Football Manager Series

[bsmaff]

Personally, I am going to avoid early reviews and what people are saying about the game.
I seriously doubt any of them have played FM anywhere near the amount I have - Started with CM 93 and have played every single version of the game since for well over 200 hours every release.
I would of started my own YouTube channel years ago about it but not intelligent or articulate enough to make content.

For me the important thing is the tactical screen and behind the match engine.
Being able to create tactics and styles is what FM is all about and obviously not having a broken match engine like I think it was FM22 or 23 where you couldn't play a CM for a couple of patches as the position ignored the player and you played with 9 or 10 men.

The new in and out of possession is a great addition but as long as it works, because the problem with this last time as stated before, it created the famous 'Wib-Wob' styles where you could just effectively cheat and play 10 men in the opposition half when not in possession.

The BETA is out next week according to leaks, either Tuesday or Thursday.
Once the BETA is released then I will test the game immediately and make a decision after a few hours play with several teams.
For some reason always play as Man Utd in the BETA, as they aren't amazing but not shite either and a Champions League spot should be achievable.

But as stated before for me FM26 gets a free pass - As it is a new engine and pretty much all CM's / FM's to date have been pretty garbage with a new engine.
So for me the potential needs to be there and FM27 needs start bringing in all the old features and new ideas.

 

[Chris Davies]

But as stated before for me FM26 gets a free pass - As it is a new engine and pretty much all CM's / FM's to date have been pretty garbage with a new engine.
So for me the potential needs to be there and FM27 needs start bringing in all the old features and new ideas.

Yeah, my fear after reading each preview talking about the massive amount of bugs - with one saying they had to start again every 1-2 months of game time due to a game-breaking issue - is that QA hasn't been the priority this year, and it won't be a truly playable game until next year.

(And that's ignoring the "quality of life" issues - of which there are lots - rather than game-breaking bugs.)

Miles himself has admitted they needed to get a game out this year, and it feels like they've rushed it out of the door (despite having two years to make it).

I don't want to import my current career, which I've spent 18 days on (400+ hours), and have it ruined - so the temptation is to just carry that on in FM24 instead.

But what I predict I'll end up doing is downloading it via Game Pass, starting a new save and realising after a few games that it's just not ready yet.

 

[H_G]

National team management will be on an update before the WC

 

[el niche]

Just saw on my xbox this is coming to gamepass on Nov 4th. I know they had previous ones there but wasn't sure this would make it. Prob the PC version as well

 

[bsmaff]

National team management will be on an update before the WC

Well the FIFA license is up for grabs and clearly they are desperate for some extra cash.
Maybe bungs have been down in the last couple of years.

 

[H_G]

 

[Chris Davies]

What a huge coup that is, the FIFA license! That's stunning.

I hope it doesn't lead to any modding restrictions.

 

[bsmaff]

What a huge coup that is, the FIFA license! That's stunning.

I hope it doesn't lead to any modding restrictions.

I wouldn't of thought so too much.
The game is Unity so modding should be easier for the next version, or more mods should become available.

I am sure it won't take long for SortitoutSI to get all the graphics and licenses updated after launch.

 

[H_G]

This animations details should be added in future editions, as part of the set piece tactic

 

[Topaz]

Personally, I am going to avoid early reviews and what people are saying about the game.
I seriously doubt any of them have played FM anywhere near the amount I have - Started with CM 93 and have played every single version of the game since for well over 200 hours every release.
I would of started my own YouTube channel years ago about it but not intelligent or articulate enough to make content.

For me the important thing is the tactical screen and behind the match engine.
Being able to create tactics and styles is what FM is all about and obviously not having a broken match engine like I think it was FM22 or 23 where you couldn't play a CM for a couple of patches as the position ignored the player and you played with 9 or 10 men.

The new in and out of possession is a great addition but as long as it works, because the problem with this last time as stated before, it created the famous 'Wib-Wob' styles where you could just effectively cheat and play 10 men in the opposition half when not in possession.

The BETA is out next week according to leaks, either Tuesday or Thursday.
Once the BETA is released then I will test the game immediately and make a decision after a few hours play with several teams.
For some reason always play as Man Utd in the BETA, as they aren't amazing but not shite either and a Champions League spot should be achievable.

