Some people think Football Manager is a matter of life and death. I can assure them it's much more serious than that...
It's crack on a screen.
It takes over your life.
Football Manager '08 is the third installment on the PSP and yet again shifts the bar that little bit higher. The original was good. '07 was deeper and prettier and '08 chucks on some more depth (in the guise of reserve squads, more manageable teams, a better International Job market, the chance to speak to your players etc) which still managing to squeeze it onto that tiny UMD AND make it instantly playable and recognisable on screen. No mean feat.
Of course there has to be sacrifices - the pretty kits and player pictures are of course gone. The chance to check up the stats of other managers is gone - they're mere names...Pawns if you will in this world of football. Again, the 2D pitch is absent - again PSP players can enjoy the thrill and nerve-shredding text commentary BUT it does take the funky new layout of the PC incarnation - the white and grey on blue - the coloured arrows for form, the different colours for positions, the easy to see colour layout of where best a player will perform.
The intelligence of the "world around you" has also been intensified and improved a little, with players asking for transfers, managers acting more realistically and teams slumping before dragging themselves into a second-half-of-the-season revival.
Still, it's always hard to describe Footy Manager games generally as "more of the same with updated squads, a redesigned display and a few more useful additions" and this is ultimately what you have with '08. Still, it was enough to get me to bite, and having previously played '07 on the PSP to death (Gillingham as Premiership Champs and kings of Europe - oh yes!) I've noticed a step up this season - it's just kinda "hard" to pinpoint why exactly. Perhaps it is everything I spoke about earlier, or perhaps it's just that there's no better way to spent a 15 minute bus journey than organising your squad for an away trip to Doncaster in the first round of the FA Cup.
If you have '07 and are using the argument (that I've always used until this season) "I buy Footy Manager every other year cos I can put up with a game one season out of date) then this is the year to change all that.
Year on year this game improves on the PSP as the developers get to know the processing limits of the console more and more.
Of course it's not in the same league as it's PC counterpart BUT there's no way I can drag my desktop PC into the car or onto a bus.
This is top notch portable management gaming and Championship Manager has a LOT to try to follow.