With Football Manager and Championship Manager considered the two biggest and best series in the Football Management Sim world, some will no doubt feel that EA Sports face an unwinnable challenge to break into the market with their own ongoing sim series FIFA Manager, but it is a challenge that the behemoth games developer are meeting head on if the latest news about FIFA Manager 13 are anything to go by. With a publisher like EA Sports behind the series, it was always going to be good - and earlier additions to the series have indeed been good without really breaking the strangle hold of those other two game franchises - but the next step in the series looks to be a genuine contender for the management sim crown.
1. More Realism: Team Dynamics
According to the official word on the game one of the major changes for this year's FIFA Manager title is the team analysis feature called "Team Matrix, as well as a brand new team hierarchy pyramid, which allows the player to visualize which players are facing challenges in the team pecking order. The Team Dynamics section offers an overview of team hierarchy, rivalry, personality clashes, personal goals, family relationships and much more, so the player can adapt to specific relationship problems, and get a realistic feel of an aspect that other modern management sims seem to overlook. The player is aided in team analysis by the assistant manager and requesting a psychological profile from him of a specific player before completing a transfer for him might help avoid future dressing room problems, and the threat of a destabilised dynamic. The new system is designed to challenge the player to balance the dynamics of the team: something that is particularly important in the modern game thanks to the rise of super-rich clubs able to collect various superstars with egos to match. In FIFA Manager 13, individual player objectives have a special role, and any team will only be successful with the right sort of players, and the right balance. So the player must ensure that their team has enough leaders and that every player is pulling in the same direction for the benefit of the team. The game will also offer specific challenges like balancing player rivalries to spending enough time understanding and setting player expectations, with added focus on players' individual objectives, and a general dedication to bringing in further realism.