But as stated before for me FM26 gets a free pass - As it is a new engine and pretty much all CM's / FM's to date have been pretty garbage with a new engine.
So for me the potential needs to be there and FM27 needs start bringing in all the old features and new ideas.

For me, FM 24 match engine wasn't that bad. It just didn't properly account for mental and technical stats as much as I would like but they only need to tweak it slightly to have mental and technical stats to have more impact and not just physical stats(that will also nerf gegen pressing). For me, the biggest concern from FM 24 is the fact that after a couple of seasons, every ai managed squad gets weak. They choose their old declining players and don't sign huge potential players and they don't loan their wonderkids so much making the game very easy after season 2. I haven't heard anything about them fixing AI squad manager which is sad because what else is that team(who handles the off the pitch gameplay) been doing for 2 years?

 

[VierGraustufen]

What a huge coup that is, the FIFA license! That's stunning.

I hope it doesn't lead to any modding restrictions.

With all due respect, I don't understand what's so good about it. This licence is completely unnecessary for a football manager game. A few menus have been created and, with a bit of luck, you can see the players running onto the pitch in World Cup style.

The game was released a year late and now has to pay FIFA licence fees on top of Premier League fees.
Sooner or later, it will be crammed full of microtransactions or turn into Ultimate Team online or free to play model.
Too many licences are damaging the game.
Oh well, I don't care, just ruin the game as quickly as possible like the FIFA and PES series, then we can finally put this rubbish behind us.

Amen.

 

[Jowson]

It just looks to me like they've sold out on their loyal base of PC players for the sake of everyone else on every other platform. I can already tell it's going to be awful to navigate compared to what we are used to.

Nothing is sacred from this younger generation now, I thought this one the one thing I had! And it's not even the younger generations fault, we are deciding what they want for them and I don't even think we are getting it right.

 

[Chris Davies]

With all due respect, I don't understand what's so good about it. This licence is completely unnecessary for a football manager game. A few menus have been created and, with a bit of luck, you can see the players running onto the pitch in World Cup style.

The game was released a year late and now has to pay FIFA licence fees on top of Premier League fees.
Sooner or later, it will be crammed full of microtransactions or turn into Ultimate Team online or free to play model.
Too many licences are damaging the game.
Oh well, I don't care, just ruin the game as quickly as possible like the FIFA and PES series, then we can finally put this rubbish behind us.

Amen.

I see your point. It is an expensive license (or at least, it was for EA) - and realistically it's not going to add anything that mods wouldn't.

Which is why I said "I hope it doesn't restrict modding" - when the developers of a golf game called The Golf Club got the PGA Tour license, suddenly all user-generated content was policed, and I could easily see FIFA saying "our license is a lot of money and we're not allowing anybody to mess with FIFA assets".

Who knows what FIFA's restrictions were when it comes to their contract with EA - but I have heard rumours.

Anyway, IMO, if SEGA is paying for it and it's not being taken out of SI's development budget, it's good news as far as I'm concerned. If only because it means they have to make the international management genuinely fun (you'd hope). FIFA won't want to be ridiculed.

As for microtransactions, it's been confirmed that there are none in FM26 (via the Steam listing), and Miles says the game is more popular than ever, with them making more money than ever through their current deals (Game Pass, Apple Arcade, Netflix and retail).

I can't see it becoming a part of the game, unless they do start restricting mods and charging for add-on licenses, but that's just playing devil's advocate.

It just looks to me like they've sold out on their loyal base of PC players for the sake of everyone else on every other platform. I can already tell it's going to be awful to navigate compared to what we are used to.

Nothing is sacred from this younger generation now, I thought this one the one thing I had! And it's not even the younger generations fault, we are deciding what they want for them and I don't even think we are getting it right.

I trust Miles when he says the main aim of the UI refresh was to make it easier to customise and better to use, but, it does admittedly look more difficult to use right now.

My biggest bugbear is that the back button has gone from the "pop-ups" as they call them.

