Football Manager 2011 Review

There are games that are legendary in the gaming world, games that have held people’s attention for many years, each new version better than the last, and each version adding something new to the mix. In this group is one game that has stood the test of time and even a name change to sit atop the world of management games, this game is Football Manager. 
 

From its early days as a simple but addictive game on the Amiga and ST, it has grown into the world conquering monster it is today, and here we are in November 2010 looking at the current iteration: Football Manager 2011.

This year version has added so much to its play book it’s amazing. I will no doubt miss out some small feature that will crop up only in certain situations, with certain clubs or players; it’s that in depth this year. Things are getting serious with FM2011. Initially I will concentrate on the big changes to this year’s update, although using the word update is doing the game a disservice, as you will see as we progress through this review.

All Football Manager games start in the same way, no reason to fix what isn’t broken. The initial splash screens give the usual messages, start a new game, load an existing game, join a network game etc. So, let’s take the obvious choice and start a new game. Here is where the first changes to the latest version appear. The interface for selecting leagues and countries has been given a face lift. It is now much easier to select particular countries and leagues, 115 in all. Also here you can see how many players will be available to view, at the top end around 169,000, and a rough guide on the performance of your PC with a star rating out of 5 giving you an idea of probable game speed. It’s obvious the game has had something other than cosmetic work done, the guys have been tinkering with the game engine, even on my modest PC I can comfortably run several leagues with no noticeable slowdown and this has to be applauded in an age when we are pushed into constant upgrading to play the latest games at their best.

Next, you need to create your in-game persona. This is pretty simple and is no real change from last year’s effort. After that it’s time to get to know your club. As always the chairman welcomes you to the club and hopes you take the club to glory, I mean, who would take a job and not want to be the greatest team in the world anyway? The layout of the buttons and messages is at first a little confusing, and for first timers will, possibly prove to be a major barrier.

It isn’t a game designed for the first time player if I’m honest about it. Even with the extensive tips and help it is still a huge game to take on if you have no experience of the genre. One thing you will notice on the manager creation page though is two buttons at the bottom; Twitter login, and YouTube login, that's right Twitter and YouTube. Football Manager has gone social. It is now easy to upload results and highlights as both of these applications are now integrated into the game itself. So, all of us who always wanted to show off that awesome 30 yard screamer your bargain signing makes can now do so. I was dubious about it at first and was of the opinion it was too gimmicky, but after a while it becomes a huge boost to the game and I can’t fault them for including it.

 

Now you are in control of your favoured club the nitty gritty of management begins, time to assess the squad and staff, clear out the dead wood and bring in those player you think will take your team onto bigger and better things. The staff will now offer advice at appropriate times, for example your assistant manager will recommend holding a pre-game meeting to prepare the staff and squad and your scouts will offer certain opinions on players of interest. This can prove to be invaluable in assessing the opposition if you have a scout assigned to the opposition for the next game.

Football Manager 2011 has taken pre-game preparation to a new level, the training regimes are still there, but you can now also add in pre-game preparations to this, train the squad in a couple of formations and tactics so they are prepared when you need to change during the game. There is also a ‘create a tactic’ option now; this can be used both as a simple options based, and more in depth advanced, method.

During the game you can offer sideline advice from a simple drop down menu or make substitutions from a more complex tactics menu, not many changes here from last year’s effort.

The match engine has also been given an overhaul, we still have the nice 3d engine, a welcome
addition a few years ago, but the development team have added in new animations and pitch side eye candy, so no longer do all grounds look very similar and player goal celebrations are now a little more varied. Here, however, is where my one and only real problem lies. In previous versions we had a game speed and a highlight speed slider option. This has been changed to just a game speed slide, so if you’re not quick enough your goal highlight flashes past rather too quickly. I know some people don’t watch the whole game, and this could cause some to not even bother with the lovely 3d match display at all, which is a shame.

As always these are just base graphics to use until the FM community takes the game by the neck and add in the innumerable graphical add-ons. This has always been a great thing about the more recent versions of this series, the ability to change the game to your liking. I have no doubt that soon enough there will be many graphical updates for the game, ranging from new kits to complete skins for the user interface.

One of the other major changes in the game is transfers, these have been totally changed. Almost all players now have an agent. Yes, one of those sneaky snakes in the grass will now sit between you are your future star and negotiate on their behalf. This can prove to be messily frustrating, when all that stands between you and the next Pele is the agent wanting a few more quid in his pocket and not his clients. I’m still unsure about the addition of agents to the game and can see it being one of the features that will become disliked by the community.

Conversations in the game have also been changed, before it was a simple matter of click a radio button to select from a simple list of options when talking to your players or the board, but this year the system has been changed to a more conversational style interface, where an answer will follow onto the next in a much more natural way.

The editor included is once again a comprehensive way to change players around teams and change the small detail that need to be changed,. With the scope of a game such as this small errors do creep into the database from time to time.

From the outset of Football Manager 2011 you really do feel more involved than ever before as more decisions are pushed towards the manager, you can - if you wish - delegate some jobs to your assistant, but there is no better feeling than taking a lower league team to the top of the pile and onto glory in Europe, or even taking over the national squad and winning the World Cup.

The game never really changes at its heart, it is after all football, the additions and changes are just the decoration that covers probably the best football management simulation of all time. Others have tried to take the crown and some almost managed it. But Sports Interactive is the daddy when it comes to this genre and with the backing of Sega won’t relinquish that crown any time soon. I am a self declared Football Manager addict and this version has done nothing to change that. It has its faults, sure, but they are easily forgiven when the rest of the game is of such quality.