We're just letting the gamers there who own a copy of Football Manager: 2007 that something's cooking at the home site. And if you're wondering which console's getting new goodies this Christmas, it's for the PSP, Xbox 360, Mac and the PC. The main site's just announced updates relating to these consoles, and to give you guys a brief breakdown:

• PC and Mac: The patch 7.0.1 for your copy of the games are now ready for downloading.
• Tutorial videos: Just getting started? The site's now hosting several videos to help you guys along, and all will be narrated by Sports Interactive's Mike Jacobson. There are 13 video in total: Nine for the PC/Mac, and 4 for the Xbox 360 crowd.
• PSP: The guys with the portable get two new Football Manager Handheld 2007 wall papers over at the site. Just check around - they're there.

There's more site updates to come as Christmas kicks in, so keep your eyes peeled. Season's greetings, guys.

It's coming home. Football's coming home. Sports Interactive's Football Manager 2007 is out on PC and Mac, and it's at the top of both the all-format and PC charts in the UK. And according to their press release, it's "becoming the third fastest selling PC [game] ever." They're talking UK charts, we suppose, but that's a big accomplishment (more about how the game is doing in the U.S. and internationally later).

PSP and 360. As for Football Manager Handheld 2007 for PSP and Football Manager 2007 for the Xbox 360, Sega has shared the release date of December 1, 2006 for both. Handheld for the PSP has international management and multiple scouts and lots of new leagues to choose from (including Australian and Portuguese leagues). Manager for the Xbox 360 has Xbox Live Vision camera support and a Fantasy Draft mode - not to mention 50 achievements to challenge everybody.

This game has been a success story. Many Americans really aren't into "soccer", but for the rest of the world, "football" or "futbol" or whatever is the game of the world - much like football's World Cup is the "cup of life" when journalists are feeling poetic or when your mates have just finished singing a round of "Three Lions on a shirt Jules Rimet still gleaming..."

Strong sales. On Amazon.com, Sega of America's U.S. and Canadian version (Worldwide Soccer Manager 2007) is currently number eight on the top 10 best sellers for PC (it's sometimes higher on the list). And that's at Amazon.com - so it gives us an idea of how the game is selling (Amazon.com is "Amazon U.S." if you're looking at it from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.co.jp, but Amazon.com is really kind of like "Amazon for the whole world" because it's Amazon.com that many people go to if they're not in the UK, Japan, or those other countries with "local" Amazons). In Amazon.co.uk, the game's been hovering around the top three slots.

High praise. With the game being called "a revelation" by a EuroGamer writer (giving it a 9/10 score), an IGN UK writer warns you to "be prepared for a serious lack of social life after it's installed on your hard drive" (and gives it a 9.3/10). The game also got 4/5 from "Maxim" and 5/5 from both "The Times" and the "Sunday Times."

SEGA Europe, Ltd. Recently announced that both versions of their sports management title, Football Manager have gone gold. Football Manager 2007 for the Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Football Manager Handheld 2007 for the PSP are both ready for release across Europe on December 1st, 2006.

The game should have many new features added making it easier to use, navigate and control. Enhancements include international management, multiple scouts, and multiple new leagues from across the world to choose from including Portugal and Australian leagues.

The Xbox 360 version boasts Xbox Vision Camera support, an Xbox Live "Fantasy Draft" mode, around 50 achievements to get, and an easier to use control system

Football Manager 2007 on Xbox 360 and Football Manager Handheld 2007 on the PSP will both be released across Europe on December 1st, 2006. Something for all you more cerebral football hooligans (hey, it is possible) out there.

Every point counts, especially in a sport like soccer where you're more likely to start a riot than score a goal (which actually happened in a lot of cases, come to think of it). Xbox360Achievements.org has revealed the list of Achievements budding managers can aim for in Sega/Sports Interactive's Football Manager 2007.

These are a lot of achievements to pull off - remember that you're not Ronaldinho in this game, but his manager - so start polishing those team management skills. Maybe once you pull this entire list off, you should take a picture of your Achievements stats and send them over to Real Madrid or something, you know, in case they're hiring this year.

• Sign A Player (1): You will need to sign a player for your team to unlock this achievement
• Clean Sheet (3): Your team will need to play a match without conceding a goal to unlock this achievement
• Hattrick (5): You will need to inspire one of your players to score a hattrick to unlock this achievement
• Win Promotion (5): You will need to guide your team to promotion in a domestic league to unlock this achievement
• Win Domestic Cup (5): You will need to win the top domestic cup in a nation to unlock this achievement
• Win Domestic Championship (10): You will need to win the top league in a nation to unlock this achievement
• Win A Continental Cup (20): You will need to guide your team to glory in a continental club competition
• Win World Cup (30): You will need to win the World Cup to unlock this achievement
• Undefeated Season (50): You will need to ensure your team does not lose a single league match throughout the entire season
• Win an Xbox Live Cup (3): You will need to win an Xbox Live Cup to unlock this achievement
• Win an Xbox Live League (6): You will need to win an Xbox Live League to unlock this achievement
• Least Goals Conceded In League (15): Your team will need to concede the least goals in your league over an entire season
• Most Goals Scored In League (15): Your team will need to score the most goals in your league over an entire season
• Top Goalscorer In League (10): One of your players will need to be the top league goalscorer over an entire season

More achievements at full article.

Sport Interactive's upcoming football management sim, Football Manager 2007, boasts many new features that revolutionize not only the game, but the entire sports management genre as well. While there are over 100 new features, below are a few highlights that were recently revealed:

It's More User Friendly:

• New skins
• Clearer icons
• Current news and important info
• Over 300 hints and tips for both experienced and new players
• Customized bookmarks
• Multi-core and hyper-threaded optimized sections for more active leagues
• Option to back up saved games
  
• Basic and advanced set up modes for starting a new game
  
• More info are also given, including better feedback from your staff, transfer deals and recommendations from agents.
  
• Scouting improvements, such as a report card that includes future prospects, personality, current club happiness, and a gauge that lets you know how long will the players stay with you.
  

With all these features, it seems that Football Manager 2007 has taken quite a big leap of improvement from the previous ones, and it's sure getting us excited! Football Manager 2007 will be available for the PC, Mac, Xbox 360 and the PSP during the holidays, so we're guessing that for most fans, Christmas will definitely be merry.

You all might have noticed that Christmas is just around the corner, and game developers and publishers probably noticed this too. And here's another hint that the holidays are so near: great game releases. And there's enough to get every gamer excited.

If you ask us though, gamers who fancy the sports games will be the ones who'll find it very hard to sleep at night especially with this list of titles that will be released in the coming days, weeks, months... Just be sure you won't be cranky in the morning for lack of sleep from anticipating - or playing - the games.

So here's the list of Xbox 360 games' European release dates:

September:
22:  Just Cause
30:  Mad Tracks
TBC:  LMA Manager 2007
TBC:  World Snooker Championship 2007

October:
6:  Import Tuner Challenge
6:  Open Season
20:  Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent
27:  NBA 2K7

November:
3:  Need For Speed: Carbon
10:  WWE SmackDown vs. RAW 2007
17:  Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas
TBC:  Cars
TBC:  Eragon
TBC:  Football Manager 2007
TBC:  Pro Evolution Soccer 6
TBC:  The Sopranos

Click "Full Article" for the complete list.

 

Great news to all you Football Manager 2007 fanatics out there, we now have the set release date for the game as well as ten new screens straight off from Sega.

Not only is the game one of the most anticipated ones to come on the Xbox 360 and PSP, the Football Manager blog has taken over Myspace as well. The said blog has just become the 21st most popular blog on Myspace, having nearly 100,000 views. MD of Sports Interactive (SI) Miles Jacobson said:

"for something that started as an experiment, I'm extremely pleased with the outcome of posting these Football Manager 2007 blogs so far. To be rated inside the top 25 blogs is an incredible feat and one that reflects the true popularity of Football Manager".

Football Manager 2007 is a very popular game indeed, and a lot of us can't wait for it to hit the shelves. It's good to know that we don't have to wait till next year 'cause the game is due for release on October 20 for PC, and November 24 for Xbox 360 and PSP. While waiting for that day to come, why don't cha get a fill of the straight-from-Sega screens we have for you.

   

    

Good news for those who've been wanting to hear more updates about the Football Manager 2007 by Sports Interactive (SI). The game, which will be released for the PC, Mac, Xbox 360 and PSP,  have added features that allow further access to the game's settings. So, now you can customize the games better whether you are a new or advanced user. The multi-core support and hyper-threading have optimized the game so much that FM 2007 now supports a wider range of hardware specifications.

"We've added multiple database support into the game, so there's no need to wipe over older databases, meaning that if you try an unofficial update to the game and it doesn't work, you can easily switch back to the original database. Or choose to start a new game with data from the first transfer window, or the second window..." says SI.

Some of the features include:

• handy menu wizards for newcomers
• new advanced game modes
• ability to have dual nationalities for managers
• random team selection
• shift-select and change multiple players in the improved interface

Football Manager 2007 is due out in November and SI plans to release the game's official data update by February 2007.

