Football Manager 2012 
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Football Manager: the diary of a descent into madnessApr 1, 2014 - PC Gamer Written by Iain Macintosh While putting together the book, Football Manager Stole My Life, my co-authors and I trawled hundreds of personal accounts of virtual chalkboard addiction. We spoke to games journalists, psychologists and actual, real life footballers who had been afflicted. We even went back and played innumerable seasons of classic Championship/Football Manager too. Just for research. Oh Christ, here come the sweats. We never set out to help cure anyone. All we wanted to do was to let people know that they were not alone. That there were others like them out there, wandering this world in body while their minds were elsewhere entirely. Probably scouting the Eredivisie for 19 year-old wingbacks. All roads lead back to Holland. What follows is an amalgamation of stories designed to show you what lurks in the shadows of this hidden world, a bit like those one of those videos about heroin that they used to show you at school. This is what can happen when you play Football Manager too much. DAY ONE: You feel a frisson of guilt that you ve just spent three hours on a pre-season campaign, but you shrug it off with a smile. It was fun, wasn t it? You assigned most of the more mundane tasks to your assistant, because you don t want to waste time on stuff like coaching, do you? That s what coaches are for. You re just happy enough to make a jokey bid for Lionel Messi and then play some games. And you did well too. There are now four Japanese second division teams who won t forget your name in a hurry. Well done, you. DAY TWO: The season didn t start well and you think you know why. You were too casual yesterday. You just threw a team out, you didn t prepare them on a game-by-game basis. You didn t even work on set-pieces. Who are you, Harry Redknapp? While your partner is watching television, you devise an intricate corner routine that sends your strikers to the far post, hopefully dragging the opposition defenders with them, while the ball goes to the near post where your towering central midfielder lurks ominously. It pays instant dividends and you win the next game 3-0. You ve never felt such a profound sense of satisfaction. This set piece is probably what Hawking meant when he described looking into the face of God. DAY THREE: After reading an article about Manchester United s Class of 92 , you resolve to pay more attention to your youth players. When your partner heads upstairs for an early night, you plough through until 1am, carefully tailoring individual coaching routines for every member of your U18 squad, teaching them new skills, assigning them new roles. They won t all make it, of course, there will be some casualties. Not all can earn the fabled black card. But every youngster deserves a chance, an opportunity to make the most of their potential. And that s what you re going to give them. DAY FOUR: Your partner is out late tonight. You don t mind. In fact, you re quite keen that they stay out longer because European qualification...Quick Pitch: Football Manager 2014 TrailersSep 2, 2013 - Rock, Paper, ShotgunI exist outside of popular culture*. I’ve only just started to watch The Shield, and I mostly listened to Use Your Illusion II this weekend. So I had to Google ‘Gareth Bale’ to find out why everyone was talking about him, which in turn reminded me that Football Manager 2014 is coming out, and that I should get with the times. The managerial machination sim would have prepared me for the news about a Welsh person’s move to a Spanish place for more money that exists in space and time, and it would also have told me about his abilities, stats, training schedule, and possibly his cup size, but it’s not out yet and I refuse to be left behind again by looking at 2013′s information. I’ll wait for 2014′s release, and keep up by watching these videos of the game in action. (more…) Foot-to-Ball Commander 2013 Demonstration EditionOct 29, 2012 - Rock, Paper, ShotgunThis year as with every year, there is a brand new edition of Sports Interactive’s management goliath Foot-to-Ball Commander. The 2013 version is out next week, in fact. New features this year include over 17 new types of decomposing tobacco breath odorants to add to your manager’s Unhinged Bellow attack, the option to hurl the most racist members of your premiership team into the heart of the sun and the exclusive Gary Lineker’s Leaving Your Wife Of 20 To Shack Up With An Underwear Model Time Attack mode. Also there’s a demo, out now on Steam. (more…) Football Manager 2013 reviewOct 29, 2012 - PC Gamer One of my favourite football stories is from a recent interview with charismatic Real Madrid boss José Mourinho. He relayed an anecdote about his time at Internazionale with football’s current enfant terrible, Mario Balotelli. The mercurial Italian was the one striker fit for an important Champions League tie, with all others injured. Booked three minutes before half-time, Balotelli