Worldwide Soccer Manager 2009

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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]

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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]

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]

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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]