I always loved the FIFA series and at the same time, in my free time from many social and family responsibilities, it happened that my hands reached Pro Evolution Soccer. These two pillars of football simulation have gone hand in hand through fire, water and copper pipes of fan recognition.
But what stopped from complete oblivion in these simulators? FIFA, always walking at the peak of technology, or PES, which provides access to some unique teams and clubs ... Stopped by the lack of the ability to properly manage the team and all the processes that accompany the matches.
And they allow you to feel it for yourself in the games of the genre of football managers. One of the most popular - Football Manager 2016, came to me for review.
Football Manager 2016 is the twelfth project from the FM series, created for Microsoft Windows, OS X and Linux platforms.
The first thing that catches the eye of a fan of the FM series is a complete change in the design of information panels in the menu. Don't be discouraged that you need to get used to it again if you have played other parts of the manager before. The new layout is handy if you're new and will show you the benefits of your redesign right away.
Finally it became possible to create your own club and place it in the league directly in the game without opening the editor. There are a number of emerging issues associated with this.
The “innovative” transfer system, touted by the developers, fit into the game in a completely incomprehensible way. Not only has it received a serious response from fans of the series, it also works in a not always clear way. Negotiations with the players have become really realistic, but recruiting someone from the staff is almost impossible, if you think about every problem of the unit. If you are hiring sports director, the situation improves dramatically (that is, the developers gently force them to do it. By the way, the director's abilities are almost not important at the beginning of a career). He'll just get what you can't. In some cases, he will even be able to sign those contracts that were denied to you personally. Yes, somewhat realistic, but gently hinting at our disgusting abilities (although not really) is not the best move.
In addition to creating a club, they introduced the Fantasy Draft network game mode, where it is possible to assemble your own team of star players and take part in a small online league. Fantasy Draft is designed for 32 players. The fact of financing brings down from heaven to earth - at the start you have a fixed budget.
The ability to create oneself, that is, a team manager, was also added. Your proud avatar will move around the edge of the field and distribute CC. The character model contains frankly few polygons and it seems that the incarnation of the player is an unimportant aspect.
In FM 2016, the animation of football players was changed, giving them two thousand new movements. This is not only pleasing to the eye, but also naturally introduces a variety in comparison with the previous parts. Speaking objectively, the gameplay in the FM line was almost not touched. Minor cosmetic and mechanical fixes still haven't changed the face of the game over the years. Football Manager is used to be perceived as an ageless classic. But if a couple of parts ago it could have been let go, now a new breath is required, which the project seems to have received, but crookedly (we are talking about transfers and strange cases with the sports director).
However, there are pluses. Now there is a detailed setting of standard positions, artificial intelligence has been significantly improved and a new mode for displaying dangerous moments has been introduced.
What has always been valued in FM is the ratings of geeks. Developer scouts make up a serious base, which is not a sin to use in reality for real managers. For example, in this version, if you select players under 19 years old, then a dozen athletes in ascending order of their skill will look something like this:
1. Arianit Ferati (Stuttgart, Germany, 17 years old);
2. Predrag Rajkovic (Maccabi Tel Aviv, Israel, 19 years old);
3. Bilal Uld-Shih (Benfica, the Netherlands, 17 years old);
4. Jorge (Flamengo, Brazil, 19 years old);
5. Adrian Andres Cubas (Boca Juniors, Argentina, 19 years old);
6. Youri Tielemans (Anderlecht, Belgium, 18 years old);
7. Kenedy (Chelsea, Brazil, 19 years old);
8. Pierre-Emil Hoybjerg (Schalke 04, Denmark, 19 years old);
9. Donis Avdiai (“Sturm” Graz, Germany, 18 years old);
10. Gianluigi Donnaruma (Milan, Italy, 16 years old).
Graphic design has grown exponentially. The stands were finally “populated” with a digestible number of fans. But this also created a number of problems. Optimization for large matches is not entirely good. If the machine meets the minimum system requirements during such matches, lags begin, which, hopefully, will be fixed in the next patches.
final gradeiGuides: 3.8
A controversial project, ready to keep the screens, mostly fans of the series. Beginners in the genre can try to join, but the project price of 1900 (!) Rubles is somewhat repulsive. I advise you to wait for the sale on Steam and try out the miracle only at a discount.
Football manager returns - for fans of this simulator - this is great news in itself, especially since there are several innovations that are worth a closer look.
What a wonderful season this has been with Chelsea London in the top three underdogs while overtaking Liverpool on points, Leicester having the lowest number of losses in the entire Premier League and their striker, Jamie Vardy, at the very top of the provisional classification. the most effective snipers? Such an unusual scenario drew a new Football manager- from time to time in the game there are large deviations from the norm or the actual state. The developers have written a great script, however, it is not the best news for the release fans Sports Interactive. However, the bad news ends there, so let's start Football Manager 2016 and get ready for battle!
