Football Manager 2013

[Anubis]

So, how many of us are going to be buying FM this year?

I skipped last year, so I was planning to anyway, but this years looks to have enough changes and improvements to make it worth it for me on its own. Must admit to being particularly tempted by the "Classic Mode", as a way round some of what I feel can be the more tedious aspects of the game at times.

If a few of us will be getting it, might be nice to have a thread here to detail progress in our career of choice?

[Isileth]

I just downloaded the demo today, haven't given it a go yet but will do at some point. I also didn't buy 2012 even though it really did fix a lot of the interface issues, because my complaints was with the match engine which they completely ignored.
This time round they have updated the match engine however I am very worried its purely cosmetic as all the dev talks and feature lists were about improved animations, more realistic movement, better weather and environment etc. However I shall certainly see for myself, its not as if it needs a lot to have changed to be worth it, the game is still good even if you have to impose self limitations to avoid abusing weakness in the system.

[Isileth]

Just had a quick go so cant say anything in detail but sadly there doesn't seem to be that many changed to the match engine.
The worst deliberately built in features such as the set piece wizard are still in place and it does the exact same it did before, makes corners/free kicks a ridiculous stand at the unadjustable location you have been assigned while the ball is kicked to one of a few set locations and nobody make any attempt to move towards it. Not that it would make a huge difference if they did because they still havent sorted out heading, or more specifically challenging for a header in the air.

End of the day its not something they have made worse, they just haven't really bothered putting any actual work into making a new game. Since I skipped the last one I will most likely get it, however as with all their releases its well worth waiting till the first patch at the very least.

[Anubis]

You get a chance to try out Classic Mode? See what that's like?

[Isileth]

No I haven't looked at it yet actually.
Been playing a bit more of the normal mode though, messed around with a Blue Square team and Man U to try and get a feel across the range.

I will further expand on my comments above however. First the good.

The new staff system seems very good. Not only are there extra staff but you can also delegate more and most importantly you can be somewhat specific in that delegation, for example getting your director of football or youth manager to go out and sign players for you its possible to get them to do that while still having the final say in the matter. You can throw a bunch of players onto a transfer list and set your staff to automatically offer them contracts if you like the scouting but not the negotiating etc.
Definitely will allow you to pick and choose the areas you personally want to manage without cutting chunks of the game out or having to constantly watch them to make sure they aren't being idiots.

Training/match preparation has been changed a fair amount. Done away with the custom training schedules and big slider bore that most people ignored or just download custom schedules and then ignored. Seems to me to make more sense how the team/individual/match/position training works together.

I haven't had chance to poke around the scouting/transfer system properly but will hopefully do so tonight, supposedly improved so I will comment on that later.


Now the negatives.

Everything I said about the match engine remains true. However I will add a big cautionary note and say that as with all their releases its way worse than it will be after the first couple of patches. As always lots of goalkeeper bugs, stupid defending mistakes and players standing still watching a ball pass right next to them because its been "assigned" to another player. The vast majority of that will be improved, slowly, but it will get better with each patch.
However the big negative to add onto that note is its the exact same problems they have with every single release, when they have made almost zero change to the match engine apart from visuals it gets a bit annoying that they only manage to make it worse with each release and just eventually patch it back to the level of the previous games.
Therefore I don't in the slightest bit expect any of the problems that have remained post patch in the last few released to be fixed because they have never shown any intention of doing so thus far.

Also personal annoyance here, but its been years and its just one of many minor polish things that slowly bug you each and every time. Can they not with all modern technology available work out how to stop saying "Hes taking no chances there, hes kicked that into row Z." when the ball trickles over the touchline and doesn't even hit the ad boards. At the very least add a few more variations.
No impact on the actual game play but it does get annoying

[M.Steiner]

Not a football fan as you know but I just came across this and thought of your thread:
RPS: Wot I Think: Football Manager 2013 Classic

Might be of interest

[Anubis]

Ooo, thanks mate. That looks to be exactly what Iwas after. Will read when I get a moment

Haven't managed to pick up a copy of the game yet, but am very keen to now especially after the weekend's discussions with QD over FIFA Manager!

[Anubis]

I've had a play of the demo now, though not yet the full game, and must say that Classic Mode is a little more limiting than I would have hoped. Particularly in relation to the complete removal of Press Conferences/Interaction, and the fact that you can only include 3 leagues in a "Classic" game.

