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Football Manager 2009 (PC) | 
 enlarge | From: Sega
Category: Video Games
List Price: £39.99
Buy New: £24.15
You Save: £15.84 (40%)
New (17) Used (3) from £22.50
Rating:  181 reviews
Sales Rank: 16
Format: Unknown Format
Platforms: Windows Vista, Windows Xp
Genre: soccer-games
Media: Video Game
Operating System: Windows XP/Windows Vista
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.4 x 0.6
EAN: 5060138439849
ASIN: B001FA0DLK
Release Date: November 14, 2008 (New: Last 30 Days)
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand New - SAMEDAY DESPATCH - Insured Delivery and 12 months Warranty
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| Customer Reviews: Read 176 more reviews...
 What's Everybody's Problem? December 1, 2008
I. M. Jefferson (UK)
Well, I just thought I'd like add something positive! Got this game a couple of days ago. All the 1* reviews put me off and I didn't really know what to expect. I've played this game for over 24 hrs now and can't find any problems with it. Registering was instant (use uniloc instead of steam), I've had no more crashes than I would have expected (yes even the XBOX crashes sometimes) and the 3D engine runs as smooth as anything. The gameplay is much enhanced by the latest tweaks and I'm very pleased with my purchase. I can't deny the fact that other people have had problems and it may need a system upgrade to get the best out of the game. I'm running 64Bit Vista, 4Gb RAM, Phenon 9850 and NVidia 9600GT. This game ROCKS!
 Blank DVD December 1, 2008
Paul Oost
Wow im glad you guys had the chance to even install this game and after a while play it, i bought this and got a blank DVD and then again with my replacement. Any body else had this problem???
Better than I expected November 30, 2008
J Laz 21
Based on the reviews that I have read on the internet about this game, I was more than a little nervous about purchasing FM'09. I'm far from an expert when it comes to using my PC and all of the terrible reviews about the bugs and downloading patches came close to putting me off buying it. HOWEVER, being that I'm a massive fan of Football Manager and the entire Championship Manager series that came before it, I decided to buy it regardless and make my own judgement.
Thankfully this was a great decision as it wasn't anywhere near as complicated to set up as I have been led to believe, and it works brilliantly on my laptop (which is about 4 years old so not exactly a brand new model).
Upon inserting the disc and entering the keycode which can be found on the back of the instruction manual, I was then given the option to automatically download updates or do them manually. Because of my lack of confidence and experience in downloading stuff off the internet, I chose automatic downloads. This then opened up something called "Steam" which showed the FM09 logo and next to it a downloading bar. It automatically downloaded the updates (which I will admit took about half an hour) and all I had to do was wait. Once it reached 100% I then clicked on the launch button and away we go!
Now quite possibly my laptop is more impressive than I give it credit for, and the fact that I waited a few weeks before buyng it may have had a bearing, however all of the negativity that I have come across about setting it up has not been warrented IN MY EXPERIENCE. I can't speak for everyone obviously, and I admit that it is frustrating having to spend half an hour or so download updates when previously you haven't had to, but based on the overwhelming negative response that it's been getting I was pleasantly suprised how straight forward it was to set up.
As far as playing the game goes, in my opinion, the game is brilliant! Granted, it is very similar in it's basic structure to the last installment and so the comments about it just being an updated version are warranted to a point. However I would like to know what people expect?! If they wanted to entire game structure to change, then it would be a completely different game and I would argue that the reason people bought this one is because they enjoyed the previous one so much. For me, all great game series' add new elements year on year to improve, they don't completely overhaul the system, and this is exactly what FM'09 does.
For me, the 3D match view is fantastic. Sure, it's basic, however I don't expect to be watching a Pro Evolution or Fifa standard match. I expected to be watching something more impressive than the birds eye view dots of the previous game, and want to see how my formation and tactics play out on the pitch. In my opinion, the 3D view does exactly that!
The Press Conferences are a great addition to the basic pre and post game comments, and although in fairness I can imagine it getting quite repetitive, the fact that you can leave your assistant to answer the questions for you means that if you can't be bothered, you don't have to.
The transfer gossip is a fun addition, creating a sense of realism (sometimes you get linked with a player you haven't looked at and have no idea where the link comes from!), and it's clever in the way that if you sell a goalkeeper you will then automatically be linked with goalkeepers even if you haven't looked at any!
