It's a game of two halves (Football Manager 2009 (PC))

Member Name: bertles86

Product:	Football Manager 2009 (PC)
Date:	10/08/09 (15 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Online gameplay, resource light, low price

Disadvantages: Limited graphically

*Gameplay*

A cross between the old Championship Manager series and online Fantasy Premier League, Football Manager gives you the chance to build your own team from scratch in an online league using real players from a global pool of talent. You play on a chosen server which sets the specific rules for your league, examples or rules are for all clubs in that league there is only one Lionel Messi to be bought, and all games played between different users online occur only in the evening after 7pm. These are just examples, but you get the drift. To acquire a new player, the current owners club must put them up for transfer, at which point a wage auction takes place and all interested clubs must offer suitable wages for the players demands.

*Interface*

Very much like the final Championship Manager series with the moving dots on screen to replicate the live match and players running about, with all your stats and managerial information surrounding the virtual pitch during a match. This is very simple to understand and use. A significant point to note is that the developers are constantly bringing out patches on Steam (the application you use to play FM) which automatically update the interface, with rumours of a 3D match engine coming soon, so you can literally "watch" your match in game.

*Requirements*

FM09 Live only takes a 1.4GHz CPU and 128mb 5x Series GFX card to run, which these days is very minimal. The space it takes up is also very little, as it is very limited graphically, however take note that if a 3D engine patch does appear, then in the future the space required on your hard disk may well increase.

*Conclusion*

Overall FM09 is an excellent football game, definitely in the ilk of Champ Man which sets the bar for this genre without a doubt. It is definitely designed for online gameplay, and I recommend doing so through Steam which is so simplistic you cannot imagine. The best way to describe Steam is iTunes for PC games, you search for what you want, pay, download it and play straight away.

Enjoy the game!

Summary: A great continuation of the Champ Man series online