FM 2009 Comes in November with 3D Match Engine

The 2009 version of the best football management game is getting closer and closer to its release date and, boy, it has lots of improvements and surprises in the pipeline! Definitely the most important change of them all is the introduction of a full 3D match engine, as announced by Sports Interactive’s Miles Jacobson in the video below. And please allow me take a deep breath now, since this is like the biggest change in the FM franchise in the past few years!

However, except for promises that it will be better than any other match engine and that it was tested for about 12 months now, there are not too many details regarding the 3D match engine in FM 2009. We are told that we’ll have a time bar on the screen which allows us to rewind and see instant replays. Also, we will have the option to watch the match in a full screen mode. Other details will probably come when the time will be right. Oh, and as a quick note for those who are sure will never stop loving the 2D engine: it will still be there, improved and revamped.

However, this is not the only change prepared by SI Games for the upcoming FM 2009. We’ll also get an improved assistant manager feedback during matches, in two specific areas: player motivation and general feedback. This general feedback seems to be quite interesting, since it will tell us how’s the tactic generally working, but also how is the opposition exploiting our tactic, as well as what we could do in order to better exploit theirs.

The Media aspect has also been changed: we’ll get more and improved news items with much more info (and hopefully some less repetitive answer choices). But, the biggest change here will be the addition of press conferences, before and after matches, as well as every time you will move to a new club. The nice thing is that we won’t spend our time answering questions only, but we will also work on building relations with journalists. We were not told how these relations impact the football world in FM 2009, but we’re keeping our eyes and ears open.

We’ll also see some improvements in a few other areas, including board confidence, financial situation of clubs and transfer system, as well as new additions on training (players can be asked to learn special moves). Also, girls (and not only) will probably love the game now more than ever, since female managers can now exists in the game, too.

Football Manager 2009 will be released on November 14 and we promise to keep you updated with the latest and hottest news about its state. Until then, enjoy the announcement video below: