Football Manager 2012

Zarlak

The manager appointment is a good one, I had Mancini go to Chelsea and Ancelotti to City, then Mancini got fired and got the England job, then Steve Kean went to Chelsea from Blackburn.

Freak

This. The older championship managers were pure fun.

United87

And addictive!

Yeah, they were about ten times more fun.

MagnificentDuke

Dude, this happens already.

SharkyMcShark

I'd like a setting that makes the 'turns' go the entire span between games unless something really pertinent pops up (offer received, time affected transfer offer)

Minkaro

Bring back the player misbehaviour, that's what I say. I want to have to fine Vidic because he headbutted the ref. I want Van Der Sar to turn up late to training because he got drunk and fell down a well. It's getting boring just issuing warnings because of sendings off for bad challenges.

Also, fix the stepovers. The number of times I've had Ravel Morrison bust them out when there's absolutely nobody near him is ridiculous. Is he trying to bamboozle a nearby mouse?

Crustanoid

One thing really pissing me off is almost every game where the opposition get a player sent off, from that point on I cannot score whatever I do to the tactics. Somehow it gives the opposition magical powers and they transform into the ghosts of Brazil's 1970 World Cup side, whilst whoever I'm managing becomes a team of 11 Brambles


Oh and something I've always wanted to see was testimonials for long-serving players

x42bn6

SI said that's a legal thing and they don't want to encourage little kids.

But I miss things like that. I still remember one of my most professional and unassuming strikers get the only red card of his career in a pre-season friendly after he punched someone. Pointless and got a 5-match ban...

evra

Aside from the obvious request that the game actually works with the first patch instead of being unplayable for three months.......

I think the more time you spend at a club the more decisions should be in your hands, if you've been at a club for ten years and you're moving on to pastures new then it would be cool if they asked you who a suitable replacement would be. It would also be entertaining if every now and then your Oligarch chairman imposed a player on you a la Torres. In the same vein I would like to be able to tell the chairman "If you sell him over my head then I'm going to walk".

Minkaro

I know, I was semi-joking. I think you can get regens sometimes turning up late for training because of partying on FM11. I've only seen it once though.

Hal9000

I'm pretty sure, things like that happen but rarely. I had one of my players sent off for hitting someone whilst a goal kick was being taken.

Pretty sure i had someone shove a the ref as well.

Rarely happens though.

SharkyMcShark

From memory Miles said that real players were precluded from doing that in game for legal reasons, but that regens would from time to time.

Cina

They actually did that in older games if I remember correctly. if you started off at a big club they'd go and buy players for you and/or make you buy players of a high profile to boost theit advertising, and also refuse to let you spend money on players who weren't well know. Thought it was a great touch.

They've just simplified everything too much, when in turn seems to have somehow made the games buggier than ever.

Anyway, a few things here:
- Strikers score too much, I mean way too much, mainly because barely anyone else of the team scores much goals. It's madness when around 5 or 6 strikers in the PL amass 25+ goals every season. They get way too many clean cut chances and one-on-ones, as in the goal completely fucking gaping and someone they miss, or they end of scoring a hat-trick of wonder goals. Where's the fucking middle ground here. If I set my player as a poacher I want poachers goals!
- basically, midfielders need to score more, it's too often their rating is only around the 7 mark just because they haven't scored a goal, even though they've completed 90% of their passes. Wingers should get a few more too.
- Sort out the player ratings in other leagues for fuck sake. Messi wins WPoTY every single year on mine, with an average rating of 8.5 even though he has 10 goals and 11 assists or something.
- Agents negotiations, hopefully these will get better because they were so flawed at times last year. my latest one was when I decided to buy Aguero for fun but the agent wanted an £800m buy-out clause on him. So for some reason my board won't go ABOVE 300m, what the fuck? That's a GOOD thing for the club. Then again, the agent wouldn't budge either. There needs to be more leigh way and perhaps actually being able to talk to them and the board of how much you want the player but you're restricted by wages etc. This is the BIG one for me.
- Player interaction, a load of shit right now, not enough options and players come across as dull and shit and outright thick as fuck.

M: "You played well in the last match, keep it up" (8.6 rating)
P: "I'm shocked by this, I didn't think I played well at all"
M: "It would be worth you listening to me as I pick the team"
P: "I will not let this go! I honestly think I cannot work with you anymore now!"
(Unsettled) Wants to leave club.

