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Firstly, my apologies. Football Manager is once again so brilliantly addictive that I have barely been able to stop playing long enough to write this review. If I skimp on the narrative, then trust me, it’s because the game did its job.
Football Manager experts will remember the addictiveness ratings that greet you with every log in. I have regularly been greeted by "Your relationship has now expired." At the time I thought this was a joke, but the current incarnation of Football Manager has been cited in 35 divorce cases since its inception in 2004. You can find yourself thinking about transfers during the day, writing out your tactics on a notepad during lessons, lectures or at work. You can even end up devising training methods to get the best out of the young players. This game is no different.
Last year the developer Sports Interactive shook things up, by removing the slider controls and switches used to control a match, in favour of more straightforward instructions, giving you as a manager more personality and making the player instructions less robotic.
If there’s a theme to this year’s changes it’s the idea of greater customisation, from the revamped user interface to the personality and style of your manager. Choosing to be a tracksuit manager, who stalks the training ground like an Arsene Wenger, or a more tactical manager like Jose Mourinho allows you to instil your character on the game. Do you want to be the manager getting all your important work done on the training ground, building a team philosophy and style of play or do you want to be the man making a super sub to change the momentum of a game.
You have to assign your own attributes, to suit your character and the type of manager you want to be. If you feel like you can master both worlds then get your coaching badges done and prove it on the job. You improve your attributes by playing the game, so you can start as a Sunday League footballer with no coaching experience and gradually work your way to becoming a modern day Sir Alex Ferguson. This element increases the reality of the experience, allowing you to completely indulge in the dream of being a modern day Football Manager.
CLICK HERE TO WIN ONE OF FIVE FOOTBALL MANAGER 2015 COPIES
The new user interface, is the return of the Championship Manager-esque vertical menu bar. This allows you to navigate the game with more ease and drastically improves the speed of the game. Perhaps the biggest of Football Manager 2015’s improvements is the change to the scouting system. It now involves all your staff and the reports and advice all feels much more organic. It’s also much more limited, by not being magically able to access every player and their stats at once adds to both the realism and the gameplay.
The match view has also enjoyed its most significant facelift since the introduction of 3D in Football Manager 2009. It is still not like watching a proper game of football, but Sports Interactive have taken a leaf out of Fifa’s book with the addition of cutting-edge motion capture data that helps breathe new life into the match-day experience and takes it to that next level of realism. The lighting has also been improved, along with the ball physics so no longer are you watching 11 on 11 foot volleyball. This all combines to make Football Manager 2015’s match-day experience the most realistic to date.
In Short: Another brilliant addition to Football Manager is that it will have you shouting at a frustrating Mario Balotelli one day and wearing a suit for cup finals the next.
Pros: Scouting is a lot more interesting and realistic than ever before. The new interface significantly inproves the game speed. Match graphics are the best they have ever been.
Cons: The game is so addictive that I may have to give up the day job.
Score: 9/10
CLICK HERE TO WIN ONE OF FIVE FOOTBALL MANAGER 2015 COPIES
Formats: PC
Price: $69.95
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Sports Interactive
Release Date: 7th November 2014
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