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Face it, football or as some others call it, soccer, is one of the most popular sports in the world right now. We have individuals earning millions just because of their ability to dribble and shoot with a ball as well as global tournaments being held every 4 years for it, resulting in a huge market for soccer related goods. It has delved into the video gaming market, and Football Manager 2008 is one of the latest games to hit the shelves.

I’m sure many football fans have dreamt of managing some of the most famous clubs in the World, aspiring to lead them to honours, winning championships and leagues, becoming a Sir Alex Ferguson or Arsene Wenger of your favourite club. In a nutshell, Football Manager 2008 is a game where you assume such a persona, deciding the everyday actions of your chosen club from training to haggling for the best prices for player transfers.

One thing which Football Manager 2008 offers that is able to out beat similar clones like Championship Manager, is that it offers depth. Indeed, when I first booted the game, I was visibly impressed by the amount of information and leagues it contained. It not only provided comprehensive data of the more famous leagues, like the English Premier League in England and the Spanish La Liga in Spain, but also many lesser known competitions and obscure leagues that even I, a moderate football fan, could not even recognize. It even allowed me to manage the players of the clubs in my very own backyard, Singapore, despite the lack of popularity it has even with the locals here.

One slight setback, however, is its continual use of circular 2D markers to represent the players on the field , compared to some other similiar games offering a 3-D representation on a full pitch, it might seem monotonous and boring, robbing the usual excitement of watching a game unfold before your eyes. Also, another little annoyance was the lack of any music within the game, except for the fake cheers you would hear when a match was being played.

In addition to that, the interface was not really user friendly. On my first week of playing the game, I frequently found myself going in circles due to confusing signs and markers. Football Manager 2008 does offer depth, however, it displays too much information. Every click in search for any kind of statistics would probably throw a huge graph or ridiculously large and intricate tables of numbers in your face, leaving you confused and dazed.

Personally, I find that Football Manager 2008 would only appeal to hardcore football freaks. The main appealing factor of this game is depth, and any die hard fan would probably be a walking player encyclopedia, a useful skill when playing this game. Casual fans would undoubtedly be turned off by the humongous database of players and complicated system of the game, however, true football fans would find a game catered to utilising every nook and cranny of their soccer knowledge.

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