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Football Manager 2008 (PC/Mac) | 
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| From: Sega
Category: Video Games
List Price: £34.99
Buy Used: £7.26
You Save: £27.73 (79%)
New (3) Used (10) from £7.26
Rating:  101 reviews
Sales Rank: 986
Platform: Windows Xp
Genre: soccer-games
Rating: Universal, particularly children
Media: Video Game
Operating System: Windows XP
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.4 x 0.6
EAN: 5060138433762
ASIN: B000UX6QAU
Release Date: October 19, 2007
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: DVD Rom World Wide SOCCER Manager 2008 This is the USA Release Version NOT Football Manager !!!!!! No Case ONLY DVD Rom Plus Cover !!!!!!!Please Allow 5-12 Days in Transit !!!!!!
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| Customer Reviews: Read 96 more reviews...
 Match Engine Faults Intollerable November 14, 2008
Paranoid (England (Cambridge))
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is agonizingly close to being a fantastic game, but unfortunately contains enough irritations to make it (for me) unplayable.
Minor annoyances within the game aside, it's the match engine that's at fault. If they could sort out the following, all would be well:
1. The human player is unable to instruct the goalkeeper to distribute the ball to defenders, thus building from the back and retaining possession. Tick boxes exist for this, but they don't work. On the game company's website, pretend experts on message boards advise how to get your keeper to do this, but their advice doesn't work and even if it did it would invalidate most tactical setups (anything without an ultra-deep defensive line). Instead, your keeper will hoof the ball up the other end of the field (in the vague direction of your most inappropriate player to receive such balls), only for it to ping all the way back to your own penalty area for constant reverse-route-one attempts on your goal. Your keeper, allied with unrealistic AI clearances, is thus the opposition's most effective attacker. In FM9, the act of translating the 2D view to 3D evidently brought home, at long last, the unrealism of this to the programmers. While the GK distribution instructions STILL don't work, the reverse-route-one AI attempts at goal have been toned down.
However, in FM8 it will account for 30% - 40% of goals conceded. This wouldn't be quite so annoying if this affected the AI team in the same way. It doesn't. The AI team can build from the back perfectly well.
This amounts to the game cheating. Intentional or not.
2. The effect of team talks and pre-game press releases are wildly overdone. Pick the wrong pre-match teamtalk (no matter how reasonable) and you won't even get out of your own half, no matter what your tactics. You just have to hope you get the half time talk right and the ai manager doesn't.
In FM7 the team talks had an effect but not to the extend that tactics were sometimes rendered redundant. In FM8 you can almost immediately tell if you've chosen the wrong talk; if you have it really isn't worth watching the game, tweaking tactics, anything.
3. The AI team will score the vast majority of their free kicks within ten yards of your penalty area by deflecting the ball off your wall. This will account for another 30-40% of goals conceded. It's almost like awarding them a penalty. Again, no such luxury for the human player. It wouldn't be so bad if I also had a "bounce free kicks off the wall for 30 goals a season" option. Effectively another AI cheat.
4. The AI team has at it's disposal a cheat tactic. The ultra attacking 4-2-4 it uses if required in the closing stages of a game. This will score it the required amount, without fail.
There are extreme measures that can be taken to counter this. You must have a pre-prepared anti-4-2-4 tactic ready and waiting! Watch the match with the opposition's formation visible. The very nanosecond they change to the 4-2-4 cheat tactic, hit pause, go into tactics and institute your counter 4-2-4 ct measures.
Problem: the game can wait for up to 12 minutes of match time before implementing your tactical changes. When do you think it will do that? Yep, when the AI team are running around celebrating the inevitable 4-2-4 cheat tactic goal.
In a previous incarnation of the game (CM3-4) some bright spark came up with a tactic called "Diablo". This human player's tactic destroyed the AI team's tactics. "Cheat", the game purists cried and vilified anyone using it. Strange how SI can programme a cheat tactic into the game to use against the human player, isn't it.
5. For some odd reason, the programmers have deemed goalkeepers congenitally unable to keep hold of the ball, except for the very weakest shots straight at them. The few goals you concede that aren't from AI free kicks bouncing off your wall, reverse route one goals from your own keeper or 4-2-4 cheat tactic goals will mostly be from the ball bouncing, yet again, off your keeper and falling conveniently for an attacker to stroke it into an open goal.
