Football Manager Handheld 2008 (PSP)
- Publisher:
- Sega Europe
- Developer:
- Sports Interactive
- Release Date:
- 16.11.2007
- Number of players:
- n/a
- Age:
- Modern Times
- Extra:
- Management
- Reality Factor:
- Realistic
- Type:
- Football
We play Football Manager Handheld 2008...
Football Manager Handheld is, if you will excuse the pun, a funny old game. On the surface it looks and feels very much like it’s bigger PC cousin. However after only a few minutes with it you soon start to realise that this is very much a cut-down version and actually has more in common with the old Championship Manager games of yesteryear, rather than Football Manager as we know it.
For those that haven’t experienced one of the two previous Football Manager Handheld games, let me briefly explain the differences between this version and the PC version. For starters there are fewer playable leagues (ten countries to choose from), there aren’t as many stats available for the players and other areas such as training, transfers and contract negotiations are severely watered down. For some though arguably the biggest difference is the omission of the 2D match engine, with all matches played out via text only.
In the good old days that’s what Football Manager (or Championship Manager as it was called back then) was all about. But back in those days the text commentary was often exciting and really drew you into the match, plus we didn’t know or expect any better. Now that I’ve experienced the 2D match engine, I want to see how Cristiano Ronaldo got a free run up the wing. Was it because my left back was out of position or was he covering another attacker? Simply telling me ‘Cristiano Ronaldo has the ball…he advances down the wing…he runs into the box…he shoots…GOAL!’ doesn’t give me enough information with which to base a tactical decision on.
There are other problems with the text commentary. For starters the text tends to be very repetitive, with the same lines of commentary being used time and time again. Even more worryingly is the fact that a player seems to have to take it around at least five players, some of them at least twice, before taking a shot on goal. In one game Adebayor took the ball around 12 Aston Villa players before releasing a shot, somehow even managing to take it around Laursen three times in succession, despite the text telling me on the first occasion that he’d left Laursen for dust.
Player positioning seems to be at odds with your tactics, with that man again Adebayor in the same game making three ‘great last ditch tackles’ on an Aston Villa forward, despite them hitting Arsenal on the counter attack. You do have to ask why Adebayor is back in the box, when I had him as my Centre Forward making forward runs, and not Kolo Toure or William Gallas. It’s all very confusing and makes for a very unrealistic match.
Aside from the text commentary there are a number of other problems that seasoned Football Manager players may find hard to overlook. For instance transfers, always one of the most entertaining parts of any football management game, are extremely laborious and at no stage feel realistic. The transfer list is often emptier than Spurs trophy cupboard and that leaves you with having to bid upwards of three times a player’s value just to even have a chance of having your bid accepted. There’s no ‘after 20 appearances’ clauses or anything like that, so you’re left having to pay the full fee, which makes signing young relatively unproven potential stars a huge risk.
There’s also very little feedback as to why your transfer has been declined, so you’re left having to bid time and time again until you offer an amount that the club will accept, which becomes extremely tedious. Even more frustrating is the fact that if a club puts an offer in for a player that you want to sign, before you can even make a counter-bid and have it accepted, the player will have already signed a contract with the other club and arrived at their ground the next day.
This happened to me on eleven separate occasions when I was alerted to a rival club bidding for a player on my shortlist. It’s good in one way that transfers no longer take weeks to sort out, but when they happen so quickly that you have no chance to do anything about it, and you lose a player that you’ve been keeping tabs on for months for no other reason than someone else placing the first bid, it gets rather frustrating.
It’s not all doom and gloom though. Tactics have been improved since last year’s PSP outing and you can now set players to go on runs and have far more control over your formation, even being able to set up custom formations. The interface has also been improved over 2007, both in visual and usability terms, and load times are extremely impressive. The addition of reserve squads adds more depth and being able to speak to your squad members individually can help turn a miserable player into a happy and committed player. You can even download an editor to amend player stats.
It’s also fair to say that if you found either of the previous two PSP outings enjoyable then FM Handheld 2008 is unlikely to disappoint. It’s unlikely to bowl you over with new features or improved AI, and it’s certainly not going to convert anybody that found the previous handheld versions too watered down. But if you really must have the latest squads or feel that any of the new features are just what you were missing last time around then, despite the awful transfer system and lacklustre commentary, FM Handheld 2008 could be money well spent.
