FM2011 is out on November 5th but I have been one of the lucky few in the world to be able to get my hands on the Press preview code!
So where do I start?
The new start screen is the best place – lovely and shiny and looking even better than FM2010!
Let’s load this baby up and see what happens then!
The first major change you will see when starting a new game is the “Create New Game” screen.
As you can see from the screenshot the layout of this screen has been improved immensely.
Now it is easier to select the nations you want and see the player count and PC specs at the bottom in a clear and distinct manner.
When you select the Nations you want, you move to the Final Configuration screen.
As with previous versions you can select the leagues, database size and when the game start date is.
The new look makes it cleaner and easier to navigate your way through these screens without the over scrolling and small text that seemed to be there in FM2010.
You will also notice the “Add Players to playable teams” check box.
This is an excellent feature this year as if there is not enough players at a club it will fill the team if that team is in a playable league – it is like the “Add key staff” feature but with players. Another excellent touch from the guys at SI!
When you get to the New Manager setup screen, this is where you start noticing the exciting new features that SI have added this year.
On this screen are two of the major new features.
Twitter and YouTube.
With Twitter this means that you can set either manual or automatic updates of achievements to Twitter, whilst on STEAM you can publish over 80 achievements to a personal virtual manager’s office on the Football Manager site as well as your STEAM profiles.
YouTube is more fun as you can now upload that wonder goal you keep telling your friends about on MSN and the fansites to your YouTube account. This will include all the various camera views including the new TV view!
Picking the club to manage hasn’t changed this year, you still pick the club in the old fashioned way, and some things just work and don’t need fiddled with.
For this preview I am selecting Chelsea as this will enable me to show you the new transfer system slightly better as I will have some cash to play with, and being a United man picking Chelsea was far better than using City!
First thing you will notice is the new News screen.
All your inbox subjects are now on the left with the middle being used for the actual content. This is a much nicer layout and is easier to read and navigate through.
Less time will be spent clicking forward and back through things and therefore speed up the process for any gamer – the hardcore or casual user
Some of the screens have remained the same – Backroom advice still has the same player roles, scouting options, who is suggested as captain, playmaker or corner taker.
Something new in that screen is that the coaches when you join a club tell you their preferred role as a coach – shooting, technical, etc.
So let’s look at trying to sign a player – something we all do when we start the game, and as Wilkins has advised me to look for a striker, let’s go get Neymar.
As you can see, nothing much has changed in this screen, but on the right hand side, you can see the important comments you need to be aware of in the game.
As you can see, the offer to a club has not changed, and stays fairly simplistic to build an offer up.
One of the new features is the agents who offer you players.
Here you can see that I have been offered a 21 year old player, along with a list of his current club, price and some basic information.
I have sent my scout to have a look at him and get a report on him so I can see what he is like.
You can filter these agent offers to show future prospects, transfer listed players etc, so it can be tailored for the way you want to buy players in.
As I have made a bid for Neymar, let’s have a look at the brand new offer screen.
First thing you will see is the agent at the top of the screen giving you some information about his client.
In this case, the club feel the wage, signing on fee and agent fee are too high for the player, which you can see in the red, so you have to edit them to a size the club feel is more reasonable.
Some are nicer than others, and for instance some players like Paul Scholes and Arsenio Valpoort who don’t have an agent in real life, represent themselves in the game – superb touch there SI!
What has happened has that I have reduced the wage and fees to a level that is more appropriate to what the club feels is reasonable.
Also I have added some clauses in.
The first is a bonus that he will get when he scores 20 goals in a season, the second is a wage rise after 20 games to the level that the agent was chasing in the first offer – sometimes these sweeteners actually work with the agent!
The agent with my 2nd offer has come back with some additions to what I suggested – typical agents!
As you can see, the agent has asked for a yearly wage rise and changed the size of his bonus and wage rise – but I am happy with what he has asked for and the agent is happy, now he has to go and “check with his client”!
Another feature that has been tweaked is the press conferences.
Some of the questions remain the same, but there are some new ones added as well.
Miles has blogged about these on the Mirror Football site – here are some of his favourites.
-Questions about the club’s ex-manager when you take over a club (particularly if they’ve been successful)
- Questions regarding new signings after they’ve played for a few matches
- Specific questions for special competitions, like the Community Shield.
- A new press conference following draws for major tournaments if your team are involved with them.
- Questions regarding team selection when the manager may be considering rotating and/or resting players.
