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It’s here at last! Straight from the comfort of your favourite armchair is your chance to manage a team of would be world-beaters all the way to the top without a cold, wet night or frozen Balti Pie in sight.
Football Manager (Soccer on the other side of the Pond) now makes what would appear to be its now seasonal pilgrimage from the PC to 360 and in usual fashion this has taken some considerable months. There is no denying this is considered the League Champion of PC manager games but will the adrenaline-hungry console brigade simply relegate it to the subs bench?
Gameplay:
Game Setup
Before you jump in for the first time you will need to set up a new game using either the in-built setup wizard or manually, if preferred. You can select up to three leagues to be made playable during any one game from all the nations and teams present. All the other nations and teams still play a part in the game but you will not be able to manage teams from them. A few more options need to be configured, such as game start date and then magic of your Xbox takes over and spends the next three minutes setting up a game for you to play.
If it is your first time playing Football Manager you will also need to create a manager to play as throughout the game. You get to set your name, age, nationality, favourite team and, if you have a Vision Camera, can also take a picture of yourself which will be displayed on some screens. You only have to do this once as any managers created on the system can be added to any new games that are created.
All that is then left to do is choose a team to take control of from the playable leagues you selected earlier and then wait a few short seconds while everything is finalized. You’re now ready to start playing.
Controls
At this point you will have navigated your way through a few screens and menus and will still be coming to terms with the controller configuration. Football Manager’s primary platform has always been PC and is therefore the majority of players will be using a mouse and keyboard. Unfortunately the Xbox platform doesn’t have this controller option and has to make do with the 360 joypad. The first port of the series to Xbox was a little clunky to say the least with regard to controller input and navigation but it has to be said that in the main, this version has got things pretty much sorted.
Granted, some time will have to be invested in familiarizing yourself with the controller scheme but it does start to make sense after a few matches. For those prone to the odd ‘senior moment’ a quick press of the Back Button will bring up a picture of the controller showing what each buttons does.
The only real issue is the use of the left analogue stick for navigating certain menus where its over-sensitive nature can cause you to jump off the menu to another part of the screen. It’s not the end of the world but when it does happen it is rather (read: REALLY!) irritating.
In order to make life easier for new players there is how-to / wizard type functionality known as the adviser. The adviser appears at the start of the game and is basically a pop-up box that can guide you through various tasks such as how to offer a player a contract or alter training regimes, etc. The adviser could be likened to the Office Assistant found in Microsoft’s Office products.
There are settings that allow you to turn this off although you can also have it appear all the time or only the first time a new area is encountered.
Inbox
You start the game as manager of your club and have control over a multitude of options, both on and off the field. In order to become successful you ultimately have to perform well during matches but this cannot be achieved without considerable work in the other non-match aspects such as squad and financial management.
In order to keep you abreast of the daily goings on at your club you have access to a virtual inbox, which informs you of issues such as transfer dealings, squad condition, chairman and fan opinion, etc. Any interaction you have with players, staff or the media will also be presented though your inbox.
Fan & Board Interchanges
One of the first messages you get during the game is from your Chairman congratulating you on your appointment and giving you an idea of what will be deemed an acceptable level of success. You are told your budgets for the season and are given the chance to apply for more funding in exchange for a higher level of Club success. There are many other things that can be requested such as apply to take-on (or become) a feeder club, improve training facilities or youth development, etc.
There is constant feedback from both the Chairman and the fans regarding their perception of your performance in many areas including new signings, dealings with the media, match performance, individual player performances and so on. This information can be very useful in helping you decide where best to focus your efforts.
Squad Management
Playing and winning football matches is paramount to success in Football Manager and careful management of your squad will be necessary to achieve this. You really do get the impression that your team is a living group of players, each with their own persona, and this really does help make the game work. At times you may find yourself selecting players out of some feeling of loyalty, or because they have performed well for you in the past, even though you know there are other players better suited to a particular role.
Hiring and firing of staff members and players is one way to develop your squad, as is training your existing players in order to improve their skills and fitness.
