After a long, long wait, we all received something last week that was anticipated, certainly represented change, contained a little bit of the unknown, and yet we still need a bit of time to digest where it’s headed in the future. No, I’m not talking about the presidential election; I’m referring to the return of the Football Manager (known in North America as Worldwide Soccer Manager) series, and the release of the FM 2009 demo.

For those not familiar with the series, Football Manager (and its predecessor, Championship Manager) is a text-heavy simulation game developed by Sports Interactive. The main focus of the game is to put together, manage, scout and coach a squad to football glory. The beauty of FM is that it is similar to a game like The Sims or Sim City in that there are no real endings or linear paths/goals to achieve. Where you want to go, who you want to coach, what you want to achieve, these things are up to you, the user. So if you’re content to dabble in Major League Soccer in America or suffer with some lower league management (which is an entire article in itself) or go for it all with one of the top teams of Europe, the choice is all yours.

To many sports simulation fans and plain, old football fans, FM represents the pinnacle of the genre. Containing unmatched depth and a staggering amount of detail, FM is most notably known for its sickly ability to suck you in worse than the best MMORPGs. And I mean that. The darn game even has an addictiveness rating that shows you how much time you’ve sunk (or wasted, depending on your viewpoint) on this game. I’m probably going to regret sharing this, but with FM 08, I admit to cracking approximately 29 days of gameplay, amounting to about 700 hours total. Embarrassingly enough, this amounted to enough time to get me to the year 2012. Yes, it’s really that bad. And I’m pretty sure that there are many, many players that beat that amount by a ton.

But with the earned devotion of millions worldwide, it’s no surprise that the FM community is simultaneously the loyalist and among the most critical fan bases. If there’s something wrong with the game, the fans will flood the message boards or take to the YouTubes in defiance. But that fanatical pressure is really what enables SI to constantly improve the game. This is especially significant when you consider that since its initial release in 1992, the series has had a pretty stable and static gameplay mechanic, where you basically manage a football club. But thanks to the rabid devotion from the fans, the SI team always does its best to improve upon the previous game, and SI continues to never rest on its laurels. This is especially notable because we live in an era of laziness and have been prone to games that quite frankly amount to nothing but roster updates -- although I’ll concede that many believe that this is also the case with FM.

And as I’ll explain, this year marks a definite evolution (maybe even revolution) for the direction of this series.

The Change We Seek?

Since the beginning, CM/FM has long relied mainly on text descriptions to tell users the action happening on the pitch. As the years went by, FM has largely stayed with this tradition, and even in 2009 there are many who still prefer this method when following the action. That being said, the series underwent a somewhat dramatic evolution in the gameplay department with FM 05, because for the first time SI offered a 2-D match-viewing mode and engine. This controversial change was suspiciously viewed at first. Many devotees were worried about how it would alter the underlying engine beneath the exterior. But after many years of improvements, the 2-D engine did much to bridge that gap between simple words and on-the-pitch action. It truly shifted how FM players viewed and enjoyed matches, and gave the previously text-heavy game a much-needed graphical element. Personally, I thought it was great to watch those little orbs bounce around the screen, using your imagination to fill in the gaps. It added an air of uniqueness because gamers had to use their imagination when envisioning how their teams played.

But times do change, and presently with FM 09 we have reached another evolutionary rung on the ladder: SI is attempting to once again evolve the way we view matches. So what is this noteworthy change? You guessed it, the inclusion of a 3-D viewing mode.

Although the 3-D match engine is indeed a big step for the series, that’s definitely not the only new feature SI has cooked up this year. Some of the other new features include updated rosters/competitions, an improvement to the assistant manager feedback, stadium renovation, transfer system, club finance, media/manager relationship, board confidence portions of the game, and the ability to play as a female manager -- of course, there are tons more yet to be found. In fact, finding those subtle new features is definitely one of the best parts of enjoying a new FM game. For example, I can’t forget the first time I saw my club’s new stadium named in my honor; because sometimes it is the undocumented surprises that often mean the most.

But so far, I’ve only explained what new features FM 09 has offered. In other words (and pardon me for the cliché), SI has talked the talk, but more importantly, does the game walk the walk…

Pretty Good...

As I explained earlier, FM 09 does certainly boast a mighty multitude of new features this year; chief among them is the new 3-D match engine. Unfortunately, my laptop does not contain the needed juice to power the new engine, and I know I’m not alone in that regard. Although it’s a disappointment, mainly because I am simply unable to give you a frank opinion on it, I recommend reading some of the talk on the SI forums for impressions on the 3-D engine. But at this time I presume that this switch to a 3-D match engine will undergo a similar path as the 2-D engine. By that I mean that the 3-D engine may seem somewhat clunky and imperfect right now, but by FM 2010 and beyond, the switch will indeed bear some great football fruit. I feel that we just need to give it some time, and I think that SI realizes this as well.