Finally, it's also fun interacting with the players, instructing them to change certain elements of their game, seeing how they react and then how it changes the way they play in games.
These are just a few of the changes that I thought were impressive, and I'm sure that as I play some more I will discover many more.
In summary, I wanted to write a review that shows the game in a positive light as in my opinion and my experience so far it deserves it. I've loved every minute of playing it so far, and after six hours and numerous matches the game hasn't frozen or shut down on me once. This is a great addition to the Champo and Footie Manager collection, and if you've got a decent PC or laptop, internet connection, and aren't expecting MAJOR changes, then I would take no notice of all of the negative comments and reviews and go buy it.
Promised much, delivered little November 30, 2008
Dazz (Norfolk)
I have, and greatly enjoy FM 07 and thought it was about time I got a newer version of the game so picked up FM 09 as soon as possible.
It appears I was lucky as I registered the game first time of asking, unfortunately that was where the fun ended.
To start with everythig was slow and laggy, I though this may have been because my computers memory was full, so I deleted a few less needed items and unistalled FM 07. There was a slight improvement but not much. That however wasn't the main problem.
Once I had the game running there were two bigger problems. One problem was anything that required typing such as searching for players or the new press conferences, as every letter typed registered twice resulting in a babble of letters that I then had to go back through and delete the duplicates.
The second and major problem was that in the twelve days I owned the game it crashed my computer five times. All was fine until it came to a match day in the game and as soon as I tried to submit my team for the match a box flashed up saying parse code error and froze the screen, this meant that I never actually got past my first pre season friendly.
I tried un-installing and re-installing, I tried following the solution on the official SI forums and discovered this was one of many technical faults with the game, but alas it didn't work, so this morning the game went back, i received a refund and I reloaded FM 07 which still runs like a dream.
I may purchase FM 09 again at a later date when the many problems have been sorted out because from the few parts of the game I managed to get to work, it was a lot better than previous games, however when you log onto the game producers official site for the game and find a whole forum dedicated to nothing but solving the bugs in a game it makes you wonder why on earth SI released it in the first place
 No Frills Football Management Game November 29, 2008
Northern Warrior (Swindon, England)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
First thing to note is that I didn't have any problem with install (I guessed correctly that a "0" was "zero" and not "O" for "Oscar"). The licence is short on detail about whether you can also install the game on a second machine (laptop?) or how you recover your licence if the system crashes.
There's a fairly comprehensive manual in addition to tutorial. I've been playing football management games for years and the interface of FM2009 is functional, if not as glitzy as the Fifa series. There's a whole wealth of leagues, players and stats to choose from. Some people head straight for the big Premiership teams but I like to select one of the underdogs from the (old) Fourth Division - usually Darlington - and see how far I can get them. The game seems realistic in this respect as you arrive at a club with a very basic infrastructure, a bunch of players who are either inexperienced or past their best and no money to invest in transfers or new facilities.
Unlike the FIFA games, which task you with everything from designing the stadium to how much you charge for the cornish pasties, FM2009 focuses on the core of actually managing the sport. You can select how much is delegating to the NPC Assistant Manager, most players will probably leave them to deal with the reserve and youth team while focusing on the main squad.
The 3D match view is a new addition to the FM series of games but be warned, even at the fastest speed it takes around 20 - 25 minutes to play through a 90 minute match. This can be a bit frustrating at the start of the season when you want to get the friendly's out the way and get started on the league and cup games proper. The graphics are good, in a late 90's sort of way but not quite in the same league (no pun intended) as some of the earlier Premier Manager titles which used graphics engine from the developer's own football game. There's a text based commentary at the bottom of the screen though this tends to repeat quite frequently and, in another retrograde step compared to the late 90's/erly 00's management games, other than some ambient crowd noise there's no audible commentary. Obviously John Motson was outside the budget of the developer!
I have also experienced the game freeze on going to load the match day, usually (but not always) if you change formation in the tactics screen. Hopefully this is being worked on for a patch. There's already one patch out for the game though it should be noted I had to download this from a dodgy third party file sharing site as SI's own download/support page was returning a 404 error.
In conclusion, I have given FM2009 a mid-range score. It has good potential but let down by a few flaws and bugs. I also have FIFA Manager 2009 on the way for Xmas and I suspect that will be taking over. The DRM also effectively kills any chance of re-selling on the secondhand market.
So...a three star game.
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