Football Manager 26 Review - Back To The Drawing Board

"It's exceedingly rare for an annual sports game to skip an entire year, but that's exactly what developer Sports Interactive did when it canceled Football Manager 25. With so many changes--including switching game engines to Unity--and numerous delays, the game simply wasn't up to standard in time. Couple this unforeseen gap year with the promise of a brand-new foundation built on an improved match engine and a completely overhauled interface, and Football Manager 26 quickly became the most highly anticipated game in the long-running series."

"It's a long-overdue shake-up, as even back in 2016, when I reviewed Football Manager 2017, I bemoaned how rigid the series' tactics had become. "The tactical side of Football Manager would benefit from giving you more control over how your team functions, especially during specific phases of play--perhaps letting you fluidly shift from one formation to another depending on whether your team has the ball or not," I said."

Sports Interactive canceled Football Manager 25, creating a rare gap year while switching to the Unity engine and rebuilding core systems. Football Manager 26 arrives on a new foundation with an improved match engine and a completely overhauled interface. The match engine delivers impressive, tactical depth with a long-overdue revamp that separates possession and defensive phases and allows formation switching between phases. The interface debuts with significant teething problems. Several features are missing and numerous bugs create frustration. The game adds 14 women's leagues. High expectations amplify disappointment despite strong improvements to match simulation and tactics.

Read at GameSpot