spent the 15-minute break being begged by his manager not to get into trouble. Mourinho recalls what he said at the time: “Mario, I cannot you. I don’t have a striker on the bench. If we lose the ball, no reaction. If somebody provokes you, no reaction. If the referee makes a mistake, no reaction. Mario, please.” Mourinho grins. “Minute 46: red card.” The point being that a manager is never entirely in control. Once those players cross that white line, your influence is relatively limited. You can bark instructions, adjust tactics and make substitutions, but for all the hard work you’ve invested, the game is now in the hands of 11 men you have no choice but to put your faith into. Football Manager fans will know that feeling all too well, and the latest entry in the series makes its most major tweaks in how and when you’re able to interfere. The landmark addition is the new Classic mode, which rewinds the game to something more akin to Championship Manager circa 1998, delivering fewer options and quicker seasons. There’s also the initially worrying addition of paid-for unlockable managerial aids. A high tempo attacking game can work wonders in Europe, particularly against Mediterranean sides. I’ll get to both of those, but if you’re a long-time FM stalwart, you’ll be happy to know the game’s core sim mode better captures the caprices of the game than ever before. Certainly, the 3D match engine is more believable than ever. Look at the pitch, and you’ll see a wealth of improvements. For starters, the animation is superior. It’s far from perfect, with the odd instance of players moonwalking onto through-balls, while substitute warm-ups are occasionally a touch too energetic. During a typically powerful run from an authentically industrious James Milner, my eyes were drawn to the Duracell bunny frantically bouncing up and down to his right. But watch the games from a more distant viewpoint, and you’ll notice subtle tweaks to positioning, movement and body shape that make it seem much more natural. If you’ve stuck to the comparatively abstract top-down perspective until now, give it a go: you might be surprised. You will see the odd AI flub: instances where defenders and goalkeepers get awfully confused, with the latter thumping the ball into their own net. But you’ll also see off-the-ball runs, delicate chips, bamboozling deflections, goalmouth scrambles and sundry other subtleties that prove an altogether convincing facsimile of the real thing. The mistakes are only jarring because the rest looks and feels so right. And when ‘right’ involves a slide-rule pass through ...Football Manager 2013 hands-on, or feet-on, with Sports Interactive’s streamlined simOct 12, 2012 - PC Gamer Football, to paraphrase the great Bill Shankly, may be more important than life and death, but sadly such inconveniences tend to get in the way of the digital version. In recent years I’ve found myself drifting away from Sports Interactive’s series as it grows steadily more complex – and with it, more time-consuming. This season’s headline feature, the stripped-back Classic mode, feels made for me: I can whizz through a season in half the time, ignoring peripheral concerns and concentrating on buying players, picking my team and sending them out to do me proud. Crucially, it still feels like FM: convenient, rather than compromised. I start the preview version by taking the reins at Man City. It feels strange: the point of FM is the realisation of the eternal fan complaint, “I could do a better job”. In the past, picking City gave you the chance to exceed low expectations, but no longer being the underdog brings pressures of a different kind. Still, a £100m transfer budget? Not the worst problem to have. I follow my scout’s instructions and sign Fulham’s Bryan Ruiz. Ruiz arrives on a temporary visa – at which point a little shopping trolley appears at the bottom-right, allowing me to pay real-world cash to abolish work permits. That might sit uneasily with FM veterans – although it’ll never show up in Sim mode, paying to remove inconvenient design decisions, even those based on reality, never feels satisfying. The option to top up my transfer budget appears next, and more options turn up later in the campaign. The pace is palpably quicker. You can even hit an Instant Result button, which puts match day responsibilities in the hands of your management team. I regret it the one time I try this – a match I’d comfortably won on a different save ends up a 2-1 bum-squeaker. Players and tactical selections are erratic, and one of my team is sent off, failing to understand the concept of a friendly by scissoring his opponent in a vicious touchline lunge. That incident does, however, highlight the superior animation and match engine. It’s still awkward at times – player positioning is immaculate, but the ball takes some bizarre bounces, while players will shuffle sideways like crabs. Yet it’s more satisfying to see your striker slam one into the top corner than in the overhead view, and even with some kinks to iron out it’s a