You may feel the need to offload some of your players as they are not good enough for your team, because you need to raise funds for other purposes, to help reduce your wage bill or maybe even because they are not settled or are causing rifts within your squad. It can be difficult to sell these players though, particularly if you’re not ‘putting them in the shop window’ by playing them regularly.
On the other hand, other teams may show interest in players you don’t wish to sell and this may unsettle them, especially if the inquiring club is more prestigious than your own. Again, different players show different personalities and while some jump at the chance of a move some do show far greater levels of loyalty.
Bringing new players to you clubs is quite difficult in Football Manager. You can identify players by scouting, from news flashes or by searching the player database and applying filters. Be wary though – there are some attributes that you won’t be made immediately aware of and you could end up with a player that spends most of his time injured or fighting with his team mates.
Other clubs tend to be reluctant to let players go and you often have to offer much more than market value in order to gain their services. This is one of the lengthier and frustrating features of the game but you do feel like you have achieved something good when you make that all important signing.
To help tempt the players once their club as decided to sell them to you there are several incentives that can be offered such as their status within the team, wages, bonuses, release clauses, etc. Players sometimes think they’re worth a little more than you offer them and may ask you to change your offer which, thankfully, is something that you can do within the game. If both parties agree to the contract then, providing all relevant paperwork such as work permits go through, they move into your squad. Easy – phew!
Fortunately, offering new contracts to your existing players is usually less protracted, as although the process is in essence the same they are often more likely to accept your offer.
Training
Regardless of whether your squad is full of superstars, has-beens, or local pub players they will need to get down to some training during the course of the game. Luckily, for the more casual player this aspect can be left to take care of itself in the background. Those managers that want to fully develop their team though, will really need to get more hands-on and there are lots of aspects of training that can be tweaked.
There are nine training activities in the game such as attacking, tactics and strength training. Your various coaching staff can be assigned to different types of activities to best suit their capabilities. You can define your own training schedules too that include various amounts of these activities. This allows you to set up custom routines for specific tasks such as developing your forwards or for rehabilitating players coming back from injury, etc.
The amount of training in each schedule can vary in intensity and this is something that needs to be considered. Older players, for example, may not develop their skills much more but light fitness training may help keep them sharp without taking too much from their aged bodies.
With the game being as in-depth as it is you can of course go and check player improvement graphs for each of your players to help you fine tune your schedules with a view to developing a team of Galacticos.
Tactics
Our happy, fit, highly skilled bunch of (well paid) individuals are now ready to go out and defend our club’s honour on the pitch . . . almost. A group of individuals won’t win us anything. We need a team, a team that functions as one, knowing each others moves intimately, anticipating the game and focusing on the master plan, your plan of attack, or defense, as the case may be. The tactics are an area of the game where you can really put your footballing mind to the test.
The tactics screens of the game allow presents you with a picture of a football pitch overlaid with shirts representing your players in your chosen formation. Lines represent areas where you wish to direct your players during a match and it is reminiscent of those tactical chalk boards from yesteryear. There are a lot of set tactics to pick from which if nothing else will give you a base on which to develop your own ideas. Any new tactics can be saved and you can create your own library of them that you can then recall as necessary for different matches.
You can give overall team instructions such as levels of attacking, how hard you wish to go into tackles, how counter attacking you wish your team to be, etc, even down to where you want to focus your corner kicks. Additionally individual player positions can be tweaked so that you could instruct a player to alternate positions with another one during a match or always run with the ball, for example.
Other areas that can be tweaked in the tactics screens are your captains and set piece instructions, amongst others. In fact, the amount of scope for tweaking tactics in Football Manager is amazing and it really does show how involving the game is. The downside to this though is that it can sometimes be really difficult to get to grips with and you can’t quite be sure what many of the tactical changes you make will equate to on the pitch. It is the hardcore Football Manager players that will be making full use of these options with the majority of players, no doubt, just adjusting the main ones and leaving most as standard.
