Football Manager 2013

There is huge promise in this game - many of the changes Sports Interactive have made are genuine improvements: a thoroughly enjoyable transfer deadline day simulator, a simpler training system, expanded yet more user-friendly staff roles and some graphical upgrades. The new classic mode is fine - not really my kind of thing but will probably suit some users. There are some new 'unlockables' which you can purchase from SI (like injecting your club with a bunch of transfer cash mid game) for real world money - these feel like rather poorly-disguised efforts at a money-making scheme by SI, but ultimately they do not harm. Importantly, they do not interfere with the main game - you are not being forced to pay for features of the game you used to get for free, but being given (largely unnecessary) extras that you can buy if you want to. A lot of the further small changes feel redundant and unnecessary, but do no harm, and there are many areas in which FM13 has clearly improved on past iterations of this series.

Unfortunately, these improvements are outweighed considerably by one disastrous change for the new game: SI's decision to entirely overhaul their match day engine six months before the game's release. When the BETA version of the game was (quite sensibly) released early to allow the public to participate in the testing process, this was revealed to be a major regression on the match-engine of previous versions of the game. It was improved for the game's full release, but seemingly SI just could not get it up to scratch in the two weeks they left themselves to do so. It is a crippling weakness for FM13 - whilst the match engine is superior to FM12 in a couple of (relatively minor areas) it is much worse in others. Absurd mistakes flow from all levels of footballer, players routinely ignore visually blatant opportunities to intercept passes, score fluke goals far too often, struggle to achieve pass-completion rates that would be mediocre in real life, and no matter how good they are meant to be at following your instructions, in practice persistently ignore them. Things frequently happen on the pitch which are simply inexplicable, like three Premiership players all running towards the ball and merging on the same spot, missing it, and leaving acres of space for opposition players to walk into (and probably score). The impact of all this is that a) as the manager, you are in fact much less able to control your team now than you were in FM12 and b) most matches feel fundamentally implausible - a poor simulation of the tactical systems and players on the pitch.

This is not just unrealistic expectations from me about the realism a computer game can achieve - I have played many past versions of the FM series, and the point is that this match engine is fundamentally worse. SI have basically started again from scratch, and one fears that it will take them a long time to even get the new engine back to the level of the old one. This regression necessarily outweighs the other areas of improvement since, unless you can ultimately enjoy the experience of watching and directing your team in the area where, fundamentally, all your other decisions come together, the rest of the game may be imminently enjoyable but is ultimately pointless. There is little satisfaction in simulating transfer deadline day better (as mentioned, one of the best features of the new game) when you can't actually get your signings to play realistically in a football match.

Above all else, this state of affairs is hugely frustrating, and represents an unforgivable approach towards game design from SI. To spend an entire year introducing "over 900 improvements" to the game, hyped up through a series of youtube videos, without fundamentally getting the most crucial feature of the game - its ability to simulate football matches - right, represents a wanton lack of design-skill and abject efforts at game testing by the development team. Perhaps even worse, it displays a staggering neglect for the fan-base, ignoring its consistent requests for improvement in the match-day experience, in favour of a plethora of typically needless alterations designed to bump up the "this is how many changes we made" number for advertising purposes. No one, except, it would seem, SI's game designers, can possibly believe that (slightly bizarre) rotating new camera angles, or a bewildering new array of buttons on the game interface, are more important than making the football matches realistic. Whilst this game does have some nice new features, these only render the fatal flaws at its core all the more frustrating.

Football Manager has no rival these days, and FM13 displays the problematic complacency such a monopoly creates. I strongly advise against buying it, at least until a major patch has been released and found to work by the fan-base (check out the SI community forums to find out). For now, your only, and preferable, alternatives are to either stick with FM12, or wait for FM14 (though do a thorough search of the SI forums to see if the game's fans think these problems have been fixed first!). I appreciate that some reviewers here (and even some gaming magazines) have given the game high ratings - but, with respect, I strongly feel that this reflects a very superficial assessment. The game is presentationally well put together, and contains a variety of exciting new features. Play it for any length of time, however (particularly if you are familiar with what was on offer in previous versions) and you are highly likely to find it extraordinarily frustrating.

Please note that this review is accurate as of 27/12/12 - currently at patch 13.2.1. SI Games continue to patch until about March.

I was a huge fan of FM12, very addictive game in spite of its flaws. I thought that surely by the time Football Manager 2013 was released, SI Games would have resolved some of the major issues and improved on the match engine to bring us the most realistic football management game yet.

Unfortunately, FM13 seems like a massive step backwards so far. There are a load of bugs in the match engine causing the game to play out extremely unrealistically. Not only this, but whereas in the past your tactics & shouts would generally be followed by your team (for better or worse!), it seems this year round that the AI will basically do what it wants whether you like it or not.

The overall decision making of the AI is almost broken. The game plays as only about a half-realistic match of football right now & the other half is comprised of ridiculous bugs (i.e. 15+ long shots per game - most of which are extremely inaccurate, no through balls, stupid passes both offensively & defensively, wingers/fullbacks running half-way around the pitch unbeaten, 3 defenders trying to tackle one player and forgetting all their marking instructions, the list goes on & on - check out the SI Games forum feedback if you don't believe me!)

Anyway, overall right now the game is near enough unplayable in my opinion, certainly unenjoyable if you are looking for an accurate football simulation. I'm hoping that SI will be able to resolve the problems by the time the final patch is released, but why on earth should we have to buy & play a game that is released heavily bugged and takes six months to actually fix (if they even manage to fix it this year)?

I know it's becoming a cliche, but please Sort It Out, SI!

I've played Football Manager ever since it was known as Championship manager and to my surprise actually enjoyed it more than the last 2-3 releases.

I love the new staff roles, being able to train players to a certain role and highlighting the key attributes for the roles.

Though for me, the main differences between this year's Football manager and the rest is that now more than ever, your decisions with tactics, player choices, moral and whether playing home or away have big effects on your team's performance. That's probably why alot of the reviews complain about the results not going their way because of these many factors.

At first I was struggling to get results but once you've found the right tactics against your oppositions then everything else will fall into place. It's like discovering a new joy for the game. This also means that you could be the underdog team and still have a chance of beating the stronger team. I guess all this is more realistic which is good. It's just that there needs to be an alternative out there that has the old FM formular of trying to build the strongest team to win every match. Those are the people who need to stay away from this game, bringing down the rating.

Therefore, if you have the patience to build a strong team and don't mind losing games then this is for you. If you want a game where you just pick strong players without having to worry too much about tactics and the rest then look elsewhere or just play the previous releases with transfer updates.

The only thing I find that's not quite right is how much playing home and away affects your teams performance. I can win 5-0 home one week then lose 0-2 the next. I'm forced to play more defensive formations away and hoping to score on the counter away which I've not quite gotten right yet. Other than that, this game is pretty awesome.