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Football Manager 2009

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8.4 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 29 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 25 votes
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Game Info

Publisher: Sega

Developer: Sports Interactive

Genre(s): Sports Management Simulation

Players: 1

ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)

Release Date: November 14, 2008

Summary

(Also known as "Worldwide Soccer Manager 2009") 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. The famous Football Manager match engine can now be viewed in full 3D with motion captured animations the players. 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. The old 2d view of the match engine is still there, especially for those people whose computers aren’t powerful enough to take advantage of the 3d views. 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. [Sega]

Also On Metacritic

GAMES: Championship Manager 4 Football Manager 2005 Football Manager 2006 Football Manager 2007 Football Manager 2008

Also On The Web: Official Website

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

MEGamers

Another FM for the ages. Every football fan out there should go out and grab a copy of this game now.

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Play.tm

If football management is your thing and you have a whole load of free time, you don't really need to look further than the new Football Manager.

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IGN UK

Though FM09’s 3D match engine is Sports Interactive’s one real attempt at breaking from its comfort zone this time around, it’s also this latest iterations biggest disappointment. We can certainly see the potential of Sports Interactive’s newfound interest in 3D and we hope it all comes together more gracefully in FM2010. In the meantime though, its relative failure doesn’t detract from the fact that FM09 is still easily the most in-depth, enjoyable and addictive way to pretend you manage a football team.

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Pelit (Finland)

Football Manager 2009 gets the series back into right track after last year’s downfall. The best football manager out there. [Jan 2009]

Play (Poland)

This team still knows how to make the best coach simulator in the world. After hours they started to study the 3D graphics. So far their progress has been modest, but that's beside the point - what's much more important are the substantial improvements to the game making it more accessible. [Feb 2009]

PC Zone UK

Even without the 3D engine, Football Manager 2009 is still fully deserving of its classic rating, providing a staggeringly comprehensive simulation of the complex world of management. We predict a few patches before the match engine is fully functioning, but even in its current state, it tangibly enhances the experience.

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Meristation

Sports Interactive created the greatest football manager yet. Huge, with an incredible number of leagues from all around the world, complex but also really intuitive, and with the added feature of 3D matches where we can watch our team in real time. Just a couple of technical issues keep the game away from being nearly perfect.

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VideoGamer

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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Total Video Games

Sports Interactive has built a better 3D match engine in FM 2009 than can be found in any other game of its type and by quite a margin.

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DarkZero

Football Manager 09 is the most complete football experience you’re likely to find for a good while, at least until 2010 comes out.

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AceGamez

If you're new to the series then Football Manager 2009 is definitely the edition to go for, as the guidance from the wizards and the profusion of tip boxes will help you like never before.

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PC Format

The 3D engine is hardly a revolution, but once the community get working the visuals will match the incredible simulation. [Jan 2009, p.96]

Games Master UK

Not the massive leap forward that was hoped for, although there's potential for improvement. [Jan 2009, p.78]

Gamers.at

Ruling virtual football reality still is a lonely job – no LAN, no online-play. [Issue#17]

Thunderbolt

Once the excitement of the 3-D match engine dies down, and it will, the reality that you’re playing the exact same game that you played two years ago, albeit at a slower pace, ruins the experience. As stated in last years review, Si Games have rarely deviated from the successful formula, and if it ain’t broke then by all means don’t fix it, but Football Manager needs rejuvenating as well as a rocket up its backside.

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PC PowerPlay

All in all, this version is the quintessentuial FM experience. Aside from a few very unfortunate bugs, this is the most complete FM game to date. It's a no brains purchase for any fan of the series, and maybe even for one or two people yet to take the plunge. [January 2009, p.58]

Eurogamer

A mixture of good and bad. On one hand it's the finest, most complete and visually fulfilling game the series has ever enjoyed, but on the other it contains so many niggles you'll feel irritated almost as often as you feel elated. The good news is that a patch has been promised soon after release, but in the meantime we have no choice but to mark it down accordingly.

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Gamer.nl

If you want a taste of the real deal, Football Manager 2009 offers a great alternative. The improved graphics aren't all that, but all the other extras are undoubtatly a big plus for the series. And considering that the extras are build on a more than solid base the only conclusion you can make is that Football Manager is, again, the best in i's genre. Even the little flaws can't prevent that from happening.

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PTGamers

Once again, Football Manager raises the bar and ends up as the undisputed champion of its genre, mainly due to the gigantic and regularly updated database.

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Boomtown

Certainly better than last year's, so it’ll definitely last until next year, possibly longer.

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Level7.nu

The 2009 edition of Football Manager is yet another solid title in the series. Having to interface with mass media is a welcome addition, as is the new streamlined interface, improved playability and the new 3D engine for match presentations. Even though all these additions are welcome they are also in need of some extra levels of polish, but put these flaws aside and you've got a great footy manager title.

