Before you ask, I’ll make this perfectly clear right away: I have been offered the possibility and the honour to play Football Manager 2013 ahead of release, alongside other fan site owners and journalists. But make no mistake, I didn’t play the final game, just a beta version that still has a big «work in progress sign» all over it. However, it does give a good idea of how FM 2013 is going to be.
I won’t bother you with all the new features, you already know all about those from the continuous flow of FM 13 news. I’ll just point out a few of the aspects that I found the most important:
Staff responsibilities — this is a major feature in my view because it really gives you the option to delegate almost all of the tasks at the club. I admit that I was impressed with the director of football. Just an example: I sold one of my three keepers on transfer deadline day and the DoF immediately came with an offer for another keeper. I cancelled that offer and he came with another one within half an hour. I cancelled that one too and we kept playing like that until midnight on transfer deadline day (which is also quite exciting in the new game).
Transfers and contracts — everything is more realistic in there, including the tax system. Actually that one is quite complicated because it fully mirrors real life tax regimes. For instance, if you manage an UK team you will see that are various tax rates depending on the wages: 0% for wages up to 8,000 quid per year or 40% for wages ranging from 34,000 pounds to 150K per year. And that happens in each of the countries I’ve verified (mostly EU countries).
Training — the revamp of the training system is excellent, that side of the game is a lot easier to manage and it makes quite a bit more sense than the previous versions. No more looking around for training schedules, you won’t need those now, you will just have to focus on the important aspects.
Match engine — this is an important part of the game and I can assure you that it does look better and more realistic than FM 2012. The stadiums look better, the ball bounces more naturally, the players look better and move in a more realistic manner. There are a few glitches in the beta, mostly concerning goalkeepers from what I could see, but I’m sure those will be ironed out before release date.
Bottom line: I’m sure you will enjoy playing Football Manager 2013, it’s a great game and a must have for any fan of the series. As you know the FM 2013 release date is November 2nd and if you pre-order the game trough our store you will receive access to a beta version two weeks before that release date! Click and pre-order Football Manager 2013 for just 27 pounds!
Unfortunately I am not allowed to publish any screen shots from the review copy of the game but I have a better offer for you: if you want to know something specific from the game I can check and give you an answer.
