Football Manager 2006 Review (PC)
Submitted on: Dec 02, 2005 by Aaron HolbertLet’s be honest with one another. Sports Interactive could just issue each edition of Football Manager (Worldwide Soccer Manager in the USA) with nothing more than a data update and fans would all buy it on launch day. Anyone who has been around this “soccer RPG” knows its addictive grasp on one's life and how in-depth the game really is. As fans of the series will know, from the outside you just sit there with an expressionless face, not moving very much and rarely muttering a word. On the inside, you can hear the fans chanting “You don’t know what you’re doing”; you can feel your foot booting that water bottle across the changing room at your failing team. So, before I even take the shrink wrap off my imported copy, I'm looking forward to it - but does the 2006 edition carry the torch well?
The Football Manager games are always the toughest to review. I’ve had the game almost 3 weeks, but I am just now wrapping up my first year in the game. It’s a game that takes months for one to realize all the little things this game does right and does wrong. One of the things that SI has possibly done wrong in the past is make too many improvements. What I’m talking about is certain aspects of the game that SI has made more complex. The training model in past versions has become so complex (you design a schedule for the whole week divided by time of day) that many fans of the games stopped playing with it and just downloaded schedules off the Internet. SI addresses this in 2006. The manager will now assign the coaches to certain skill sets like shooting, set pieces, or fitness. Individual player’s reaction to their training regime is much easier to view on their player page, and a handy graph will help you chart their progress over the last 12 months.
Speaking of player pages, Football Manager will now show you what positions on the field the player is good at, average or mediocre at, or completely untested at. This is helpful when you get the injury bug and need to find a stop-gap player that can get you through the next week. Your manager page now has a summary page that shows your “snapshot” in time. Listed is your next match, your current position in all of the competitions entered, a financial summary, and your leaders in a few statistical categories. It's a great page to have if you just need some quick basic information.
During the matches, managers now have more control over the players with the use of “quick tactics”. While the game is being played, managers can make tactic changes or give team instructions on the fly without stopping the match. The only thing that would be missing is a Chelsea sub running onto the pitch to give Terry a note from Mourinho. The quick tactics feature is quite useful when you want your players to waste time and try to preserve that 1-0 lead. As many of my fellow Owl fans would say, “Take it to the corner”! The computer AI will also adjust their tactics as appropriately. The 4-5-1 comes out to try and preserve a victory and the 3-3-4 will come out if they are trying to get back into a cup tie. Also, Football Manager 2006 introduces the ability to give your team a halftime and fulltime talk. If you think your lads are lacking any fire, you can question their passion for the match or go the other route and give them encouragement. My favorite was when I was trailing 4-0 at home and I told them they were “clueless on the pitch”.
Media manipulation and player interactions are definitely high on the list of stuff that I love doing in the game. For both, multiple choice responses give you much more of a chance to shape what kind of manager you want to be, and it's consistently fun to be able to do so. To hell with whether it makes any difference, though; it makes us feel important and powerful, though it'd be fun for the game to report their reaction in terms of some sort of identifiable manager, team and media relations stat. At the moment, morale is too woolly a means of measuring how team members feel, because it encompasses an enormous number of factors that could have literally nothing to do with you or your managerial decisions. For example, it's enormously galling to see a player demand to leave, when - in real life- he's the type to stick it out with his mentor and manager, and possibly even his home town.
For those that get lost in the depth of this game, there is now a tutorial available to the user. Pressing F1 on any page will bring up a brief summary of what things are on that page. So there is no longer the excuse that you don’t know enough about soccer to play this game.
Football Manager has made a great step this year. They’ve gotten away from making things as complex as it would be in a manager’s show and just made the system better. The interaction between manager and players, media, and other managers just adds to the enjoyment and longevity of this title. While I’m sure some will find bugs through longer times of play, the SI crew has always been quick to address their fans needs in patches throughout the season. Now, please excuse me as I go back into my cave and try to get Sheffield Wednesday back into the Premiership.
The Football Manager games are always the toughest to review. I’ve had the game almost 3 weeks, but I am just now wrapping up my first year in the game. It’s a game that takes months for one to realize all the little things this game does right and does wrong. One of the things that SI has possibly done wrong in the past is make too many improvements. What I’m talking about is certain aspects of the game that SI has made more complex. The training model in past versions has become so complex (you design a schedule for the whole week divided by time of day) that many fans of the games stopped playing with it and just downloaded schedules off the Internet. SI addresses this in 2006. The manager will now assign the coaches to certain skill sets like shooting, set pieces, or fitness. Individual player’s reaction to their training regime is much easier to view on their player page, and a handy graph will help you chart their progress over the last 12 months.
Speaking of player pages, Football Manager will now show you what positions on the field the player is good at, average or mediocre at, or completely untested at. This is helpful when you get the injury bug and need to find a stop-gap player that can get you through the next week. Your manager page now has a summary page that shows your “snapshot” in time. Listed is your next match, your current position in all of the competitions entered, a financial summary, and your leaders in a few statistical categories. It's a great page to have if you just need some quick basic information.
During the matches, managers now have more control over the players with the use of “quick tactics”. While the game is being played, managers can make tactic changes or give team instructions on the fly without stopping the match. The only thing that would be missing is a Chelsea sub running onto the pitch to give Terry a note from Mourinho. The quick tactics feature is quite useful when you want your players to waste time and try to preserve that 1-0 lead. As many of my fellow Owl fans would say, “Take it to the corner”! The computer AI will also adjust their tactics as appropriately. The 4-5-1 comes out to try and preserve a victory and the 3-3-4 will come out if they are trying to get back into a cup tie. Also, Football Manager 2006 introduces the ability to give your team a halftime and fulltime talk. If you think your lads are lacking any fire, you can question their passion for the match or go the other route and give them encouragement. My favorite was when I was trailing 4-0 at home and I told them they were “clueless on the pitch”.
Media manipulation and player interactions are definitely high on the list of stuff that I love doing in the game. For both, multiple choice responses give you much more of a chance to shape what kind of manager you want to be, and it's consistently fun to be able to do so. To hell with whether it makes any difference, though; it makes us feel important and powerful, though it'd be fun for the game to report their reaction in terms of some sort of identifiable manager, team and media relations stat. At the moment, morale is too woolly a means of measuring how team members feel, because it encompasses an enormous number of factors that could have literally nothing to do with you or your managerial decisions. For example, it's enormously galling to see a player demand to leave, when - in real life- he's the type to stick it out with his mentor and manager, and possibly even his home town.
For those that get lost in the depth of this game, there is now a tutorial available to the user. Pressing F1 on any page will bring up a brief summary of what things are on that page. So there is no longer the excuse that you don’t know enough about soccer to play this game.
Football Manager has made a great step this year. They’ve gotten away from making things as complex as it would be in a manager’s show and just made the system better. The interaction between manager and players, media, and other managers just adds to the enjoyment and longevity of this title. While I’m sure some will find bugs through longer times of play, the SI crew has always been quick to address their fans needs in patches throughout the season. Now, please excuse me as I go back into my cave and try to get Sheffield Wednesday back into the Premiership.
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