Football Manager 2016 First Impression

First Impressions of Football Manager 2016

To understand my mindset coming into this game. You might want to know that I have been playing this game series since 2000 and getting a copy of the game each year. The previous one, I played 716 hours. So no matter what, I will always recommend this game to people that are into the world of soccer and are more intrested in the tactical approach rather than playing with a controller and your skill determines whether or not you win. 

Sure, I played a lot of Fifa growing up but I got tired of being able to beat the best teams in the world with some lower league crappy side just because I was good with a controller. The lack or realism bothered me way too much.

So this is a post where I will mention some of the new features in the game. I am not talking about the stuff that was in there from previous versions. I will say this though, the content from previous versions are world class!

There are no other game in the world with the same replay value like this has. You can choose from thousands of teams from all over the world. One "save" will not be like the other.

I love Football Manager!

I have been waiting for this for a long time. And I even got to wait two weeks extra due to a misunderstanding when I placed my order for the game. I actually thought I would get to play the beta like I have been able to do in the previous games.
Now I ordered it in the exact same way but this time the beta was to the digital versions only. 

Enough about that. Now I do have the game! 

I opened up the package and inside above the CD were the code. The Steam activation code. In capital letters and numbers.
When typing it into my Steam client I just typed in small letters to make it as fast as possible. But after finishing the code I felt a bit sad. 
It felt wrong. This was a big moment, installing the new Football Manager. The 16th version of the game that I am installing. So I used backspace to delete the code that I had entered and started over. 
This time using Caps Lock! To get that fantastic feeling from growing up installing video games the code has to use capital letters! 

Starting the game
One of the things I was most curious about was the feature that allow the players to create their own clubs. I figured that you would start at the lowest possible league with nothing and then start building a club. 
I was wrong, very wrong. You get to choose a club, any club, and then rename it to whatever name you would like. 

You get to keep the squad as well. This works a lot like the editors back in the days of Championship Manager 01/02. You can add any player to your team. And you can remove players from your squad that  you don't want. 

You can also add two players that you create. And as far as I know, you can create a 14 year old with max stats in everything that can play on any position. I am okay with that. The game has a broader audience nowadays. The people who wants it realistic can just avoid doing that and the ones that want to have a laugh creating themselves as the worlds best footballer gets the chance to do that.

There is one big advantage with this mode implemented into the game. When we approach September of 2016 and the developers are busy with the next game and won't release any patches with new line-ups. We can easily create that updated squad to our favorite team using this mode. This feature allows the game to last longer! It's like viagra for Football Manager!

Steam Cloud is amazing. Now I can play the same save from my laptop and on my gaming computer without any fuzz about having to use dropbox or USB-stick to transfer my saved games. You will have to choose that option when saving your game though. To save it on Steam Cloud. 

Like I said I am using my laptop as well as my gaming computer. On my laptop I am not watching the games with the match engine, just using the commentary option. That is not because it is not working however. I am afraid that there will be delays and lags when I want to pause the game to make a tactical change. 
The game is working really fine on my 4-5 year old laptop actually. I did not think it would. And on my "real" computer it is amazing!

Tactical Screen
This has changed a lot. And it will probably take some time to get used to it and fully take advantage of all the new options that are in there. One comment overall is that it is a lot more graphical which makes it easier to understand what the hell I am adjusting. 

For example when I choose if my defensive line will play low or push up I can see on the pitch where my current setting will have them stand. 
The same with the play width option. Basically everything in the "instructions tab" is graphical and self explainatory now. 

Staff Management
I had never bothered to learn properly how to adjust everything about the staff in the previous FM. Now it is really easy to see the whole picture. You can see how many vacant spots you have for coaches, scouts and doctors. And in the same screen you see which kind of coaches you have as well. If you need a new one, just click a button and an ad will appear in the paper and people will apply for the job. It can't get any easier.

Transfers and Contracts
I haven't played around a lot on the transfer market yet. The contracts however is something I like. You get a lot of extra help during contract signings like if you choose a date for when the contract is due to expire it automatically tells you if it is 11 months, 2 years or 5 years from now. 

When in contract talks with a staff member for example. The game tells me how many spots I have, how many are vacant in that staff role that I am currently trying to sign him for. So that helps me getting the correct number of staff members on every position. And this is not the most fun part of the game so I appreciate any help to make it easier to understand.

Game experience 
At first I tried to create a few clubs to check that feature out a bit. Then I quickly realized however, I am old school. I want to play the normal mode until I get tire from it and then I will play around with the "create a club" mode. 
To pretend to be a manager is often, to try to do better than the current manager does. And since I follow Premier League I just had to start with Chelsea. 

It is a perfect choice since I don't want to use my favorite clubs to learn the game. When I first manage Manchester United for example, I don't want to fail due to mistakes done since I don't understand the game.

I enjoy every minute of the game so far. Finding new stuff constantly. I am not a player who wins the champions league with every team I manage even when starting in lower leagues. 
I am not surfing the Internet for these fantastic wonderkids that will be the best in the world in 3 years. I try to play with realism. However, I am too colored by my in real life intrest in the world of football. I favor certain players even though I really should get rid of them, or not purchase them to my club. 
But having those players in my team is what makes this game experience so great. 

That is my approach to it. Every player has his or her own way of playing and reasons for loving it. Either way, it is hard not to like it if you are into football.