Time once again for the annual cash cow to roll into town

User Rating: 6 | Football Manager 2012 PC
So the time is once again upon us when SI's annual cash cow rolls into town with the might of Sega's marketing machine ready to ram it down our collective throats. But what will we be swallowing this time?

Well, as always these titles when new and shiny will set out to infuriate and frustrate with a plethora of bugs and poor design choices that will have most players tearing their hair out within a couple of weeks; After six months and a couple of patches however the game will once again rise to the top of it's genre as the king of the sports simulation market. The breadth and depth of FM is without peer, the gameplay is addictive and well, you all know by now how much of your life the game will claim for itself should you decide to play it; but is it different enough from FM 2011 to justify it's purchase price and the answer to that question is sadly no.

SI could have done something that gets done by the modders every year, add the lower league structures. They could have added ( heaven forbid ) a decent AI that actually took into account that you have 4 games in hand when sitting fifth in the table instead of your board breaking your b**lls over it. They could have added so much to make the game better and richer so what did they add? A new font that delivers eye strain and headaches like a wooden mallet across the noggin, a new scouting system that most players believe is a bug and are saying so on the official bugs forum, a new contract system and stadium / crowd graphics that are prettier than last time. Along with a few more interaction options thats it; otherwise it's the same old same old so honestly you may as well save your money and continue with that FM 2011 save that you have been working on all year.

Something else that SI have done this year is to force validation completely through steam; even the editor doesn't come on the disk but must be downloaded through steam once your game is activated. So any of SI's loyal and rabid fans that have no access to the internet ( yes there still are some ) cannot play the game even if they buy the disk. To me this is a disgusting and disturbing direction that some developers are now taking under the smokescreen of preventing piracy. Guess waht SI? Piracy still happens, it does nothing to stop it, the pirates have been cracking the steam validation system for ages so all you are achieving is P**SS**ING off potential customers. Take a leaf out of Stardocks book, they have no protection on their titles whatsoever, not even on the disks and their sales have not suffered. Their games do not get pirated anymore than yours do but they realise that if the game is good then people will buy it. So in future, instead of spending X amount of the development budget on ineffectual anti-piracy systems try spending it on improving the game.

FM 2012 gets a 6 from me as it just doesn't bring enough new to the table over it's previous incarnation to warrant £30 and the validation system is a joke at best.