This, though, is one fault where the human player will score as much as the AI. Still annoying, though. This sort a goal happens in real life, but is far too frequent here.
If these things (three of them effectively AI cheats) could be improved it would be a five star game.
As things stand, the match engine is far too annoying to play. A game I can't play is worth nothing.
Buy FM7 - very good. Has faults, many similar to FM8, but not so extreme. Unfortunately, FM8 inherited FM7's match engine faults and multiplied their effect to an intolerable extent.
 Annoying. Too random November 4, 2008
chris widgery (London)
I love this series. Started playing ChampMan in the 90s then followed it through the split and the rechristening. And FM07 was the high water mark of the series. Because FM08 is too annoying.
It's the randomness that gets me. Yes, Hull can end up 3rd in the premier league in real life. Stoke can beat Arsenal in the league and little teams can beat the big ones. But not as often and as randomly as happens here. It's as if the game sometimes decides you're going to lose a match regardless of who you're playing and what you do. It all feels annoying rather than challenging. And it should be the other way round.
Maybe they'll sort it out with FM09, but I've gone back to FM07.
 Football Manager October 25, 2008
Ms. S. M. Shah (Uk)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Before I start this might only apply to someone who would Manage Manchester United. Yes football manager is a good game, but it has its flaws such as:
Arsenal will never lose when you play them e.g. I was winning 3-0 i drew 3-3.
Your transfer budget starts as 10-12 million. (most good palyers are worth that much so you can only buy one decent player).
All your players no matter how bad they are want to play 90 minutes of football a week.
you usually have to bid five million more than someones value to have your offer accepted.
its a 25-75 chance that you will have a good season if its a bad one you'll be fired six months into the season.
Liverpool always produce an amazing display and score impossible goals.
If you get a straight red the fa give you a won match ban but then increase it by two matches.
if you score from outside the area (except freekicks) you are very lucky.
most goals you score from corners are dissaollowed no matter wheather it was a foul or not.
If you criticise the referee even though he was wrong you usually get in trouble any way and sometimes get a sideline ban.
So by all means do buy Fm 2008 but remember its much harder and real life and in real life united will beat liverpool and chelsea.
Don't waste you life with this "RUBBISH" October 17, 2008
Louise Baker (Essex, England)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
First let me say this game cost me 10 pound - I got of lucky if I had paid 30 I would have cried because this game is frustrating, unrealistic and slow drive to madness.
Don't bother with tactics because this makes no difference one game you can win 3-0 away the next you lose 3-0 at home to Derby !
9/10 times goals from corners are disallowed.
You can have 15 shots on target and not score because the goalie is somehow superhuman.
Because the game is so unrealistic and random you can be leading 3-0 against spurs at half time and end up losing 4-3 ?????? How:
1) Well they will score one from 40 yards.
2) Then run through you defence unchallenged you defenders just standing still!
3) Then the best of the lot because it happens all the time the goalie will kick the ball directly to the opposition striker 30 yards away and they will score ???????
4) By the fourth you will be swearing loudly at the computer.
Whatever you do the board wont like you, they more interested in the fact you got knocked out of the league cup than you are in a champion league final.
Takes over 12 hours (so slow) to complete a season by then you won't want to do another because there is no point going through this all again because it's a waste of life. It's the same old drawn out rubbish and building up your squad is boring waste of time makes no difference.
I suggest you buy old version like Championship manager 2 or slightly older version. Because these old school versions are great fun and you can build your squad up with unknown and known players and know that you reap the reward of world class squad!
Or you can stick with this rubbish and each year waste 30-40 pound just because they have updated a few transfer and stats and added some rubbish new features which makes no difference to the game! They are ripping you off........
I say don't bother wasting you money because I won't be anymore :(
football manager loses it. October 14, 2008
Mr. James N. Mccall (Essex,England)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
this came is awful. its far to difficult. Ive played football manager all my life and loved every one until 08. why have they made this one so hard?? whats the point?? i'm not playing it because i'm going to become a professional manager, or want to!! to sum up how terrible this game is and how flawed it is, i won promotion with hoffenheim and then found myself with a lower reputation than before!! its boring losing!
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