Football Manager 27

Just because the game has improved compared to one that was among the top 10 worst-rated games in Steam history doesn't make this installment good. The UI is still clunky and hard to read, and the top navigation menu requires a million clicks through nested tabs instead of having a convenient sidebar on the left. A lot of features from previous installments still haven't returned (the Trophies tab, season reviews, friendly cups). Making the tiles full-screen hasn't made the interface any better. The UI in older installments wasn't perfect either, but I never needed a third-party skin, whether in Football Manager 2010 or Football Manager 2024. Here, however, a third-party skin is practically mandatory, and even that doesn't fix the underlying problems. The fundamental principles of UX/UI have been completely butchered for the second year in a row (or even the third, if we count the mythical Football Manager 25). Perhaps Unity itself simply isn't capable of delivering a proper desktop interface rather than one designed for consoles or mobile devices. The match engine and its tactical functionality are more broken at launch than ever before, and now we have to wait for the winter patches. I never thought we'd be back where we were 15-20 years ago with Football Manager, when waiting for the *.3.0 patch was practically a requirement. On paper, the tactical innovations introduced over the past two years (the return of the In/Out of Possession system from Championship Manager 01/02, Tactical Effectiveness) sound promising, but in practice, these systems barely work. It's as if they came up with the ideas but never bothered to implement them properly. The match graphics have gone from FIFA 99-level visuals in Football Manager 2009-2024 to something resembling FIFA 2005 in Football Manager 26-27. The problem is that even with graphics at this level, matches still lag on high-end hardware, and there's no option to completely disable the 3D match engine. And I mean actually disable it as a feature, so it doesn't keep running in the background like it does now, with the option to switch back to 3D at any moment. In the past, you could disable 3D matches entirely in the game settings, and the engine wouldn't load at all, as was the case in Football Manager 2011. The only noticeable change this year has been the hiring of PR people (I find it hard to call them Community Managers) and Miles' complete disappearance from the public eye. It also feels like there are more YouTubers on SI's payroll than ever before. I refuse to call this a comeback or a return to form for the series. I genuinely believe this version of the game was developed for an entirely different player base - console and mobile gamers, rather than longtime fans of the franchise. Celebrating minor tweaks to a terrible interface and rushing to leave a positive review for a game that's still bad is simply a matter of having no self-respect.