Football Manager 2009 match engine to be 3D this year!

[Raven]

Yes we now will have 3D players on the pitch instead of colored dots!

Before anyone has a fit the "old style" dotty match engine will still be optional apparently....which is great news.

Personally I am excited about this because FM is the only management game where the match engine exhibits proper football games so to speak and not pinball machine play with random goals unlike every other management sim out there!

Now here is the thing, I trust SI (the developers Sports Interactive) because they haven't made any mistakes yet and they seem to go from strength to strength...and the last time they did anything like this it has been a huge success and ground breaking stuff since they really nailed what they no doubt set out to achieve. And if the new engine is basically the same but with 3D players instead of colored dots then all will be great. That is what I am hoping and suspecting. I have a funny feeling though knowing SI they will probably add subtle things not tellable from photographs such as for example animations when running, dribbling or kicking the ball. That would be ace!

On the other hand it could be nothing more than a tacked on gimmick, I hope not and i also doubt it! I would be disappointed and genuinely surprised if this turned out to be the case.

So SI continue to innovate! Kudos to that talented lot.

[hrooo2002]

A new 3D match engine....
hopefully my laptop will be still ok for playing this game

[marx100]

Cant wait for this. Hopefully they sort out the transfer system and I can actually sell my players at more than a third of their value.

[Raven]

The best thing to do is to try not to think of FM in the same light as other management games...in FM try to think on it similar to reality as in if your player is transfer listed and not playing (and/or not playing very well) you won't get proper value bids for that player, conversely if your player is in the team and playing well and is transfer listed (or not) and you want to sell you tend to get something like bids matching player value....although the best way to make a profit on a player (like real life) is to take the above into consideration and try to get a player bidding war going on between clubs....this would work alot better if the player is not transfer listed.
How effective this strategy is in FM over previous versions I am not sure of (way back I once got ?30 million for Mark Viduka by selling him to Barcelona when he was only worth ?12 million - I was going to take ?15 mil but decided to play Barca and Real Madrid off each other and ended up with twice as much dosh)!

One thing which I do think is not as good in last years version as opposed to previous versions is the youth player progress, no matter what it's almost impossible to bring players through now....I used to get great satisfaction in spotting talented youngsters in the under 18's and progressing them to world class players....or buying a player from lower leagues and developing them into world class stars (I once bought a young player from the old division 2 for ?145k an English left winger and within 4 years he was world class and worth ?18 million!

[marx100]

The best thing to do is to try not to think of FM in the same light as other management games...in FM try to think on it similar to reality as in if your player is transfer listed and not playing (and/or not playing very well) you won't get proper value bids for that player, conversely if your player is in the team and playing well and is transfer listed (or not) and you want to sell you tend to get something like bids matching player value....although the best way to make a profit on a player (like real life) is to take the above into consideration and try to get a player bidding war going on between clubs....this would work alot better if the player is not transfer listed.
How effective this strategy is in FM over previous versions I am not sure of (way back I once got ?30 million for Mark Viduka by selling him to Barcelona when he was only worth ?12 million - I was going to take ?15 mil but decided to play Barca and Real Madrid off each other and ended up with twice as much dosh)!

Yeah I dont expect crazy values or anything for below average/poor players, usually I'm just happy to be rid of them for any value. Free up some of the wage budget. Its when there is like 10+ 'top tier' teams after one of my good players. They all keep enquiring, I ask for a reasonable price just above face value, they refuse. They come back in again with an offer, I ask for face value this time, they refuse. Where as I'm signing players for at least there face value.

Might just be my luck.

[Raven]

I won't say that this years game doesn't have problems....like your super team can be on a good run and then hammer real madrid 4 nil away from home and then the very next match lose 2 nil to derby county at home (go figure) if this was an odd thing it wouldn't matter so much because just look at the recent Arsenal vs Hull City match and you have your real life proof right there but it's when this type of thing happens fairly consistently that you start to think something about the game isn't right and it's not my team, form, tactics or decisions. I do feel last year's game for all it's improvements just wasn't as fun as previous versions due to it being far too rigid and not flexible enough all across the board when you factor in the transfer bids situation and the example i just mentioned with the matches and then factor in the youth player (non) growth and consider all of these detriments were not in the 2007 version (or was it 06 ) and you start to realise that while it's still great fun it's not as good as it maybe should have been based on previous balances that they didn't need to tinker with.

[Raven]

I've played the demo of the new FM 2009 game and I think it's really good from what I've played, the 3D match engine works really well, alot better than I thought it might....it's certainly the best 3D match sim in a management game that I've ever seen since much like the old match engine it attempts to sim real football so you see players making runs off the ball and balls being played into space behind the defense....very good game thus far I think I'll be getting this!

[rockdj]

this game is ace i love these games