12 Great Things About Football Manager 2012
EA Sports FIFA ’12 has had a firm grip on the console player’s sports market for around a month now, but football supporters of a more analytical nature will get the opportunity to take on the toughest role in the game with the latest edition of highly rated management sim, Football Manager.
The game’s 2012 edition, the sixth since creators Eidos and Sports Interactive decided to go their separate ways, brings with it a raft of new features (over 800 if the blurb from the games packaging is to be believed) but does it still have the essential ingredients to please fans of the series? Here’s a list of twelve reasons which could make FM 2012 an essential purchase for PC gamers across the world.....
1. We all know that we world has gone into overdrive with online social interaction these days. Websites like Twitter and Facebook give us an unlimited amount of options to communicate and share our opinions with the world around us, and for the first time in franchise history, Football Manager can be synched so that all your management progress can be tracked and posted directly onto the main page of your chosen social networking website.
2. One of the more productive and practical features of the latest game is the option to be able to add or remove playable nations on-the-fly. This means no more having to restart a game because you feel like a trip overseas but only included the English league system on your game when you started. The opportunity to be a much travelled coach in the mould of Roy Hodgson means that your career, should you choose to make it that way, can be much more varied and allow you to battle for silverware on a number of continents in the same game.
3. A staple of the FM series to date has been the teamtalk and interaction features which allow you to communicate directly with players, staff and the media. FM 2012 not only expands on the number of options you can choose from to respond or begin dialogue with others in the game, but also allows you to change the tone of your messages dependent on the situation. Trying to deal with an underperforming player, you can get inside his head with an aggressive message to inform him to buck up his ideas, or merely give him a confidence boost by using the same message in a much calmer tone.
Different players will react in different ways to different tones being used on an individual basis.
4. Scouting has been given a huge boost in the new version of Football Manager. Assistant managers and scouts will still produce reports for you on players and teams, but upon returning to inform you of what they have learnt, the information is now much more detailed. Team feedback includes a statistic which tracks how well teams use, or play against different formations, and player feedback now assesses a player’s strength against certain kinds of opposition. This allows you to make much more informed decisions when signing players or preparing for a big game.
5. For those new to the game, Football Manager is doing its best to allow the casual fan to pick up and play. This is done in part by the tutorial feature which can be switched on and off to help players new to the game with certain aspects, and can be fully customisable so that players can simply manage their team and leave all the rest to the assistant manager of your team. Step-by-step instructions are given for those novices looking to delve into football management for the first time. Forgotten how to do something from a previous version? Simply turn on the help system and allow the game to re-educate you.
6. Since 2009, Football Manager has included an in game 3-D match engine which moved the game strides forward from the text based method used in Championship Manager and previous versions of FM.
The system gets its first refinement in the 2011. The 3-D engine has been graphically enhanced to allow a full-HD viewing experience, and the match engine itself has tweaked commentary, a number of new animations, and a fully changeable weather system which alters the pattern of the game.
7. This year installation of the game has been streamlined by the mandatory use of the Steam system which had been included as an optional extra in previous editions. Steam ensures that the game runs all the latest versions of up-to-date patches, and will automatically download any of the necessary data which will ensure the smooth running of your game. This simplifies installing and uninstalling the game (but why would you want to do the latter....!) and speeds up load times both initially and during the game. Thanks to the robust Steam system it is also much simpler to find a multi-player game.
8. As ever Football Manager 2012 is a hugely customizable experience. Prefer your assistant manager to handle pre-season friendlies and press conferences? With one click you can make this a constant throughout your time as a manager. Dealing with the finer points of management can be difficult in the 2012 version of Football Manager, but each and every player can tailor their experience and make sure that the game is suitable for them.
9. As a virtual manager, much of your time is likely to be directed to signing new players whether you feel that your team is not quite up to the cut, or if you have an Arab billionaire who has given you the power to bring in the world’s top players. To this end, the game’s transfer system has been refined and improved to allow for much more realistic deals to take place. Following on from last year’s version, agents feature highly in player negotiations, but this time out when negotiating with them on behalf of the players, you can lock certain aspects of the deal on which you refuse to budge. This makes negotiations a much trickier task with plenty of give and take, but the ability to get your message across in this way means that you can make only the deals which suit you.
10. Pouring over stats isn’t everyone’s cup of team, but those who play Football Manager are likely to be as analytical as any sports fan across the world. To assist you with your management duties are new team and player backgrounds which help to immerse you in the football world. These provide you with incredible levels of detail and summarise player’s notable honours throughout their career, and help track club’s positions over a set number of years.
11. Team feedback is another feature of the game which has been tweaked this time around. As well as being able to assess the capabilities of your own side in each position with a first, second and third option. You can now see the position strengths of each other team on the game. Tracking another team’s options is another excellent scouting tool which can let you know the strengths and weakness of your opposition as well as their level of talent and back-ups in certain positions.
12. Once again Football Manager 2012 excels itself in the number of selectable clubs, leagues and the size of its database. With no additions or subtractions from last year’s version of the game means that players have the option to pick over 500 teams and interact with over 30,000 different footballers from across the world.
By now Football Manager has become an institution, and picking up from the success of its predecessor, the game is an equivalent sized juggernaught to the once successful Championship Manager. 2012’s version may not re-invent the wheel, and plays it safe by only enhancing its excellent features, but it continues to provide and brilliant and addictive experience that is likely to keep fans coming back for more, and more and more.
