It’s the morning after the night before and I sit here reflecting on 6 hours of playing the release of Football Manager 26 for the first time and in what seems like an eternity since the release of FM24 this is the one we’ve been waiting for and I have been expecting big things whilst also managing my expectations knowing that this is the first step in what could be the next 20 year cycle in the Football Manager series.
Some would say that buying a new PC and monitor for Football Manager is overkill, but that’s me, I’ve been playing this game since Junior School - network saves were not a thing back then we just sat next to each other and took turns with the mouse - I wanted to be prepared, I wanted to enjoy what the Unity engine was going to give me and going into my first friendly match it didn’t disappoint, full ultrawide pitch viewing and watching my beloved West Ham run out looked glorious, the graphics engine work has improved tenfold we are seeing new camera angles of the play, players body positioning and movement is really a step up from FM24 and after a few short minutes I am hooked back in.
Start screen looks awesome, but Manager Man seems to be missing body parts
BUT, and I will caveat this with it’s a Beta version of the game, outside of the matchday experience the UI looks clean in comparison to FM24 but the functionality just isn’t there yet. There’s a lot of space but nearly every ‘tile’ has text that does not fit, the containing boxes around text are hidious and after one save of the game I’m missing icons from bookmarks, back and forward buttons and icons on my inbox and that is just from the Portal page. When I made my first signing, Diogo Costa from Porto, the inbox message needs a scroll bar just to read the information and just makes what should be an unconcious action become another mouse movement just to read what should be a one-pager.
The new In Possession/Out of Possession tactics screen is a welcomed addition to the game, I’m not overawed by the look as it feels flat and somewhat squashed on the page which seems to be the trend at the moment. I spent time reading through the new roles and how the systems would work, getting frustrated because things didn’t work like they used to - insert Simpsons Old Man Shouts at Cloud meme - but I chose this Chelsea save just to press buttons and work out how we need to drive the car that is FM26 and I use the car analogy because learning to play this game is like driving a different car, Fred Flintstone knew how to reverse his car but I doubt he’d know how to put a Ferrari 458 Italia in reverse (I didn’t the first time I drove one!) but I’m sure once he had spent some time with it or took the time to ask, the familiarity would be there in no time.
For most of us Football Managers we will play this for 1000 hours plus, I’m 6 hours in and I barely feel like I’ve scratched the surface, it doesn’t feel like my game yet but I’m really hoping it is.
P.S - let me set the back button on my mouse to be a back button in the game… please.