Football Manager 2008

Step aside, pretenders to the crown, Football Manager has returned. Rivals may claim glitzier graphics or funkier in-game sequences, but, 15 years on from its first conception (then as Championship Manager) in 1992, no other management simulator can match the FM series for sheer, life-wrecking addictiveness.

"According to Men's Health magazine a couple of years ago we were cited in 35 divorce cases in one year," sighs Sports Interactive's managing director Miles Jacobson. "Which is slightly worrying, but if people want to escape into this other world then there's maybe something wrong with the world they're living in already?"

Perhaps, but it's not hard to see how any football fan could become immersed in Football Manager. Statistically far and away the most detailed game on the market, boasting over 50 countries' domestic leagues and an impossibly vast database of players, FM 2008 boasts enough statistics and minutiae to keep a hardcore fan entertained for hours before they even get around to playing a match.

Indeed, SI's scouting network - over 1,500 strong - is so good that professional scouts have owned up to using their database when looking for players; Jacobson even claims some of the games scouts have been signed by Champions League sides, though he refuses to give out names.

"We know that clubs use our database. We're very proud of it," continues Jacobson. "It's always funny when you see obscure players turning up at clubs and you say 'do you reckon these guys have been playing FM?' But managers use it too - Jerzy Engel, (Poland boss from 2000-02) said playing our game was the best way for a young manager to learn how to manage a team."

The latest edition boasts range of new features and, more controversially for fans of the series, a radically overhauled look. Lengthy consultations with usability experts led to the dark green and grey skins being replaced with a far simpler and brighter white and black look that is more than a touch reminiscent of iTunes. The menu systems have also been moved around and tweaked to make them ultimately more accessible, though veteran players will need a while to get used to them.

Match days have been rendered more straightforward with a "match flow" function that steers you through all the stages of getting ready for each match - from selecting your team to giving a team talk and checking out the opposition's tactics, and also more realistic with a new substitution system that forces players to make real-time changes via a tactical screen while the game continues.

Interactions with the board have been improved, with more scope for adjusting budgets between wages and transfer funds than previously, whilst players can now also get feedback on recent performances from their fans through a supporters' club representative. Other new features include a nifty face generation system to create headshots for youth players the game generates during later seasons, and the ability for managers to tweak their home pitch's dimensions preseason.

But for all the changes the game engine itself remains fundamentally the same. Jacobson reiterates time and again the need for "evolution, not revolution" for a title with such an established fan base.

"As a developer we have two strands now. The first strand is games like Football Manager Live (a management game specifically designed for internet play) and Football Manager Quiz, which we call our mainstream games. Then we've got our cult strand, which is Football Manager. Fortunately for us that cult strand happens to be one of the largest cults in the world."

If they can continue producing games as playable as FM 2008, that cult will continue to grow.