Football Manager 2014 Beta Release: First Impressions

by Chappers  18/10/2013 | 11:24 0 Posted in FM 2014, Hype n News 

The FM 14 BETA is flying off the shelf and hundreds of thousands of people worldwide are now furiously tapping that space bar but what are your first impressions of the game so far? Is it what you expected?

Of course it is too early to tell what all the tweaks and features are and how they have impacted on the game and our in-game experience but aesthetically, how has it changed.

We challenged our editor Danny Chapman about his thoughts so far.

How long have you been playing FM?

Hey Lucas, I’ve been playing FM for well over a decade now, it’s gone massively fast but I still remember the days of FM release day, with several of us round a friends house pounding that space bar until we literally fell asleep in front of our laptops, only to awaken a couple of hours later to do the same thing, happy days!

What were the things that needed fixing in your opinion?

For me Football Manager 2013 was a disappointment, in all honesty I played it the least out of any FM release yet. It just lacked something, an x factor if you like that it just seemed to miss.

There were too many in-game errors, glitches and mistakes made by your team on the field. Not to mention the discrepancies in team form being massively frustrating.

I remember one game I had just beat my club record wins in a row, 23 I think it was, I was top of the league, flying you could say. I had just played my ‘youths’ in a CL game because I had already qualified so was forced in to playing my star-line-up first team against Barnsley in the cup.

Anyway, I was 3-0 up at half time and lost the game 7-3. What?, how can that be plausible.

Don’t get me wrong though, in terms of graphical enhancement, UI and new features FM 13 was the best one yet. For me though the inconsistencies and frustration they caused outweighed the otherwise pristine makeup of the game.

Were you looking forward to FM 2014?

Yes I was massively looking forward to new game but I do wait with bated breath as for me the game needs to improve, but not the look and feel, for me its time to get in to the nitty gritty of the games functions to make it as real as possible.

Whats your first aesthetic impression of the Beta release?

I was both delighted to see some slight changes to the UI and excited to see that no too much had changed, there is a few bugs that need sorting in my opinion, for example the ‘black’ outline that seems to show up on all logos, imagery and comments etc makes it look unfinished.

I realise it is unfinished but that seems a simple thing and something that shouldn’t be seen in the Beta. I hope this is changed and I hope SI are not hoping that everyone downloads an image pack add-on to sort this issue.

The in-game graphics are awesome and you can really pick out the technical differences between players but its too early to tell exactly what has changed in game as i only managed to squeeze in a couple of games after my mass-transfer activity as is a given with a new game.

Your final thoughts on the game so far?

I am impressed but I wouldn’t want to pass judgement until i have been through at least a full season, the one niggling thing that is obvious to me at the moment is that there doesn’t seem to be a massive seed-change since 2013, which in my opinion was needed.

I was half hoping they completely scrapped the 1-20 stats, for me thats the biggest difference between the game and real life, but as 99% of the people I have suggested to would be happy to hear, they haven’t listened!

We would love to hear your thoughts on the BETA so far, just put them in the comments below!