Football Manager 2011 demo available for download now [PC/Mac]

With the football season in full swing (come on Cardiff!), Sports Interactive and Sega have released a fully-featured demo of Football Manager 2011 ahead of the full game hitting the stores and Steam in two weeks.

As demos go, you get quite a lot to play with, with the download letting users play half a season (2010/11), with all the in-game functions and features included, with team squads up to date (as per the real-world January transfer deadline).

The new game adds improved chat with players and staff members, a new way to deal with contract negotiations through accursed agents, streamlined email and press conference modes, with groovy new on-pitch animations and crowd graphics adding to the fun.

The game interface has also been given a splosh with a damp sponge, introducing slicker, simplified interaction and improved staff automation letting you focus more on football based action.

The demo is currently available in Vanilla and Strawberry flavours for both PC and Mac.

The 300MB Vanilla option comes in English only with Quick Start gaming options for the leagues in England and Scotland, while the 1GB Strawberry version supports several languages and comes with Quick Starts for leagues from England, Scotland, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Brazil, Argentina and Chile. But no Wales.

Conveniently, games saved in the demo will be compatible with the commercial offering, so sheepskin coat-toting managers can carry on where the left off if they splash out for the full Football Manager 2011.

[Download: footballmanager.com]

Requirements
PC – OS – Windows XP/Vista/W7
Processor – XP : 1.4GHz or Faster, Vista/W7 : 2.0GHz or Faster
Supported Processors: Intel Pentium 4, Intel Core, AMD Athlon
Memory – XP : 512MB RAM, Vista/W7 : 1.0GB RAM
Hard Drive Space – 2GB
DVD-Drive – 4x Speed
Video Card – 128MB
Supported Chipsets – Nvidia FX 5900 Ultra or greater; ATI Radeon 9800 or greater; Intel 82915G/82910GL or greater. Earlier cards may only display 2D Match Viewer Mode and are not supported. Laptop versions of these chipsets may work but are not supported.
Sound Card – DirectX 9.0c compatible
DirectX – Version 9.0c (included)
LAN – TCP/IP compliant
Input – Keyboard, Mouse
Mac – OS – OS X 10.5.8/10.6.x or higher
Processor – Intel Processor
Video Card – Nvidia Geforce 7300 GT or greater; ATI Radeon X1600 or greater