Fortunately, I was able to play through the rest of the game (the demo limits you to only six months of in-game play) and one key theme that quickly emerges is that although FM plays infinitely familiar, many of the new features are specifically employed to help new FM players; there is also a lot more streamlined information. And in a game with as much depth as FM, you’ll need all the help you can get.

To begin with, the overall feel and graphical UI is at once familiar, intuitive and in some ways improved and streamlined. For those who have played FM for years, you will feel right at home. And for newcomers, SI has done an admirable job of making the process of learning how to play FM an easier task than before. SI should really be commended for possessing perhaps the best UI I’ve experienced in the genre and perhaps in almost all of gaming. The default UI does a great job of providing direct links to all the information you would ever need. My favorite aspect is simply the humongous amount of hyperlinking at work. By that I mean no words are wasted. Click on almost anything on a screen and it will bring you directly to a page focused on that word. And this process is seen everywhere within the game. On transfer rumor pages, game recaps, stats pages -- just anywhere you can imagine. And overall, this effect just leads to a greatly cohesive user experience. You’re not fumbling around looking for information; it’s all neatly and intelligently presented, and that makes all the difference in the world in a text-heavy game such as this. I sincerely believe that it’s a formula that other games (especially in the genre) should adopt or "borrow."

The meat of the game plays pretty solidly as well, but there are a few issues. In fact this should not be a huge surprise. One of the most notorious problems with the CM/FM series has been the bugs and game-engine issues within various versions of the game. To me this is akin to what we see in the overall development of a Microsoft OS. FM just doesn’t really play up to its potential until a couple of patches have been implemented. And when that version just gets to play just right, the next year’s version is right around the corner. With the FM 09 demo, one particular issue that has arisen has been the preponderance of injuries present. It definitely seems that a large portion of my club has randomly turned into a bunch of Louis Saha sick notes. Did they all call you Mr. Glass? Despite this problem, I fully expect it to be ironed out with the full release of the game.

Importantly, the main 2-D match engine has seen some improvements via the inclusion of the 3-D engine combined with the massive amount of testing completed by users of Football Manager Live. The overall game just flows more realistically, and the seemingly robotic nature of players has all but disappeared. Also, the new TV mode definitely makes the most out of utilizing the newly implemented widescreen monitor support. The teeming amount of possible on-screen information is more than enough for any wannabe manager. Not everything is positive, however, because I will say that the game does seem to run a bit more choppily than its predecessors, though, that may just be attributable to my 3-year-old Toshiba laptop. Damn piece of junk.

Another new and useful feature is the inclusion of more assistant manager feedback analysis. This option appears during the match and enables you to get some instant opinions on your team as you play through the game. Your assistant manager will dispense some key advice in the areas of squad cohesion, team statistics, overall player performance and provide much needed tactical advice to stifle the opposition. I sincerely believe that this feature in particular is seemingly small but terribly important. Quite simply, it does a great job of distilling a lot of formerly varied details by transparently providing the user with tons of useful information in one place.

SI has also done a commendable job of attempting to improve the off-the-pitch elements of the game, particularly when it comes to dealing with the media. In previous games there were some elements of the press present, but its inclusion was much more based on a player’s initiative to utilize it. But now with FM 09, managers are confronted with a press conference during the pregame and postgame, and the answers deal with all portions on a manger’s plate. Some questions may deal with transfer rumors, some are focused on your immediate opposition, while others concern your long-term agenda as a manager. Whether this is mostly a cosmetic feature or not is definitely up for debate, but it’s definitely a fun way to give your FM avatar a greater and more unique personality. So whether you want to be the next Fergie, Mourinho, or Joe Kinnear, again, it’s really all up to you.

There are other new features, like the improvements to the overall transfer system (although it does seem a bit easier to sell players now), long-term finances and player generation, but I’m afraid that six months (in-game time) is really not long enough to give a thorough impression of those. But there did not seem to be anything hilariously wrong, at least not during my experience.

…But Still Too Early To Tell

To sum things up, I’m pretty happy with the demo. I apologize again for not being able to experience the 3-D match mode, and I hope that you are able to receive impressions on that elsewhere; I know it’s an important cog in this year’s game. And there’s no question that this FM 09 potentially marks a revolutionary step in the direction of ingenuity and progress. There's little doubt in my mind that the promise planted this year will pay dividends for years to come. And overall, I can’t help but feel excited for another year of Football Manager, but it still remains to be seen from the demo whether the veterans will notice a genuine improvement in the series. We still need to wait until the full game is released before I can pass judgment on that.

But most importantly, with the amount of streamlined information, great advice and help available to players in every portion of the game, there may be no better time for new players to jump in, download the demo, and try the game out. The game may seem a bit intimidating at first, but the payoff is glorious. You’ll be introduced to a world of sports and intrigue that completely envelops anything encountered in North American professional sports. Just try not to get addicted, or you might become a muppet like me.