Copyright dailystar
Well, Football Manager 26 is here after a two-year wait – and the internet has never been more divided. Unless you've been living under a rock lately, you'll have noticed all the FM chatter has basically been split into two camps since the advanced access beta was released last week. On one side you've got the “oh god, what have they done?!” camp, while the other side of the debate features a more level-headed approach of “but this is basically a year-long test and it'll be better next year”. Now, having spent a week with the game, racking up around 20 hours so far, I actually have been in both camps at various points. Upon launching the new, redesigned game from Sports Interactive that we've waited two years for, I was greeted with three immediate crashes, and it wouldn't load at all – that was fun. Anyway, that ended and I was able to finally set up my save as Liverpool manager and start the game. Immediately, I hated it. I'm sorry Miles Jacobson and the FM gang, but I actually hated what I saw (stick with me for the level-headed bit later). The new UI was, at first, unworkable, unmanageable and looking at it really hurt my soul having racked up more than 2,000 hours on the previous game of FM24. But let's be honest, we all hate change – and most of us dedicated players just wanted to see the new match engine. However, before we get to that, it's worth noting that although the new UI is still a wild change from previous years and still needs far, far more work, I have grown to not hate it over the last week or so – it has potential. The match engine – now this is a thing of beauty by comparison. Gone are the awkward stick men who slide across a pitch, replaced by actual human-like figures playing actual football on an actual pitch. And there are new, realistic camera angles as well as music – the Premier League and Champions League theme songs are there, with proper match intros. Yes, it has bugs, but it's new so they will be squashed at some point. Games are now more enticing and watchable, and even the post-game clips of angry or celebrating managers are a nice touch. A real win for the SI team. But, sadly, there are things missing from the overall gameplay – like cup draws and Transfer Deadline Day. Both small things, but things that made it far more enjoyable. Navigating around the game is proving a challenge, but there is a search bar that finds pretty much any function you need. There are, as I said, issues, but they are all fixable. I am looking at this game as a year-long beta for FM27, essentially, and will play it as sucG'wan Isak, lad. While it's definitely seemingly more for console players, it has potential to be great for PC gamers in the future, and I can see this being the start of a long journey to greatness, not the end of it. While I'm only giving this a 3.5/5, this is not to say it's a bad game – far from it – but it's a huge work in progress, and something SI will need to focus on and be more transparent about in the coming months. If you're an FM diehard, buy the game, and just enjoy it for what it is. For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters .
