Previews// Premier Manager 2008

So, on day one I might buy [a particular centre forward], then in six months I might want to say, 'all my keepers are trained up, I want to focus on fitness'.

[Jon switches the display over to RPG-style skills display, points to moving outer rings on circular displays – see left]

How fast that goes depends on what we call a 'frequency bonus system'. In it's most basic form, if Wayne Rooney's rated 90/100 in shooting – if you get your coach to train him more, over time you'll speed it up, and you can get up to the level of the character , so you can get up to plus eight, so he can get up to 98. But if you choose to stop training Wayne Rooney he'll then start going back down. It's like a bonus. Other games – you'll get to 91 and they'll stay at 91.

You've got to keep at it. If you disregard your goal keepers, they're gonna start to suffer, whereas your midfielders might gain.

It's quite a nice way of showing it, instead of just showing a number.


Andy Gray: It's possible to automate this, as well.


Jon Seymour: It goes back to the 'pick up and play'. These are just the new features for if you want to use them.

So – the tactics screen. In previous versions we'd have just shown you 'text text text', whereas we're trying to get you familiar with the icons now. [The icons show performance in different areas, such as where more training's needed.]

With Champ Man, the difference is would go into the season before, the season before, the season before. We don't go into that kind of depth.

We try to give players as complete an experience as we can in one season, without going too far back to the stats that have happened in the past.


Andy Gray: Then you've got the new scouting system.


Jon Seymour: Yeah, on day one you don't know anything about a player except his general stuff – name and date of birth and so on. You have to go and work at that over time, depending on how good your scout is.

[Points to a player who's not yet fully researched.]

I've got all the info about what he's done in a match, but I don't know what he's done in the league, the cup, the European Cup. For all I know he might be really good in the league but rubbish in cups.

Previously we just opened up the whole database [of players] for you, whereas now you have to tell the scout to go and find the players for you.

The quality of your information depends on how good your scout is. So currently, he's saying Joe Cole is worth between X and Y, whereas other football games - to the best of my knowledge – you'll just get, 'this is how much he's worth'. The reason we're doing it in bands is because when it comes to transfer negotiation, your skills come in. Do you go with the lowest your scout's said, or do you go high? And naturally, the scout might be talking crap and you might have to pay well over the odds. But the longer you research the player, the more he narrows it in. So, you will get, 'this is how much I think he's worth'.