FM 2006's new features

By Tom Bramwell Published 8 August, 2005

Jan dealings will be in free patch.

Football Manager 2006 will be more verbose and realistic than ever when it's released for PCs and Macs this November 4th, according to the chaps at developer Sports Interactive. Of course, we thought, they would say that, but then we read the rest of their press release and their claims were given much support. Unlike insert-your-most-hated-club-here.

Budding Rafa Benitez's and budding versions of other, lesser managers can now adjust tactics mid-game, bellowing instructions from the touch-line and so forth, while they can also grill their team or pat them on the back at the end of a match; SI had already chucked in half-time team-talks, and now there's a full-time option too.

It should also be easier to see what's going on while the game's in motion, after SI sat down with regular advisor and former Liverpool player Ray Houghton to work on making the match engine more realistic. The commentary has also seen a revamp, with lots more text-based observations presented to bolster the atmosphere and levels of detail in match-description.

Away from the dug-out, players will receive "more pertinent information" regarding player form and in-depth match statistics. Physios will also come to you with feedback on injuries and treatment options, rather than just lying on their little padded beds with their legs crossed and fingers poised to grasp the nearest sponge.

There's also been a degree of refinement to the game's interface; in particular a configurable ticker bar which alerts you to news from around the globe or wherever you please, rather than just telling you about scores in other games. Finally, we're promised a "media overhaul" [if only - weary Ed with a cataract]. Lots more information will be given in a new "player bio" system, following club landmark-year news, better feedback on your stumbling first steps as a manager, a bigger reaction to success, and more player-info in media items.

Oh, and for any of you wondering about the changes we'll see in the January transfer window, SI tells us that, as per usual, there'll be a free data update released around that time - and the game will then be remastered in certain territories to include the updated code.

And if all that sounds good, you'll be pleased to hear whatever we hear when SI announces the final set of FM 2006 PC/Mac features in the near future. In the meantime, new screenshots are online too. Oh, and we expect some more news from SI later this week, so stay tuned…

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (10) Latest comment 7 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • PES_Fanboy #1 7 years ago

    If it's released on Nov 4th, I'll (ecstatically) eat my carcoat.

    Roll on January!
    Edited by 1 at 08/08/05 @ 15:13

  • Celeborn #2 7 years ago

    One thing I've always wondered about CM/FM games made by SI, and I'll ask it here.

    With a players rating; is that a rating according to their ability or a rating according to their contribution to the team or a rating based on their individual performance.

    For example; play as chelsea and buy a crap conference midfielder and play alongside lampard. Lampard gets 9 as does this crap player.

    Now, did that mean they both contributed the same amount to the team? Or is it a 9 respective of their abilities; meaning Lampard played a blinder, but gave more to the team coz he's a better player; the crap player played out of his skin and gave as good as he could.

    Which is it?

  • Miles_SI #3 7 years ago

    PES_Fanboy - Can I film you doing that? And can you edit it to "released on Nov 4th or before" to clarify that you think it'll be delayed until January (as I have said on our boards that if the game is finished earlier, then we'll release earlier).?

    Celeborn - it's their performance on the day. If Lampard has a blinder, that might make the person next to him look like a better player. If the team wins, then that affects the ratings sometimes aswell. In other words, it's done like it is in newspapers when they are working out their ratings...

  • kentmonkey #4 7 years ago

    Miles_SI wrote: "If Lampard has a blinder, that might make the person next to him look like a better player."

    How does that work then? I'd have said that if the bloke next to you had a blinder and you had an ordinary game, you'd look much worse, not much better? Going on that assumption, if John Terry was playing right side of centre defence and had an absolute blinder worthy of a 9, but his right back was Kristans nan and his defensive partner was Mugwums Dad, they'd also get 9's because he'd made them look better?

    See that doesn't make sense, but then nor does your FM2005 rating system whereby if a player is a centre midfielder, he couldn't possibly play right midfield could he and expect anything more than a 4 for his rating. Or how about pushing a left back up to left midfield, nope, they play like their two feet have been tied together.

  • Miles_SI #5 7 years ago

    Kentmonkey - nice try. But it does make sense. If the ratings for a team are out of 10, and Lampard got a 9, he might actually be stopping some of the mistakes that the other midfielder would make. The other midfielder would certainly not get a 9 unless it was a storming performance, but someone else mopping up his mistakes, or stopping him from making them, would effect his rating in a positive fashion.

    For example, if a left back plays a back pass that causes a goal, then his rating would likely drop. If the same left back plays a pass back that the central defender clears, his rating wouldn't really drop. OK?

    Many players throughout history, and still happening very much at the moment, have played next to great players and seemed better players than they have proven to be at other clubs.

    As for player positioning, please check the first of our "new features" list (the one published today is the third) where you will find new player positions and a player positions screen which will show you, in detail, whether a player is capable of playing in a different position or not. If they aren't, and you want to play them there, you can always train them to do so in the new training module, also from "new feature" list one.
    Edited by 1 at 08/08/05 @ 21:12

  • kentmonkey #6 7 years ago

    Cheers for the response Miles. I disagree with the player ratings still as I often see players who are being carried by the team and not up to the level, but each to their own, it's a personal preference thing.

    I did see the new features but that doesn't really stop the problem of last year, unless I'm not understanding it correctly.

    For instance, I'm an Arsenal fan, and used Edu in my midfield. I had Pires injured and Edu was the natural replacement to play on the left, as he has played there before for Arsenal and I thought he could cover it, not a 9 performance but a 7. 3 or 4 games of that with him getting 4's or below, purely because he was a "CM" meant that I put Cole on left midfield and Clichy at Left Back, same problem there.

    It just seemed that they could only play in their designated positions and no where else. I can appreciate a left winger not being able to play centre half convincingly but I do expect midfielders to be able to play well enough covering a position on one of the wings, or even an attacking midfielder being able to cover up front.

    If that's been sorted than good news, but I don't think showing whether a player can play in another position is enough, if a CM is still regarded as being a 3 legged donkey whenever you take him out of that position.

  • PES_Fanboy #7 7 years ago

    Sorry if I've offended you Miles, if it's released in Nov take my word for it, I'll be the happiest person to hear it.

    I just didn't want to get my hopes up after last year.

  • Celeborn #8 7 years ago

    Btw Miles, it would be awesome for you to post a Giz pun in the comments area of the story above. Something like
    "Miles loves Giz"

    Go on. Would make my day :p

  • Tommyc352 #9 7 years ago

    Gotta say im loving fm2005 - cant wait for this, hope the piracy issue wont affect the 2006 version as it did with the 2005 one.

  • Miles_SI #10 7 years ago

    KentMonkey - sorry for the delayed reply. It's kind of busy at the moment! I don't know if you tried the patches that we released for FM2005, but I'm pretty sure that the second patch (might have been the third & final one) fixed the issue you talk of - it was a bug that out of position players got bad ratings by default, and something that did get fixed. It's certainly much better in 2006 aswell.

    PES - No offence taken. We had a reputation for slipping games, it's not something I'm proud of, and we've taken big steps to change this, particularly on the PC side of things. I would say, at this stage, November 4th is the latest the game will be released unless there is a disaster round the corner. And, being game development, we'll be surprised if there isn't a disaster somewhere!

    Celeborn - I have no idea what you are talking about. Sorry.

    Tommyc352 - We are having to take large leaps regarding anti-piracy measures. The important thing for us is to use a system that will give enough protection without harming the honest customer, so without slowing down the game or being incompatible with lots of systems. We think we have the answer, but I don't want to give the pirating scum a head start, so I'm keeping quiet on what it is.