Football Manager 2007 (PC)
Do you want to start managing a big Premiership club, or one
of the lower league
(or non-league) clubs? Well you can as Football Manager is back for its
yearly update, and this manager sim just gets better and better every time I
play it.
(click on thumbnails to enlarge the small pictures)
Gameplay: 96%
For
those of you who have never played Football Manager this game is a typical
football management game where you control everything from the training, to
picking the team and its tactics, buying and selling players, and a lot
more. This game always gets better every year as I play it, although the
gameplay is always pretty much the same but with a few killer changes. New
for this version is the chance of a board takeover, so if you’re a poor club
like Watford (sorry Watford fans) you can then become a very rich club. Also the new feeder
club / parent club system means teams like Arsenal can send their reserves
to Southend to get first team experience, while it works the other way as
well, so if you’re a championship side and want some good players on loan,
try to get a top parent club like Arsenal or Barcelona because they have
superb youngsters you can get.
For the new 2007 game they have updated all the club and player details, e.g. Ballack will be at Chelsea. There is also new player interaction where you have the chance to speak to any of your players and praise or criticize recent performances. With players from other teams you can not only praise them on their performances but you can unsettle them (tap them up!) by saying you would be very interested in signing them, but beware; you may unsettle your own players in the process.
The
depth of this game is amazing and if you’re a newcomer it may seem daunting
at first, but it’s well worth the effort once you get into it. Oh, and it’s
hard to turn off... “I’m just going to play one more game”.
Graphics: 50%
The graphics
in the game aren’t special but they don’t need to be. Going through your
squad, team news, transfers, league tables etc are very similar to working
on a spreadsheet, but the football matches themselves are good given that
the graphics are only 2D. The makers have added some very clever parts to
the match graphics though, as you can tell how high the ball is as there is
a slight shadow on it, and the little ball on the screen spins so you can
see the ball curl.
Sound:
50%
To be honest
there is virtually no sound in the game, just some crowd noises during
matches, but the lack of much sound isn’t a problem.
Value:
98%
This game is
almost too hard to resist and is the only thing that gets me away from my
Playstation! I play it all the time because it is such a good game and a
very hard game to leave on the shelf, it should be on many people’s
Christmas list.
Conclusion:
This manager
sim improves every year, and is very very addictive. All I can say is I wish
there were more than 24 hours in a day to let me play it even more, or maybe
have school cancelled for a year! You can read how I (c-101) and others are
doing with our teams on the Forum in “FM
Stories”.
Overall Score: 94% (not an average)