British or American 16/1 like odds are quite weird, or at least to me. So there was a possibility of changing it to decimals. Oh mama, that’s nice!

Right after confirming the settings I hovered around the shortcut bar looking for something special and what did I find – a calendar. Now that sounds nice so I headed over there to see it and I must be honest. I think it’s so far the best new feature presented in FM08. The chance to have a weekly, monthly and even a yearly view in your calender really keeps you up-to-date.

So right after seeing that I had a friendly match against AC Milan coming up in a few days, I decided to have a look at the squad. Clicking on one player opened the quite familiar view of a player profile. The main view only had the order of player details changed + the player picture is ‘a bit’ larger now. Checking the personal tab gave me two new ‘features’. International happiness indicating the general happiness playing for the player’s national team. Simple, but quite nice if you’re managing a national team. Then right below that there was something that many of us have wished for years – ‘days to gain nationality’. A table showing the potential new nationalities, days how long you had to wait for it in total, days passed by since it started counting down and days left until it was possible.

Premier League 2007-2008

I headed over to main screen of Premier Division. And yea, the game doesn’t have most of the licenses in this version either. One link pops out immediatly on the left, league news. So I head over there and I get the news regarding the league I’m looking at. Pretty neat to be honest… No more going through the news page looking for things that could take ages.

Going to stats page was even something more cooler. A general view on some of the stats for teams and players. Team stats now show stats in one page about the goals scored in total, conceded, average attendance etc. I like this quite a lot!

Rubbing The Good Old Sugardaddy

I heard and saw screenshots about re-sizing of the home pitch so I headed over to Boardroom. Now finally we have the chance to actually negoatiate the transfer budget while playing instead of waiting until the season changes. Now by using a simple dropdown box, you can select how much money you need for transfers by reducing the wage budget at the same time. This will surely make some managers happy and get the feeling of realism of some sort.

Game Time!

Time for the AC Milan game. I couldn’t bother to play with the tactics or selection so I asked one of my staff members to do that.

Post match info about previous games against eachother… The game looked as sweet as expected. Smooth moving was a pleasure for the eye even though there was not much difference to FM07. First highlight when Torres got the ball around half line. Both central defenders from Milan in front, Torres took a few steps, launched a high shot towards the goal. I was already questioning th decision to shoot from that far and that high, but my face was amazed when I saw the ball go in the back of the net. In FM07, a high ball like that would have gone over 2 goals without even being close…

The game engine was quite solid if you ignored the moments where the guy with the ball stood still for like 5 seconds until actually doing something. I know this is realism, but not with every player. Then I noticed more goals being scored…1-1, 1-2…2-4. Okay, this is the first match so no worries. But a 4-5 game in the first match? Come on, that’s just ridiculous!

Conclusion

In my humble honest opinion. I don’t see FM08 that much different than FM07 based on what I saw in the demo. Sure there are a few things that are nice and useful, but there’s nothing revolutionary really unless you like lighter skins or just arse to change the skin to a custom made one at some point later on.

I’d say this was a small disappointment, but however… I do think if you’ve never played the game before or don’t have FM07, get FM08. Surely there are us devoted FM fans that will get the game no matter the price or updates in the new version. But in general: FM07 owners, try the demo and decide yourself!