The year is 2049.
My avatar, managing Tottenham Hotspur, is 67. Harry Redknapp is long dead. Chris Smalling is my assistant manager.
Now, as I finally wind down my Football Manager 2012 playthrough through an unholy combination of bugs and, well, having won everything, the future beckons. I’m having an existential crisis and the line between real and fictional is melting.
But let’s start at the beginning.
]]>The current game is not saved. Do you want to save the game before you load another game?
No.
]]>Football Manager is an odd cultural duckling. Its nerdy, number-heavy presentation holds it back from the ooh-it's-like-a-film mainstream acceptance of Call of Duty, et al. Meanwhile, its being about football stops it from being embraced with the same open arms as, say, EVE Online, despite it inspiring similar levels of passionate brain-crazy among its far larger audience. Its far less talked about than its vast success would suggest it should be.
This news seems a good thing, then. An Alternative Reality: The Football Manager Documentary is a Football Manager documentary being released in select cinemas in the UK come October 7th.
]]>Oldboy is a pretty great film. No spoilers, but I like the scene in which the main character, after years of private practice, first confronts a group of street toughs. "Can 10 years' worth of imaginary training... be put to use?"
Apparently it can. Hopeful players of Football Manager have been wondering for a long time whether their expertise would convert to the real world, and as reported by The Guardian, it seems at least their scouting data would. FM's famously vast and detailed database is now going to be included as part of Prozone Recruiter, a software tool that many real clubs use to help with finding players to buy.
]]>RPS used to be a bunch of foot-to-ball fearties, but times change, and Adam and Graham are on a mission to make sure there's no one left at the site who doesn't understand the offside trap. Adam wrote the WIT. Graham made us into regens. They compared notes.
Now the pair have gathered again to discuss their thoughts after a further six months of intensive training. How does the match engine hold up? Has the new tactics system ever felt limiting? How has the mid-season update changed play? All this and more awaits below.
]]>One of the world's most popular RPGs just added Gibraltar for free! Wow, a whole new landmass to explore. I wonder if it'll be set during the War of Spanish Succession, allowing keen commanders to invade and cede the territory to the British Empire in perpetuity.
Oh wait it's the Gibraltarian football league added as part of Football Manager's mid-season update... Even better! The patch also contains a "potential fix for odd throw ins", and a hundred other small tweaks, improvements, and thousands of database updates.
]]>Look at this man. Look into his dead eyes and feel your soul begin to curdle. He's hideous. He has no pores. He's a person suit. He's a stocking full of yoghurt. After matches, Football Manager 2014's coaches let the air out of him, fold him up and put him back in the cupboard. He's Emperor Septim's son, here to tell you that Jauffre's gone off on another one of his benders.
He cost me £5.5 million.
Come. Let me tell you about the off season.
]]>As we enter the second part of a marathon conversation with Sports Interactive's Miles Jacobson, I begin by checking that the half time oranges have done the trick. Once we're both warmed up and ready to go, talk turns to Football Manager's place in the wider world of games and Miles' background in the world of music. When we're not discussing Jesus Jones and Blur, we're pondering whether comparing Football Manager to open world games is instructive. Part one is here.
]]>We always approach piracy figures with a healthy skepticism, but this is interesting. Sports Interactive says that Football Manager 2013, the previous iteration of the game, was pirated 10.1 million times. The report they've just sent out goes on to break down those figures by country, and estimates the likely lost revenue as a result of illegal downloads.
The best part is that Sports Interactive and Sega are being totally reasonable about it. Speaking at the London Games Conference as reported by MCV, FM producer Miles Jacobsen said that it's "ridiculous" to equate these numbers with lost sales.
]]>Adam already told you Wot He Thunk about Football Manager 2014, but foot-to-ball is a team sport. For the second half, he's drafted fellow ball fancier Graham onto the pitch to discuss Sports Interactive's latest old-guy-in-a-warm-coat simulator. Spoilers: it ends a draw.
Football puns out the way? Read on for the John Barnes rap, the ethics of pigeons, and the Speedball management mod for which we all hunger.
Graham: Finally a place where we can talk about football without being judged by the others.
Adam: They will be judging us from afar.
]]>Football never stops. At this very moment, as you're reading these words, people are playing football all over the world and every kick of the ball massively matters to someone. Presumably. Perhaps the football is happening too far away for you to see though, or perhaps you'd like to have more control over the actions of the men playing with the football. If that is the case, be thankful that Football Manager 2014 is out this week because it is the best game about managing a football team. Here's wot I think.
]]>Have there ever been two foot-to-ball posts on RPS during a single twenty four hour period? I'd go back and search through the archives but I can hear Kenneth Baubles, the ill-fated librarian, dragging his pegleg around back there. Best not to disturb him. Whatever the case, we're almost back-to-back with balls today. First it was Graham's turn to give FIFA a good kicking, although he was wearing fluffy slippers at the time so ended up delivering a gentle foot caress. Now I'm stepping up to the spot and staring at Football Manager 2014's new 3D match engine as it throws shapes between the goalposts in an effort to confuse me. Below, you can see the revamped engine's first public appearance.
]]>I am busy lazy man, so I don't always have the time to simulate the life of another person and take on that person's job and be good at it. I'm basically the person that Football Manager 2014's classic mode is aimed at: it streamlines the manager's duties, focusing on tactics and transfers, and not bothering about the consistency of the gravy on the pies or making sure that the wind swirling around the stadium moves in a clockwise direction. Things are going to be a bit more involved in 2014, but it'll still be a swiftly steered season of soccer, and the video states that it's possible to enjoy a full season of the game in one evening. How? It has a wizard!
See that? I just went for it and told you the release date of Football Manager 2014. No teases. No 'after the jump' or 'on the other side of the ha-ha'. I didn't even encrypt the data and ask you to hack it. No, it's above. Why did I do that? It's because I respect your time, that's why. Actually, I respect 'the time', so when Sega announced the very minute that the game was being released, I was in heaven. If only everyone ran to such specific schedules and nothing ever went wrong, I'd be incredibly happy. There is other information below, so head beneath the bulwark to find out about the beta, the demo, and Steam integration.
]]>I 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.
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