Football Manager Series

Jowson said:
I watch this and who the hell wants moving hair.
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Moving hair, while the faces look like this:



I just don't get it.

Also, the new stadium models / "parts"... I'm not really convinced of the point behind this, when they purposefully make the stadiums look different from the real ones to avoid licensing headaches. Do I care if my team's stadium looks cooler but still nothing like the actual ground (on purpose)? Not at all. So thank God for modders (@BassyBoyYT)...
 
Chris Davies said:
Moving hair, while the faces look like this:



I just don't get it.

Also, the new stadium models / "parts"... I'm not really convinced of the point behind this, when they purposefully make the stadiums look different from the real ones to avoid licensing headaches. Do I care if my team's stadium looks cooler but still nothing like the actual ground (on purpose)? Not at all. So thank God for modders (@BassyBoyYT)...
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I get different teams work on different things, but I can't believe any meaningful resource is going into this area after the last couple of years. It really is right at the bottom of the pile
 
FM Updates October:-

Football Manager 2026

Tools:
Real Name Licencing Fix v6.0
Daveincid Increase Realism Megapack - SEPTEMBER UPDATE
Data Update 01/10/26 - Including New Faces UPDATE
Real Agents Pack
Real Media Pack

Graphics:
3D Stadium Megapack v3.14
Trophies 2026.10
Faces v2026.09
NewGan Fixes Update
Logos v2026.03
2D Kits v2027.01
3D Kits v2027.01
Boot Pack Update v2.0.1

Football Manager 2024

Tools:
Data Update 01/10/2026 - Including New Faces UPDATE
Licensing Fix v4.1
Daveincid Increase Realism Megapack - FINAL UPDATE
Real Agents Pack
Real Media Pack

Graphics:
Since the majority of graphics on FM26 can be used on FM24.
These will no longer be updated - But the files will remain in case of compatibility issues.
 


The comments have really made me laugh.

The top ones are things like "please just add things that add depth to the game like new player roles, that's all we care about" - but then, directly underneath:

 
The animations and match engine still doesn't look that impressive but maybe it will change nearer release.

It is also incredibly unrealistic as during the video Tottenham scored a goal.
 
Excluding the general graphics and animations, which should be better by now but it's not important enough to be that angry about it...

...I think that's fairly impressive! But the proof is in the pudding.
 
What's FM like these days? Is it still something you can sink 100's of hours into. I gave up with the series around FM16. I played a few demo's since but it started to feel like having another job instead of a game to enjoy. The addition of twitter nonsense and other stuff didn't appeal to me either. It was a shame as I'd bought every version up to that point right back to the first one of the Amiga. Thinking back, my 26 year career at Wycombe Wanderers was something of a high point. I still remember the moment, about 15 years in, when my striker, who'd made his debut at 18, scored his 300th goal for the club. I built a statue in the garden for him (this may not be true!). But anyway, I wondered what the feeling was about the game for you guys now. Do you still play extensively or end up putting it down and coming back to it again on the next version?
I remember getting really excited for the 3d match and then wishing it had never happened when it finally came. The half time talks always felt too 'gamey' as well, say one thing wrong and your best player's pissed off with you.

Sorry for the ramble!
 
Chris Davies said:
Excluding the general graphics and animations, which should be better by now but it's not important enough to be that angry about it...

...I think that's fairly impressive! But the proof is in the pudding.
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Agree Chris, the graphics and animatons should be better but for now we can live this, however, this the first video that they have released where I have seen some tangible improvements to things that matter to me, it is a step in the right direction but will continue not to get too excited...
 
bsmaff said:
So was the 3m clip on tactics a deep dive?
I wouldn't even call it dipping the toes in the water.
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Part of me thinks it was longer but the backlash from the horrendous FPS in the last video resulted in them cutting a load of content.

Part of me thinks they don't have much else to talk about when it comes to the match engine - which is sort of worrying, but then, the changes do sound important.
 
The main thing for me when the game releases is do they fix the awful UI.
They seem to have been really working on it this year which is a step in the right direction.
Is it as good as FM24, absolutely not but they are trying to fix it - Seems like a Unity issue rather than a them issue.

The match engine last season was awful, not only did it look bad but the tactics needed to win games was sickening.
Strikerless formations and winning the Prem in my 4th year with Exeter needs to be fixed - The game was so easy I thought I was running an always win cheat.

The main issue with the game now is, everything I feared about the game moving engine and starting to appeal more to casual/console players hasn't just become true, it is 10 times worse than I ever thought.
FM25 wasn't even released it was so bad.

Football Manager was my last hope for football games, as everything else has gone eSports.
Football Manager has always been a hardcore, spreedsheet/database driven game which felt really special when you achieved something.
It has now become a game to appeal to the masses as clearly either SI or SEGA were not happy with the amount of copies being sold, when they could make it easier and more accessible to the mainstream and sell 4x more copies.
The world is driven by money and nothing more and it saddens me that SI chased the money rather than improving on their spreadsheet every year and just always have their loyal fanbase.

This is the 1st year in FM history that I will be buying the game on Steam, so that I can get it refunded within 2 hours if not much has been fixed.
I never thought for a 2nd I would ever say this about a FM game and I have bought every single version of the game since CM Italia after I took to the high seas for CM94 on my Amiga - The only one I never bought was CM93 and the Norwegian version of the game.
That is one of a loyalty bonus and FM27 I reckon will be refunded within 90 minutes.
 
There is a now a Data Update for both FM24 and FM26 where the game will start in 2026.

So I have uploaded both these updates to the OneDrive.
It is also just called 2026Update_081026.

The normal update files have also been left so you can choose to start in the year the game was released or 2026.
 
That is incredible.
I only skipped the sped up video but would be interested to see how stats work and are configured across.
As FM is out of 20 PES is out of 100.

It would also mean that the stats of the players you sign would be completely different as you would sign fast players with certain stats depending on position compared to FM stats for that position.

So it would be very difficult to switch between the 2 as would need different types of players and different tactics depending on whether you preferred playing FM or PES.

But if he ever releases the mod, it will be the best management/play game since SWOS.
 
Can you lower the price of hot dogs to sell more tickets when your team sucks, then buy better players? Now that’s the sort of thing I could get into. While a button for “commit massive financial fraud” would be even more realistic, perhaps that’s not the game I want to play.
 


This is a much better version of the previous deep dive.

Also, this guy should be given a job at SI. I don't know that I'll ever love a management game more than I enjoyed FM24 with his skin that replaced numbered attributes with real-world-style scout reports. I really hope skins are fully supported again in 27 but I doubt it.
 
This screams what a mistake it was to switch to Unity (along with, you know, FM25 being skipped and FM26 being so bad):

 
Chris Davies said:
This screams what a mistake it was to switch to Unity (along with, you know, FM25 being skipped and FM26 being so bad):

Click to expand...

Not everything is the engine's fault. Switching to Unity likely made it far, far easier for them to hire new talent, not to mention the insane ecosystem and community support.

There's a reason EA eventually switched to Frostbite for FIFA and Konami switched to Unreal Engine for eFootball.

After a certain point the benefits simply outweigh the cons.
 
New blog... FM27: More Personal, Accessible and Yours

I'm sorry, but if the graphics are this bad, it feels really weird to "show them off". I'd rather not have a manager avatar at all, than have hair sprouting out of my forehead.



...and the newgens still look like PS1 Resident Evil characters.

Feature%20Blog%20-%20Newgen%20Asset%20%28Screen%207%29.png
 
Not that I think AI is a must, but We Are Football is using AI generated photos for Newgens and I think it works okay to give you a feeling of it is a real player.
 
Jay-Jay 10 said:
Not that I think AI is a must, but We Are Football is using AI generated photos for Newgens and I think it works okay to give you a feeling of it is a real player.
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There are mods for FM26 that override these profile pictures and select an AI-generated photo (from hundreds of thousands of options) based on the newgen's details from the database (e.g. gender, hair/skin colour, nationality).

It makes such a huge difference to my immersion in the game and makes me feel like my youth players are real people. I mean, just look at the difference:

Screenshot-20261015-132807-Chrome-2.jpg


But it's just so hard to understand, from a customer perspective... How can you have a games development company, complete with a graphics department who work full-time, and your graphics be this (let's be honest) shockingly poor for an outrageous length of time? All the consumer can see is "someone isn't doing their job".



These announced "improvements", e.g. the newgens now look towards different angles in their profile pictures, are absolutely worthless if we're being totally honest. Nobody wants to see people being "toxic" towards developers, but this is one of those instances where I just can't understand what the excuse is.
 
I think its funny how they always highlight the worst. Obviously the faces aren't amazing, maybe not even average. Other hand why should they put time in if everyone uses the newgan faces anyway? It's a weird split and that is without the question on if this had to be a priority for 27?
 
Chris Davies said:
There are mods for FM26 that override these profile pictures and select an AI-generated photo (from hundreds of thousands of options) based on the newgen's details from the database (e.g. gender, hair/skin colour, nationality).

It makes such a huge difference to my immersion in the game and makes me feel like my youth players are real people. I mean, just look at the difference:

Screenshot-20261015-132807-Chrome-2.jpg


But it's just so hard to understand, from a customer perspective... How can you have a games development company, complete with a graphics department who work full-time, and your graphics be this (let's be honest) shockingly poor for an outrageous length of time? All the consumer can see is "someone isn't doing their job".



These announced "improvements", e.g. the newgens now look towards different angles in their profile pictures, are absolutely worthless if we're being totally honest. Nobody wants to see people being "toxic" towards developers, but this is one of those instances where I just can't understand what the excuse is.
Click to expand...



I mean, if you're wondering why there's not a video to go with this one, here is your answer. All the toxicity that would have come with it (and rightly so for this one. The earliest example is the best in terms of faces they had, it's absolutely crazy!
 
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