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Football Manager 2023 is a football management simulation game developed by Sports Interactive and published by SEGA. The game will have you build your dream squad in the football scene and bring them to be the best of the best.
The game was initially released for PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S on October 20th, 2022 and later for the PlayStation 5 on February 1st, 2023.
The focus of this review is the game’s performance on the PlayStation 5 and if you’re interested in the full review, you can give it a read here and see what it’s like to be a football manager.
Managing with Next Gen UI and Menu
Right off the bat, the UI for the PS5 Edition is vastly different to what it was in the PC versions as it has been reworked completely for gamepads. They’ve also made it so that both the analog buttons and the D-Pads each have their own functions.
The analog is to access the main body of the menu while the D-Pads are to go through the sub sections of the menu. It sounds confusing but the way they implemented it makes navigating through the menu feels smoother. Nothing beats using keyboard and mouse in this game though.
One thing the PS5 edition has over the PC version, however, is the pop up feature that shows up matches. Usually during a football match, a notification will pop up to notify you that your players are either tired or injured and needs to be substituted. In PC, you’ll need to manually click on it and decide who to replace, whereas with the PS5 edition, all can be done in a click of a button.
Another console exclusive feature the game has is the Simulate Match / Instant Result feature. As the name suggested, it simulates the match for you as you leave the match to your staff. PC version does not have this feature by default but instead requires a mod.
The Future Graphics and Performance
Depending on the person, playing a simulation game on a larger screen can either be a blessing or a curse. Some might enjoy having much more spaces to view all the data while some might preferred everything compacted in one. As for me, I am split between the two depending on the situation.
Putting that aside, with the PS5 edition and its SSD, the game transitions much more smoothly and even faster when compared to its previous edition. Of course, graphic wise there is not really any notable difference from the PC version. If anything, playing on a bigger screen makes me want to watch the football matches more instead of just skipping it to progress into the game.
The Limits of the Future
Now the console version is far from perfect. When compared to the PC version, one prominent thing it lacks is the ability to use certain “mods” to make the game far more interesting, such as interface skins and whatnot. So you’re pretty much stuck with the default UI for the rest of the game.
One other thing, albeit not that huge, is that Career mode in the PS5 edition can only run simulations for 30 years max whereas PC can run it for 100 years. Even I don’t normally go further than 20 years in Career mode but this gap does show that not all things are improved in the next gen.
Next Generation Verdict
All in all, Football Manager 2023 did a fantastic job integrating a smooth and enjoyable simulation game into the consoles. The developers did an amazing feat reworking the controls and the UIs to suit the consoles in their approach to make the game accessible to devices outside of PC.
Not only is the UI optimized greatly, each of the controls from the gamepad are utilized efficiently and I have honestly never experience navigations this smooth in previous simulation games on consoles. The various shortcuts, notifications and even the simulations are all great additions to make the game much easier and enjoyable to play.
While there is no drawback to the PS5 Edition, simulation games like this offers a far better experience when playing on PC especially if you are going to maximize every little potential data you can get hold of in the game. This ring true with how limited simulations the PS5 edition can run with its 30 years of Career mode compared to PC’s 100 years.
Nevertheless, if you are itching to grab hold of a simulation game for your console, then Football Manager 2023 is right up your alley.
