If you have any respect for your PC then do NOT install this garbage onto it.
Oh man, do I regret it now!
At first glance it’s not too different from FM07, everything’s set out in roughly the same way. Spend a little time perusing the menus - setting up training, tactics, team selection and checking whatever information you want to check and you’ll find there’s not much difference between the two games.
That is, of course, until you go to play a match. The match engine in this game has to be THE worst I have ever had the misfortune to experience (and I've been playing football management games since the ZX Sinclair Spectrum was around in the 1980s!). 'Players’ who are no more than 3 yards from the ball with no-one else near them will turn and run in the OPPOSITE direction, defenders will regularly punt the ball behind for corners despite no opposition player being in their half and, on a couple of occasions, I’ve watched in disbelief as my striker, on the edge of the opposition penalty area, played a back-pass that slowly trickled out FOR A CORNER TO THE OTHER TEAM!?!?!?
If the programmers and Q&A/testers think this is a realistic portrayal of football, then none of them have seen a real life match in their lives! The game highlights are so bad that if you were watching a real life under-10s match being played in the same way; you’d slap the kids and tell them to sort themselves out. It really is that bad.
The match engine isn’t the only bad thing about this game. CPU results tend to be a bit on the stupid side, as high profile teams (Chelsea, Liverpool, Barcelona, Real Madrid, etc) will regularly get hammered by lower teams (FA Cup 3rd Round – Arsenal 0 Wrexham 7 ?!?!?) and transfers seem to be totally random. Players will regularly switch to their team’s fiercest rivals or move to clubs much much lower in status than their current side (one transfer I remember was Cristiano Ronaldo of Man. United being sold to an Italian Serie B team for £15,000 – realism or what!!!!).
The game is also waaaaaaaay too easy to play. I managed to force myself through an entire season playing as Harrogate Town in the Conference North division (6th tier down in the English League). I won the divisional title, winning EVERY league game on the way, the FA Trophy and also got to the semi-finals of the FA Cup beating Liverpool and Chelsea on the way. This game just reeks of realism!!!
I played this game for about a week and the ONLY enjoyment I got from it was when I ‘frisbeed’ the game disc against the wall and watched it disintegrate into a couple of dozen pieces. Do NOT buy this game! Do NOT download it illegally and waste a blank CD/DVD on it. Do NOT download it even if it becomes freeware. In fact, if the C.E.O. of Eidos Interactive comes around to your house and offers to PAY YOU to play the game – give him a slap, laugh at him then slam the door in his face. This game sucks BIG TIME!
PROS: - erm…. need a moment here….. er…… um…. well, you don’t HAVE to play it and er…. let’s see…… um…... erm…. nope sorry. That’s all I’ve got.
CONS: - Match engine is horrendous. CPU results are unrealistic, transfers are just stupid at times, way too easy to win, wastes space on your hard drive, you have to buy it to play it, it robs you of your precious time when you could be doing something more fun like sitting around doing absolutely NOTHING and it will probably cost you a few pence/cents in electricity while playing.
In case you haven’t guessed yet, I do NOT recommend this game to anyone. I’d rather have the skin peeled from my body then be forced to play this garbage again!