Football Manager 2021 Release Date Announced
 

Football Manager 2021 - Out Nov 24 on PC - Official Site

Out on Nov 24th on Steam and Epic.

FM is heading back to the Xbox in December.

I was a bit disappointed in FM20 but I am not jaded about this franchise as yet.

What are the new features?

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I’ll buy it as every year since 1996... but I must admit I’m disappointed at SI as a company in the last 2 years, delivering subpar match engine and not providing fixes after March for a product launched in November unlike in the past when they kept improving it in between versions. Everything but the match engine keeps improving every year, else I would still be playing FM17 or 18.

I'm stuck in a FM19 Mobile (meaning the FM18 engine?) career with my 7yo son, whom we have grown attached to our fake players for Havant and Waterlooville, now the top side across the globe. Would be hard to start over, will need to see a persuasive list of features.

I haven't purchased since FM18 and still don't play anything other than FM16 in the series anymore. Doesn't seem like I've missed anything the last couple years. So maybe 21 will see me jump back in.

Is anyone else at the point where FM is too complicated? In FM17, I put a ton of hours into it developing a team and working up through the ranks over 30+ seasons. I even watched every game.

I've put in around 100 hours on FM20 and it just is not grabbing me at all. It feels like it's so difficult to scout anything at all. When I pick a few formations, I feel like I have to know so much more about the formations in the newer games to the point where it takes the fun out of the game. No matter which team I take over, it seems like I'm outshot 10 to 1 in most games. Sometimes I just want to sit down, pick a formation, scout for future superstars, and watch it play out on the pitch. I don't want to deal with all the other small things.

Hell, maybe it's just me.

I’m with you, have been like this for years now.

Although I’ve grown up playing and watching football, and have a reasonable tactical when attacking (OK, defensive knowledge is next to zero!) I haven’t been able to understand how to tell the game what I want to do probably since 2014? Maybe earlier?

Much like FOF, I would be interested in Director of Football role within the game, ideally picking the basic formation and players, but then leave the roles, player instructions, etc to my manager. And then being able to watch the highlights without knowing the score.

Last time I looked, the first half of that is just about possible with gameplans, but the second half isn’t, and when I asked I got short shrift about the likelihood of it happening!

But until it does, I’m going to have to pass again

Yeah, I have to agree to be honest. I can succeed in FM still just by downloading successful tactics and playing a pseudo Director of Football role, but that’s a bit of a cheat. I haven’t had a game that’s gripped me in a number of versions, which sucks because it’s everything I tell myself I’ve ever wanted in a sports sim.

Yep, I've been told that the majority of players just want to play the current season with their favorite teams & cared less about long term dynasties, which I could get, but why is it so hard to have the option in there to not coach your games? Allegedly this is why they split into FM "Touch" or "Classic" or whatever, but even that ends up with a bunch more micromanagement than I'd want in a DoF role type game. (It's not like FOF isn't guilty of this some too - I really wasn't a fan of the gameplan changes in 8. I just don't want to build playbooks that way - it's why I hire coaches.)

I decided to go back to FM 2017 and start a new game. Man, it is SO much simpler. I'm going to give it a spin for a couple weeks and see how it goes, but it already seems so much better.

We obviously have similar wants from a text sim - I’m the same of FOF8! When I fire up FOF it’s always 7 not 8 - the only things I like better in 8 are the multiple modular windows (you can kind of get some modular windows in 7) and the ability to quick sim multiple seasons. I prefer literally everything else about 7.

I've been tempted to fire up FM again ... question is more, do I want 16 or 18. I realllllly struggled to enjoy 18. 18 really was the year for me that the match engine became just impenetrable agony.

I missed out on 18 but purchased 19. The difference between 17 and 19 was where it went all wrong for me, but judging from feedback, 18 was really where it went wrong for most people.

I put in an afternoon today with 17. Definitely sticking with that. It's fun like I remember before. I put in nearly 2,000 hours with 17, more than double any other FM game. I now know why and I don't know why I went away from it.

It's tough because I genuinely do like the development updates they've made in the last version or two... but yeah. It's either cheat or spend hundreds of hours developing and tweaking tactics, I just don't have the time or patience for that any more.

Yeah, I like developing 1 or 2 related tactics at the beginning of a save, maybe tweaking a smidge, and building a team around it to advance. You used to be able to do that. I haven't seen a version of the game in years where anything I ever cooked up wasn't just shredded by the match engine.

I've had the same frustrations. I chanced upon this site a while back and it's helped some.

Rate My Tactic

Huh, interesting. Amusingly, most of the tactics available for download are rated with issues from that site.

TL;DR – I bought FM21 on the first day but I’m not playing it. For reasons you might not expect. But you should buy it.

Long version:
I was really on the fence about this version. I have not been interested in any of the versions since FM14. First, the FaceGen artwork got so horrible it would be comical if it weren't so sad. Second, the tactics interface changes were very off-putting. And third, I wasn't a fan of the whole team social groups dynamics thing.

But then I started watching FM YouTubers. Namely WorkTheSpace and Loki Doki. LD's FM18 Journeyman series hooked me and I started coming around on the social groups thing. Eventually came to accept the tactics interface. Then FM21 comes along.

