Football Mogul 2009 Preview

[RaychelSnr]

Football Mogul 2009 is slated for release later on this week. Check out Ben Lewis' detailed hands-on impressions of the game and see what the new version is offering!

Quote:

"Sports Mogul is scheduled to release the latest version of the much-maligned Football Mogul series at the end of this week, and we here at Operation Sports bring you the first detailed look of the game on the Internet. The new feature list for FM09 is small, since the team is more worried about fixing existing issues; and having seen some of the prior versions, that's likely a good thing. Here’s the feature set, according to the Sports Mogul Web site. The bolded features at the bottom are listed as “new features.”

[Ben E Lou]

A demo is now available at the Sports Mogul web site, and they've updated the new feature list:


New Features

* New strategic options
o Set your team to run a '3-4' or '4-3' defense
o Adjust the run/pass balance of your offense
o Fine tune your game plan by customing your playbook

* Detailed playbook editor
o Easy interface lets you quickly edit existing plays or build a playbook from scratch
o Editable folder names and play names
o Load and save playbooks for use against different opponents, or to share online
o Playbook tracks the success of each play in a variety of offensive and defensive situations
o You can even redesign plays in the middle of a game

* Improved artificial intelligence
o Improved roster management
o Improved play-calling that adjusts to your player talent and coaching tendencies
o Improved talent assessment and draft strategy
o New Hall Of Fame voting algorithm

* More realistic simulation
o Improved passing and running game, with more accurate weather adjustments
o New rookie creation and aging engine
o Correct playoff seeding (and re-seeding) according to NFL rules

* Many improvements and optimizations
o 60% faster simulation speed
o Much faster Trading Block feature
o Play-by-play and game recap bugs fixed

* Improved statistical accuracy and depth
o Single-game records constantly updated for 30 different statistical categories
o Sacks correctly counted as negative 'Passing Yards' in team game stats
o Can now create Football Mogul Encyclopedia in mid-season

* Hotseat play
o Two players can compete head-to-head using the same computer
o Keyboard shortcuts for in-game playcalling (so you don't have to fight over the mouse)

* Improved custom league support
o Schedule generation for shorter seasons (as few as 4 games)
o Schedule generation for custom league configuration -- even for an odd number of teams
o Fantasy drafts with more than one human-controlled team
o "Import Playbooks" feature lets you quickly load playbooks designed by each team's owner