Is FM13 the best Football Manager game ever to be released

by Wyldbore  11/05/2013 | 2:25 0 Posted in Football Manager 13, Opinion 

This time, there are more features bundled in than ever, with over 900 enhancements than the previous version SI have really gone to town on trying to match the fan’s demands with in-game enhancements.

This alone makes it worthwhile for football fans that would like to test their management capabilities in the game-world of FM.

Best of all these features though is the addictive nature that is still in full swing. FM13 is an innocent drug that is always in the back of your mind, processing the possibility of a match outcome after another click of the mouse. When you are mesmerised to that level, it’s hard to say anything other than this is a brilliant piece of video game entertainment for fans of the beautiful game.There is also the new Classic Mode, which is a brilliant inclusion that could bring in new people or even bring back the older fans that might have given up on the series because of its overall complexities that drove some people away between the 11-12 era.

However, has it become too detailed for the ordinary football fan who just wants to buy players and win the league?

I am the kind of FM player who isn’t really bothered about getting down to the nitty-gritty like setting daily training regimes for my players, or bringing in Doctor Shipman as my new physio.

There is also the inclusion of Classic Mode, a redesigned take on the football manager gameplay that flows at a much faster pace than the standard mode. The best thing about Classic Mode is that it manages to bring this streamlined version without the loss of its huge player database, 3D football match engine and other in-depth background calculations.

What is removed from Classic Mode though is the time-hogging features, which is clear from the get-go when you initiate a new game and see that you can select no more than three country leagues to be fully represented in the career.

Press and staff meetings are near non-existent – only when very important topics need addressing – while training is limited to team training, cutting out all the in-depth control specifically catering to an individual’s training needs which for me is a bonus.

The new inclusion of being able to add players as ‘transfer targets’ for your assistant to then negotiate terms with is a stroke of genius. This takes out a lot of time for you having to sit there with the player and agent round the table trying to get him to sign while trying not to pay his agent over £4million for just turning up. But for those who like the negotiating side of FM this is probably a feature you will never use.

The one thing SI hasn’t got quite correct yet is the signing of players versus the selling of your own players.  Borussia Dortmund want over £70million for Lewandowski which is overpriced even for the fake footballing world of FM.  But when you want to sell your own players like Nani, you will be lucky to even get £12million for him.

It is really hard to make any kind of mark up on what a player’s actual value is.

The match engine has also been upgraded, not just in 3D, but the general layout of information that is given as the game plays out.

An assistant will post notes on the side of the screen alerting to key parts of the match, and you can use this information to judge substitutions or change basic tactics on the fly without the need to go into the menus. Watching your team perform on the pitch in 3D is more enjoyable now that the animation is better. It is not on the same levels as what you see in FIFA or Pro Evo, but it does its job well.

If you have never liked FM because it did not let you play, then you never will. It is a title that when broken down to the barebones is a massive database doing millions of calculations, with a fancy menu and stats that make you feel good or bad about how you manage a team, while exceptionally keeping to the realism of the sport.

So, overall, FM13 is better than FM12 and its predecessors as it gives you more control and things you can do to impact on the outcome of the next game.  However, there are still a hundred and one things they could do to change the game for better.

Make sure you keep an eye out for our next article which looks into how good FM13 is against some of the other football management games out there.