The game’s 2012 edition, the sixth since creators Eidos and Sports Interactive decided to go their separate ways, brings with it a raft of new features (over 800 if the blurb from the games packaging is to be believed) but does it still have the essential ingredients to please fans of the series? Here’s a list of twelve reasons which could make FM 2012 an essential purchase for PC gamers across the world.....
1. We all know that we world has gone into overdrive with online social interaction these days. Websites like Twitter and Facebook give us an unlimited amount of options to communicate and share our opinions with the world around us, and for the first time in franchise history, Football Manager can be synched so that all your management progress can be tracked and posted directly onto the main page of your chosen social networking website.
2. One of the more productive and practical features of the latest game is the option to be able to add or remove playable nations on-the-fly. This means no more having to restart a game because you feel like a trip overseas but only included the English league system on your game when you started. The opportunity to be a much travelled coach in the mould of Roy Hodgson means that your career, should you choose to make it that way, can be much more varied and allow you to battle for silverware on a number of continents in the same game.
3. A staple of the FM series to date has been the teamtalk and interaction features which allow you to communicate directly with players, staff and the media. FM 2012 not only expands on the number of options you can choose from to respond or begin dialogue with others in the game, but also allows you to change the tone of your messages dependent on the situation. Trying to deal with an underperforming player, you can get inside his head with an aggressive message to inform him to buck up his ideas, or merely give him a confidence boost by using the same message in a much calmer tone.
Different players will react in different ways to different tones being used on an individual basis.
4. Scouting has been given a huge boost in the new version of Football Manager. Assistant managers and scouts will still produce reports for you on players and teams, but upon returning to inform you of what they have learnt, the information is now much more detailed. Team feedback includes a statistic which tracks how well teams use, or play against different formations, and player feedback now assesses a player’s strength against certain kinds of opposition. This allows you to make much more informed decisions when signing players or preparing for a big game.
5. For those new to the game, Football Manager is doing its best to allow the casual fan to pick up and play. This is done in part by the tutorial feature which can be switched on and off to help players new to the game with certain aspects, and can be fully customisable so that players can simply manage their team and leave all the rest to the assistant manager of your team. Step-by-step instructions are given for those novices looking to delve into football management for the first time. Forgotten how to do something from a previous version? Simply turn on the help system and allow the game to re-educate you.
6. Since 2009, Football Manager has included an in game 3-D match engine which moved the game strides forward from the text based method used in Championship Manager and previous versions of FM.
The system gets its first refinement in the 2011. The 3-D engine has been graphically enhanced to allow a full-HD viewing experience, and the match engine itself has tweaked commentary, a number of new animations, and a fully changeable weather system which alters the pattern of the game.
7. This year installation of the game has been streamlined by the mandatory use of the Steam system which had been included as an optional extra in previous editions. Steam ensures that the game runs all the latest versions of up-to-date patches, and will automatically download any of the necessary data which will ensure the smooth running of your game. This simplifies installing and uninstalling the game (but why would you want to do the latter....!) and speeds up load times both initially and during the game. Thanks to the robust Steam system it is also much simpler to find a multi-player game.
8. As ever Football Manager 2012 is a hugely customizable experience. Prefer your assistant manager to handle pre-season friendlies and press conferences? With one click you can make this a constant throughout your time as a manager. Dealing with the finer points of management can be difficult in the 2012 version of Football Manager, but each and every player can tailor their experience and make sure that the game is suitable for them.
9. As a virtual manager, much of your time is likely to be directed to signing new players whether you feel that your team is not quite up to the cut, or if you have an Arab billionaire who has given you the power to bring in the world’s top players. To this end, the game’s transfer system has been refined and improved to allow for much more realistic deals to take place. Following on from last year’s version, agents feature highly in player negotiations, but this time out when negotiating with them on behalf of the players, you can lock certain aspects of the deal on which you refuse to budge. This makes negotiations a much trickier task with plenty of give and take, but the ability to get your message across in this way means that you can make only the deals which suit you.
10. Pouring over stats isn’t everyone’s cup of team, but those who play Football Manager are likely to be as analytical as any sports fan across the world. To assist you with your management duties are new team and player backgrounds which help to immerse you in the football world. These provide you with incredible levels of detail and summarise player’s notable honours throughout their career, and help track club’s positions over a set number of years.
11. Team feedback is another feature of the game which has been tweaked this time around. As well as being able to assess the capabilities of your own side in each position with a first, second and third option. You can now see the position strengths of each other team on the game. Tracking another team’s options is another excellent scouting tool which can let you know the strengths and weakness of your opposition as well as their level of talent and back-ups in certain positions.
12. Once again Football Manager 2012 excels itself in the number of selectable clubs, leagues and the size of its database. With no additions or subtractions from last year’s version of the game means that players have the option to pick over 500 teams and interact with over 30,000 different footballers from across the world.
By now Football Manager has become an institution, and picking up from the success of its predecessor, the game is an equivalent sized juggernaught to the once successful Championship Manager. 2012’s version may not re-invent the wheel, and plays it safe by only enhancing its excellent features, but it continues to provide and brilliant and addictive experience that is likely to keep fans coming back for more, and more and more.