Product Description

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 all-new features, improved gameplay and a depth only seen from Sports Interactive, Football Manager 2008 offers a management simulation that is second to none.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #314 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Sega
• Released on: 2007-10-19
• Rating: Universal, particularly children
• Platform: Windows XP

Customer Reviews

A complete joke of a game!!
I have played pretty much all of the Football Manager and old Champ Man series, way back to the 99/00 series... which was great fun, if a little simple!

Over the years S.I have made improvements to the game, to the point of last year when FM2007 was released and what a great game to play this was. So much so that I saw no reason why I should not invest another £25-30 in the latest installment.

I honestly would have got more joy out of spending that money on a new tin of paint, letting my 70-year old neighbour paint their fence and then being invited round to watch the thing dry, and then coming back the next day to see how the second coat dries... this game is that bad...

Firstly, I'd like to pint out that some of the improvements in general gameplay mode are nice and are a definite improvement. Player relationships are a bit more realistic, more control over financial aspects, better interaction with the board and improvements to the training system allowing you more customization over schedules, etc etc.

However, all of that good work is undone when you play a game. Just when you think you have nailed on a set of tactics that seem to get all of you big guns firing, BAM!, you are trounced at home to aston villa 5-1. you then draw 0-0 away at derby, having had 20+ shots on target to their 2!! It is like the stupid engine realises that your tactics are SO spot-on that you must be penalised to make the thing close and exciting.

I have a 15 point lead in the premiership after just 16 games! that in itself was unrealistic, but to then go on a 5 game losing streak and see my lead cut to just 2 points is absolutely ridiculous!!

The countless dodgy offside decisions, the stupid and random opposition sending off's (which you have no chance of capitalising on), the ridiculous possession ration, the crazy number of shots (i played as tottenham at man utd and they had 41 shots on target!!! thats a shot on target every 2.5 mins!!!).

it really ruins the game. Unless all of these infuriating glitches and bugs are rectified, I shall not be returning to the Football Manager series... sort it out S.I!!

Ridiculous
I've been playing this game for a while now so I think I have enough experience with it to write a review.

The first thing I can say is that if you're an expert at Championship manager/Football manager, then you'll probably excel that this game, or any other future FM game for that matter. However, a lot of users are ones learning the ropes to this game, and this is the worst introduction to a great game series that I have ever encountered. Others have mentioned annoying glitches; 4-2-4, the corner exploit, etc. Yes, they are incredibly annoying, but it doesn't end there. The game is totally unrealistic. My latest New game (I've just begun a new one), exluding the friendlies, all my 8 league games so far have resulted in the injury of at least one of my players. I've decided to alter the hugely unfair balance by using FMM and simply removing the injuries afterwards, and reloading some of the games (including one against West Ham where I was heavily favoured but ended up losing 4-2, had 1 player injured and 2 got straight red cards - wow, the realism) until I get a decent result. Unless you know the game inside out, how every single tactical decision works, then you'll simply flounder in this game. It's THAT bad. It doesn't even rate Man Utd's new hot prospects Possebon, and the Da Silva twins very highly (according to the game, they only have the potential to be good Championship players). Stay clear, this game is terrible.

Somewhat dodgey
This game does at first seem to be a decent upgrade on the previous football manager...more in-depth gameplay, such as being able to choose what type of feeder club you want (after having been at the club for a while) which is great for boosting your finances, and much more. For all this I would have given it a four or even five stars.
BUT, there are those odd moments, which seem to be more prevalent than in the previous games. Now, in reality, there are numerous times when a team that has more shots on target loses. But when you've lost for the sixth time in a season when you've had as many as thirty shots ON target to the oponents three, it can get quite frustrating.
And finally; this game prides itself on its realism. Its lack of arcade, quick-fix style gameplay. But why on earth would the developers decide to deliberately add silly aspects to the game? In particular I refer to their decision to give Barcelona £100,000,000 EXTRA in TV revenue each season over and above that of any other club in Spain, thus giving them a huge and unnecessary advantage. To correct this I had to go on the data editor and give them a massive debt (roughly £1 billion which means they have to pay £100m each season in debt re-payments) which doesn't exactly help the game much as it makes them pretty much bankrupt and often leads to a board takever which puts them back in an unfair position.
All of which means that, unlike Football Manager 2007 and its predecessors, when I could have played for hours on end, I quickly lose interest and have little desire to go back to it. (That ended up being a little longer than expected!)