Top game moment: Using the editor to change Cristiano Ronaldo’s name to ‘Diving Little Nancy Boy’. It spiced up the commentary!
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For those that haven’t experienced one of the two previous Football Manager Handheld games, let me briefly explain the differences between this version and the PC version. For starters there are fewer playable leagues (ten countries to choose from), there aren’t as many stats available for the players and other areas such as training, transfers and contract negotiations are severely watered down. For some though arguably the biggest difference is the omission of the 2D match engine, with all matches played out via text only.
In the good old days that’s what Football Manager (or Championship Manager as it was called back then) was all about. But back in those days the text commentary was often exciting and really drew you into the match, plus we didn’t know or expect any better. Now that I’ve experienced the 2D match engine, I want to see how Cristiano Ronaldo got a free run up the wing. Was it because my left back was out of position or was he covering another attacker? Simply telling me ‘Cristiano Ronaldo has the ball…he advances down the wing…he runs into the box…he shoots…GOAL!’ doesn’t give me enough information with which to base a tactical decision on.
There are other problems with the text commentary. For starters the text tends to be very repetitive, with the same lines of commentary being used time and time again. Even more worryingly is the fact that a player seems to have to take it around at least five players, some of them at least twice, before taking a shot on goal. In one game Adebayor took the ball around 12 Aston Villa players before releasing a shot, somehow even managing to take it around Laursen three times in succession, despite the text telling me on the first occasion that he’d left Laursen for dust.
Player positioning seems to be at odds with your tactics, with that man again Adebayor in the same game making three ‘great last ditch tackles’ on an Aston Villa forward, despite them hitting Arsenal on the counter attack. You do have to ask why Adebayor is back in the box, when I had him as my Centre Forward making forward runs, and not Kolo Toure or William Gallas. It’s all very confusing and makes for a very unrealistic match.
 |
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Aside from the text commentary there are a number of other problems that seasoned Football Manager players may find hard to overlook. For instance transfers, always one of the most entertaining parts of any football management game, are extremely laborious and at no stage feel realistic. The transfer list is often emptier than Spurs trophy cupboard and that leaves you with having to bid upwards of three times a player’s value just to even have a chance of having your bid accepted. There’s no ‘after 20 appearances’ clauses or anything like that, so you’re left having to pay the full fee, which makes signing young relatively unproven potential stars a huge risk.
There’s also very little feedback as to why your transfer has been declined, so you’re left having to bid time and time again until you offer an amount that the club will accept, which becomes extremely tedious. Even more frustrating is the fact that if a club puts an offer in for a player that you want to sign, before you can even make a counter-bid and have it accepted, the player will have already signed a contract with the other club and arrived at their ground the next day.
This happened to me on eleven separate occasions when I was alerted to a rival club bidding for a player on my shortlist. It’s good in one way that transfers no longer take weeks to sort out, but when they happen so quickly that you have no chance to do anything about it, and you lose a player that you’ve been keeping tabs on for months for no other reason than someone else placing the first bid, it gets rather frustrating.
It’s not all doom and gloom though. Tactics have been improved since last year’s PSP outing and you can now set players to go on runs and have far more control over your formation, even being able to set up custom formations. The interface has also been improved over 2007, both in visual and usability terms, and load times are extremely impressive. The addition of reserve squads adds more depth and being able to speak to your squad members individually can help turn a miserable player into a happy and committed player. You can even download an editor to amend player stats.
 |
 |
|
It’s also fair to say that if you found either of the previous two PSP outings enjoyable then FM Handheld 2008 is unlikely to disappoint. It’s unlikely to bowl you over with new features or improved AI, and it’s certainly not going to convert anybody that found the previous handheld versions too watered down. But if you really must have the latest squads or feel that any of the new features are just what you were missing last time around then, despite the awful transfer system and lacklustre commentary, FM Handheld 2008 could be money well spent.
Top game moment: Using the editor to change Cristiano Ronaldo’s name to ‘Diving Little Nancy Boy’. It spiced up the commentary!
| By jamie85 on 2008-05-11 14:22:08 | |
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is there a way to change the players names?? |