Matchday Engine
You’re now all set for the upcoming match, even finding the time to talk to the press beforehand. You’ve been asked how you think you’ll perform on the big day and your response has been digested by both your players and the opposition. Yes, even the answer you give to this question has an effect on the game – some players are buoyed by your comments whereas others may now be quaking in their boots, having had that last bit of confidence drained from them by your seemingly misguided remarks.
This is all part of the match day experience which is the chain of events from the pre-match build-up to the all-important post-match dressing room exchanges. You’ll revisit the tactics screens in order to make those final last minute tweaks before you eventually submit your final team for the match.
You’re now in the dressing room and it’s time to give your players a rallying team talk, hopefully spurring them on to a winning performance. In truth, it can be a little difficult to know what to say from a list of half a dozen or so options. Each player can be given a different talk but it’s not always obvious what each option really means, for instance what does the difference between ‘Do it for the fans!’ and ‘Encourage’ mean to the players? The sheer amount of tactical options allied with those differences in opposition teams make it very difficult to see how each minor tweak you make impacts on the outcome of a game. Even so, we’ve said what we’ve said and the game kicks off.
During the match you’re presented with a selection of tabbed screens, each showing various aspects of the game as well as a commentary area at the bottom of the screen. This commentary area gives a written blow-by-blow update of what is happening on the pitch. It’s akin to what you would expect to hear on a radio type commentary, although obviously not as varied. The commentary is colour coded in order to help identify which team it relates to and this works very well. The descriptions provide a decent idea of what is going on during the game but also affords you great scope to dream up the perfect images to match them, far more than any graphical 3D match engine could. A transcript of the commentary is available listed in a match report screen, for those that want to re-live the glory moments.
Another screen displays the rudimentary 2D graphical match engine. In essence, the pitch is the same as the one used previously in the tactics screens but this time the dots move around along with a football. Although this is pretty unspectacular in terms of a graphical showcase the lack of actual images, again, adds to the game rather than detracts from it. You imagine the game in your head and embellish the crude representation with images far greater than those than any computer could ever produce. Seeing the subs warming up on the side of the pitch or a player chasing a ball in order to retrieve it for a set piece is a nice little touch. It really is magical how just a few moving dots can be so evocative and it’s possible that a photo-realistic 3D match engine may actually make the game far less involving and emotional.
You get a mini radar version of the match screen when you go in to change your tactics, which you can do at any point during the game. Also on the ‘in match’ tactics screen is a list of your players and a view of your formation. You can adjust pretty much all of the changes you could prior to the game and all while the game is still being played in the background. This helps give the feeling of being a real manager at a real match although you can pause the game too if you’re worried about wasting precious time.
Other screens provide various feedback and information about the game such as player performances and stats as well as game overview information and the like. There is even a ‘Latest’ tab that keeps you up to date with other goings on between teams in your division such as ‘live’ scores.
There are some game options related to the match that can be changed, such as how fast the game and commentary run and whether and how highlights are displayed. This can considerably reduce the amount of time a game takes to complete which for casual player may be useful, although a lot more can be had from playing through the game thoroughly, at normal speed.
At the end of the first half you get a chance to have another team talk and make tactical changes. Likewise, at the end of the game you can have a final talk with your players and show them just what you thought of their performance.
You’ll go back to your normal screens and be able to see any chairman and fan feedback from the game as well as receive any reports of injuries or suspensions to your players. You’ll even, on occasion, have the chance to tell the waiting media what you thought of any major contentious issues.
That pretty much is the cycle of a week in Football Manager and depending on how you play it can take from minutes to hours, easily consuming far more time than you had anticipated.
Graphics:
The ‘Beautiful Game’ definitely refers to the real-world sport of football and not Football Manager. While the game features a functional, tidy looking interface with sharp graphics that does the job very well the best word to describe it would be ‘adequate’. Apart from the odd background image or player portrait there really is little in the way of graphics.
