FM: A Series In Stagnation
Posted in Articles | On February 8th, 2008 | By Kazzy
Rather than go through a whole thought out introduction to set up several paragraphs relating to my argument I'll get straight to the point. Football Manager has some issues and the game is beginning to turn away those who spent so many previous years playing and being addicted to the series. It's visible with "The Scene's" (arguable) decline and whilst many want to point the finger at admins and webmasters for a lack of innovation, the real culprit is the game itself. As all the old folks will know, Championship Manager 03/04 was the last game in the CM series before Sports Interactive and Eidos split. The rightful sequel therefore to CM03/04 was Football Manager 2005. This game for me, was the last time we saw true innovation and spark over the game. A brand new design, new features and players were brought into a new environment which was different enough to spark new found interest into the game but not too different that the game dynamics had been changed and spoilt. However, this change in gameplay was forced upon Sports Interactive. They no longer had name rights and couldnt use the same design anymore, they were forced to make a new game. Imagine if the split would of never happened, would the game of become so tediously familiar? Or would they of forced change themselves?
However, what has happened since FM 2005 to really shake up and revolutionise gameplay? The answer for me is nothing. Team talks were, lets be honest, a flop. As the series has progressed, the feature has been tweaked and the inclusion of post match team talks and slightly more player interaction to try and save what for me is a system destined to fail. It's boring and repetitive, the reactions are one-dimensional and predictable, everytime your team is on a good run you are faced with the same identical questions game after game, go on a bad run and you get the same, then after a few seasons it doesnt matter what kind of run you are on, the questions remain the same. Does it even matter anymore what you say to the media? You realise the differences it makes is minimal, what matters more is the players you pick and the tactics you use. Not to mention in a game that takes so long to complete a single season, all the "media" interaction begins to drag on, slow you down and distract you from the real important aspects of this game. In short, what im trying to say here is that the media is becoming an irritant overbearing pointless aspect in the game that has been implemented wrongly. Yes It's nice to have a realistic experience, however it's more important to have a fun gaming experience.
It would be unreasonable to say that a small subsection of the game is the reason why a cult gaming series has been spoilt to an extent. Im sure you could keep the media as it is, make changes elsewhere and still end up with a fantastic game. So im going to divert my attention to a core aspects of the game. Tactics. Now im sure many of you will think "why is this man criticising one of the most consistent and succesful parts of FM history". Well, the important word in that thought train is "History". Setting up your teams formation, making adjustments to team instructions and individual instructions is almost identical to the very first time I picked up my copy of "CM4" at the Electronics Boutique and brought it home. Now a few years ago, It was great fun coming up with new tactics using this system and in CM03/04 you had an influx of "super tactics" like Diablo which made use of a "loony midfielder". Whilst these were due to mistakes in the match engine which have since been recitified, the fun has been taken out of making tactics. Or even using other peoples tactics. This has practically taken an entire "resource" out of the scene experience. What needs to happen is for some kind of overhaul with how you can set up tactics and give the player a new experience. It's become old fashioned and a series like FM cannot rely on new players to buy their game for the first time in order to keep the experience fresh.
Now, im not saying FM is a bad game, or else I wouldn't still play it and I wouldn't be on a website talking about it. What I am saying is that the experience isn't what it once was. When I buy a new copy I do not have that same excitement as I do when I buy a new FIFA or PES. Or even going away from football, I was more excited installing Unreal Tournament 2008 than I was installing FM2008. The reason is that I know what to expect with FM and it usually is what I expect, nothing special and nothing too new. I know what I am going to get and I get it. I want to be pleasantly surprised whereas the only surprises in FM are discovering bugs that occur before the patch comes out.
There are however some good things with FM2008, I am impressed with how scouting has been changed and improved whilst selecting official captains and vice captains was a clever and sensible touch. However, these changes have not revolutionsed gameplay or even significantly changed it, they are small clever changes within the box. Changes need to be made, which are outside the box, or the box itself needs to be replaced, with a bigger and better box. I want to play a new FM game where I do not know what to expect and I have to learn things all over again. There is no fun in being instantly "good" at a game.
Written by Adam
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