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Premier Manager 2012 (PS3)

Comment: 0 February 6th, 2012 by: admin

So far, the Football Manager series has ruled as one of the best strategy-based football games available today.  And as we’ve confirmed in our review a few weeks ago, its 2012 version gives due justice to its previous instalments and offers the kind of entertainment that eats away at the hours like mad.

From this tangent we present to you the Premier Manager 2012, which has been described as the poor man’s Football Manager.  Although we’re sure whoever said that didn’t mean to be as condescending as they sound, taking a gander at this game is not the worst of ideas.

This version is the latest in a series that has arguably failed to live up to mainstream expectations in years.  It is currently available for PlayStation 3, which in itself is a gamble considering how the features that are supposed to make PM2012 as interactive as possible would be limited by a game controller.

Then again, maybe the fact that as of now there are no other football management games for the PS3 will do this some good.

Turns out there are more reasons to be concerned than hopeful.

The first setback is, sadly, the gameplay.  Not the overall PM2012 experience per se, but the progress of a football match within the game.

Slow. As. Heck.

The game’s 1.01 update seemed to address this issue with the option of skipping the game and just settling with the final score.  While that definitely cuts down on the waiting, you sacrifice the one element that gets real-life managers going every time: witnessing the actual game unfold.

So at this point, you either wait for the game to end (you might want to have something to distract you with as you do this), or fast forward and completely detach yourself from the action.  Some trade-off.

PM2012 gives you some hands-on control by letting you pick amongst a list of strategic plays, but it’s pretty much like picking from a list and hoping for the best.  Any hopes you might have of fine-tuning your team’s tactical formation will only be in vain.

The in-game navigation mimics the PS3’s XMB and can be confusing, and getting used to how the menus are mapped out can take up some time.  But some could find comfort in the fact that everything sort of zips through as soon as you figure out where everything is and how they work.

Another frustrating part of the game is the lack of challenge in player transactions.  It seems that any team will say yes to any offer you put on the table, no matter how ludicrous it could be.  There’s some challenge coming from the players who after a deal is made will protest and insist on staying.  The same effortless process happens in trades, and let’s admit it: it’s great that it’s easy, but it’s almost insulting that it’s this easy.

And as for the scouting?  The only information available to you are name, age, club, position and value.  Want to know how good they are? Scout them first and then you’ll find out.

The incidents happening within the game could be enough to make you think someone was controlling your game remotely.  Players can go down to injury in shocking frequency and numbers.  The statistics also seem to be way off, especially the surprisingly high shots-on-target numbers.

And if all of these weren’t enough, some have also been complaining about the game’s background music, which is not really the best.  And considering this is a game with such lag time (due to the painfully long matches), one would hope that at least there would be something to keep the entertainment factor going.

The only option in terms of the music is turning it off.  Well that’s fun.

Apparently, the game’s introductory price is £9.99, and sells afterwards for £13.99.  We were hoping they were joking.  They plunged the prices down to £4.99 for the Christmas season from 23 December 2011 to last 11 January.  A bargain for some, but now that it’s supposedly gone back to its regular price, we deem it better to look somewhere else for your football managing urges.

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