A footballing cliche simulator

[mstev181]

I have played a couple of saves now on the Nintendo Switch and regardless of tactic the outcome is very much the same. It is a classic example of a developer trying to include the occasional quirks of real life football into a game and massively overexaggerating the frequency at which they occur. Yes, underdogs do win football games, and yes, the stats don't always reflect the outcome of the game, but in reality the better team normally wins. Football manager flips the script on this and ensures that the player can never be comfortable regardless of tactic, player performance, league positions or statistics. This leads to a feeling that the result is already decided and that you, as the player, have ultimately very little control in the events that unfold. For a tactical based simulator, this is not why people fork out the money for the game. 

 

The stereotypical cliches of footbal dominate this game and the visual representation of these events don't make the experience exciting, or engrossing, but infuriating. Your team will hit the woodwork several times a game. Rather than other teams outplaying you, goals are conceded through player error, or freak cicrumstances. Feeling outplayed is an acceptable result of a loss, but continuously feeling like you've been cheated out of a victory leaves the player not wanting to return to the game. 

 

Injuries also dominate this game, with 2 or 3 small injuries occuring on a weekly basis, with longer term injuries happening several times a season. Again, a considerable ramp up on the reality of football. No tweaks to training, game time or resting players seems to change this. When managing smaller clubs and having your marquee signing constantly unavailable despite having no history of injury or a trait to suggest this would happen, feels like being cheated out of the experience. 

 

I enjoy the way transfers unfold in this edition of the game though. I feel like they are considerably more realistic and it now more difficult to land unrealistic players. The demands of the players are more inkeeping with the way football is in reality and you have to work harder to get that dream player. A thin silver lining in what for me, so far, has been an underwhelming and infuriating release.

 

Overall it's a step back in my opinion. Almost an arrogance on behalf of the developer to try and simulate real life football where they've gone too far. I don't pay for a heavily researched, statistical and tactical based game, to be frustrated by cliche. There needs to be a massive to tweak to how the in game stats reflect on the scoreboard, how the events/goals scored/conceded are then visualised in game and frequency at which these theoretically 'one off' events occur. 

 

I won't be touching this game again for a while.

[HUNT3R]

5 hours ago, mstev181 said:

Football manager flips the script on this and ensures that the player can never be comfortable regardless of tactic, player performance, league positions or statistics. This leads to a feeling that the result is already decided and that you, as the player, have ultimately very little control in the events that unfold

Upsets happen all the time, so the odd match where it happens to you, is expected. Some of those you can turn around though. More importantly, if you're experiencing a lot of these matches, it's tactical and can be solved.

Over the course of a season, I'll only have 2 or 3 matches that end up like this. The other 2-3 matches were matches I was able to turn around (getting the win after an early goal etc). Keep an eye on your conversion rate. You should have at least a conversion rate of 10%. Ideally, closer to 12-13%. If you're sitting at below 10%, it could indicate that you either have a tactical issue or that the chances aren't falling to players who will consistently finish off a chance. xG can also help. I aim for at least 0.1 xG per shot, on average. Less than that and I know I am not creating good chances. Above that and still struggling to score? I'll look at who the chances are falling to and what the issue might be that they're not scoring.

5 hours ago, mstev181 said:

Injuries also dominate this game, with 2 or 3 small injuries occuring on a weekly basis, with longer term injuries happening several times a season. Again, a considerable ramp up on the reality of football. No tweaks to training, game time or resting players seems to change this. When managing smaller clubs and having your marquee signing constantly unavailable despite having no history of injury or a trait to suggest this would happen, feels like being cheated out of the experience. 

Injuries in-game are much lower (annoyingly, imo) than real life. So I would first look at what the medical centre tells you about your amount of injuries. If it's higher than expected (I'm typically 50% lower than expected, if not more) then there could be reasons for it. Poor pre-season, extremely high intensity tactics combined with training, injury prone players etc could all have an effect.

 

[SimonHoddle]

On 31/03/2023 at 05:42, HUNT3R said:

Upsets happen all the time, so the odd match where it happens to you, is expected. Some of those you can turn around though. More importantly, if you're experiencing a lot of these matches, it's tactical and can be solved.

Over the course of a season, I'll only have 2 or 3 matches that end up like this. The other 2-3 matches were matches I was able to turn around (getting the win after an early goal etc). Keep an eye on your conversion rate. You should have at least a conversion rate of 10%. Ideally, closer to 12-13%. If you're sitting at below 10%, it could indicate that you either have a tactical issue or that the chances aren't falling to players who will consistently finish off a chance. xG can also help. I aim for at least 0.1 xG per shot, on average. Less than that and I know I am not creating good chances. Above that and still struggling to score? I'll look at who the chances are falling to and what the issue might be that they're not scoring.

Injuries in-game are much lower (annoyingly, imo) than real life. So I would first look at what the medical centre tells you about your amount of injuries. If it's higher than expected (I'm typically 50% lower than expected, if not more) then there could be reasons for it. Poor pre-season, extremely high intensity tactics combined with training, injury prone players etc could all have an effect.

 

I think you’re right with injuries. But fatigue is a joke. CBs don’t get fatigued after 60 mins of controlled possession IRL. It’s like SI were desperate to do something different and found the fatigue piece easier to change. But it’s totally unrealistic.

I think @mstev181 has called the absurdity of this version perfectly. I really don’t mind losing if I understand why. I even don’t mind losing when I’ve had 30 shots v 2. But the endless repetition of world class defenders making absurd mistakes is a bore. The developers have created a lower league chaos and rammed it into elite matches. Skill levels down, absurdities up, realism compromised.
 

for some unknown reason I pay £60 for touch and £120 for Console. I think it’s like a fidget stick, keeps me occupied. I’m barely enjoying either version. For that money we should expect world class graphics, gameplay and developer communication. We get none of this. Graphics are worse than 8 years ago 😂 😂 😂,  ME just odd and, as a company (individuals do try and talk) SI are arrogant, hubristic and out of touch. They need a bloody good hiding from an opponent but there isn’t anyone out there.