It seems like the unofficial motto for Football Manager 2012 is “steady as she goes.” When firing up the demo initially, even though many of the interfaces got a nice coat of new paint, it still feels like the good old FM we know and love. That's not necessarily a bad thing, as over the years the franchise has steadily built itself up to be the gold standard of sports management games. But spend more time with the demo, and it’s evident that this is no FM 2011. Sports Interactive has tweaked plenty of things, many that may not be noticeable at first glance. And these slew of small changes add up to make the game an improvement from last year’s offering. No earth shattering revolutions, just consistent doses of improvements.

Interface

While it’s not a major facelift, the interface changes are significant enough to be noticed right away and, at times, you will wonder where everything has gone. For the most part, this year’s game has streamlined many screens to lessen the amount of clicks necessary to access relevant information. For example, when searching for a player, you can now set the search filters and see the results instantly, all in one go. The player overview page too, has been changed to give -- wait for it -- an overview of a player's career. Whereas in the old FM it was just his attributes, now you can see the player's favored position and his scouting report all in the same screen. Initially it might take some getting used to, because a lot of things have been moved around and, at first sight, it seems like an information overload, but after a while you’ll realize that most of these changes are there to make things more efficient.

Team Talks

Long considered one of the drier parts of the game, SI finally gave team talks some love this year. While at its heart it is still picking and choosing from a range of set phrases, this year they’ve added a new wrinkle: tone. Basically, in addition to choosing what you want to say, now you also choose the way you want to say it. Want to channel your inner Sir Alex and turn on the hairdryer? You can, minus the boot kicking; or you can be cool and composed and click on “calm.” Either way, tone is a nice addition to the module as it multiplies the possibilities from which you can choose. What’s more, you can now see immediately how players react to your talk. This is good for two reasons. One, it’s just more realistic this way. And two, whereas in FM 2011 you had no idea if you gave a good or bad team talk until after the match, this year you know right then and there, and can potentially salvage any missteps through giving players individual talks afterwards.

Contract Negotiations

One of the things that bugged me about last year’s FM was how inflexible some agents were. If you don’t match their demands on one of the contract areas, a lot of them don’t seem to budge no matter how much you sweeten the pot elsewhere. A lot of times, it isn’t even because of your doing, but rather your board’s stinginess. This year, contract negotiations now give you the ability to “lock” individual areas where you refuse to, or cannot, budge. So far, things are working as they should. During several negotiations I locked the players’ salary and loyalty bonus, and the agents would turn his focus and try to extract a longer deal, or find another bonus elsewhere. All in all, negotiations have been a lot more pleasant, which isn’t a word you associate with agents normally, real or virtual.

Match Engine

The 3D-match engine looks to be relatively unchanged this year. There are some new animations, but don't expect FIFA 2012, or even FIFA 2002, graphics. Individual players appear to be somewhat smarter with their actions on the pitch. I've seen them pick out passes that they wouldn't in FM 2011, with some neat one-touch plays here and there. I also noticed that attackers are now slightly better at one-on-ones with the keeper, but they still seem to botch them a little too often.

One very small note. There is probably only seven other people who do this, but on certain occasions, I've alt-tabbed away from a match to surf the web or do other work and let FM run in the background until half time or the end of the game. Unfortunately, this can't be done in FM 2012, as match time doesn't elapse when you alt-tab away. Come to think of it, this is probably a plus for most people, so there you go. 

Final Thoughts

It’s hard, obviously, to really see how the game fares when the demo limits you to six months of game time. In fact, many of Football Manager’s highs and lows only begin to show themselves after you’ve invested enough time in your managerial career. That said, the small but plentiful changes I can see so far have been positive, and give me more than enough confidence to hope that Football Manager 2012 will be another classic.