Sports Interactive returns this year with the new installment of the best-selling football management series. With their online management game being in public betas for a year now, they've managed to gather lots of improvements to implement in the game, and along with the lots of fans giving feedback every day in the forums, they promise to make it better than ever.
The headline features were announced via YouTube on Septemeber 3rd, and include a deeper implementation of the media sector with new news items that go on in more detail, press conferences, transfer rumours (some completely made-up, some quite accurate, just like in any website), improved board confidence, focus on team chemistry, a completely re-written transfers system, the ability to get your players to train and learn new special moves that aren't in their repertoire, and a (currently WIP) 3D match engine that's based on the current 2D engine, and that will accompany the previous engine in the new game.
It is announced to be released on November 14th, 2008.
Bit surprised myself, usually thread about FM has a number of replies, not one or two. That said; aside from the superfluous 3D engine I've not heard of anything special regarding FM2009. I'll wait for the demo.
Judging by the trailer there are quite a few goodies added. Press conferences are the most interesting. Transfer system has been re-written from scratch, hopefully it will actually work this time.
I'm actually looking forward to this version, I couldn't care less last year. I'll try the demo, and if I like it, I'll buy it; most of the time SI deserve the money.
Improved Media – SI have worked hard to reflect the greater impact the media has been having in recent years on the world of football, in the in-game dealings with the press. The game now features more news stories, more detail and greater media interaction than ever before.
Board Confidence – Following on from its addition in Football Manager™ 2008, board confidence has been expanded and improved. In addition, the board will now also feedback to you on your squad harmony and the club’s stature in the football world.
Realistic Finances – SI have listened to feedback from all of their researchers to try and model every single financial area of the game correctly for each country, including transfers, staff wages, budgets, ticket prices, season tickets, competition bonuses and club sponsorships.
Updated Competitions – Fully updated for the new 2008/09 football season with all the latest league, club and player data, featuring over 5,000 playable clubs from over 50 countries, and around 350,000 players and staff from around the world, drawn fresh from the famous Sports Interactive database.
Transfer System – Completely new and re-written transfer system code, providing an even more realistic simulation of real-life football transfers.
One of the features that i like most:
-Roaming scouting. The scouts search for players without need of location instructions.
-Player Preferred Moves - Ask players to learn new moves
There are a lot of this little "tweaks". FM 2009 seems to be the first game of SIgames in years to deserve a new standalone.
"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack newbies on fire off the shoulder of NFOrce. I watched VIP members glitter in the dark near the PC Gamers forum. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain..."
The additions to the game look good. I hope the transfer rewrite really helps. I'm disappointed they wasted time adding female managers. It's not a big deal, but they have bigger things to fix/add. Not sure about the 3d view. I know you can turn it off too, but if it's not done correctly then this will turn out to be a beta for future years.
Typically, I have a great time with this game for a few weeks. Then I figure out how to get around the system and win 80% of the time. Then it's no longer fun. I hope things can spiral out of control, like in real life.
. Then I figure out how to get around the system and win 80% of the time..
any tips to share?
"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack newbies on fire off the shoulder of NFOrce. I watched VIP members glitter in the dark near the PC Gamers forum. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain..."
Yesterday, waiting impatient for FM new demo, i spare some time with Championship manager 2008. Now i really love FM even than before. The comparison leaves CM 08 as a pile of crap...(the match engine of the upcoming 09 edition looks impressive though). I took another perspective too, and is; is very difficult make a game with such capacity of hook the player in.
EDIT: Well after a look in the official forums: Miles Jacobson about Demo and system specs:
Quote:
The demo will, as normal, come in different "flavours".
The "vanilla" demo will be the smaller version of the demo file size wise, in that it will have very limited graphical content (no logo's, player pictures, stadiums), English language only, and only English and Scottish leagues available to play, for half a season of ingame time. This saved game will be compatible with the full release of the game, out on November 14th.
The "strawberry" demo will have all graphical content, multiple languages, and 10 leagues to play with (the list of which will be made available later in the week), also for half a season of ingame time, and saved games will also be compatible with the full release of the game, out on November 14th.
The "vanilla" demo will be available exclusively from the News of the World's website as a download file. We will be linking to the News of the World's page directly from the front page at www.sigames.com, and from the forums, as soon as the file is live.
There will be 3 ways to get the "strawberry" demo.
