Football Manager Live

Prior to a game you get four minutes to make final preparations, while half-time give you a maximum of two minutes of faffing. At present, the player interactions have been taken out, so the amount of distracting time-wasting stuff you can meddle with is largely limited to formation changes and substitutions, which is arguably a good thing for those who don't fancy sitting around waiting for an opponent to make painstaking tweaks. If players don't show up for a fixture or quit out, it's expected that there will be some kind of penalty system, with points deducted for repeat offenders. You can, however, have AI assistance, but SI has already experienced some abuse of that, with certain players currently doing better by relying on it - a good example of something the test phase will iron out

Another small, but perfectly formed new addition to the match-day antics is the ability to place a bet on winning. Although entirely optional, it gives players yet another way to squander their cash and/or fluke their way to be able to buy those top internationals that are otherwise out of reach. Again, possibly open to abuse, but something we'll find out the importance of in time.

One important improvement made to the general interface is the way the 2D match engine remains on screen regardless of what sub-menu you're in at any given time. For example, during tactical changes, statistical analysis, or when you nip to the overview screen, the 2D match slides over to the bottom-right portion of the window in a thumbnail form so that you can still see what's going on. In a nod to Windows Vista, you can still clearly see the commentary bar, as well as the blobs shifting about the play area, so there's never a sense that you're missing out on what's going on. If you want to replay a match at the end of it all, you can do that too. Handy if you missed anything while you were running after your 15-month-old son to retrieve the TV remote control from the lavatory.

Dishing it out

At the end of each match, you can type in your own insulting/witty comment about the result, and everyone in that game world gets to see that remark. Although such interactions aren't likely to make any difference to your team's morale, it's a simple way of dishing out banter and adding colour to the proceedings. In addition, you're given the opportunity to make comments about your player's decision to, for example, retire or reject a new contract and so on. But rather than select prescribed sentences, you can create your own, which obviously leaves the game open to abuse to an extent, though presumably mods will crush you like a bug if you go that way.

Other cool stuff includes the ability to get updates from the game world delivered direct to your email or mobile phone inbox. For example, if a specific player logs on that you really want to play, you'll be pinged a text as soon as they next log in. Like last night, when Miles 'no sleep till beta' Jacobson logged on at 1.39 AM and my jolly mobile phone beeped next to my bed.

So those are the basics, and there's nothing but positive feedback to report so far. Obviously at the moment, with the game being in alpha, the number of players registered was pretty limited (just 120-odd at the time of writing), so we can't report what the game feels like when there's the full 1000 in each 'game world', or how the system fares when there are hundreds of people connected simultaneously. Presumably things like the chat room will get a bit crazy and have to be sectioned off into multiple rooms, while the current system of in-game news updated might have to be scaled back so you don't end up with thousands of arbitrary items detailing every single thing going on in the game. Sports Interactive doubtless has a plan in mind for this, and we'll find out about it soon enough. It's all "subject to balancing".

How much?

Right now, SI isn't revealing how much the game will cost to subscribe to, but when it talks of it being "a couple of pints" that roughly translates to a fiver by our reckoning. But SI says, "we see it as a money saving device", mainly because you won't be going out as much, so it's actually pretty good value when you look at it like that. But what about the cost of the take-outs, guys? And the marriage counselling? And the divorce settlements? The child maintenance? Hmm? But seriously, the game is set to evolve continually, so there won't ever be an annual update - just a continually evolving game with new additions, fixes and tweaks as it rolls along.

So. Football Manager Live. PC and Mac. March 2008. Beta testing mid-May for about 1000 lucky Charlies. Console versions very much under consideration. Right, the full time whistle's just blown, I'm outta here. All I can say is "EVIL".