I wish they'd sort shit out and not just try and add new stuff which will also be bugged and shit, because I'm fed up of the game and have been playing each version less and less now. Give me FM06 any day.

Alex99

This, especially with the training of preferred moves. When you've been the manager of a team for years and won pretty much everything in sight and all you want to do is stop your gobshite left winger from getting sent off every other game for arguing with the ref and he replies "I don't think this will benefit my game". Of course it will benefit your game you fucking cretin because you'll play more. Then whatever you reply you just get told to fuck off and he becomes unhappy and decides he wants to leave.

Solius

Key new & improved features for Football Manager 2012:

Transfers & Contracts – significant changes to the transfer and contract systems, including loyalty bonuses, better implementation of amateur and youth contracts, an improved transfer centre and the ability to lock areas of the contract negotiation when you aren't prepared to budge. This helps you to manage your budgets and gives you flexibility in what you offer money hungry players, or agents, as incentives.

Scouting improvements – using several real life scouting reports, a new in-game report has been devised which includes squad analysis, tactics information and information about goals scored and conceded alongside lots of other scouting improvements, giving you all the information you need to prepare before kick-off and throughout the season.

3D Match Improvements – new animations, a whole new crowd system, improved weather system, more stadiums, plus two brand new cameras - "Behind Goal" and "Director Cam" as well as all other camera angles being reversible - meaning you can watch and analyse every aspect of every game.

Manage Anywhere, Anytime – the ability to add or take away playable nations in your saved game as often as you want. Manage in that country at the start of the next season- meaning you don’t have to stay in the nations which are chosen by you to be playable at the start of your career.

Tone – a whole new level has been added to team talks and conversations, with the new tone system, which allows you to specify the way you want to say things – be as cool as a cucumber by saying things calmly or throw tea cups around by saying things with passion. There are 6 different tones to choose from with specific comments per tone.

Intelligent Interface – a new adaptive layout system, which means the higher your screen resolution, the more info is easily at your fingertips. The new interface also contains new filters, customisable columns, a new tactics screen, and lots of new overview screens.

Brand New Tutorial – standing separate from the main game, a mode to help new players find their way around the game easily, whilst also offering tips to experienced managers on how to get the most out of the game, as well as a new in-game “how to” system.

On top of these key innovations, there are lots of areas of the game that have had huge improvements, such as the media system, press conferences, the youth system, newgens, the social networking options, friendlies, international management and many more which will be detailed in a series of video blogs over the coming months, alongside more information about Football Manager 2012.

Solius

Screenshots



More screenshots - Football Manager? 2012

Jonno

Beat me to it!

Solius

Well of course I did.

evra

Not much to get excited about there.

BAMSOLA

These two sound absolutely awesome if executed properly.

Big-Red

I agree, the Tone feature could basically change the way you have to manage your team. Could make things more interesting.

BAMSOLA

Yeah essentially it could be more oportunity to put your own personal stamp on your team, if executed properly.

evra

All of the conversation features are tedious, doesn't everyone get their assistant to tak control of press conferences and team talks? I don't know how changing the tone of your message is going to make it any more exciting. Having thought about it I agree that the "anytime anywhere" feature would add something to the game.

BAMSOLA

I suppose it depends on how you see these talks, whether you see them as the oportunity to get more out of a player perfomance wise or whether you beleive they have no bearing.

I personally have never let my Ass man do press conferences because of the potential for a massive fuck up, so as tedious as I find them I still do them.

As for one on ones with players I find them actually reasonably interesting as they've helped me forge stronger relationships with players(via favourite personel) and you will notice this in the way a player will greet you at the beginning of a conversation.

Basically its a good way to that extra level of consistancy out of a player to have him performing on almost superman-esque levels. If anything I actually think there aren't actually enough options on how to address a player so having the option of tone-if executed properly - adds an interesting dimension.

AVARiCE

Every year I have the same flirtation with FM. I played it heavily in high school and loved the game. I know it's only a game but it significantly boosted my knowledge of players. The last one I played properly was 09 though as the bugs in the last two have been unplayable for me.

On one hand, I'm liking both the tone and league-switch options but I know, deep down, they won't work until FM13. I also know that the game will be a shadow of what it could be until patch time in February.

This is partially my fault because I play way too much FM (14 days playtime on FM09) at too deep a level but if all my other games can handle it why shouldn't one of my all time favourites?

