Football Manager 2012

A great 2011 edition needed only small improvements to become the best football manager game in 2012. A combination of great emotion and an incredible in depth management experience makes the Football Manager 2012 a must have for all soccer fans.

Football Manager 2012 is a nearly perfect football management game, the new features really improve every trait of the series.

It's impossible to cover all the many small adjustments and tweaks of this year's edition, but the overall result is a much more well-rounded experience. It's not difficult to argue that this is one of the best games in the series yet.

If you don't care for even more licenses, than you can also choose the predecessor. But Football Manager 2012 is the better game.

The biggest achievement here is managing to reach out to new or lapsed players, while still piling on new intricacy for long term fans. For them, this is a compelling tangle of improved, impassioned football strategy, bursting with detailed dealings, sumptuous stats and days out in Shrewsbury. And it's never been a better time to step into the dugout for rookie gaffers.

The new features introduced into FM 2012 make this game greater than ever. A must have for all Football Manager fans who feel José Mourinho inside them.

Football Manager is a game that grows bigger every year, better each season. Time passes by it without reducing the appeal of its wonderful mechanics and its easy to dive into gaming experience. Few alternatives in its genre engross the users with as much passion as the game by Sports Interactive. Although improvements this year are not the most anticipated, the final result is more and more interesting. A game to be considered mandatory for sport lovers.

Football Manager 2012 comes with a new user interface and is more accessible then ever. When your players score, your team starts making money and the fans chant your name - this game is an amazing experience.

This is the same Football Manager you know and love with a number of really good decisions running throughout to give more depth and more control.

Football manager never fails to deliver, and this year's edition, though not revolutionary, has some neat changes that improve upon an already fantastic game. Ready yourself for another holiday season in front of the computer, because this game will pick you up and never let you go.

The best FM by far - the definitive football management simulator.

Just a quick update of the list? On the contrary: FM 2012 is another excellent annual volume of the king of football manager games bringing a huge portion of improvements that do really good to its gameplay and to your addiction to it. For those lovers of the genre – this one is definitely for you.

When a game is this colossal, this rich, it's hard to see how it could possibly be bettered, match engine excepted.

Football Manager 2012 is the best choice if you want to bring a football team to victory. A new interface, tutorials and significant changes to the transfer and contract systems make it the most realistic football management simulation.

It's painfully addictive, screen-shatteringly frustrating at times but so moreish it's like the computer game equivalent of Chocolate Fingers. The improvements are significant without breaking the fundamentals, and it seems that Sports Interactive has thought long and hard about how it can implement changes that would bring back the disillusioned without enraging the devotees. Roll on FM 13.

Football Manager 2012 exercises the same sheer depth and freedom that have seen the series leave other football management titles in its wake.

As a simulation it's second to none, but it's lost a little sparkle by being so deep. [Christmas 2011, p.82]

Sports Interactive did not rest on their laurels and came up with a lot of new ideas. Unfortunately not all of those ideas were great and some of the changes feel forced. [November 2011, p.68]

There aren't any huge changes compared to previous outings, but just like last season, Football Manager 2012 is the best football manager available. A new training system and proper online mode would be appreciated next year though.

The new Football Manager is a great game. It's still an extremely engrossing product that has been appealing to football fans for years. SI Games listens to their fans, improves the details and delivers a better game every year. That's the way to go.

You will love Football Manager 2012 if you liked the 2011 version, but you can also think that the new features are not that worthy. If it is your first game in the series, or you have been away for a while, it is a very recommended football management simulator.

The game needs some patches, but overall the game is fantastic, amazing even. Managing your own football team has never worked this good before, making Football Manager 2012 a must have for every football freak out there.

Quotation forthcoming.

Often beguiling and sometimes infuriating, FM 2012 remains a compelling and comprehensive sim of footie strategy and tactics.

This is the best and most complex Football Manager ever.

The season upgrade has a lot of minor tweaks but lacks important major changes. For example near post corner goal trick is still there and press meetings are still as boring as in real life. I would rather buy a DLC than a new game every year. [Jan 2012]

Continuing improvements to the 3D match engine also help drag it kicking and screaming into the present, although it's still a long way short of FIFA Manager in that regard. But, frankly, sod that. The dogged purist in me prefers to see the match unfold via elaborate text commentary, rather than see the painful truth of my tactical inadequacies laid bare.

All up, Football Manager 2012 is a superb and realistic soccer management simulation. It is complex and intricately detailed.

Programmers, designers and other people at Sports Interactive worked even harder than last year, and improved the game with several great features.

The best modern football manager. [December 2011, p.79]

Improved match engine, detailed database, transfer market are just a few elements everyone would praise – new Manager from SI Games is a football heaven indeed. [Nov 2011]

Football Manager 2012 continues to offer an unmatched database of its kind within the simulators and tactical depth that will continue to delight fans.

It's still the best in its genre, but maybe it's time to try new paths.

Still easily the best sports management game around, and although most of this year's changes are fairly trivial they're all extremely welcome.

Your girlfriend will still dump you, the cat will still die because you forgot to feed it, and the boss will still fire you because the game is installed on your office computer. Football Manager remains as addictive as ever and continues to delve deeper into minuscule details, but it's also been too many years since the series has teed up a game-changing new feature.

Football Manager 2012 is still the best manager game out there, and delivers a solid and fun experience. But Sports Interactive would do well to let go of the past and actually keep innovating the series, as stagnation may be an issue based on the small amount of improvements this year.

Quotation forthcoming.

The widow maker that is Football Manager is back and with 800 new features, there are improvements across the board.

The classic FM12 returns with a new updated database and a couple of brand new features. Fans will love it.

With an improved tutorial system, this is the most accessible entry in the series for some time, but there will still be those who yearn for the days when the football management title wasn't so bloated with stats and options.

Despite feeling overwhelmed, and despite still feeling occasionally confused delving through the ridiculous amount of information and menus, there's something really addictive about Football Manager 2012.

FM 2012 is the first Football Manager in years which I've felt comfortable skipping in favour of returning to my ongoing tale from last year's game. The new interface can easily feel overloaded, and the altered tactical screen seems counter-intuitive rather than an improvement. The only standout feature is the new tone and dialogue system which, while long requested, doesn't make this a mandatory purchase, especially as it doesn't extend to press conferences.

The series' domination of the management genre is not in question, but there are still areas where it could step up its game.