FM12 is almost here - New features

 

Less than a week to go for the most anticipated game of the year: Football Manager 2012 will be released next Friday 21st October. Shops will open at midnight to allow the fans to flock in and Steam will be inundated with potentially hundreds of thousands of downloads.

But will it be worth it? What really is different in this version of the BAFTA winning series compared to FM11? Will it just be an expensive transfers update?

To cheat, or not to cheat, that is the question

As a manager there will come a time in your career when the decision of whether you should bend the rules or not when it comes to your game.

A tumble in the box

Cheating or Modifying, (as some like to call it) is essential. There are a few ways to Modify, firstly when it comes to scouting, checking the players potential ability (-10 is the best) on the editor before hand (you know your desperate if your trying this) or using a save game tool.

Another way is by using a real time editor, here you can change the game whilst it’s running, magically heal a decrepit player or the whole squad, change your finances or just alter attributes to make your team a team of GODS.

Football Manager obsessive - Hogan Ephraim

Hogan Ephraim is a 22 year old professional football player and has represented England at U16, U17, U18 and U19 levels. He was in West Ham’s youth team and spent a successful loan spell at Colchester Utd. He joined QPR in Jan 08 and is an integral part of the first team squad.

I caught up with him after training to ask the self-confessed Football Manager addict a few questions.

Olly Hunter: How long have you been playing Football Manager, how much do you play a day?
Hogan Ephraim: I’ve been playing since I was a kid. I’m really addicted, training might finish at 2 or 3, I’d get home and play solidly, until sometimes 11:30 at night. So a good seven hours!   

OH: What’s your current game?

HE: Well I’ve just downloaded the update so I started again and am Man Utd.
OH: Manchester Utd.? Hogan, what are you doing to me?
HE: I know, but I’ve supported them since I was young.
OH: You were born in north London, I thought you’d be a Spurs or Arsenal fan?
HE: Not a chance, never Arsenal.
OH: Well you do have the right accent (London one) for a United supporter!
HE: Yeah (chuckles).
OH: What’s your greatest ever achievement on FM?

HE: That’s tough, because I’ve won major trophies with the big teams but I feel my greatest achievement was when I won the UEFA cup with Brentford, it took me 9 seasons to get there, but that’s the best.

OH: Impressive! Why choose Brentford in the first place?

HE: Well my brother was upstairs on the computer, me downstairs on the laptop and he’d just bragged about winning the Premiership with Barnsley, but mine is better!
OH: I like managing teams from all over the world like in Iceland or India, have you picked a team from anywhere strange?

HE: Scotland!? Nah not really just places like Italy, Spain, Germany and Holland. The big leagues.
OH: What’s been your biggest signing, the most you’ve paid and the most you’ve sold for.
HE: I once bought Lionel Messi for £44million, but I bought Miguel Veloso from Sporting Lisbon for £11million and a year later sold him to Man City for £72million.

 

OH: Who’s your all time favourite FM player?
HE: Fabregas is awesome always gets loads of assists and goals but I’ve never had him because I’ve never been Arsenal.
OH: I know what you mean, I’ve never been Chelsea, just cant bring myself to do it. Any other players?
HE: Well I always buy Sergio Aguero from Atletico Madrid. He always gets loads of goals and is great up front with Rooney!
OH: I’ve a confession, in my current game I sold you to Shrewsbury for just £250K, but in another I turned down a £4million bid from Man Utd. for you. Sorry. As a manager have you ever bought yourself?  HE: I cant say I’ve bought myself, they (makers of FM) don’t make me good enough.
OH: I know! Some of your stats are far too low, on my game you had only 12 for dribbling and 7 for stamina.
HE: Really? Those are the things I’m known best for.

OH: Thanks ever so much Hogan and good luck for the rest of both your seasons, real life and FM.
HE: Cheers!

Football Manager Obsessive

My name is Olly Hunter, and I am addicted to Football Manager.

Alcohol, nicotine, cocaine, heroin and to less destructive extent caffeine are all highly addictive substances. They attack your nervous system and in the end make the user reliant.

But what about things that are not drugs, can they be addictive? I’ve been told that the gym (I haven‘t tried this phenomenon), exercise, is extremely addictive.

In today’s modern world and the California body culture that “gymites” adhere to, concequently some people are addicted to the gym and then ultimately the endorphins that pumping iron produces.

Other people can be addicted to work or their career (again something I still haven’t tried). People throw themselves into work, not just for the money but out of pride in their work or it's because that's all they have. Addicted to a safe routine.

I always thought that I didn’t have an addictive trait in my personality, despite both parents smoking and a history of alcoholism on one side of the family and an ice cream obsession on the other.

I’m wrong though, I am addicted. It's an addiction that’s consuming my life and is called Football Manager.

Football Manager, a game where you command a real team, over a thousand to choose, from 50 countries around the world. This is the strange part for those not in the know, you don’t play the actual game yourself, you don’t even watch it. The game is tactics, stats and results, all in text apart from a few logos and pictures. I’ve had night long discussions just about the best players and tactics or the best bargain buys!

How can this be exciting or stimulating, let alone addictive? But it is, millions of people have been sucked in, assimilated, and if they’re anything like me, totally and utterly addicted.

Hours, days, nights, weeks can just pass and before you know it you haven’t eaten, slept or even moved from the computer.

So once again, in true AA style - My name is Olly Hunter and I am addicted to Football Manager.