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LEVEL (Czech Republic)

The best of football managers has no problem to stay on its throne. A little bit of innovation and new rosters were enough to make it the best in this specific category of games. [Dec 2008]

Eurogamer Portugal

Football Manager 2009 gets to us with some improvements which grant qualities to this series although not everything is perfect especially in its new 3D engine. This engine embodies some flaws but it’s welcome anyway because it shows Sports Interactive tries to introduce new developments in a style that has not much space to evolve. FM2009 is the highest exponent in this genre and it manages to surpass its previous version as well as it raises the goals to achieve to its more direct adversaries.

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Total PC Gaming

Three points for Sports Interactive, with its rivals still nowhere in sight. [Issue#15, p.66]

GameSpot

Football Manager 2009 may not be a beautiful game, but it's still compelling in the extreme.

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IGN

WWSM 2009's big feature, the 3D match engine, is underwhelming, and the barrier of entry for new players might be too steep for some. However, the addition of the assistant manager, a new match time bar that lets you watch any part of a match, a refined transfer system, and an improved UI combine to make Worldwide Soccer Manager 2009 a very good game, one that's likely to please fans of the series.

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games(TM)

What’s the eventual goal here – watching an entire 90 minutes from the dugout? Clearly, a compromise must be struck, somewhere along the line. [Jan 2009, p.124]

D+PAD Magazine

Sadly, the biggest advancement of Football Manager 2009 - the 3D match engine - is also the most underwhelming. Without eye-massaging graphical capabilities, it's hard to see why any FM veteran would choose the 3D option, relegating the much-hyped addition to an intriguing novelty, yet a novelty which will surely be slowly improved upon year after year.

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PC Gamer UK

Soccer sim solidly cluttered. [Christmas 2008, p.78]

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this game is 8.4 (out of 10) based on 25 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Ian F gave it a3:
The engine is crap on the new patch 3.1 its harder and slower to play the teamtalk on the players is awful the players wont listen to me they dont respond for the fans i played in the premer league with some very good players most british and i had to resign because i kept losing i played lots of formations it did not work i feel cheated by the game makers and i feel angry + selling players is awful no ones buys you dont want + contracts players new and sign dont mean any thing.

Kriiis!! gave it a9:
Yet another brilliant game from the football manager production team. From the accuracy of the player stats to the thrill of leading your team to glory, this game will have you hooked. SI have done a great job on fixing the bugs with each and every update. The 3D match engine takes a while to get used to, but when you do it's in a league of it's own. And if you don't like the 3D, you can always swith it back to normal 2D mode. Obviously it would seem that alot of people reviewed this and gave it small scores by only playing the demo version. Well, play it again and update to the current patch. Well worth the money. As a fan of all managerial games i salute SI. Well done on producing on such a great game and by setting a landmark for other games to follow.

Kapoios A gave it a1:
Its a good game indeed but its designing sucks! I mean they don't care for the performance of the game you can only play a league and wait ten hours to load (the league' stuff and so). They should be looking to improve the game in terms of code. Also i would like to add that they've fucked up with the morale and stuff. It's just a waste of time to play such a game! Better play an old manager with new database.

Inderjit S gave it a1:
Another awful football managing game. There has not been a good managing game since Championship Manager 01/02 on the PC, which I still play, using patches from champman0102.co.uk. I always hope that Sports Interactive or Eidos will come close to, or surpass Championship Manager 01/02. CM 01/02's tactical grid, for positioning of players with, and without the ball, gives you a lot more precision in where you want your players to be. The individual instructions are much more precise about the players role on CM 01/02. On Football Manager 2009, all you can do is make the team less or more wider in the system they are playing. I know exactly how I want my team to play, I spend hours and hours perfecting my tactics on the grid on CM 01/02. On this game I spent 90 minutes at a time, changing everything possible, to try to get the team to play as i wanted them, but was unsucessful. The purist football managment sim gamers are still playing Championship Manager 01/02. I await a successor.

Eugene T. gave it a9:
A long time user of the Football Manager, back to the Championship Managers. I've enjoyed every addition each year and the 3D match engine is simply the best thing they could ever do. I don't particularly enjoy dealing with the press, but I suppose some people will. I do attend for the big games, and surely there wouldn't be a press conference for each game? Nonetheless, the game is truly amazing. The coach reports, the scouting, the players attitude, the training, the "being able to ask a player to work on specific things". Is all fantanastic. It just adds to the game. I asked striker to try hang between defenders to wait for a ball and then run, and soon enough he is doing it. It's so nice to play and it's fantastic to see the game unfold in 3D. I was going to give this a mark of 8/10 simply because the 3D match engine isn't perfect... yet. And simply because of the annoying press and constant pregame press conferences. But I ended up giving it a 9/10 simply because there are more new features and there are more good new features than bad ones. I can only hope that the bad new ideas can be ironed out with patches.

Chris gave it a10:
by far the best of the series once you get it installed (although i had no problems) and patched, te 3d engine is a great addition, aswell as the improvements to the transfer system and intro of assistant manager feedback.

Sean Daniel Brett gave it a9:
Brillant game despite a few early bugs which will get ironed out quickly. 3-D match engine is great but requires a good PC to make full use of it. Good work SI !

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Football Manager 2009

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