Below I will keep updated all the facts/improvements we should expect to receive with Football Manager 2009, when the game is released. All these details about FM09 are from official sources and official website, so you can be sure they are all correct. So, without further ado, let's see what will FM2009 bring us anew:
3D Match Engine – This year’s match engine has seen more testing than ever before having been extensively beta tested in Football Manager Live for the past year. It is undoubtedly the most important change brought to FM games in recent times. The Football Manager matches can now be viewed in full 3D with motion captured animations. Sports Interactive has been working on the 3D match engine with the support of SEGA Japan’s football development team who provided the motion capture data and some of the animations. You can now watch your matches in 3D from multiple camera angles and re-watch any part of the match by fast forwarding and rewinding the action using a new match time bar that flags the key moments in the game.
TV View – Watch your matches in new full screen TV view and customise your match day screen with widgets to view the information you need as a football manager, be it player performance, match action zones, pitch radar, latest scores and many more.
Assistant Manager Feedback – Pre-match and in-match feedback from your Assistant Manager on how the team is performing and your player’s motivation levels, as well as hints on how your tactics are working and how you could outwit the opposition’s tactics.
Improved Media – SI have worked hard to reflect the greater impact the media has been having in recent years on the world of football, in the in-game dealings with the press. The game now features more news stories, more detail and greater media interaction than ever before, creating an even more realistic simulation of the football world.
Press Conferences – Attend pre-match and post-match press conferences with local and national journalists and build up relationships with them over time, but choose your answers carefully because they could come back to haunt you in the media at a later date.
Transfer System – Completely new and re-written transfer system code, providing an even more realistic simulation of real-life football transfers.
Transfer Rumours – View the latest news on what players are being speculated on, and who’s said to be interested in securing their services. This time rumors are stronger and have solid backup. Or not.
Board Confidence – Following on from its addition in Football Manager 2008, board confidence has been expanded and improved. In addition, the board will now also offer feedback to you on your squad harmony and the club’s stature in the football world.
Preferred Moves – Train your players to learn ‘preferred moves’ to add to their game. For example, train central defenders not to dive into tackles, or wingers to do stepovers before crossing the ball.
Female Manager – For the very first time you can now play as a female manager. All of the text in the game now also has a female gender so the game represents female managers and staff in the game in the correct gender.
Realistic Finances – SI have listened to feedback from all of their researchers to try and model every single financial area of the game correctly for each country, including transfers, staff wages, budgets, ticket prices, season tickets, competition bonuses and club sponsorships.
Updated Competitions – Fully updated for the new 2008/09 football season with all the latest league, club and player data, featuring over 5,000 playable clubs from over 50 countries, and around 350,000 players and staff from around the world, drawn fresh from the famous Sports Interactive database.
Widescreen Support – As a result of usability testing on Football Manager 2008, this year sees widescreen support for the game for the first time, as well as lots of tweaks to the user interface for easier navigation.
For now these are the only new features announced for Football Manager 2009. Check this page regularly for more news, as I will post them as soon as they are told by official staff. FM09 will clearly rock!
Although we don't exactly know until now how the game will really look like, we do have a bunch of screenshots released, presenting us a few "work in progress" images of the 3D match engine we'll get in FM 09. In case you haven't seen them yet, here they are, at their full beauty. Just remember to click on each image in order to enlarge it.