The graphical match engine is functional and won’t win any rewards for technical innovations but in this game it is not really an issue. In reality, unless the match engine could recreate the game in a true and accurate photo-realistic fashion far exceeding any current-gen graphics seen so far, it is probably best left as it is.
The layout of the screens is efficient and the presentation of information is clear which really is what is required in a game like this, full of lists of statistics and attribute data. Charts and graphs make an appearance where necessary to help players digest information more easily.
The addition of team related graphics within menus and backgrounds would be welcome although this is probably difficult for many reasons, not least licensing issues and the shear amount of storage space this could take up, considering the number of teams and players in the game.
Sound:
The sound in the game is virtually non-existent. There is no background music in the menus and during the game the only thing of note you can expect to hear is the odd crowd chant during matches.
If you do fancy some music while you play then you will have to make use of the standard 360 music player, accessible from the blade. The upside of this is that at least you will be able to listen to music you like!
ONLINE LIVE GAMES
Games can be set up to be played over Xbox Live in the formats of a league or cup competition played between 2 and 8 players. There are ranked and player match options with online leaderboards and you can set up games specifying the quality of teams that can enter.
There is a problem with Live however in that it is near impossible to get a game and an online match, after many attempts, could not be set up for this review. A quick look at the leaderboards suggests that there are relatively few online games played, as is often the case with niche games.
You really won’t have much luck online unless you can get a mate to buy a copy of the game too.
Longevity:
The majority of people buying Football Manager are going to be fairly hooked on the sport in the first place and therefore the levels of dedication shown are likely to be very high. This could result in games going on for significant amounts of time (if you’re not sacked), not just in terms of a single play session but over the course of playing the whole game. The wide variety of options and the ‘trial and error’ formula will undoubtedly lead to many people wanting just ‘one more go’.
It is difficult to see why downloadable teams, leagues and players aren’t going to be made available over Xbox Live, particularly considering the current ones will be out of date very soon as the title has been released so late in the season. In fact, the delay between the PC version and this one seems unreasonable and you can’t help but feel that it may as well have been held back another few months and released with content updated for next season. That said, fairly soon after you start a game you’ll probably have changed a team significantly enough for this not to be too major an issue.
Some of the achievements in Football Manager will take forever to attain and you really won’t want to buy the game just to help boost your Gamerscore. In fact, if you ever see anyone online with 1000/1000 for this title then you may wish to find something to sacrifice and offer up to them as they are some sort of gaming God. Oh, and you probably never ever want to meet them in a pub either – the conversation could get very boring!
Overall:
Overall, the biggest problem with Football Manager on 360 is the lack of a keyboard and mouse control option and the joypad control scheme, albeit admirable, does fall short. Add to that the lack of any fancy graphics and the lack of real sound and things start to appear bad. Normally, a full boxed title such as this would be severely slated for having such primitive graphic and audio offerings but these ‘rules’ cannot be applied to Football Manager. The fact is that such an involving and emotional game really is best played out in ones’ head.
Although the game is relatively easy to pick up and play novice users may get a little frustrated at first. Aside from learning the control scheme, one of the main obstacles will be recognizing quite how changes a player makes in the game are reflected in matches. As players learn these things though they will develop their own tried and tested routines and tactics and have a shortlist of desirable players that they build up over the course of many games. The game then seems to evolve and balloon into something much greater than that which is initially offered, rewarding the dedicated gamer and providing a compelling game experience. It really is a case of gameplay over anything else.
The multiplayer component of the game may as well not exist in reality but this is almost a moot point as the game is best enjoyed solo anyway. It is unfortunate that network play has been added and cannot really be used but that is just due to the relatively low numbers of players available. This is the bane of games developed for a niche market and the game’s availability on the PC platform surely also impacts sales on 360.
In conclusion, those that love football and have a burning desire to play a management sim on their TV should really look no further that Football Manager as it does reward dedication. Those that have the option of a PC though would do well to buy it for that platform instead, due to the reduced street prices and superior control scheme.
Football Manager really is a game for the connoisseur.
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