I’ve long thought that sports games should come out every two years, not annually. There aren’t enough new releases every year that players have to pay full price every year. Of course, from a business perspective, I understand why that is. The game that arguably fits that thought best is the Football Manager saga. For example, there are no scanned player faces or other graphics to update, or many game modes to flesh out, and there really haven’t been any major changes from Football Manager 2022 to Football Manager 2023. However, there are some minor improvements that really make this version the best it’s been in years.
The FM series needs no introduction, it’s been the same for decades. But if you’re new, the best I can describe the game is something that will eat up all your time. You start pl aying at 8pm and before you know it it’s 4am. This is without a doubt one of the most addictive games out there. There’s always that feeling of needing to go one more day, play one more game or quickly find a new and better striker because yours isn’t even scoring a goal. It’s football, it’s the coaching role, and it’s got a lot of text and numbers that would make an Excel expert jealous.
The basics are of course the same. You take responsibility for a team (or start without a club if you wish) and try to lead it to success through sound tactics, buying and selling players and more. But all these elements have many layers, it’s like an onion. You have to control team selection, how free kicks work, whether you want an offensive or defensive striker, which player on the opposing team is the most dangerous, etc. It’s hard to describe how deep this game is and it can feel overwhelming. Luckily, you can let other trainers take care of everything. Don’t want to deal with contract extensions? let someone else do it In recent years, a range of employee roles, from hiring analyst to game master, have been added to the game to manage all aspects of day-to-day work.
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One of the novelties this year is an improved recruitment system. Among other things, you can use it to plan the development of the team for a few seasons, with feedback from the coaches on how they think the players will develop. If you feel that a certain part of your team isn’t strong enough, you can now target a specific weakness that Scouts will try to find players to fix. But be careful with the reaction of your current players because if they feel like you want to replace them, they will ask you directly. And a bad reaction can lead to bad team cohesion if the team supports the player.
The dynamism of the club is very important and another novelty this year is the reaction of the fans. In the past we’ve seen little hints of how fans are reacting, but this year there’s a whole section for them. In it you can see how they are divided up, whether it’s the staunchest fans, the families or the “tribuneros” who go to the games. You can see how much the fans affect the board and if you don’t like the results, that’s not good news. They also have their own expectations of you, such as: B. bringing up players from the academy or playing attacking football. As the directive tells you at the start of each season.
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Still, perhaps the most visible of all the new features are the licenses. Finally there are the big European cups with all the real names. The Champions League is there, including the classic anthem, as well as the Europa League and the Conference League. A really strong new acquisition of the developers. This also includes pre-match graphics with team line-ups displayed just like on TV, as well as the result graphic in the top left corner and even the logo in the center circle when the players step onto the pitch. A good step in the right direction.
Things have also been going in the right direction on the pitch. AI trainers are now more responsive to what you do during matches and can try to counter your switch with their own. They can also play differently depending on the type of opponent they are facing and the importance of the game. The graphics have been updated, although of course it doesn’t look like FIFA 23. Perhaps most notable are the goalkeepers, who looked pretty rough beforehand. There are now new animations for the different types of saves and it didn’t take long for me to realize how much better it looks. On the pitch, first touch, tackling and more have all been improved. It looks more real than before.
Football Manager 2023 isn’t making huge strides forward, but enough to make a difference. The new UEFA Champions League, Europa League and Conference League licenses were much needed and together with the improved player animations go a long way towards making this edition the most realistic in the history of the series.
