Football Manager 2006 Review

Overall Rating

I am sure that many of you have heard of football manager which is developed by SI (Sports Interactive) who previously developed Championship Manager Games, which are legendary PC titles. Those of you who have played the any of the previous annual pc versions of this game, you will be happy to find that this games doesn't abandon those true principals which made this game great.

Football Manager is a football management simulation. The game allows you to be in full control of a football team of your choice, you make the decisions - the club, the players, the tactics, the training. These decisions will either bring your club success or failure, glory or humiliation. In short the future of your club is in your hands. You can start off with any team you want, the number of leagues in this game is truly extraordinary and will almost definitely make sure that your favourite club is included whether its the giants of the game. If you don't like English football, then don't despair as there are leagues available from Italy and Spain, to lesser known footballing nations such as Poland and Japan.

Being club and national manager at the same time is possible. The key lies in how you deal with your 'superstar' footballers, although there is a simulated media in the game, it is not highly responsive. So if you were England manager and decided to pick a 17 year old striker who had never played in the Premiership, then you can get away with it without being criticized.

The key to enjoying this game is to understand its purposes and limitations. A lot of people who have played this game have complained that you can not actually play a game of football yourself. This game attempts to bring you the realities of being a manager of a football team, hence naturally you can't actually control the players themselves, rather you must 'manage' them.

The brilliance of this game lies in the that you can make your management style as complex or as simplistic you want, like I said earlier you are in control. Some like to be pedantic and control every aspect of the game down to individual training regimes. Whereas if you want you can take a very laid back approach, allow coaches do the hard work and then sit back and see what results your team produces.

Visually the main screen from which you control each aspect of the game may be a bit daunting if you haven't played the pc game, but you will soon adapt and will regard the depth of information as essential and part of the real game environment. The user interface in general is a step up from the pc version.

Every year improvements are made to the game and this version contains many new features which are designed to make the game even more realistic than it already is. There is increased media interaction, man management of the players is increased and for the first time you can actually have a half time team talk. So if you team is losing at half time you can either do a rousing Winston Churchill speech or give your players the Alex Ferguson style hairdryer treatment! There is just so much detail in the game that it will leave hooked for months. The beauty of the game is that the challenges never seem to end. Even if you have won the title for the last 3 seasons, there is always a challenge to maintain the hunger in your players or control there ego, then there is injuries, players retire or pass their peak, it is a continual evolution.

This game isn't for everyone, at the beginning it used to be a very niche market but slowly as the game has developed millions of have found this game enjoyable. Nevertheless there are gamers who want instant action, thrills and spills or have no interest in football then they may find this game rather boring.

For many this will be an excellent release and a highly addictive one. For a footie fan this is a must, no other management game is this realistic or has the level of detail as Football Manager. For the summer period when there is no football around, this is a perfect alternative.