Football Manager 2009 (PC)

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The new rumour mill is a nice touch

Of course there's much more to winning than building a team that looks good on paper, something my pre-season made abundantly clear. My tactics simply weren't working and it wasn't until I listened to the advice offered by Gus that things began to change for the better. In FM 2009 your assistant manager has been given an expanded role. During a match you'll get feedback highlighting areas in which your team tactics are working and the areas in which a tactical change might be required. You can choose to ignore this advice if you wish, but for new managers it's a great way to give you a push in the right direction without taking you out of the virtual managerial world the game tries so hard to create.

Speaking of the virtual experience, the most obvious new addition to FM 2009 is the new 3D match engine. The classic 2D view is available if you wish, but there's no doubt that the match action comes to life like never before when viewed in 3D. When watching the action play out in front of you in the TV view mode it's also possible to access a rather nifty Widget system which makes it easy to customise the display with a host of information. This includes player ratings, assistant manager feedback, a match radar and many others. It also looks great in widescreen and the extra screen space is very welcome after years of being stuck with a 4:3 display ratio.

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So, as I said, my season began to improve once my tactical naivety was put right by Gus. After a series of eight unbeaten games and nine goals from Pavlyuchenko we were sitting third in the Premier league. By this point I'd already implemented some new training schedules to get the best out of my players, but hadn't looked at the new player Preferred Moves found in the player interaction screen. Here you can get players to focus on changing their game in a specific way, be it to aim to score in the corners of the net, opt to go round the keeper, dribble down the line or stay on their feet when tackling. I told David Bentley to try to blast the ball into the net and 15 minutes later I'd given out instructions to each of my first-team squad. Some took my recommendations better than others. While Bentley was happy to take my advice, Ambrosini outright refused to adapt his game.

You can customise the screen with Widgets

I have a feeling it was my Preferred Move tinkering that led to to the end of my unbeaten run; unrest in the dressing room led to poor performances that saw the team slide to ninth in the league. The situation wasn't helped by a derby match against Arsenal in which it seemed the Gunners had actually taken pistols onto the pitch - I was left with serious injuries to Arshavin, Palombo, Ambrosini, Bent, Bentley and Modric;. It took two months before I could field what I felt to be my strongest team and had to settle for a disappointing tenth place finish. Thankfully it was good enough to hold onto my job.

One season in and 25 hours of my life gone it's clear that Football Manager 2009 is every bit as addictive as it's ever been. The odd problem does remain however. As with FM 2008 I found penalty shoot outs to be completely unrealistic - on three occasions I had shoot outs that ended in double figures. The 3D match engine, although in my opinion an improvement over the 2D view, doesn't look great even with a powerful system. The new press conference system will likely be a Marmite feature, but perhaps my biggest problem has been the regularity that players pick up injuries in matches. The aforementioned match against Arsenal proved to be the worst case, but it was rare to finish a match without a player picking up some form of problem.

However, no problem proved bad enough to significantly tarnish my experience and on the whole Sports Interactive has tweaked an already brilliant game to make something even better. If you want a high stress virtual job on top of your real one, have hours to burn each day looking at an interactive database, and fancy yourself as the next Alex Ferguson, Football Manager 2009 might be the only game you'll need until this time next year.

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