The first of these will be via STEAM. For those that are unaware of STEAM, it's a digital platform made by Valve Software (the developers beind the Half Life series, the Counter Strike series, Portal, and many more). They have super fast bandwidth, and it is by far and away our recommended way to get the "strawberry" version of the Football Manager 2009 demo.
STEAM will also be one of the ways to be able to authenticate your retail version of Football Manager 2009 on it's release, and our preferred route of patching, as patching through STEAM is automatic. You can download the STEAM client from http://store.steampowered.com/ and can also pre-order Football Manager 2009 from the site to be able to play it at 9am UK time on the day of release.
The "strawberry" demo will also be available as a torrent download for those who are aware of this techonology, and as a download with bandwidth provided by GameShadow, although these are likely to appear shortly after the demo becomes available on STEAM, as we will be uploading to STEAM first.
I am also now able to confirm the specs required to play Football Manager 2009.
Please note that these specs are for the machines that we are offering technical support on - the game will work with other graphics cards, and on other spec machines, but as we are not offering technical support, we cannot list these on the system spec.
If your spec is lower than the minimum spec below, it is best to download the demo and try it on your machine, as the spec for the demo is the same as the full game.
Please note that if your PC graphics card is not capable of playing the game with the 3d match engine, it will default to the 2d view from previous FM releases, but the game will still run.
As was mentioned earlier in the year, I can confirm that the game will be released as a DVD Rom this year, rather than a CD. If you do not have a DVD drive, you are still able to purchase the game, but will have to do so via STEAM.
Mac System requirements
The game is currently only being supported on Intel Mac's only, and the minimum requirements are - OSX 10.5.5, Nvidia Geforce 7300 / ATI X1600 Radeon. 1GB RAM.
PC System Requirements
OS - Windows Vista or XP
Processor Speed - Vista - 2.0GHz, XP - 1.4GHz Memory - Vista - 1GB, XP - 512MB Videocard - 128MB Nvidia FX 5900 Ultra, ATI Radeon 9800, Intel 82915G/82910GL or greater.
Personally, I would recommend more RAM than the minimum listed above.
EDIT2:About copy protection:
Quote:
Now, there's also been a lot of talk on the forums about copy protection, and how we are planning to handle it this year, particularly in light of recent press with certain other titles and Securom, which we have used in the past.
We have followed those stories closely, but already had our plan in place for this year, and are happy with the choices that we have made.
I am therefore happy to be able to announce today that, for the first time in the Football Manager series since we started making the game, you will not require the disc to be in the drive each time you start the game if you are playing on the PC! Instead, you will need to authenticate your game.
This can be done in 3 different ways.
The first is via STEAM, as mentioned above. By authenticating through STEAM, you will automatically receive patches as soon as they become available. The second is a simple online transaction, which will take less than 30 seconds. The third, for people who are not online, is via telephone registration, with local call numbers in each country where we release the game, and this will take about 5 minutes to complete from our experience in testing.
We highly recommend the online authentication processes, as they are quick and easy.
Despite the license agreement that comes with the game stating that you can only install on one machine, we are well aware that many people like to play the game on personal laptops, as well as desktops, and our licenses for Football Manager 2009 will work in a very similar way to ITunes.
This means that you will get 5 licenses for personal use, so you can play the game on up to 5 computers as long as you own them, and the owner of the game is the person playing on said machines. If you uninstall the game on one of the PC's you have the game installed on, you get that "seat" back.
As an example, say you have installed the machine on your work laptop, your work PC, your home PC and your home laptop. You would then have used up 4 out of your 5 uses of the game. Your home desktop has some problems, so you decide to re-install windows on it. As long as you uninstall the game from that machine first, you will get that license back, and when you re-install, will still only be using 4 of your 5 installs.
Please note that the license when you purchase the game is explicit that you are only allowed to use the game for your own personal use.
Also please note that on uninstallation of the game, everything is removed from your machine, including all remnants of the copy protection system which we are using, which was a bugbear of many of the other systems available on the market.
MAC users will still have the same protection system as with other years, although we are hopeful that this will change in the coming years when someone comes up with a similar system for MAC's.
So, what we've aimed for, and have hopefully succeeded on, is a system whereby the legitmate purchaser of the game will notice the copy protection even less than in previous years.
"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack newbies on fire off the shoulder of NFOrce. I watched VIP members glitter in the dark near the PC Gamers forum. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain..."
. Then I figure out how to get around the system and win 80% of the time..
any tips to share?
