STACK #133 Nov 2016

GAMES

FEATURE

visit stack.net.au

So, what’s your management style? Are you a vociferous competitor? A master tactician? One of the boys, or perhaps an old skooler? Well, you’ll get your chance to test your management skills this month with Football Manager 2016 heading to JB.

F ootball Manager is the

greatest time chewer on the planet. You sit down with

the sole intention of playing a Cup leg or perhaps just a couple of league games, and before you know it, even the dog has gone to bed. According to studio manager Miles Jacobson, there are millions around the globe who, like us, are thoroughly addicted to the game. “We know how we sell a couple of million a year across our home computer and mobile games,” he says, “and we also know that FM13 was played by more than 10m people – it’s great to be entertaining so many people each year. And even better when they buy it, so that we can carry on making it in the future!" However, it’s not just the humble gamer who enjoys the challenges of being the boss of a football club. There are plenty of actual practicing coaches who use the game – and its data – to their advantage. “The game is actually used by the LMA (League Managers Association) in their training courses and in a few sports degree courses in the UK, so there are lots of managers who use it,” reveals Jacobson. “André Villas-Boas was the first to come

prove to be popular. “Having a visual display of the manager is certainly something that’s been requested by a lot of people, and it’s been in our plans ever since we added 3D,” Jacobson explains. “But there were much more

clean about using the data in the game to aid scouting, but again, there are loads of clubs who do that now we license our data to football clubs around the world via our deal with ProZone; it’s very much part of football, rather than just a computer game.” There are a whole host of new features being introduced this year, including over 2,000 new and improved animations and some significant tuning to the match engine to give the AI a welcome boost. Players can now fully customise exactly how their managers look; a feature that will undoubtedly

important things to get sorted first; players will find the feature hugely customisable.” Another new mode is Fantast Draft, an online only mode that allows up to 31 friends to fight it out for a cup competition, or five mates for a league comp. You get a budget, blank teams, and conduct a ‘round robin’ to choose the players you want, and then it’s on. Finally we ask Jacobson if there are any plans to return the franchise to console? “We have no current plans to do so as one of the issues we had before is that FM is a great value for money game and people spend a lot of time playing it,” he replies. “Taking over the living room for

ProZone Recruiter Sports Interactive now supply its stats and player information to ProZone Recruiter, an online database that provides detailed player analysis, video footage and stats to football clubs around the world. The online global scout network retains the information of 80,000 players, taking the hard work, travel and expense out of traditional scouting methods. The web-based service offers biographical, positional and contractual information on all the players.

those kind of long periods doesn’t tend to go down that well – especially when the missus wants to watch Masterchef !”

• Football Manager 16 is out Nov 11

NOVEMBER 2015

070

jbhifi.com.au