FM 2007 to be more accessible

By Tom Bramwell Published 7 September, 2006

More advanced options too.

Football Manager 2007 will support managers with dual nationalities, and can be tweaked to take advantage of the specific processing capabilities of your machine, while user-friendly additions like menu wizards, the ability to select and apply changes to multiple players at once, and support for multiple databases, ought to make the game more accessible to old and newcomers alike.

That's the message we're getting from the second FM-related update to Sports Interactive's new MySpace page, anyway, which talks up a few of the game's new features - the total of which will eventually number more than 100.

Multi-core support and hyper-threading will form part of the optimisations that help support a wider range of hardware specifications. "We have tried to cater for those with both the latest machines and those with older ones, and obviously the older the technology, the slower the machine will be with higher detail settings, so it's nice and easy to tune the speed of the game to what you're happy with on your PC or Mac, much like you can with detail settings in FPS games," the team writes.

Good news too for those of you who like to play around with user-made databases. "We've added multiple database support into the game, so there's no need to wipe over older databases, meaning that if you try an unofficial update to the game and it doesn't work, you can easily switch back to the original database. Or choose to start a new game with data from the first transfer window, or the second window when we release our official data update around February time."

Advanced users will be better catered to in other ways too, with "new advanced game modes, including the possibility of the ultimate challenge, with random team selection where the computer chooses which team you should manage as well as the ability to have dual nationalities, just like the players inside the game."

On the lower end, newcomers will be able to fall back on easy to use wizards to help figure out what any confusing game elements are on about, while the interface has been tweaked so that you can shift-select multiple players and apply changes to them all at once, a bit like you can in most PC and Mac applications. Handy!

Expect more from the SI blog as it gets going. FM 2007 is due out on PC, Mac, Intel Mac, PSP and Xbox 360 this November.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (11) Latest comment 6 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • tannerd #1 6 years ago

    So they are making it more like excel then? ;)

  • Zomoniac #2 6 years ago

    For those of us lucky enough to own the wonder that is an Intel Mac (MacBook Pro 2.16 here), will they tell us if it will run faster on OSX or XP, or will I just have to piss about installing them both and trying it out the long way?

  • LetsGo #3 6 years ago

    its not hard to have more than 100 new features in the PSP version considering there was about 5 in the first one!

  • tobs #4 6 years ago

    I just wonder if training has been improved in this version. That's what confused me most last year - a wizard would be cool.

    Also, I was disappointed in the repetitiveness of the text/news - how many times did the "minnows" description come round?!?

  • phl0w #5 6 years ago

    How the hell is this supposed to run on a PSP? FM2006 needs one helluva computer to run fine, i.e. so it doesn't take hours to process a single match day, doesn't suspect 2007 to require anything less.

  • T4RG4 #6 6 years ago

    AFAIK PSP version is made by an external company - very small team and not really with the SI gloss.

  • GamerAddict #7 6 years ago

    "the ability to have dual nationalities, just like the players inside the game"

    My Footy Manager wish has finally come true, I've always disliked not being able to put myself as half English/half Mongolian!! The game is now perfect in my eyes!!!

  • Neil_SI Verified Producer, Sports Interactive #8 6 years ago

    T4RG4: Football Manager Handheld is developed internally at SI Towers. The first release has exceeded our expectations.

    phl0w: FMH was designed from scratch for the PSP and intentionally a different experience from the PC game. It has been designed to be a 'pick up and play' title, which allows the user to get through seasons pretty quickly. It's not a port of Football Manager PC which is an entirely different game and would not be possible on modern day handheld systems. For the PC game there is now a 'Detail Level' section which gives users the chance to customise each competition in the game which helps speed up the game dramatically depending on the settings chosen.

    Zomoniac: I'm using a MacBook Pro 2.16 and the game is running very well on OSX indeed. :)

  • Sid_The_Sloth #9 6 years ago

    The psp version of Fm06 had itīs flaws of course. But it was a good game and it ran like butter. I was so amazed at the speed of the game. Cant wait to see how they improve the next version. The 360 was a bit of a turkey in some respects. I will wait for the reviews and comments on the msg boards before buying it again. The pc version is a no brainer like always ;)

  • tentonipete #10 6 years ago

    who gives a shit about the manager having "dual nationalities"? what difference does it make to the game?

    i'm more interested in multiple databases, i wiped over a whole game thinking i could have two games running on my psp and two save files with no warning. especially since i get to choose which one to load and save.

    i also want to manage in more than one country during my "career".

  • Miles_SI #11 6 years ago

    Zomoniac - Intel Mac is our new format this year, so it better work well ;)

    Let's Go - if the PSP had more memory in it, then it might have been designed differently. As it was, it's gone down pretty well, and most people who've given us feedback seem to love it. We see it as FM's baby brother, hence it has a different name (FM Handheld).

    GamerAddict - err, I'm glad we've made you happy. Anyone know how I do a confused smiley?

    Neil_SI - hello :)

    Tentonipete - it does make differences actually. Check out today's blog about scouting and you might be able to guess some of them. Not essential differences, but nice little touches, and we like those as much as the big new features.

    All the features currently being discussed are for the PC anyway, not PSP. The announcements for that will come later on.