We've always been a car-sim nut. Progressed through all of the Gran Turismos on our PS/PS2, and now been playing Forza on our Xbox 360. Truth be told, we've fallen in love with Forza; it simply freaking owns most racing-themed games out in the market hands down.

The few things which sucked us into Forza would have to be the awesome graphics, the career mode, and the sheer variety of everything. Oh, and don't forget Ferraris and Lambos! We've been counting down the days to the release of Forza Motorsport 2 mainly due to those beauties!

And what better way to 'ease' the wait than an interview with the game's chief? The guys at IGN though were lucky enough to have a chat with Dan Greenawalt, Forza Motorsport 2's game director. The interview, though a tiny bit short, answered just about all the questions about the game.

One of the primary reasons for loving Forza was the chance to play using Ferraris and Porsches. Gran Turismo had over 700 cars, but it did miss out on the real cream. Paganis and Saleens were fine for a time, but there's no icing on the cake like a Ferrari. So what new cars would there be in the latest installment of Forza Motorsport?

Dan Greenawalt was quick to point out that while Gran Turismo 4 was missing all three big names (Ferrari, Lamborghine, Porsche), Forza had roughly 40 Ferrari's and Porsche's in the game; the Lamborghini and the McLaren F1 street version were not included. In the words of Dan Greenawalt, "Forza Motorsport 2 features over 50 Ferrari, Porsche, and Lamborghini models plus the McLaren F1 street version. We are adding other brands such as Scion. But honestly, there is no other single brand is as influential as Ferrari, Porsche, or even Lamborghini are individually."

Plus, there had been talk about a similar service to PGR's TV mode. Personally, I've loved it; I watch real pros go around circuits, just so that I can check out their racing lines and braking points. So how would it be with Forza Motorsport? Dan Greenawalt said that the newest installment will also feature Forza Motorsport TV, built on the same technology that drove Gotham TV. "We have few other big ticket features up our sleeve that aren't being announced until later. Suffice to say that the MGS racing family and Xbox Live will continue to raise the bar for the online experience."

When asked about the goodies which one could expect from the marketplace, and whether the game would be released as a "shell", with content having to be downloaded off Live, he was quick enough to remind us that "[The game] would still have 300+ cars, more than 400 single player races, 70+ ribbons, over 2000 scoreboards, thousands of cosmetic upgrades, nearly 100 performance upgrades per car."

Finally, when asked if they would be able to accomplish an average of about 60fps while rendering all the Italian hotties, Dan Greenawalt revealed that "[The game] is currently running at 60fps with 12 high-poly cars, far superior shaders and higher texture resolution. Truth be told, creating a beautiful game for the next-gen consoles is less and less about the poly counts. Getting the next-gen look is all about shaders, texture resolution and texture tricks such as normal mapping."

A lot of stuff from the interview was already known to us; no dash cams, downloadable marketplace goodies, drivatar, and 60 frames of goodness every second! We're still a bit sad that they couldn't get in dash cams into the game. Heck PGR3 could do it nicely, so we don't know why it can't be accomplished here.

Anyways, we don't think it will take away that much from the overall experience. To read more about Forza Motorsport 2, here's a link to all of our previous coverages.

SEGA Europe Ltd. has announced the newest edition of Football Manager for PC, Mac, Xbox 360 and PSP. The next step in the genre-defining series will arrive on Christmas 2006 filled to the brim with more than 100 new features.

Sports Interactive are taking the comments of fans into account while developing the game, so that Football Manager for the Xbox 360 features an all-new user interface, allowing players to comfortably experience the game with a joypad. The new interface also gives hints and tips throughout the game, better feedback from your employees and features a lot more customisation options - promising to make Football Manager 2007 the most user-friendly Sports Interactive game yet.
Amongst other updated features are:

• A complete revamp of the Youth Teams - full youth squads for each team with a youth set up
  
• The brand-new inclusion of Feeder Clubs and Relationships, giving small clubs the option to receive loan players, and large clubs the option to loan them out
  
• A totally new, more realistic scouting system - More information is given out to managers about players and teams, and scouts can now grow and get more experienced when looking for the best players
• Player Interaction - Managers can talk to players all over the world via the media, which can be used as a motivational tool
• Team Talks - Team talks at half and fulltime were vastly improved, and in Football Manager 2007, Pre-match team talks are introduced, allowing managers to take their team to the field with a specific briefing.

Meanwhile, the handheld version offers more playable leagues, more features and, for the first time, network play - enabling players to challenge their friends whereever they are. And finally, here's a few screenshots of the Xbox 360/PC/Mac version:



More of the screenshots after the jump!