Sure, but it matters alot if you are a top team or a low level team. I guess most of these are common sense, but if you follow it - I guarantee you will not lose more than 20% of your games in a season. (maybe the first year with stock players, but after that year you can dominate)
1) Always use alternating team talk statements. Don't use the same one 2 times in a row.
2) Use scouts to buy the best 16/17/18 year olds you can find. Some of them won't pan out, but the rest will bring in bundles of money or be superstars on your team. This is especially true for lower level teams.
3) Unlike real life, but try to keep as consistent of a team as possible. Don't make drastic changes every year. If you are a low level team, if you go up a level, make sweeping changes all at once so the team can gel that first year.
4) If someone is unhappy, sell them or loan them out. They will drag your team morale down.
5) Every year, plenty of good free agents are around. Spend time looking for them. Sell, loan, or keep. It's free money. This is more true for top teams that can actually sign the free agents. Start signing them on Jan 1 to get a bosman transfer.
6) Always study the opposition and set your tactics appropriately. If they have one forward who scores alot, double down on him. If they score alot, slow the game play down. If they are old or slow, speed the pace up. If their defense is awesome, play long balls and use a good header forward. etc...
Also, I generally try to keep the same type of formation. I found changing it drastically leads to poorer results.
7) Play players who are performing well, regardless of their stats. When they have a bad game, bench them for at least 2 games. When they finally get "reinstated" they will perform better. This applies to all positions except for keepers.
ie. if your 18 year old scrub has a good game, keep playing him regardless until he has a bad game then put the starter back in.
Play friendlies at the beginning of the year, and lots of them but leave ~1 week free before the start of the season. You want your fitness good to go as soon as the season starts.
9) If you are a lower league team, look for the best possible parent team. You can loan their best youngsters and even sign some of them on the cheap in the future since they know your team.
. Then I figure out how to get around the system and win 80% of the time..
any tips to share?
Sure, but it matters alot if you are a top team or a low level team. I guess most of these are common sense, but if you follow it - I guarantee you will not lose more than 20% of your games in a season. (maybe the first year with stock players, but after that year you can dominate)
1) Always use alternating team talk statements. Don't use the same one 2 times in a row.
2) Use scouts to buy the best 16/17/18 year olds you can find. Some of them won't pan out, but the rest will bring in bundles of money or be superstars on your team. This is especially true for lower level teams.
3) Unlike real life, but try to keep as consistent of a team as possible. Don't make drastic changes every year. If you are a low level team, if you go up a level, make sweeping changes all at once so the team can gel that first year.
4) If someone is unhappy, sell them or loan them out. They will drag your team morale down.
5) Every year, plenty of good free agents are around. Spend time looking for them. Sell, loan, or keep. It's free money. This is more true for top teams that can actually sign the free agents. Start signing them on Jan 1 to get a bosman transfer.
6) Always study the opposition and set your tactics appropriately. If they have one forward who scores alot, double down on him. If they score alot, slow the game play down. If they are old or slow, speed the pace up. If their defense is awesome, play long balls and use a good header forward. etc...
Also, I generally try to keep the same type of formation. I found changing it drastically leads to poorer results.
7) Play players who are performing well, regardless of their stats. When they have a bad game, bench them for at least 2 games. When they finally get "reinstated" they will perform better. This applies to all positions except for keepers.
ie. if your 18 year old scrub has a good game, keep playing him regardless until he has a bad game then put the starter back in.
Play friendlies at the beginning of the year, and lots of them but leave ~1 week free before the start of the season. You want your fitness good to go as soon as the season starts.
9) If you are a lower league team, look for the best possible parent team. You can loan their best youngsters and even sign some of them on the cheap in the future since they know your team.
Sure, but it matters alot if you are a top team or a low level team. I guess most of these are common sense, but if you follow it - I guarantee you will not lose more than 20% of your games in a season. (maybe the first year with stock players, but after that year you can dominate)
1) Always use alternating team talk statements. Don't use the same one 2 times in a row.
2) Use scouts to buy the best 16/17/18 year olds you can find. Some of them won't pan out, but the rest will bring in bundles of money or be superstars on your team. This is especially true for lower level teams.
3) Unlike real life, but try to keep as consistent of a team as possible. Don't make drastic changes every year. If you are a low level team, if you go up a level, make sweeping changes all at once so the team can gel that first year.
4) If someone is unhappy, sell them or loan them out. They will drag your team morale down.
