It would be best to cancel the FM25; I don’t want the unfinished game. These were my own words back in February this calendar year when the cancellation of the FM25 was announced. Well, I didn’t get what I hoped for so far. The FM26, based on the early access beta version, is an unfinished game. And probably will be unfinished in the early days and weeks after the full release. It’s a shame. It’s an own goal.
“You have to cancel your muscle memory and you have to relearn it and once you relearn it, it’s so much easier to use.”
There are many things I miss in the game. Mainly the functional things. Or maybe better worded, the useful things. The practical parts of the game. The possibility of using my middle mouse button as a shortcut and additional button to continue the game, for example. This is probably the main thing I've tried to get used to since day one.
Miles (and Sports Interactive/FM), I have no problem to learn new things. I have no problem cancelling my muscle memory and setting everything again. And adapt to it. But it would be nice if it were possible to learn it.
The possibility to set your own shortcuts is still in the game preferences. But it doesn’t work yet. I hope it will be fixed before or after the full release. The same as many other small useful things.
I recently wrote this in the FM Slack space:
“The first hour of playing on Thursday night was mental, and I rather went to bed. Friday morning and evening helped me a lot after searching through screens. Today morning was the best so far as I felt more familiar with most of the things already, I even get used to so many clicks already, but it's mental how many things are hidden somewhere.”
If, for example, the player pop-up profile is newly designed in comparison with the previous versions, I would like to see it designed precisely and newly. I don’t want to see the key and preferred attributes buttons with the possibility to click into them. Because it doesn’t belong here in the new design. Removed it completely and properly, or leave it as it was.
If shortcuts are designed anew, be sure they work as they should at first glance. Not because some players will report it as a bug. Or remove it completely until you find a way to make them work. If you wanted to find the new generation of FM players, things like this make it very hard for you. It’s not attractive not only for new players, but also for the old ones. It’s all about the first impression.
I saw posts on social media about people making posts about how many things were removed from the game. Some of them are in the game. They are only hidden so carefully hidden that it takes a lot of time to find them. I don’t remember spending so much time helping myself and others on social media to find something simple like a season preview page, youth fixtures, and many more.
On the one hand, it’s great how people help each other. At least I have this experience. On the other hand, I don’t think it should be so complicated, and it’s not about the muscle memory. As I said, I have no issue with learning something new. But I didn’t expect the main thing that I would have to learn is to find something that has been in the game for years.
“Players didn’t use it at all, so we removed it.”
But there’s one thing that I found out while playing the early access beta and reading all the posts about missing features in the game. Do I really miss all of them? Did I really use all of them? Is it really that big a loss to not have cup draws? Or deadline day? Or anything else?
What I really miss:
The option to customise the colours of the attributes - I think it’s crazy that with the new game (and with the new era), the developers hope (and rely) that the community will find its way to make everything.
The chalkboard - I played about a half season in the early access, and I can’t count how many times I said to myself, something like this goal would look great if there were a ‘show linked events’ option.
The heat map, the average positions maps, and the pass map.
The ability to show the Touchline Tablet during highlights, not just between them.
Selecting players on the pitch during the match to track their movement - for example, just central midfielders.
Shouts. I don’t know if they worked, but I always thought about it in the way that I’m involved in the match. Right now, I feel like I have to make some change during the match to not feel just like a spectator.
I spent a lot of time modifying the custom skin since FM16. It was the same every year. I have no issue with reporting bugs to the SI Forum. I have been doing it every year since I can’t remember. No matter if I had the option to play the alpha or beta versions, early access or when anyone cared about it already, because it was too late in the game cycle.
My biggest frustration was always when a bug was found and repaired in the game, and when the new game was released, it was there again. These moments led to the fact that they almost lost me as a player, as a customer and as someone who has been playing the game for three decades.
The short period with the early access told me one thing: I still love the game despite not playing it almost the entire calendar year. I have no problem with the bugs. They were, and they will always be in the game. I have no problem with removing features for whatever reason.
If I imagine my monitor as a mirror, look into it and ask what I miss most in the new FM release, I certainly won't say that I miss deadline day. I won't get mad that there are no cup tickets. I won't get mad that there is no challenge mode. Or anything else. I know that everyone misses something different in the new FM, because we all like something different about the game, and we all play it differently.
For me personally, the biggest loss of this new game is the absence of useful things that either don't work as they should (and hopefully will be fixed so that they work) or have disappeared from the game completely because it was easier to remove them so that there would be no more problems with it.
I’m glad I don’t have an option to test the game early anymore. I think I would not write this if I had seen the game in the early phase. Because I would be so disappointed. And I would not even think about writing this.
But I will adapt. I will cancel not only my muscle memory, but the entire memory of how I played FM in the past, if the things I liked to do will not work anymore. Because this is my game. Not the FM26. But the Football Manager itself. It’s my way to exit real life, my way to leave all the things somewhere else.
I wrote this mainly as some kind of self-therapy. I also had to write some parts in my native language first to summarise my thoughts properly. I don’t want to defend SI in any way. But. If they wanted to remove something specific from the game, it’s their choice. They are developers of the game.
“But they had two years!!!”
Yes, they had. Even more. I had almost fifteen years to become a pro footballer, but I didn’t make it. If this is the new era of the game, I will be there. Even if I don’t like many things. Although I miss many things.
On the other hand (or third or fourth), my personal opinion is that the game shouldn’t be released as early access publicly in this state. This game has huge potential, but releasing this version as a beta, or early access, was an own goal. The same as the amateurish level of communication.
Thanks for reading, take care and feel free to join FM Slack. Feel free to follow me on Twitter or Bluesky
What is FM Slack?
There were a lot of changes within many social media, including Twitter (now “X”), and it’s not the same as in the past. We can’t see many things due to the algorithm, weird preferences and many other reasons I don’t even want to know.
There are many Discord servers, and I’m sure they are good and useful. But I will probably always be a bigger fan of Slack. Or, better worded, the Football Manager Slack. Feel free to join us with this link.
You will find a short channel summary in the ‘generalchat’ so it will be easier for you to navigate through the channels.