marked improvement on last year. Sim mode, meanwhile, now allows you to get moody in press conferences. You can be timid, deadpan or aggressive as you praise or berate rivals or players. And it’s as authentic as ever: here, Balotelli turned up for the first day of training with whiplash, claiming he’d got it from a fall at home. Perhaps the bookies should consider revising those 7-2 title odds. Developer: Sports Interactive Publisher: Sega Link: www.footballmanager.com Release: winter 2012Football Manager 2013 release date announced, pre-orders come with beta accessSep 28, 2012 - PC Gamer Attention, ballfoot fans! Get out the iron and flatten out those touchline suits. The latest iteration of Football Manager will go live on Steam at one minute past midnight on November 02, and you can get in two weeks early if you pre-order from one of these places. That's according to an announcement post on the Football Manager 2012 site, which explains that the beta version "will be very close to the final game." It'll include "FM, classic mode & challenges," but no network game. Beta saves will be compatible with the full game when it's released. You can hear about this year's updates, and the new classic mode, from the ever-affable Miles Jacobson in our Football Manager 2013 interview. If you'd rather get the goods via your eyes have a look at the Football Manager 2013 announcement video.Football Manager 2013: Miles Jacobson interviewSep 7, 2012 - PC Gamer “I’m pretty happy with the way it is at the moment,” says Sports Interactive boss Miles Jacobson of the latest edition of the world’s most popular footy management sim. After yesterday’s video announcement, we rang Miles for a chinwag about challenges, cheats and camera angles – and why this year’s edition promises to be the most accessible Football Manager in years. This year’s big new addition is the streamlined Classic Mode. What prompted you to introduce it? It’s been in planning for a few years. There aren’t many features that we come up with immediately and put it into next year because we tend to work in three-year cycles - so at the moment even though I’m directing FM13 I’m still involved with designing 14, 15 and 16. But something we’ve seen happening more and more over the last few years, particularly in comments sections on more mainstream games sites and in newspapers for example, is that people are saying “we don’t have the time to play it any more”. After we finished FM11 I actually brought it up in the post-mortem afterwards: I asked how many people had played the game and most of the younger guys in the studio put their hands up. But some of the old-school guys…we’ve got 16 people here now who’ve been at the studio for more than ten years, and I think only three of the 16 put their hand up at that point. So I just asked the others, “Why haven’t you played it? You clearly still enjoy the game or you wouldn’t still be working here.” And they were all saying, “Yeah, but I’ve got kids and I have to spend some time with them,” or “My partner wants to spend some time with me,” or “I’ve got to go and see the family, so I just don’t have the time to put into it any more.” And that was basically the point where the bank broke. We were already doing FM Handheld at that point, and I said to them, “Why don’t you play Handheld instead?” and got “Well, it’s not deep enough for me, I want to be able to do this stuff, I just don’t have the time to do it.” So that’s when a few of the very senior people within the studio including myself and Oliver Collyer sat down and started plotting. And then I put it into production this year. Actually, we were going to look at doing it as a completely separate game, but I just thought: why not have it as part of the PC package and reward the people who’ve played our game for years by giving them extra modes? Or let new players have Classic mode as the first port of call, and if they find that they like it maybe they’ll move up to Sim mode. Or maybe they’ll try out the Challenge mode or Network games. It’s all about trying to provide a game that entertains as many people as possible, really. And the only way to do it while keeping the simulation completely sacrosanct was to have a new game mode in there. Are there any further options within Classic mode that players can turn on or off to further adjust the game? We’ve tried to design it in a simple way. There are ways to turn other things off inside the game ...Football Manager 2013 announced – video reveals new featuresSep 6, 2012 - PC Gamer By Chris Schilling It’s that time of year when the leaves turn brown, the air gets chilly, and the ass-shaped groove in your favourite chair gets a little deeper. Yes, it’s almost Football Manager time – and, much like a new boss cheerfully clutching a wad of petrodollars from an obscenely wealthy overseas backer, this year’s edition arrives promising wholesale changes. The headlining feature of Football Manager 2013 is a welcome one for those who’ve grown rather overwhelmed by the feature creep in recent years. The new Classic mode – or ‘FMC’ as the press blurb is keen to refer to it as – cuts out many of the minor responsibilities, allowing you to focus on the fundamentals. “We decided to try to find a way to accommodate players with limited free time, without significantly diluting the experience,” says Sports Interactive’s Miles Jacobson. SI suggests that FMC allows players to complete an entire season in 8-10 hours. Also new in FM13 is a Challenge mode taken from the smartphone versions of last year’s game. There are five challenges in total, each lasting around half a season, and all recreating scenarios common to the beautiful game: attempting to win trophies with a team of youngsters, for example, or escaping relegation after footing the table over the festive season. If the mode proves popular, SI has promised to provide further downloadable challenges throughout the year, which may or may not include being asked to win the title after losing your star striker to an extended golfing holiday for two-thirds of the campaign. Elsewhere, you’ll be able to unlock additional modifiers to give yourself a mid-season boost, topping up your funds during the transfer window, or cutting the red tape that’s holding up your expensive import’s work permit. And if all this makes it sound a bit like FM’s gone all sports casual on us, fear not: the main game remains gleefully uncompromising. Says Jacobson: “I would, however, like to stress to our many, many fans around the world that the introduction of FMC will not impact in any way on the game that they’ve come to know and love.” Heck, how many games this year are promoting ‘realistic tax regimes’ as a new feature? Other bits and bobs include a “more televisual” match engine, use of Steam’s network functionality, leaderboards, a new UI and the ability to create a more flexible training regimen. Media interaction has also been tweaked, offering a range of moods that will hopefully allow you to sulkily send out your assistant after a battering at home from your nearest rivals, or to nonchalantly dismiss your team’s title hopes when you’re ten points clear with three to play. It’s out on PC and Mac at some point before Christmas 2012.Football Manager developer speaks out on Eidos splitJun 28, 2012 - PC Gamer It's one of the great breakups in gaming. Up there with John Romero leaving id Software, or West and Zampella walking out on Activision. The story of how the developers behind Championship Manager, one of the most profitable and successful game series of all time, left their publisher Eidos, and abandoned the franchise they'd spent years building to start again with Sega and Football Manager. Until now everyone involved was legally unable to talk about what happened, but yesterday Sports Interactive's Miles Jacobson and Eidos' Ian Livingstone finally spoke about why the two split nine years ago. The pair were brought together by the Game Horizon conference, where Edge reports Jacobson was asked about the situation. He replied “During our times with Eidos and Domark there were some run-ins. But legally I’m not allowed to talk about this unless I get permission.” At this point Livingstone agreed to let him continue. Jacobson claims Sports Interactive felt they weren't getting enough respect at Eidos, with Jacobson saying “There seemed to be an attitude at the time in the industry that anyone could make games.” They were also asking for increased royalties on the series, arguing that they shared as much risk as Eidos. Livingstone said he was concerned that Sports Interactive would leave Eidos in search of a better deal, believing they were speaking to other publishers, which Jacobson denied. So, while Sports Interactive worked on Championship Manager 4, Eidos signed Beautiful Game as insurance against such a split. Ironically it was this action that prompted Jacobson and the Collyer brothers to finally leave. "They told me that BGS were making a platform game," said Jacobson. "I thought our number was up." So nine years later, we can finally understand why it all happened. Neither side trusted each other, both were convinced the other was out to undermine them. In such situations, the break up was inevitable. You can read the full story over at Edge.SEGA closes offices in France, Germany, Spain, Australia and Benelux. London HQ will remainJun 28, 2012 - PC Gamer SEGA have just announced that many of their European offices are about to close. New distribution partners have been announced across France, Germany, Spain, Australia, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. The veteran developer/publisher are "realigning" their strategy and closing all offices apart from the London headquarters. The UK office will be responsible for managing European distribution from July 1st, assisted by Koch Media, Level03 Distribution and 5 Star Games. “SEGA is entering a new and exciting phase that will position the company as a content led organisation maximising sales with strong and balanced IP such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Total War, Football Manager and the