Developer: Sports Interactive
Format: PC, Mac
Genre: Sports Simulation

A football sim with head games from managers and agents? Sounds like this could be as close as we get to real footie without the tabloids.

It's funny the way people talk about football. 'We won at the weekend,' 'When are we going to sell that donkey up front,' 'Why did we put our best defender on the bench when we were two goals up?'. The key is the word 'we'. Just by sitting on a plastic seat every Saturday supporters up and down the country consider themselves part of the management team. Could they really do any better than Sven, Alex and Arsene? Now it might be time to find out.

For Football Manager 2005 Sega and Sports Interactive have teamed up to bring terrace generals what they claim is the most in-depth, complete and realistic simulation of the world of the football manager. With over 10 years experience of producing Football Management games, the team at Sports Interactive ought to be able to back that claim up, and there are some new angles here that could be interesting.

As well as the huge statted-up teams we've come to expect from this type of simulation - over 3,000 teams to manage, in over 140 divisions, from more than 40 countries, including all of the world's top leagues - there is also some more of the human touch that is often missing. For a start there's manager 'mind games', giving you the chance to manipulate your rivals to affect their performances, having to handle relentless pressure from managers yourself. Agents will also stick their noses in, looking for deals for their clients.

If you don't want to don the coaching tracksuit, you can let your coaches and assistant manager do the work - coaches will highlight weak areas in the squad as well as which players have what it takes - then you can make the decisions to build a competitive squad.

Sports Interactive's long-standing and award-winning game engine has been refined and tuned in accordance with the feedback received from fans. Football Manager 2005 incorporates more than 30 extra fields for player data, including the all-new 'preferred moves' which lets you witness your stars performing their signature moves.

All in all, more of the same footie management stuff with some added head games. Next stop, tabloid scandal for Football Manager 2006.