155 hours…
The game has been available for only 16 days now, and 6.5 of those days have been spent playing Football Manager 12… and it is for that reason that my review of the game comes somewhat belatedly. It is however a testament to the sheer addictiveness this game can succumb people to. [Editor's note - since writing this, which was admittedly a few weeks ago - sorry, Ed has racked up a total of 531 hours in 2.5 months...].
Every year around October & November there are a whole host of huge titles that many a gamer cannot wait to get their hands on; this year (2011) Modern Warfare 3, Battlefield 3, Skyrim and Arkham City are four such games. Yet without fail there is also a very large, loyal fanbase waiting for their annual fix of Football Manager, and Sports Interactive have come up trumps once again.
As I write this review I am currently managing Chelmsford City; a lowly club predicted to finish 2nd in the Blue Square South Division. Naturally the board saw my ambition when appointing me as their manager, and I have so far lived up to and exceeded expectation as we are currently flying high at the top of the division halfway through the season. Safe to say I’m feeling good about myself.
My early success has not been achieved through a big spending and an awesome youth academy but by shrewd free transfers and small tweaks in my 4-4-2 formation, along with finding the right strategy and tempo whilst constantly dictating the way my team plays. FM12 gives you complete immersion, allowing you to tweak every facet of your team and each individual player giving you the feel of being right there in the dressing room.
What makes FM12 yet another improvement in the ever popular series is its ability to cater to new players, whilst catering for its hardcore players. A new tutorial mode, separate from starting a new game, allows new players and old alike to familiarise themselves with the new layout, tactics, training, transfer centre and match screen. The new interface has just the right amount of information on it at any one time and can tailor itself to your screens resolution – it is fun playing the game in a 22″ monitor and even then you aren’t overloaded with boxes and menus. It can take a while to become accustomed to the new streamlined menu system but once you’ve got the hang of it it’ll reap dividends.
What’s clever about FM12 is it’s innocuous way of making you delve deeper into each aspect of the game; every news item has further links to it with the new scouting reports based on real-life reports, training is a lot more user friendly with a more simpler structure making it easy to designate your wingers to focus on their crossing as it really was dire in that recent 0-0 draw.
The transfer centre has had a revamp for FM12, and along with lockable clauses in contract negotiations is my favourite new tweak as it groups your transfers in one place allowing you to quickly accept/reject numerous bids at once instead of ciphering through countless e-mails like in previous years. Contract negotiations now allow to lock-out certain parts of the contract if you refuse to budge on what you’re offering, this stops you from having to pay over the odds for a player you desperately want in order for them to sign for you, and can allow you to make-up the drop in wages with other performance related perks. Naturally the odd one will still demand excessive amounts of money due to their agents, however if you constantly buy from one agent a rapport can be built up. This way he may be less demanding in future transactions.
Communication with your team and players is playing an ever more important part in Football Manager games, with introductions of team talks and player interaction in past titles, this year sees the introduction of team meetings and now managers can set the tone of their voice when issuing team talks or meetings. The options are Aggressively, Assertively, Passionate, Calm, Cautious and Reluctant. What you say to your team is still quite unvaried with limited options but the addition of tone allows for more combinations that can either increase or decrease morale. Safe to say I’ve already made my team’s morale ‘Abysmal’ after a few team meetings.
FM12 has now integrated the use of Facebook into its interface. FM11 was the first to see Twitter integration yet it was slow, and automatic tweets were fairly sporadic. However this year sees much improvement and along with the ability to upload highlights and matches to YouTube, it’s never been easier to gloat to your friends just how great (or bad) you are at Football Manager.
Safe to say I am one of the many addicted to Football Manager (though some say I take it to new extremes, so what if I wear a suit on cup final day?), and it continues to improve year on year. I know that I will be playing it a hell of a lot… until FM13 I guess.
Now if you’ll excuse me I’ve a crucial top of the table clash to attend and the press won’t hang around forever, bloody conferences…
Title: Football Manager 2012
Developer: Sports Interactive
Publisher: Sega
Genres: Sports
Platform: PSP, iOS, PC
Release Date: October 21st 2011
Pros -
Whole host of new features – new interface, team meetings etc
More in-depth gameplay
Cons -
Can I say none? I’m saying none, if I wanted to pick holes the graphics aren’t what you might find in games like FIFA, but that in no way takes anything away from the gameplay experience.