5) Every year, plenty of good free agents are around. Spend time looking for them. Sell, loan, or keep. It's free money. This is more true for top teams that can actually sign the free agents. Start signing them on Jan 1 to get a bosman transfer.
6) Always study the opposition and set your tactics appropriately. If they have one forward who scores alot, double down on him. If they score alot, slow the game play down. If they are old or slow, speed the pace up. If their defense is awesome, play long balls and use a good header forward. etc...
Also, I generally try to keep the same type of formation. I found changing it drastically leads to poorer results.
7) Play players who are performing well, regardless of their stats. When they have a bad game, bench them for at least 2 games. When they finally get "reinstated" they will perform better. This applies to all positions except for keepers.
ie. if your 18 year old scrub has a good game, keep playing him regardless until he has a bad game then put the starter back in.
Play friendlies at the beginning of the year, and lots of them but leave ~1 week free before the start of the season. You want your fitness good to go as soon as the season starts.
9) If you are a lower league team, look for the best possible parent team. You can loan their best youngsters and even sign some of them on the cheap in the future since they know your team.
I guess that's enough for now.
Nice tips!
Although its bad to know that you can win 80% of the times with a system. The good part is that proves that the game follow a logic and coherent mechanics. To fix this would be convenient implement more variables in the game. Hopefully...
"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack newbies on fire off the shoulder of NFOrce. I watched VIP members glitter in the dark near the PC Gamers forum. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain..."
Im really looking forward to this game, ill think it will be the best FM so far.
Some more news:
Re-laying - You now have the ability to request to re-lay the pitch to ensure a silky smooth playing
surface. Or you could let it go all JJB.
Pitch degredation - This feature tracks the condition of the pitch during the season (possibly leading to the above).
Fixture postponements - Part of the pitch degradation module, this can lead to cancellations for bad weather and waterlogging (and probably those annual stories of fans travelling from Plymouth to Darlington only to have to turn round and head straight back)
Best XI
As you may have noticed in last year's Football Manager 2008, at the end
of the season you had a 'Best XI' which showed your clubs best XI since
the start of the game. This year, with Football Manager 2009, all the
best XI's in the game get a rating, so you can see how your best ever XI
compares to those of other teams around the world. So, that's either added bragging rights all round, then, or digs about "living in the past" from the Johnny-come-latelys.
The match engine had some major flaws in FM2008 (corner bug, way too many goals from set pieces and rebounds, etc.etc.etc.). Hope they've fixed that, the awful regen quality and the rapid deteriation of players after they turned 30 years old.
Too bad the demo will only tell me if the match engine has improved but that is the one area that needs the most improvement from FM2008 imo.
in a bit then more then 12 hours we should get the demo...
then the wait is left till the 14th for the full game...
maybe after its gone gold will see it leaked on net before the official release
"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack newbies on fire off the shoulder of NFOrce. I watched VIP members glitter in the dark near the PC Gamers forum. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain..."
God damnit I'm sort of pissed here. I won the league, the national cup and the UEFA cup with Kalmar FF, the board was super-pleased with both sports and finances, i got a huge budget-increase for the 09/10-season but a couple of days into july (it varies, i've reloaded a few times) i get sacked. No reason is stated or anything
I read somewhere that this is a copyprotecion-mechanism but that seems sort of farfetched doesnt it?
Game seems decent. 3D view is better than expected; the graphics are obviously crap, but the actual play is quite nice. Math engine looks better from what I can see. Other than that the game's not that different from what I can tell so far.
lol ... this is the football manager thread ... not the fifa manager one
"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack newbies on fire off the shoulder of NFOrce. I watched VIP members glitter in the dark near the PC Gamers forum. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain..."
God damnit I'm sort of pissed here. I won the league, the national cup and the UEFA cup with Kalmar FF, the board was super-pleased with both sports and finances, i got a huge budget-increase for the 09/10-season but a couple of days into july (it varies, i've reloaded a few times) i get sacked. No reason is stated or anything
I read somewhere that this is a copyprotecion-mechanism but that seems sort of farfetched doesnt it?
This is the right thread (Nfohump) and i have the same problem.
Even a guy who has got a legit copy gets sacked after 1 season so it must be a bug in the game ....
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Play friendlies at the beginning of the year, and lots of them but leave ~1 week free before the start of the season. You want your fitness good to go as soon as the season starts.