Aliens franchise,” said Jurgen Post, COO of SEGA Europe. Rumours of closures originated at E3 but were quickly snuffed out by Studio Director at Sports Interactive, Miles Jacobson. His crytpic tweet may or may not have something to do with the sport they call "footkick." Good luck to all at Sega Europe with their transition into the digital-heavy strategy. Our sympathies go out to those affected negatively by the changes.Football Manager 2012 Update ReleasedMar 14, 2012 - Product Update----------------------------- Football Manager 2012 v12.2.1 ----------------------------- General ======= - Fixed issue where the game would create too many scout reports, sometimes resulting in missing reports or a crash - Fixed issue where Reminder Date was not being saved when confirming notes - Fixed postponed fixtures issue that resulted in warnings being displayed and a possible crash Competitions ============ - Fixed issue in pre-12.2.0 saves where some players in Greek & Hungarian leagues are incorrectly regarded as Foreign - Fixed issue where winning the Turkish Premier League is not credited - Prevented new Russian foreign player rules applying to pre-12.2.0 saves Database ======== - Corrected Nottingham Forest chairman's retirement date so he is now available for board interaction - Corrected Sam Hutchinson retirement date so he now appears in-game Football Manager 2012 Update ReleasedMar 7, 2012 - Product Update----------------------------- Football Manager 2012 v12.2.0 ----------------------------- General ======= - Adjusted the selection process to decide which cities get new stadiums built for hosting international competitions - Fixed issue where possible opposition team lists were not being filled correctly for a minor club when arranging a friendly. - Fixed old extended leaves being prolonged when giving out new leaves to new players. - Fixed crash when a player had been released from their club but the tutoring wasn't cleared down. - Designated players and Marquee reports from the assistant are now including only players effectively interested in joining the user team. - Fixed potential for snow in cities where freezing temperatures are not set in the db for a particular season. - Fixed crash when going to the board request screen when the club doesn't have a chairman. - Fine tuned squad morale slightly against league position - Allowed player morale to remain high or low for a bit longer after a significant event eg winning a competition, promotion, relegation etc - Fixed issue where players don't return from international duty immediately after a finals competition. - Fixed issue where newly promoted team to a new league just been added was unable to be taken over by a human manager. - Winning team manager stats are now updated as soon as a team wins a league, not at the end of the league. - Adjusted the chances for a stadium being expanded after being selected to host a major competition. - Fixed network game crash when the client selects to view a staff’s profile. - Fixed a bug where contract renewals made by the user where breaking the club salary cap in USA and in Australia. - Fixed players who have decided to leave on a free transfer general happiness stating they don't want to leave the club. - Fixed preferred foot selection when reading in future regens from EDT files - Adjusted general player progression and production of newgens in in-active nations. - Fixed potential crash if assistant manager reporting on international players has no contract with club team. - Adjusted the age limit for being a candidate to tutor another player. - Improved Best Eleven selection. - Fixed some instances of players unrealistically rejecting loan moves to feeder clubs. - Fixed Best Player in Europe achievement. - Fixed player being described as being stripped of the captaincy when he in fact resigned it. - Stopped B club players getting annoyed when removed as captain after being promoted to the senior side. - Fixed a rare crash when saving the game just after resigning/being sacked from a club side. - Fixed issue where user could not control reserve team in matches sometimes. - Fixed clubs promoted to the BSN/BSS without managers do not appoint managers. - Carlos Tevez is no longer transfer listed by request at the start of the game. Backroom Advice =============== - Stop backroom staff recommending retraining a player in a different position when ...Ian Football, Part 4: Accrington StanleyMar 2, 2012 - Rock, Paper, ShotgunThe continuing misadventures of first-time manager Ian Football, leading hapless team Worcester City FC to their uncertain future in Football Manager 2012. Previous installments are here. I knew it was going to happen sooner or later. Hell, I even knew that it was going to happen more often or not. That didn’t make it any less painful when, for the first time, my team lost. And lost hard. Accrington Stanley? Who are they? Exactly. Would it really be so bad if I quit right now? (more…) Ian Football: InterludeFeb 13, 2012 - Rock, Paper, ShotgunIan Football, manager of Worcester City football club, can’t come to the phone right now, so I’m here to hold the line until he gets back. I just wanted to say: I am really enjoying Football Manager 2012. (more…) Byte vs Brick: Week Ending Dec 4Dec 5, 2011 - Rock, Paper, ShotgunThe year’s big guns have all been loosed now, and Christmas wallet-raiding is fully upon us. So, which games will be cleaning up on Steam and at Uk retail? Skyrim, MW3, AssRev, or another challenger? And is the resurgence of Splash Damage’s last game enough for me to justify saying ‘Byte vs Brink’? (more…) Byte vs Brick: Week Ending Nov 4Nov 7, 2011 - Rock, Paper, ShotgunEvery single damn week, I can’t remember if it’s called ‘Byte vs Brick’ or ‘Brick vs Byte.’ My failing memory terrifies me. Though my girlfriend is vaguely appreciative of it, as it allows her to tell me the same anecdotes repeatedly with me having no clue I’ve heard them before. At least, she claims she’s my girlfriend; I can’t rightly recall if that’s the case or not. There’s just this person in my house who tells me to do the washing up and feed the cat, and it seems to prudent to play along and hope my memory kicks in at some point. And why are all these words tattooed on my torso? Anyway: Brick vs Byte, our weekly, unscientific look at how the top 10 best-selling games on Steam compare to the top 10 at UK retail. What mysteries will be revealed? Will Battlefield 3 still be king of the hill? And who the hell are you people? What’s going on? Where are my trousers? (more…) Football Manager 2012 Update ReleasedNov 2, 2011 - Product UpdateUpdates to Football Manager 2012 have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include: Competitions ============ Australia --------- - Fixed a bug where the game gets stuck when the user is forced to register a youth player who turned into a pro in the Australian A-League. Finland ------- - Fixed issue with player bans not working correctly in the First Division. General ======= - Fixed crash when using the "Pick Team For Me" button when all manageable clubs have been taken over by human managers. - Fixed crash when activating a new division level which has promotion/relegation playoffs with the division above and is made up of regional divisions. (e.g. Third level in Sweden) - Fixed crash on game startup if a club's loyalty and passion supporter profiles are set to 0 using the editor. - Game now doesn't allow nations to be deactivated in 2011 before its competitions have finished. This was causing a few problems later in the game. - Fixed bug where Spanish outfield player could not be given a valid squad number before match if a goalkeeper already had number 25 and number 13 was the only number free. - Fixed an issue which was affecting AMD/ATI Radeon Cards causing intermittent crashes Match ===== - Some colour clash fixes. International ============= - Fixed bug where players currently selected in an U19 team are then deemed to old when the U19 European Championship qualifiers are scheduled. - Fixed bug where a replacement player could not be called up to a national team that doesn't have a full squad selected. - The overage players in the squad can now play for U23 team friendlies before the Olympic Games. UI == - Twitter and Youtube login now works on Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. Byte vs Brick: Foot-to-ball vs Battle-to-fieldOct 31, 2011 - Rock, Paper, ShotgunLast week was a big, big week for on-off gamer-enrager EA, with the absurdly highly-promoted Battlefield 3 finally launching – but to mixed reviews, technical woes and bewildering media outlet favouritism. Was it enough to put DICE’s latest at the top of the charts? In the UK, that’s a resounding ‘yes’ – it topped the Football Manager 2012 Update ReleasedOct 26, 2011 - Product UpdateUpdates to Football Manager 2012 have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include: Training ======== - Included positioning training to goalkeeper shot stopping training Competitions =========== USA === - Fixed a crash on season turnover when adding MLS into the game without having it loaded at game start. - Fixed Vancouver, Portland and Philadelphia not having Academy players properly generated. - Fixed a crash when playing with two human managers and one of them was claiming a player waived by the other human manager. General ======= - Fixed an issue where adding a league was causing more people then needed to be loaded into the game. Editor ====== - Fixed an issue with international competitions sometimes getting the wrong number of teams from a continent. Match ===== - Fixed scaling of distance run stat in match stats. Wot I Think: Football Manager 2012Oct 26, 2011 - Rock, Paper, ShotgunMy proud home city of Manchester still trembles from the result of the weekend’s derby, with legions of red-shirted, red-faced men weeping openly in the streets and doubting all that they previously held true. There are far more seisimic events in the world of foot-to-ball though. I’ve been attempting to overturn the order by means
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