Videogames have long had a heavy reliance on pretty visuals, distracting the gamer from the woeful gaming experience they were enduring. Rarely does a game get released nowadays and not have its aesthetics critiqued to the last pixel. So how does a game heavily bolstered by text and numbers cope with the pressure of being ‘ugly’.

Football Manager is an annually released title that aims to replicate the highs and (more commonly) the frustrations of being a football manager. Born out of the castaways from Championship Manager creators Eidos, Sports Interactive have since repositioned themselves at the top of the genre, constantly receiving great reviews and chart rankings. This years incarnation is no different, hosting more of the same and notable new inclusions that don’t distract nor exclude other aspects of the game.

As my aforementioned pondering suggests, visuals are key to many games because as much as we do claim to not just go for looks, our shallow little minds instantly take in looks for a first impression. It’s in this respect that Football Manager shines. Well, as much as number game can. Its interface resembles a hybrid web browser and web 2.0 website, tabbed menu for the most used functions and plenty of rounded boxes and coloured areas to highlight sub-menus, lesser details or just general ongoings with the game. It offers a (contradicting) cluttered but clean environment for your mouse to traverse with everything only a click or two away, which when you consider the depth of this game (hundreds of leagues, thousands of staff, 10′s of thousands of players) is quite an achievement.

Unfortunately, due to licensing problems we don’t get the full football experience. Whilst we get correct names, stats and clubs (no Man Red like Pro Evolution) we don’t get the addition of player pictures or club badges. However, there are plenty of fansites that do just this, all locatable through the Sports Interactive website and forum over at http://sigames.com. These allow you to gain a little more of the lost visual touch for this game, as well as making matches more personal as you see yours and your rivals badges much akin to Match of the Day or Sky Sports.

Match day viewing is arguably the most important (and fun) part of the game, watching the 2D or 3D match and seeing how your players are coping, whether to chop and change or stick with them. Being fair, last years 3D pitch was ambitious and this year, whilst improvements have been made, it appears there is some discrepancy between what is shown on the 3D pitch and what actually happens. The 2D pitch however is the reliable friend you can count on. Watching the matches and seeing whether tactics are working is much easier when using the overhead view as this anchors the overhead view we use for tactics and selection whereas the three-dimensional alternative was ushering us into a harder to understand scenario. So, unless you absolutely deem 3D as a necessity, this feature is somewhat redundant until the AI improves and can offer a less ambiguous performance.

Now, in order to get onto the pitch, you’ll need to pick a team to manage. It’s a little limited with only thousands of teams over a host of countries including the usual Belgium, England, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Scotland, Spain as well as more obscure football leagues in Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia. With years of enjoyment from each game save, hundreds of leagues, thousands of players and millions of assortments of transfers throughout, there is simply no lack of re-playability. In fact, I would hazard a guess that for each penny spent on this game, you’d have thousands of completely different experiences which is a compliment to the dynamic capabilities of the engine. Whilst some clubs have ‘favoured’ shortlisted players, they will adapt their signings based on injuries to their team, sold players and weaknesses in their squad. Whilst this sounds decent, it has to be seen over multiple playthroughs to see exactly how it works. This is probably the only game in which completion is based on your own objectives. Take over Manchester United, you can call your game complete either after defending your Premier League title or after clearing the millions of pounds worth of debt. Take over Stockport County and upon winning the Champions League, you can retire happy. This style of no-ends gameplay offers a flexible and forgiving environment for all players, new and experienced.

The most notable and useful addition to this years series comes in the form of the Tactics Creator which allows for you to fully customise tactics complete with instructions based on editing existing ones. This, like many of the features is as simple or complex as you require, allowing you to choose pre-prepared selections or to fully customise your own options for each aspect of the tactics, be it player roles and duties, philosophy and strategy. In a complex game like this, even the slightest adjustment can affect your team and as such, whilst the new manager may be able to create a decent tactic, the creator allows for veterans to pinpoint their teams strengths and create successful formulas not limited by predetermined choices only. Add this to the ability to ‘shout’ instructions in real-time from the dugout and you soon find yourself screaming along at the monitor, raging as your team are sitting back whilst behind in the final moments.

As a game for football fans first, simulation fans second the game succeeds, offering the most realistic managerial experience possibly within a (slightly) less pressured environment. This isn’t real life but upon following in the footsteps of the greats and trying to prevent the jeers of your own fans is a daunting experience. Whilst the game is forgiving, chances are limited and for those who can’t handle the pressure, an untimely end is likely. If you know your Wayne Bridge from your Stamford, you can be sure of an exhilarating if not heartbreaking managerial career. If not, it’s likely you’ll become frustrated at the seemingly complicated interface and it may be appropriate to try the handheld version of the game, Football Manager ‘Lite’ if you will, available for PSP. All in all though, football fans will find this more fun than Fifa, more polished than PES, more ruthless than Fergie but faithful as Wenger. This IS football.

[starreview tpl=16 style='starrating' size='24']

8/10