Yes, indeed, the very fact that the game debuted this month is already the first huge plus. This may at first glance sound like the babble of a tendentious amateur, but think about it for a minute. Sports Interactive already many years ago they created an excellent base for their game, if anything in it requires any changes at all, then cosmetic, not revolutionary. In many cases, this stagnation could be considered a reason for criticism. Not this time - there is no point in changing in this case, which, however, will probably be confirmed by every ardent fan Football manager. It is enough, however, to look at the statistics of sales and subsequent viewings of the series, which are based on high level. This indicates that a dedicated fan base has developed around this game cycle, which Football Manager completely satisfied - and who still have not felt disgusted with the tables, graphics and numbers that appear in front of the monitors.
What's so great about Football manager? First of all, an extremely extensive database of footballers. A range of skills, talents, the possibility of their development, and even character traits that are reflected in their perception and even on interpersonal relationships in the team. best recommendation for this real football encyclopedia is the fact that on the basis of its data a preliminary selection is made in professional clubs from the big leagues!
In Football Manager 2016 we take on the responsibilities of a club manager, which includes a number of activities associated with this unique, exciting and at the same time stressful position. We are responsible for training, match planning, tactics, negotiations and transfers, recruitment of the coaching staff, relations with players and management, and participate in press conferences. All this is not new, but it is impossible to imagine FM without these elements.
Our most favorite mode is the one in which you can create your own club. Sounds like a dream? In fact, it does not look so wonderful and revolutionary. We are building the club, because on the ashes of one of those teams that we decided to remove. We can decide to keep the same infrastructure, colors, coaching staff and even players. He also has the right to edit them and add new players, but at the same time their cost should not exceed the budget.
Creating a new football player is a tedious process that requires a lot of perseverance and patience. Now this process is integrated into the game and has become more natural. However, this mode is only for the most ardent fans. Football manager who are looking for some breath of freshness.
Another novelty that keeps up with current trends is the Fantasy Draft online mode, which allows you to assemble a team from a pool of available players. The idea is ingenious in its simplicity, however, it is enough to look at the ever-growing popularity of network sites under the banner of "fantasy". Up to 32 players can participate here, who have a certain budget, and must not “jump” out of it by choosing players from the pool. After that, the selected teams face each other in a mini-league. This mode can get a lot of popularity, especially among friends.
Investment Sports Interactive new modules for the game is no longer news. More recently, a regime has been introduced that limits the management of a football club to a minimum. For taking care of the various needs of its users in Football Manager 2016 can only be praised.
Another interesting novelty is the ability to create your own image. The creators gave the players a fairly detailed editor of the character's appearance. You can choose almost everything - hair color and styling, the distance between the eyes, the width of the chin, etc. Thanks to this, we can create our own portrait or caricature, or just a character whose appearance we like.
The main thing is that it's still the same FM, which has been spoiling the exceptionally sublime tastes of its fans for many years. The novelties that were introduced in this release just did not impress me, more on the little things than a real contribution to the game. Some changes, like a major overhaul of the 3D engine, require further, bolder steps. I can give a positive assessment of the game only mainly for compliance with formalities in FM-2016.
The review was written based on the beta version of the game.
Football Manager 2016 is another creation of Sports Interactive, which pleases us with football managers every year. But every year the question is brewing: Are the developers doing the right thing by releasing the game every year and not bringing anything new to the product? Now let's figure it out:
If we compare the manager of 2015 with the manager of 2010, it would seem that few people will notice the changes. And what's so new compared to last year's release - you ask. Take a minor league club, take it to the major championship countries and win everything you can with it. It seems that we are doing the same thing, without even thinking that we did exactly the same thing last year. But somehow - it works, and we play with the same pleasure, as if we launched the game for the first time in our lives.
But the improvements (even if small ones) that bring something new to the game are noticed only by the oldfags of the series. (The main menu changes every year, but it turned out to be worthwhile only in 2015.)
The main innovation of the career was the ability to create a model for your manager. True, the quality of this model will be as if the function was created in the early 2000s and has not been modified for all the time that it existed.
Specifically, in order to experience this "global innovation", I decided to play a couple of matches in 3D mode in order to see how this 144p model manager would look like in the gameplay. Three fucking times. Three. Damn. Raz. That's how many times I noticed this colorful male. Well, the way he actually looks plunged me into complete horror. Models from Sims "a, by the way, look much nicer. 
(And for this we are required to pay 1900 rubles per game)
But this huge (like Logvinov) minus can be covered up with two new modes - Fantasy Draft and Creating your own club. These modes are interesting to play, and both of them grab attention for a considerable amount of time, which is very good.
For the first time, a player can have a fun gaming experience thanks to the Draft mode. Here, you have to assemble a squad from a limited budget and compete with it in a mini-tournament. Nothing special, but it feels like you're playing something new, and not last year's copy-paste. 
(The tactics have also been improved. It is now really playable.)
