Football Manager 2009 Release Date Announced

The Football Manager series is the best, most realistic soccer simulation game out there, bar none. It satisifies the itch you can't even begin to scratch by playing games like FIFA and Pro Evolution Soccer, which don't delve deep enough into off-field matters and what it's really like to build and lead a team.

In FM, actual game play is important, but it's more about what you do before and after the matches themselves. You can buy and sell players. You can hire staff members. You can create custom practice schedules. You answer questions in press conferences. Essentially anything that a real-life soccer manager does, you do in this game. The best part? Pretty much any team you can think of in real life is available to manage and the depth and accuracy of the player ratings and skillsets is unbelievable.

This season's edition will be coming out for PC on November 14, and I can't wait. You have no idea how many hours I've spent playing these games over the years -- probably far too many, but this game is so addictive that it's just hard to quit. Once you get into it, you're going to find yourself saying, "One more day, just one more day, one more day and I'll save it, one more day", then finally save after a month on the game calendar.

I encourage you strongly to pick up a copy when it comes out, which you can do by going to the official website (http://www.footballmanager.com/) and downloading it right there, or by going to that site and following the links to pre-order it through amazon.co.uk. It's not going to be cheap, but it's worth the price -- about $60 here in the US. While you're there, check out the game features and screenshots, and watch a couple videos about the product. There's a community forum there too, where you can connect with other fans of the series across the world and just shoot the breeze about whatever you want.

November 14 -- remember that date. Football Manager '09, a can't miss item for fans of the beautiful game.

Football Manager 2008

Frustrated by Rafa's rotation policy at Liverpool and think the Reds should be better? Angry that Valencia is falling apart as we speak under Ronald Koeman? Think you could lead Manchester United to another treble? Then Football Manager 2008 is the game for you.

I know this game has been out for a while here in the US but I haven't seen any "reviews" for it on soccer blogs or websites around the internet, so I wanted to put something out there for those of you who may be interested.

This isn't your typical soccer video game like EA Sports' FIFA series or Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer. In FM 2008 you don't actually play the game on the field; rather, you take complete control of nearly any club or national team in the world as their manager. You can buy, loan, and sell players, schedule friendlies, set up your team and player tactics in nauseating detail; in short, anything a manager is responsible for in real life you become responsible for as well.

If you want to look at all the nifty features and whatnot, I encourage you to go to the game's official website at http://fm08.footballmanager.net/en/article/100/index.html. I'm not going to go into specifics here other than what I've already covered but suffice it to say that this game is worth the money. You can also download a free demo if you want to get a feel for what FM 2008 is like and then decide whether or not to buy the full game.

I definitely recommend this game to anyone interested in soccer. As I said, it's not the typical video game but that's what drew me to this series in the first place. This "review" doesn't do it justice in the least and so if you're intrigued, check out the website for yourself. In fairness, the game did have a few bugs and kinks to be worked out but several patches have been released that should have addressed and corrected those errors.