Football Manager is the best-selling, most realistic football management series
ever made. Football Manager 2013 celebrates 20 years of games from the
people at Sports Interactive by introducing an array of new features.

This year’s version allows you to take control of any club in more than 50
nations across the world and includes all of Europe’s biggest leagues as
well as database of over 500,000 real-world players and staff.

You’re in the hot-seat, which means you decide on who plays and who sits on
the bench, you’re in total control of tactics, team-talks, substitutions
and pitch-side instructions as you follow the match live with the
acclaimed 3D match engine allowing YOU to make the difference!
As well as some landmark new features in the Career Mode,
there are now new ways to enjoy your Football Manager experience.

NEW TO CAREER MODE…
Match Engine

The 3D match engine has seen huge improvements this year. Everything on the
pitch looks more realistic; from the stadiums, the players’ movement,
intelligence, and the way the ball moves through the air.
We’ve
also introduced hundreds of new animations to make the game feel more
realistic and we’ve made the whole experience more televisual by
introducing new camera angles and showing the kick-off and final
whistle.

Manager Roles

Another notable difference is the
significant restructure of the manager’s staff and a revamp of their
roles. The most obvious is that we’ve introduced the position of
Director of Football into the game for the first time, which will allow
managers to pass on some of their workload, such as contract
negotiations, if they choose to.
In addition to this, we’ve also
increased the number of specialist coaching roles within the game and
given the manager greater flexibility to choose which coaches offer
advice and when. The manager can also choose to complain about boardroom
interference – although that particular option should probably be used
sparingly.

Training

This year sees a total revamp of
team training, with a new simplified overview panel combining general
training and match preparation. Choose your weekly team weekly, give the
lads a rest after a big win or drag them into training the day after
bad performance. You can now even send your coach to acquire more
training badges to improve their skills and send the whole squad away on
a training camp.

NEW WAYS TO PLAY…
Classic and Challenge Modes

Football Manager Classic is a less time-consuming way to enjoy Football Manager.
The essence of the game is exactly the same – the manager still takes
charge of a squad of players and competes at whatever level he or she
chooses – but they will now find that a number of their responsibilities
have either been taken over by their support staff or have disappeared
completely.
For example, while the player still takes charge of
training in FMC, this is carried out at a 'full team' level only –
there's no individual player training. And when it gets to matches
themselves, there are no team talks or opposition reports... you just go
straight to a game using the same 3D match engine as Career Mode. The
games are played out in a quicker 'highlights only' fashion, but you can
even speed this up by going straight to ‘Instant Result’.

Players who opt for Football Manager Classic will also find that they have a
couple of further options in terms of how they play the game; they can
either play a full open-ended ‘Career’ or they can choose to play in the
new ‘Challenge’ mode.
In Challenge mode they’ll find themselves
in a particular situation which will test their management skills over a
shorter game time – usually half a season. Can you win a trophy with a
team consisting almost entirely of kids? Or could you guide your club to
safety despite being bottom of the table at Xmas?
We first introduced Challenge Mode in Football Manager Handheld 2012 and it
proved to be so popular that we’ve decided to include it in FMC too.
The game will come with four free-to-play challenges, each of which feeds in to a global leaderboard.

Network Play

The brand new Network Play is fully integrated with Steam’s network
functionality which means that players should be able to set up and
enjoy games against their friends far more easily than before. The
Network Mode also allows people to set-up special one-off leagues and
cups and to import their team from their career mode, so you can now end
any debate about whose FM team is better.
The deeper integration
with Steam will also allow us to manage worldwide leaderboards, so, for
the first time you’ll really know how good a manager you are.

PLUS MUCH MORE…

There are more than 900 new features, most of which will be announced via a
series of video blogs. The key changes include a revamp of the loans
system, a major overhaul of scouting, new press conference tones and an
international management revamp.