I'll probably still play it when I pick up the main game, as it's still something that I will probably find easier to fit around other committments (not having to spend an hour just to play one game), but it doesn't seem to be quite what I'd hoped for. A shame, though not a complete failure.

[SL33PY]

I got it... just haven't played it yet

I got a backlog, and FM will be put on the backburner because of that


I would seriously love a feature that allows me to continue my FM12 game in FM13, some save game conversion shit you know, that'd be awesome

[Anubis]

I would seriously love a feature that allows me to continue my FM12 game in FM13, some save game conversion shit you know, that'd be awesome

Yeah, that would be a really good feature. Starting over every time isn't ideal, but at the same time considering how player attributes change every time I can kind of understand why such a feature doesn't already exist.

As for me, I've had the game for a little over a week now and am really enjoying it. Classic Mode has turned out to be pretty much perfect for me - I'm able to play at a decent pace, whilst cutting out all of the tedious detail that I was never too interested in. So yeah, really enjoying it.

I'm midway through my second season as Arsenal and am doing quite well after a mediocre first season (finished fourth and won nothing - was doing great until Christmas when I was hit by a horrific injury crisis which scuppered my season). I'll try and post up some screens of the squad and formation at the end of the season for anyone who's interested.

[SL33PY]

started a hard game for me, created a new manager profile and went to solicit I'm now manager of a local Belgian team (I have Belgium, Germany and England selected)

Somehow I couldn't exclude the lower competitions in the quick game, so I think you can't

Anyways, I'm going to try to become a major coach we'll see how well I perform in a few

I only play when commuting to Brussels

[Anubis]

Ok, finally finished my second season. Overall it was an extremely positive year: I won a treble consisting of the Premier League, the Capital One Cup and the Champions League. Wasn't perfect though, with my FA Cup progression not having been what it should have been, and there being a couple of flaws in my team that need correcting going into my third season.

The final league table was as follows:



Generally very positive, but the GA left me disappointed. With 8 games to go I'd conceded 18, and let 10 in over the last 8 games - mainly due to having to heavily rotate the squad to cope with three competitions. My aim for next season will be to get it under 25.

The result that left me happiest, and also my biggest cause for concern going forward follow:




I beat Swansea 7-0 at one point, and also beat Spurs in the CL Final on penalties, but I was a lot happier with the United result. Was a superb team and tactical performance as well as the only time I've beaten United in FM13, but we sadly couldn't follow it up in any of the three other games against United that followed immediately after - partly due to our squad rotation, but also partly due to theirs. I will be trying to strengthen my 'secondary players' in the off season to give me a stronger pool of players to rotate, so that I can hopefully avoid that situation re-occuring.

Finally, my team and subs bench. The only player that should be on the bench but isn't due to injury is Walcott (over Ramsey). The rest is my first choice teamsheet:



Over the summer I'll probably be letting Ba go, as he's very injury prone and I now have better players in his positions. Ramsey will also likely be replaced as he doesn't perform well for me. I also need a better backup AML and GK. Broadly though, it's a good squad.

Roll on season three

[Anubis]

Am I the only one still playing? They're meant to be patching a very significant update for the Match Engine soon apparently, which might appease some of Isi's concerns particularly.

If others get into it, might be nice to try some matches between respective teams online. When Mech gets properly into it, I am keen to crush him with my Arsenal side for one

[Whizbang]

Am I the only one still playing? They're meant to be patching a very significant update for the Match Engine soon apparently, which might appease some of Isi's concerns particularly.

If others get into it, might be nice to try some matches between respective teams online. When Mech gets properly into it, I am keen to crush him with my Arsenal side for one

Yes yes yes....crush kill maim destroy....your Arsenal side won't do much once I've had a pass through with my Liverpool boys.

[Anubis]

Am I the only one still playing? They're meant to be patching a very significant update for the Match Engine soon apparently, which might appease some of Isi's concerns particularly.

If others get into it, might be nice to try some matches between respective teams online. When Mech gets properly into it, I am keen to crush him with my Arsenal side for one

Yes yes yes....crush kill maim destroy....your Arsenal side won't do much once I've had a pass through with my Liverpool boys.

Let me know when you deem them ready and we'll test that claim