Pro’s and Con’s For The Portable Manager

Before we start, interesting design we have at the moment eh? I fancied a change; the last one was a bit dark. Please give feedback, because in all honesty it was my fourth choice as both Pitchside and Blog FM have the other good ones I was after. It could do with a new header if anyones interested. Thought not. I’m not too sure about it..

Let’s be brief today, I can’t be bothered with much more. After little testing, much aggravation and numerous urges to swear loudly I have concluded this about the PSP portable version of FM 2007 – Football Manager 2007 Handheld is, to put it simply, average. I gathered this opinion after probably half an hour of non-continuous play time. Why? Because it’s not on the computer to put it simply. I’ve got to used to the PC game and this PSP version doesn’t have the easy to use slick inter-surface, the ‘clicky’ tool otherwise known as a mouse which means scrolling down the options becomes a mundane process which gets you annoyed at it deeply. Infact – let’s play a game of pros and cons with FM Handheld:

Pros:

Is very quick which means you don’t have the endless fidgety waiting times FM has – still.
- FM 2007 on computer has improved but is still too majorly slow more my patience. Nothing can be worse than when I’d play CM4 and it would take days of play (literally) to get through a whole season. Yet on PSP Football Manager glides with grace, feeling the light weight on it’s shoulder by having more compact data and less of the features which Football Manager has on the computer.
Players are cheap as chips
- It’s true. A quick browse on it can tell me a player who I could normally buy for £10m on FM is valued at half that on the PSP. I chose Chelsea, and the most expensive player was Robben for £17m. Now, I’m torn. You could view this as a good thing, not only as it makes the game much easier, but because it adds a certain effect of realism to the game. In real life, despite recent issues about managers saying they are being asked for too much money for players, you don’t usual have to pay out the hefty funds you do in FM for players. But then again it takes away the realism – the players can be undervalued. See point one on Cons.
My Auntie gave it to me
- This is vital. Because of this I am under obligation not to be too rude about it.
Scene Wise – There is uncovered ground.
- Although the games have pretty much similar aspects to write about, just stick PSP infront of it and it’s new. The game is largely uncovered on the major FM sites and paves way for new ground.

Cons

It’s not as realistic
- Everyone knew from the day they annouced that they were making a PSP Portable Game it was not going a) as big of a success and b) have all the features plentiful that SI had provided for us on the PC version. They were right. All the major features on which where on FM 2007/06/05 on PC such as transfer rumours etc. are in a nutshell and other features of the game we all got so over excited about such as Feeder Clubs and Advanced Player Interaction do not even feature. It’s a sad affair really, but I can understand the problems they would have fitting all these features on to the PSP without destroying it.
I’m bored of it already
- This point is probably to be ignored as I have a strange inability not to enjoy anything I’m really crap at or I can’t get into quickly.
I can’t win – and I’ve played like, five games!
- As above.
PSP controls = no no for Football Manager
- Everything feels like it is done manually. Typing someone’s name on player search takes an age at first and the controls do not go well with the game – there’s too much scrolling and not enough clickage for an impatient soul like me.
Lack of numerous features such as an in game editor, play interaction etc.
- The lack of features issues also ties into my first Con of the game. This is no Pocket FM 2007 as you might expect. Infact it is far more arcadia and lacks many of the features we might have now grown accustomed too. Also, whats with the player search. I couldn’t even find Ronaldinho. Tactics and Training need improving but for a handheld, are pretty decent.
You can only pick one league – one team.
- Another issue with obviously lack of space for all the data to go on the PSP is the lack of choice team wise. Now, please put me wrong here but when starting the game you have a mere choice of a few teams and can only choose one league to play in e.g. if you choose England throughout the whole game you can not manage in another country. This goes on to prove my theory that Handheld FM is for quick usage and not prolonged in depth games. You also cannot manage two teams, say England and Fulham, at the same time and I don’t even think national teams are available to manage (I can only imagine how limited the national team management features would be).
Scene Wise – downloads? Anyone?
- How do you find FM downloads for this godamn game? I don’t download much, but tactics are needed for me as I am too useless to use my own creations and the default ones mess up after a while. This is bad, but is uncovered ground. Although – is it possible to get stuff onto there? It should be. And is there places which do it already? If not, be sharpish on it sceners.

Sadly I can’t be arsed to elaborate further on these issues. Measure it up, eh? I’m not telling you to not buy the game – as you can see my ‘research’ is pretty poor. But if you think it’s going to be like FM PC Style on a mini scale – don’t. It’s for someone who is looking for a more arcadia, pick up the game for half an hour style thing, not having the grip that the computerized game has (see here). I’m quite disappointed after half an hour. I will report back after I have spent another day bidding for Andres D’Alessandro.

For further reading on similar issues – This is an interesting piece on FM on the DS..erm..here.