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Released: 21/10/2011
Platforms:
Most years Sports Interactive manages to cram in well over 100 improvements to Football Manager, some large, some small. For Football Manager 2012, we found ourselves adding over 800 new features. While none was quite as profound as something like the 3D Match Engine had been a few years earlier, every little helped.
New players were given a brand-new standalone tutorial and supported by in-game hints and tips as they began their debut season. Everyone benefited from a new overhauled interface, too, with an adaptive layout that used more or less of your screen resolution depending on the size of your display, with new filters, custom columns and other widgets to help give you the most comfortable dashboard.
The 3D Match Engine was bolstered by new animations, a whole new crowd system, improved weather dynamics, more stadiums, and the ability to adopt "Behind Goal" or "Director Cam" views of the action. And a new "Manage Anywhere, Anytime" feature meant you could add or take away playable nations on your saved game as you pleased.
Smaller but devilishly entertaining was the new tone system, which allowed you to choose from six different styles of speaking to modify your team talks and conversations. For managers keen to send just the right kind of message to press or players, it was ideal.
Significant Innovations
- Contracts and Transfers Overhauled - Loyalty bonuses, better amateur and youth contracts, and the ability to lock certain aspects of the discussion made for a more nuanced manner of hardball negotiating
- 3D Match Engine Improvements - New camera angles, a new crowd system, more animations, more realistic weather and more stadiums
- Manage Anywhere, Anytime - Add or take away playable nations on your saved game whenever you desire
- Intelligent Interface - Big screen? Then take advantage of it by laying out extra widgets and gizmos. Smaller space? The game will adapt to maximise efficiency.
- Tonal Barking - To borrow a wonderful joke from IGN's review. The tone system let you adjust the tone of your comments to suit their context and goals
- Massive Independent Tutorial - As well as continued in-game support, a new discrete tutorial module gave players a thorough onboarding as required
WHAT THEY SAID
The Telegraph
"The biggest achievement here is managing to reach out to new or lapsed players, while still piling on new intricacy for long term fans. For them, this is a compelling tangle of improved, impassioned football strategy, bursting with detailed dealings, sumptuous stats and days out in Shrewsbury. And it's never been a better time to step into the dugout for rookie gaffers."
9.0/10
"Some may look at Sports Interactive and detect a faint glimmer of complacency, but just because Football Manager's opposition have all but given up, this doesn't mean the king can't rule his kingdom."
PC Gamer
"FM 2012 has seen off all its rivals but even before this, the FM series was the only choice, with its sheer depth and freedom compensating for the flaws that accompany it."
Football Manager Handheld 2012 expanded the series' reach as it ventured onto Android devices for the first time in addition to the traditional iOS and PlayStation Portable editions, cementing its position as the most realistic and widely played football management sim.
FM12 Handheld on iOS and Android was also notable for the addition of a new Challenge Mode, tailored to the sort of short, sharp bursts of gameplay time that people dabbling in mobile apps tended to have at their disposal. Challenge Mode served up quick-to-play gameplay scenarios that pitted you against challenging managerial circumstances.
Of course, the full game was still there to play as well, with 37 leagues fully updated for the 11/12 season and over 20,000 players in the database. New features this year included Star Players, helping you identify key movers in your squad, an updated interface with more graphical bells and whistles, Apple TV mirror support, and social media integration, allowing you to keep your friends up to date with your managerial accomplishments.
Over on the PSP, the database was tipping over 22,000 players and staff, all up to date with the latest transfers, while tweaks to the core simulation allowed you to spend more time negotiating with the board on club affairs and development, including stadium expansion and improved training facilities.
