Over all satisfaction (7/10) and since it's a BETA, I'm expecting it to only get better at release.
I love the side bar. What can I say, i just get it. The navigation will take a lot of getting used to but I remember hating FM12 for a few weeks since the navigation changed there also.
gripe no.1
I don't like like the font colour. It's hard for me to see the text and the multi coloured highlighting just annoys me since I don't think it's needed at all. It's only a minor irritation though, doesn't affect my enjoyment of the game.
I love that clicking the Competitions tab will no open up everything I'm competing in and tell me the board expectations. I find that really helpful and lets me know at a moments notices what's needed.
Note about the Tactics screen: I personally feel that the new interface favors the tactical minded managers. Those who design a tactics and then fit their players into it. Those who assign players to fit positions on the pitch and then choose the role according to their strengths (in that order) will find it clunky and long-winded.
While I do like it, I have to agree with the opinion of "why change it when it wasn't broken?"
I love that the tactics map now shows the players relative position in relation to their role. This helps us to know what kind of position they'll take up on the pitch without having to go into a match. This is a huge help when designing defensive systems and roles that are designed to choke space on the pitch.
One addition I love is being able to click on a stadium and it bring you to that stadiums stats.
Small but amazing feature for someone like me who's obsessed with learning the small details of football.
I actually care when a stadium was built
Match Engine = Work in progress. that whole point of a BETA is so we can find the problems! You won't here a bad word out of me about it. I think it's showing a lot of promise. Defensive bugs that only really require tweaking. Nothing is broken so-to-say, they just need so TLC and the game will run like a finely tuned car.
I've more than once found myself thinking, "****, this actually looks like a real game of football!" as the last few FMs ME didn't really capture the physical brutal side of football. The next time you watch a real match, pay attention how long it take the players to bring the ball under control when being harried... it's not as easy or clean as FM10-14 made it look.
The player interaction is annoying the ever loving ***** out of me.... Good!!! Players are supported to be annoying!
All in all, despite a few minor irritations, I've already logged 39 hours on Steam though I only got the game on Friday. It's holding my interest, I'll tell you that!
