Updated in July 20th. We Are Football vs. Football Manager We Are Football Football Manager ✔ Nice interface ✖ Excel spreadsheet ✖ Needs better explanations about the way it works ✔ You know the drill ✔ Faster weeks & seasons ✖ Very slow progress ✖ Match engine is sh*t, but it's their very first try at it ✖ Match engine is also sh*t, and has been for 15 years ✖ Player development feels too much 'RPGey', and you can't really improve your players the way you'd like ✔ Player development is boring, but more flexible and intuitive ✔ Training system makes sense, and leaves room for creativity ✖ Training system automated from the first second, not really part of the game ✖ Stamina is not very intuitive, but it's now more balanced than before ✔ Stamina and fitness are balanced, rotations work and make sense ✖ A bit unpolished, a bit buggy ✔ Very stable and well finished (it's a 20 y/o game lmao) ✔ Personalized difficulty settings ✖ Good luck, buddy ✔ You can build your training grounds and design your stadium, improving your performance and economy ✖ F*ck your stadium and training grounds ✔ You can build youth schools around the world, which is really useful in the long run ✖ F*ck youth schools ✔ You can negotiate with sponsors and increase your income ✖ F*ck sponsors ✔ No stupid press conferences ✖ Click on the same answers twice per match forever ✔ Good speeches mechanics ✖ "This is a match we should be winning. Make sure we do", forever ✖ No official logos or names whatsoever ✖ Getting dangerously cheap in this regard ✖ Music is an unbelievable sh*t ✖ No music at all in 20 years ✖ Tactics are still quite basic ✔ Tactics are by far its strongest feature ✖ Almost no data about your own performance ✔ All the data you want and more ✔ Player conversations make sense ✖ Your 15 y/o prospect wants to be the star of the team NOW ✖ Agents are jackasses, negotiations are dumb, players ask for stupid things ✖ Agents are jackasses, negotiations are dumb, players ask for stupid things ✔ Nice eco-friendly, pro-equality ideology ✔ Has no ideology at all, which is okay ✔ Devs listen to you and actually improve the game ✖ We have no competition! Pay $60 for the same game over and over again lol Finally some progress after two decades of FM I have been playing football manager games since PC Fútbol / PC Calcio 3.0 and Ultimate Soccer Manager 2, we're talking 1994-1996. I dismayed when Dynamic Multimedia went bankrupt, then I discovered Total Club Manager and Championship Manager, and after that I have been playing Football Manager until a few years ago, when I got really, really, really bored with the same exact game released over and over again for 60 (!) bucks. Football Manager got lazy simply focusing on tactics and transfers, with no economy, no stadium building, no merchandising, no immersive interface whatsoever. Both PC Fútbol 5.0 and Ultimate Soccer Manager 2 already excelled at this back in 1996, and I guess I will never understand why Football Manager systematically refused to add these features . Their concept of improvement was adding extremely annoying, repetitive and time-consuming press conferences after every three clicks, like wtf? We Are Football 2024 brings back those PC Fútbol / TCM vibes . You get to manage your own club in a much more comprehensive way, building your own stadium or training grounds, and enjoying a delightful view of the club's museum. The interface is much more immersive and pleasant than FM's Excel interface, and there's simply a lot more to do. Negotiations are better and more intuitive, training is better and more intuitive, speeches are A LOT better and more intuitive, and you can even prepare your own rehearsed plays - something that a tactics-only game like FM has repeatedly failed in adding, even though, again, Ultimate Soccer Manager 2 had it back in 1996. Areas where We Are Football should improve (in my opinion) There are many areas where this game can improve. It's still miles behind FM when it comes to tactics , but it has a more casual, more intuitive approach that can work wonders if well polished. Some of the areas where I think the WAF2024 can be better are: • Fitness is not very intuitive . Players fitness is more balanced now, but it's still a headache sometimes. It multiplies stamina x energy, but I think it should simply average both. Also, having your keeper exhausted after a match makes little sense. • It needs more data for managing your players . There is not a single screen with your whole team performance over the season, only individual screens. • Matches still feel a bit unbalanced . The classic FM 1 shot 1 goal defeat, with the opponent's GK MOM, still happens way too often. • Negotiations . Players sometimes admit their contract is too lucrative, but still ask for an increase in wages for an extension. Agents quit negotiations all the time. You can't offer a larger/smaller release clause, and can only accept or reject their offer. Players ask for 15M wages, you refuse, sell them, and now they earn 3.8M at their new club. More player flexibility and dialogue options would be appreciated, like 'who do you think will pay these wages?', or 'f*ck you, you f*cking brat!'. A long-awaited refreshing feeling in football managing games We have the grounds for an excellent 'football manager' kind of game, and it's already pretty neat and playable. We Are Football 2024 gets an excellent balance between a casual gameplay and an immersive management experience , and it's very easy to tell it was made with a lot of love. You can see the way your own players improve after every match, conversations with players actually make sense (FM's players are just a bunch of whiny little b*tches), and you actually get the feeling that the game was made for you to enjoy , not to milk you. Many complaints FM has never taken seriously are fixed from the start in WAF2024. I am even happier because I know these devs will greatly improve We Are Football 2024 , the same way they greatly improved We Are Football, even months before the release of their new game. I could see how they implemented a lot of fixes based on what their userbase suggested. They love football, they listen, and they are the future of football management games. Football Manager is a closed chapter for me, and I will only reopen it when (if) they ever decide to actually improve the game. If you love football management games, give the FM franchise the break the've been deserving for 10 years, and give We Are Football 2024 a shot! My sincere thanks to Winning Streak Games and THQ Nordic for doing what noone else could for the past 20 years!
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