FIFA Manager 12 (PC)

The eleventh edition of EA Sports’ FIFA Manager has drawn heavily on requests made to the development team by the community of gamers via the “Your Feature!” campaign. This has resulted in upwards of 700 tweaks, changes and improvements.

The additions include “Speeches Before The Match”, “European Cup Final Match”, “Open Trials for New Players” and even new tutorial “Manager Challenges”. For those who like to leave things tight and secret (and pick up some bargains) there is even an extension of the last 24 hours of the transfer market.

Major changes have also been made in the form of enhancements to the 3D mode including include new logic, new player artificial intelligence, improvements to tactics, substitutions and the conduct of opposing AI managers.

In Financial mode the gamer’s success (or otherwise) has a direct effect on the kind of revenue the player is likely to earn – and of course use - in the transfer market. One example of this is in the amount of money a shirt sponsor will be prepared to pay a club.

The Transfer mode has also been improved over the previous version with managers now able to employ players in trial training as well as in real matches. Also added into the mix is the ability for managers to commission detailed statistical overviews of their squad’s strong (and weak) points in order to hone it to its optimum level.

In Calendar mode events have been added and the flow of fixtures has been smoothed out. For example, gamers can go straight from the pre-season charity game to friendlies.

Training mode has also been made more intuitive with daily routines coming back in.

Finally, Online mode (including an avatar editor and the option to create fantasy leagues) and all premium features from previous iterations of the series are now available to all players.