- Signing former players and the reaction that will have around the club and amongst the supporters.
- Questions asked when milestones have been reached both by clubs and players.
- A whole host of new Cup-related questions.
As you can see, the questioning has got more in-depth, I could show you some of these but we would be here all week doing them!
Something else that is new is the player chats.
It has been advised that I should speak to Zhirkov about his movement.
As you can see, you get options for various subjects with a lot of statements you want to make to the player, I selected the one I wanted and he has replied in a good way, this isn’t always the case as you will see later!
This is a more in depth way than before and is a more personal touch to the game as it now offers you something that can affect a player’s morale as well as their confidence in you as a manager
It is through this screen you can set up things like tutoring, individual training and suggest future roles as well.
Match preparation is another new feature that SI have brought us this year.
First thing you can see is the main tactic I plan to use with Chelsea – a 4-3-3.
I have also set up with a 4-4-2 and 4-5-1 as my backup tactics should I ever need them.
In here you can set up a focus area to help with the tactic and this will help the team improve as a whole in training and with the right coaching staff in the right positions, this can only benefit your team in the long term.
Or, you can just have your assistant look after this side of things if you want to get into the game quicker or want to read up on the feature before utilising it.
So what about the training in the game?
As you can see there is a new GK Section – Shot Stopping and Handling.
This is great if you start at Arsenal and have Almunia and Fabianski on your books!
Coaches now can tell you their preferred section to work in and how they work best in the game in your first backroom meeting of the game.
All in all its pretty much the same as we had before with the same sliders to change the workload of the team as you see fit.
Now we have the tactics, training and match preparation set up, its time to look at the next big addition tho the game – the set piece creator.
The set piece creator is similar to the tactics creator in look and feel.
Each part is self explanatory and is laid out nicely and is easy to use.
You get all the information you need placed on the screen making it really simple to use.
As you can see here for corner takers it shows you the players with their preferred foot and rating.
Setting up corners on the other hand!
Attacking and defending have separate screens but both have the same layout.
You can set the individual settings for each player here – near post, far post, stay back etc.
This should make this part of tactics for people like me much easier!
Free kicks are set up in a similar style to the corner kicks, the takers screen looks the same for one!
The screens are similar again and show how you can set up the wall, men on the post etc as you would want in defence.
In attack, you can mark the keeper, put men in the middle and generally set up anyway you want!
Again, Throw in taker is very self explanatory.
But setting up how you want have your players react to the throw in is another set of settings for you to play with!
And if you cant work out how to set the penalty takers then you should maybe think about playing solitaire!
Now, Yury or Florent – hmm…
So now I’ve gone through setting up all the background stuff, its time to get on and play a game.
Some things haven’t changed in the game – the match preview, team selection and the match analysis screen!
The preview screen on the other hand has been reworked!
As you can see the screen looks clearer and is much nicer to read!
The information is still the same, but laid out in a nicer manner.
The opposition and team talk screens still look as they did before then we get onto the match itself!
The new main split screen now looks much better.
As you can see there is a new match stats screen which offers much more information to you during the game than before.
The other split screens remain the same as before.
Even during the game being played, the game plays as it did before even the halftime team talk and feedback from the assistant manager and substitute, its the end of the game where the new features come to life!
The first post match screen you will see after the team talk at the end is this.
There is a comment from a journalist at the top – nice touch to see in the game where it is more obvious.
You can also see the key players laid out nicer as well as the stats in the middle of the screen – again, its making the screen look easier to read and now we don’t have to move in close to the screen to see the tiny text we had last year!
Carried over from last year is the match analysis screen.
This can be used to help tweak your tactics for the next game – we all missed it last year as a general user but they’ve expanded on it this year to make it so much better!
Last year you could only look at one player, now we can do a whole team, and with other tools like the heat map and average position in the game, for the tactic people, this is going to be amazing!
The post match stats now look much better and easier to read and get the information you need, its clearer and again, in a size that doesn’t kill your eyes!
And finally, one of the newest features!
This is where you can upload your goals to YouTube!
You can pick which goals to upload and in what style straight to your YouTube account and then post them into a goal of the month competition on a site for instance.
Again, this is SI showing how to integrate social media into the game along with the Twitter feed.
I could go on and on with more features, but sometimes its nicer if we leave some of them for you to find out when the demo and game hits!
FM2011 is out on November 5th on Steam and every where else as normal!
http://fm-mania.com/webboard/index.php? ... #entry2411
Credit : fm-view