Year after year, SI try to bring something really interesting to Football Manager and something that will make people come into the game and support online. And if at least something new is introduced into the single part, then everything is very terrible with the network part. In essence, the network game in the FM series is a single player game with friends. And adding something alone, it immediately turns out to be in the network card. But where are the innovations for the NETWORK GAME itself? They simply don't exist. And this upsets all fans of the game in the cooperative. 
(An unnecessary introduction to the SpongeBob game)
Verdict: Football Manager 2016 is a good product from Sports Interactive that will be able to drag real connoisseurs of the genre and not only for many hours. However, nothing of real value is being brought into the game and this should scare the future of the game series.
Game rating: 7/10.
Have you always wanted to transform from an inquisitive fan into a talented curator, coach or head of a football club? ThenFootball Manager 2016just made for you! Moreover, this eminent series from the developers of Sports Interactive and the much more legendary publisher Sega has made significant progress over its long history.
So what will surprise football fans with Football Manager 2016 in the first place? The main feature that immediately catches your eye is the changes in 3D matches. Thanks to the eminent technology called Motion Capture (yes, exactly the one that has been used in Hollywood, especially since the days of The Lord of the Rings), every movement of the players has become much more fluid and natural. Now you do not need to watch the incomprehensible flights of football players.
Athletes during the broadcast of matches look quite natural and even at the end of the game moment they convey quite sane and reliable emotions on their faces. True, if one of the players overdoes his acting, the judge has the right to show him yellow card because the lawn is far from being a theater. And Football Manager 2016 is a completely natural arena for, not acting.
New interface and other nuances
The main visual feature of Football Manager 2016 is not at all new graphics, and migrated from the top panel to the left side of the option. Now it will become much easier to manage the events of the near-football world, because there is no need to open a bunch of unnecessary and useless tabs. All the most important commands and functions are at hand in two menus at once!
With such a distribution of interface features, absolutely everyone will benefit. This is especially true for those soccer fans who play on rather weak computers with a small screen resolution. From now on, they will not have to strain their eyesight to see what is happening on the display - everything will be quite clear and so.
White collar or assistant coach?
Another distinctive feature football manager 2016 – this is an opportunity to choose who exactly the user would like to become in his favorite club. If he wants to take the position of sports director, please. Elegant suit and tie are ready. And in the event that a player likes the career of a head coach, then he will have to be on the same wavelength with the team and feel the attitude of each player from the dressing room before bringing the representatives of his favorite club onto the field.
Verdict
This project will certainly be of interest to all football fans who have secretly or openly criticized the managers of their favorite team at least once. Do you want to know what it really means to operate a huge machine called football club? Feel free to launch Football Manager 2016 right now!
Most of the fans virtual football prefersto personally be present on the field, and not to understand the intricacies of transfers and medical insurance for players. Nevertheless, football management attracts the most ardent supporters of this sport. But the differences between the annual versions of Football Manager, as a rule, are as much as between sportsmen like FIFA or Pro Evolution Soccer. The parallels are more than obvious: changing slightly every year, the series as a whole is noticeably changing for the better.
The situation with Football Manager 2016 is quite simple: you can always improve some little things, but the genre itself is developing very passively. Hence the meager list of changes. Take, for example, the updated match engine: the picture definitely lacks detail, but the animation of the players on the field has become much more diverse. The players themselves began to play the schemes you set more clearly, and at some point it is quite possible to believe in what is happening on the field. In addition, it has become much easier to recognize your mistakes when watching replays.
The interface has changed somewhat - now it has become more intuitive. In addition to the ordered list of tactics, Football Manager 2016 brought back a few things that we really missed in the previous version of the game. For example, information about who was assigned to a particular player in a particular match. Well, more accurate and detailed descriptions have been added to tactics. Unless at first the changed interface looks somewhat overloaded: from the abundance of information and graphs, it dazzles the eyes for some time.
There was a place in Football Manager 2016 for fun things. It's about about the character editor. The functionality is small, and in general the set is quite modest, but the output is such trainers that you can hardly hold back a smile. Colorful coats and trousers long hair, as well as faces resembling a mixture of Peter Dinklage and Robbie Williams are now commonplace in the world of football management.
They may also try to smile, and then you definitely won't be able to stop laughing.
And more, by and large, and there is nothing to be surprised. A mode for creating clubs has appeared: if previously players could only add their own players through third-party editors, now Sports Interactive has made this feature native. Match analysis has become more in-depth and informative, down to how far each player ran last week. Role elements in terms of interaction with the team and holding various press conferences have also become more. The same applies to negotiations over transfers: when talking with a representative of a football player, you will need to discuss not only the price of the transfer, but also other things, such as how much the salary will rise in the long term.
Football Manager 2016 turned out to be ambiguous. On the one hand, she is unlikely to surprise the old-timers of the series with an updated interface and additional animations in the three-dimensional display of matches. On the other hand, if we take a period of time, say, four years, then during this time the manager became much friendlier, but at the same time did not become more casual. One way or another, if you want to play football without being distracted by football itself, then you don’t have much choice.
