So the plan was to dabble with FM16 in BETA, get my head round it and then move back to FM15 and finish off the last season with Lazio. With only 12 games played Lazio were storming Serie A and looking like good shouts for the title, so I wanted to finish that career properly. That was until I started to dabble with FM16…
Hungarian football, and it’s demise, always interested me so I was fascinated to see that one of the best club’s in world football in the 1950’s, Honved, had not won the OTP Bank Liga since 1993 having dominated in the 50’s and then again in the 80’s. They felt like a club that I could have a two week affair with in the run up to the full release. Especially as they were predicted to finish 11th out of 12, and therefore be relegated.
I won’t bore you with the details of the season, as this post is meant to be more about what I like and dislike about FM16.
I’ll let the screenshot below tell the story.
That’s right, with three league games left to play the team that everyone said were going down have won the title.
Ok, having won something at the first attempt I am bound to fall in favour of the new version so there will be very few surprises. But what do I really like?
- Prozone – Prozone is great and will help me in my StS methodology. I can now check out how a player performed in particular games rather than just rely on the cumilative stats. So, using the screenie below – this is a guy I am bringing in on a free next season. He currently plays in the 3rd Division and they played Ferencvarosi (a top flight club) in the cup and drew 3-3. So I am able to see how many completed passes he made, what his heat map was etc against one of the strongest sides in the country. This maybe only be a little more info but it means I can make even better recruitment decisions.
- Player interaction feels more logical – in FM15 I got bored of praising someone for something and basically being told where to go. In FM15 I only really used to criticise, and it got the results I was looking for. I’ll probably do the same in FM16, but it is nice to know if I tell someone they are playing well that they are not going to call a team meeting to question my management.
- Equally, press conferences seem a little better done. There are some new questions, though I am sure that as a career goes on it will be the same type of question time and time again – but then, this is what happens in the real world I guess, just ask Jose.
- The 3D animation is slicker, much slicker. Ok, in FM15 I bitched and moaned that too many player roles did not actually work – for example inverted wing backs – and that I would be really disappointed if SI spent more time making things look pretty than fixing some ME issues. Well, to be fair, they have made things look very pretty and I really like it. I don’t know what they have done, but the whole 3D match feels much more realistic.
- The UI on many of the screens are much better – take a look at the staff screen below. It so much easier to navigate from this screen than it was on FM15, and I like that.
- The addition of a staff shortlist is a cracking little feature
- There is a lot wrong with the tactics screen (which I will come on to) but I do like that when you are looking to make changes within the team, it highlights in green who is suitable to fit into that role
- Finally, I love the fact that #TheArgentineStrikerless transferred over without any tweaks from FM15. This just tells me it that it was a well devised tactic!
What I don’t like as much…
- That tactic screen looks awful – this is about the only bit of graphics I really hate, but I am sure one of the skin wizards will come up with something that will fix that after full release.
- The expected bugs – to be fair to SI, there really haven’t been that many I have come across, which is awesome for BETA. However, three times in the season (in games we ended up failing to win) after one of my players picked up a little injury there the game froze with the opposition being the only team on the pitch, therefore their possession went through the roof! Equally, over the course of the season we have conceded 20 goals, which is fair enough – yet 7 of them have been from shockingly short back passes to the goalkeeper. In return, we have scored 4 from the same scenario. Naturally, these have been reported.
So, I am not sure that I will now return to FM15. I have fallen in love with another. The Honved save will only be for BETA (he says now, god what if we do well in Europe next season?!) before I move on to the actual long term save I will be writing about. That will be co-hosted on here and www.footballmanagercentral.com
“Searching the Stats © “ looks like it will work, as expected, once again. I have been able to set up the following filters for player recruitment:
I use the same filters on my squad screen, so I can monitor how people are performing. I will write a post on what targets I set in my mind, so that people are not dropping below them per positions – but it will be specific to my tactic, if that makes sense.
Any questions about any of this – tweet me on @www.thehighertempopress.comcomeontheoviedo