Basically, FM12 sounds awesome, I'm looking forward to the demo. At that point I'll realise it's the same as always and I'll be put off for yet another year with a sour taste in my mouth. I really wish SI would take a year to recode and fix things. I honestly reckon they'd make bumper sales that year because they'd make sales to the thousands (?) that loved the game but quit playing who want to see if they actually did fix it.

Hal9000

A bit meh from me, hopefully they fix the bugs with sponsors and feeder clubs. If you take a small club to the big time, you'll still be stuck struggling to find feeder clubs or even more than just a shirt/kit sponsor. That grinds my gears.

Would love to specify that you'll only loan players out if they get first team or starting XI roles.

Alex99

They really need to sort out the regens. The quality of players seriously declines a few years into the game. There are of course a handful of absolute wonders but the majority of them are mediocre or seemingly paraplegic.

x42bn6

Pretty much like reality, no?

Alex99

Not really. In reality you have a small selection of world class players, a slightly larger selection of good players, an even larger selection of ok players and an ocean of shite.

With the regens you end up with probably more world class players than normal then a fuck load of ok and shockingly awful players. There's a definate imbalance of quality.

niMic

I don't know about that, Alex. I've got a game into the 2030s, and the national teams are packed with superstars.

Paz

FM2007 still the standout of all time, perfect balance between playability/simplicity IMHO

Crustanoid

Loaded this up the other day. In some ways it's better - no press conferences and agents. I like the 'Overload', 'Attacking' etc settings of the later ones and the 3-d match engine. The newest one looks much better in-game. There will always be something I'll want it to do better though.

wr8_utd

FM 07 was the best FM. FM 05-07 were wonderful and even 08 was pretty addictive. It's been steadily downhill ever since..

Alex99

It must vary game to game then. I've only had two games get past 2025 but in both of them there's been a severe lack of good players. A fair amount of world class players, most of which play for Barca, Madrid, Chelsea, United, City, Inter or Bayern.

The national teams have stunk as well. Brazil, Spain, Argentina, Italy and weirdly Japan had quite a few world class players but the rest all had mostly mediocre or shockingly poor players in the line-ups. England had one superstar, a couple of good players and a load of crap, France were just a load of crap and Holland had disappeared down to the depths of the likes of Wales and Faroe Isles.

I'll fire up one of my old saves and see how it develops.

Crustanoid

In my 2007 game, Joey Barton became manager of City in 2020 something and Rafa was manager of United

Alex99

Needs to be an 'Attack other team' option in the post-match team talk.

niMic

People have been saying it's been steadily downhill ever since CM Italy. And CM2. All the CM3s. Obviously CM4. And don't get me started on FM.

I still love it, though. I've spent 700+ hours on the latest installment..

niMic

I decided to see into this a bit more. I downloaded Genie Scout and used it on a new game and on two of my games, a United game in 2018 that I had already grown bored of, and the Maidenhead United game that I have stopped playing that is 2031.

Players with 180+ CA

• Base (2011) - 6
• Man Utd (2018) - 13 (2 regens)
• Maidenhead United (2031) - 65

Players with 170+ CA

• Base (2011) - 46
• Man Utd (2018) - 51
• Maidenhead United (2031) - 267

Players with 160+ CA

• Base (2011) - 108
• Man Utd (2018) - 147
• Maidenhead United (2031) - 444

Players with 190+ PA

• Base (2011) - 7
• Man Utd (2018) - 24 (22 regens)
• Maidenhead United (2031) - 72

Players with 180+ PA

• Base (2011) - 66
• Man Utd (2018) - 121
• Maidenhead United (2031) - 312

Players with 170+ PA

• Base (2011) - 256
• Man Utd (2018) - 478
• Maidenhead United (2031) - 1092

Obviously the PA thing is a bit uncertain because of the -10 and -9 ranges in the standard database, though there is only one -10 player as far as I know.

I am fairly sure I used the same custom database for all three games. I'm not sure the results are as clear cut as they seem, but I'm pretty sure the idea that player quality declines isn't something that I've seen. Actually, the problem seems opposite.

There simply shouldn't be 72 players with the potential (and near certainty) to become among the very best of their generation. I guess saves are expected to go a little bit wonky once you get anything more than 10-15 years into the game.

Hell, there are 5 players in my Maidenhead game with 200 potential (one of them from Cape Verde ). Ronaldo and Messi have 195 and 197 respectively.

Alex99

I think my game's broken.

elmo

Nani?