10. Network Mode
The last point of improvement I want to add, despite it not appearing in the Beta version of the game is the Network mode. My reasoning behind this is that Miles Jacobson has made a variety of video blogs in the run up to FM 2013 being released and I have dug about to find out about the improvements to Network mode. As a touched on earlier, the game will make full use of Steams network functionality, which will in theory made gaming with friends much easier. You can choose to start a game and from the beginning set down a variety of rules to govern the game, to stop players abusing the system or time wasting. You can now choose to create or join online leagues and go head to head with gamers from across the world to find out if your team really is best. Online leaderships will also be put into play, so you can see where you rank against your friends or football rivals. These leader boards will allow for a great many factors and I personally would love to see how I fair against my French or Spanish rivals when bringing my team to glory. I hinted at problems existing in previous versions of the Football Manager series when attempting to play Network games via Steam. The worst case I experienced was my friends tactics vanishing mid-match and all his tactic sliders being reset to middle on each bar. Problems that arose before such as friends playing the same match at differing speeds has been eliminated by the in game options I spoke of in the previous paragraph, players now choose the speed that everyone will play their games at. We are told all such problems have now been addressed and if they have been then this version of Football Manager will truly be a keeper. Ive spent quite a few hours with FM 2013 over the past five days and I can honestly say that the work done by SI Games is truly remarkable. Their attention to detail and love for the beautiful game is certainly not lost on me and having played the game for several hours even sent a tweet to Miles Jacobson to congratulate him on this success. Ill include his reply here to demonstrate the values that the developers of this game hold dear. @Cukulen Thanks Chris glad you appreciate them. Has been a lot of work for many on the team, but well worth it!. For a developer to take the time out and respond to me and so many others shows the level of care and dedication they have to not only improving their game and making it a financial success, but also to make sure that the gamers who will undoubtedly put so much of their time into it will have fun and enjoyment. On the forums there is a section where people can give their feedback and inform the devs of any bugs or errors they have spotted, which will hopefully mean the released version of the game will be as clean as possible. The demo of Football Manager 2013 will be released later today, so many reading this article who havent already played the game will get a chance to then. My only wish for those yet to play would be to remember that the areas of the game that have changed, have in my opinion been changed for the better and if developers never made any changes then Id still be looking at the same text screen I looked at playing management games on my PS1. For me this game will represent a great stride towards what a perfect football management sim should be, its not perfect and Ill freely admit that. However, based on my time spent with the game so far, Football Manager 2013 is a very good game, which will try to encourage people whove drifted away to come back into the fold, and hopefully bring a new generation of gamers on board to. So whether youre in for the long haul or just want to play a ten hour season, Im confident youll have a lot of fun along the way.