First thing I heard, I think, was they were going to have COVID in it. Man, not interested. I want escapism! But then I watched an interview or Let's Play with Miles Jacobson where he explained how the COVID finances would be implemented. Now I like to play a fictional team that I put in the Lower Leagues and I knew that the next version I actually played I would start at Level 9 so when he mentioned the COVID changes would normalize over time I was like, "Yeah, I won't be up in the EPL for many, many years so it will be back to normal before I get up there."

Then I saw they had really improved the FaceGen. I don't know why this bothers me so much. I mean, FM14, the faces are very realistic and I find that brings a certain amount of professionalism to the product. Some of the faces I saw in FM18 were just...pathetic. Like, a first semester graphic arts student made it. In their first project.

And I started watching Loki Doki's VVV Venlo Beta Save. I was impressed that the Match Engine had been improved a lot. Still has some oddities to it but massive upgrade.

So I bought it. On opening day. And waited for some better skins. (The base game comes with only one skin for some reason and to my eyes it gawd-awful.) And I waited for some League files so I could go down to Level 9. While I waited for those, I started learning how to modify skins. I took michaelmurrayuk's "Base21 Dark (FM20) Skin" and made it in the lighter blue ranges. Then keithfrancis37 released his "England Step 4" League Update. It only goes down to Level 8 but by this point I was antsy to get starting.

Last week I spent time making my fictional team and making some other modifications. Improving England's youth rating. Change "Chinese Taipei" to Taiwan. Getting rid of the sponsor names for the English leagues, cups and awards. Gave Bradford a Sugar Daddy. De-selected Brexit. Waited for a better skin to come along. Learned how to use Inkscape so I could convert my team's logo and icon from bitmap to vector-based graphics.

By Wednesday I was set. Got the skin where I liked it. More than pleased with the new logo. Got the league update to pass all its tests. Set up a save. And fired up FM14.

I'm really attached to my FM14 team! My first year I found an amazing Irish striker when Ireland had their Youth Intake day. My first Youth Intake had an ambidextrous Driven GK and an MC/AMC with amazing mental and physical stats. A week later one of my scouts found another amazing striker from Loughborough University's Youth Intake day. These youths along with two DCs who were Model Professionals and the veterans I had found earlier allowed me to carve through Conference South and Conference National.

My second Youth Intake brought me Vangelis Christopoulos. A Greek DR with 9 Acceleration and 9 Pace but with "leading Premier League full-back" potential. I think he had 16s in Marking, Tackling, Passing and Workrate! And 17 in Natural Fitness. And 19 in Teamwork!!! He was too slow for my kind of DR but he would make an awesome Regista. (Last year I got obsessed with articles about Andrea Pirlo.) But he had no rating whatsoever in DMC. Well, 45 games later, he's a Natural.

My third Youth Intake brought me a son. With "leading Premier League striker" potential. Now he's not the most physically gifted player except Acceleration and Natural Fitness are 15 but his finishing is 13 and Composure is 11. Not bad for a 16-year-old! Then I asked the board if I can scout beyond UK & Ireland. They said have fun in Europe. OMFG! I’ve brought in 15 and 16 year-olds from France (DL), Italy (DC), Nigeria (AML from a Spanish team), Morocco (DMC from a French team) two Danes (DR and DC) and a Swede (ST)! They are all “good” or “leading” Premier League talent. They probably won’t be first-team material for five years but by then I should be in the EPL.

This save is too much fun! I can’t let it go. I’m in League 1 now, eight games in. We’ve conceded one goal in league play and one goal in the League Cup to Everton, who we somehow beat! Today’s match is against Norwich in the League Cup but I have a feeling we won’t win. But it doesn’t matter. This save is too much fun!

All that being said, if you are tired of your current save in earlier versions, I recommend getting FM21.

(Yes, I know, I’m a little exclamation mark happy. Sorry. :lol: )

I'm almost three weeks into my new game since jumping back into FM17. Having a lot of fun. I started with FC United in the lowest level of England. Won playoff and got promoted the first year. Heavy struggle, but managed to finish 17th and avoid relegation the second year. Just finished the third season and managed to finish 6th, just one spot out of the playoff after a loss in the last game cost me a playoff spot. Starting the fourth season and I'm in 5th place after six games.

Bottom line: this is so much more fun than the newer FM games. I think I'm just going to stick with this game for awhile.

FM2021 was added to Xbox Gamepass today.

Anyone know if it's possible to import logos and fix some of the name issues? It seems Microsoft hides the game behind some security protocols (as it does with all its GamePass games apparently), but maybe someone has a workaround that I haven't been able to find.

Windows 10 games whether they are on Microsoft's PC game pass App or Play Anywhere titles, use the standard Windows Universal Platform for installation. This places all downloads (apps and games) into a hidden Windows folder called 'WindowsApps'.

If your game or app is installed on C:\ drive, the WindowsApps hidden folder will be located within the 'Program Files' folder. On other drives the folder will be located in the root location of the drive e.g. D:\WindowsApps

Once you've un-hidden the folders and found the WindowsApps folder, you'll next need to take ownership of said folder. To do this, follow instructions on this website from intowindows.com (not a Microsoft owned website).

This does not require you download or install anything, just follow the instructions in the link.

Hope that helps

This is cool. I think it would be fun to play around the women's leagues. https://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/i-be...11icol5fbczyj8