It honestly feels like there's some desperate desire to "break the mould" (and genuinely not dumb anything down), making the game super-slick (Miles has spoken about wanting to win UI awards in the past), and therefore being dead against things that are "boring" but just work.

If the back button goes, I know for a fact I'll find it 100x harder to play the game.

The comments from players so far make it sound like it's been messed around with for no reason, and that it's less about "getting used to it" (which Miles will argue) and more that it's simply and demonstrably worse...

...which makes the fact that skinning won't be supported for a while even more frustrating.

 

[VierGraustufen]

I see your point. It is an expensive license (or at least, it was for EA) - and realistically it's not going to add anything that mods wouldn't.

Which is why I said "I hope it doesn't restrict modding" - when the developers of a golf game called The Golf Club got the PGA Tour license, suddenly all user-generated content was policed, and I could easily see FIFA saying "our license is a lot of money and we're not allowing anybody to mess with FIFA assets".

Who knows what FIFA's restrictions were when it comes to their contract with EA - but I have heard rumours.

Anyway, IMO, if SEGA is paying for it and it's not being taken out of SI's development budget, it's good news as far as I'm concerned. If only because it means they have to make the international management genuinely fun (you'd hope). FIFA won't want to be ridiculed.

As for microtransactions, it's been confirmed that there are none in FM26 (via the Steam listing), and Miles says the game is more popular than ever, with them making more money than ever through their current deals (Game Pass, Apple Arcade, Netflix and retail).

I must say you have some good points.

However, I see it a little differently than most people. I am more critical when it comes to licences. Many people think licences in a football management game are great. The original Premier League or a FIFA licence, why not many more leagues? It's simply that the more licences there are, the more money is already taken out of the total budget each year, without even considering development costs. The pressure to deliver sales increases, and sports games also have the problem that they cannot be reinvented every year. So at some point it will be like EA FC Games. As little effort as possible and trying to generate more money through the payment model.

It creeps up slowly with the licences. What is still considered cool today will be the downfall of the series tomorrow due to ‘Ultimate Team Mode’, buying cards, microtransactions, and when that no longer works, it will become free to play.

PGA2019 will also be exciting to see if, after the server shutdown at the end of the month, it will be possible to delete the player profile that is stored online and if the offline season will still work at all.

I think it's a shame that our beloved sport and sports games, which used to bring us joy in 95% of cases, now make us think that things could get even worse. I'm fed up with it.

 

[Chris Davies]

So, the new regen faces have dropped.

Sorry, but they're absolutely shocking. Half of them look like twins.

This is one of the areas that really takes away from the immersion, and there are mods that do a 100x better job than this.

Really disappointed. I mean, if this has taken any amount of time to implement, they'd have been better off leaving them as they were. They're barely different.

 

[Topaz]

So, the new regen faces have dropped.

Sorry, but they're absolutely shocking. Half of them look like twins.

This is one of the areas that really takes away from the immersion, and there are mods that do a 100x better job than this.

Really disappointed. I mean, if this has taken any amount of time to implement, they'd have been better off leaving them as they were. They're barely different.

They all have the same lips and face proportion.

 

[Chris Davies]

Few different examples on this one.

I'm actually angry about how poor they are, when they've acknowledged how bad they are previously, and if anything they might be even worse.

The female faces all look absolutely identical, and they look like they've all had skin grafts.

Really angry.

 

[H_G]

Few different examples on this one.

I'm actually angry about how poor they are, when they've acknowledged how bad they are previously, and if anything they might be even worse.

The female faces all look absolutely identical, and they look like they've all had skin grafts.

Really angry.

Had any other game using Unity made better models ?

 

[H_G]

 

[Chris Davies]

Had any other game using Unity made better models ?

Unity doesn't restrict what you can do with basic graphics models. This is entirely on SI. Click here to see some sample Unity face graphics (if you can do that with it, you can make humans look like humans and not British criminal photofits from the 1980s).

For me, FM 24 match engine wasn't that bad. It just didn't properly account for mental and technical stats as much as I would like but they only need to tweak it slightly to have mental and technical stats to have more impact and not just physical stats(that will also nerf gegen pressing).

Thought of you when I saw this review (it's not a concrete answer but interesting because he does bring up gegenpressing):