Our first look at Football Manager 2018's new graphics engine
Wenger out.
Football Manager isn't the first title that springs to mind when it comes to video game visuals, but developer Sports Interactive has invested in a new graphics engine for this year's entry to help make the series look less like an interactive spreadsheet, as Football Manager is sometimes called, and more like a game of virtual football.
In a new video, below, Sports Interactive reveals the Football Manager 2018 matchday experience and shows off the new graphics engine for the first time.
The match preview screen has been redesigned. There are now cutscenes (players warming up, stadium shots and other gubbins). You'll see animated teamsheets for each side before the match, too.
As for the match itself, there are several customisable cameras from which to view the action. The new graphics engine now supports DirectX 11 (the previous engine only supported DirectX 9). You should notice enhanced lighting and on-pitch textures.
Of note, Sports Interactive worked with Total War developer Creative Assembly, which is also owned by Sega, to improve the player models and stadiums. You should see more variation between players in the match engine. There's more variety in the types of stadium, too.
New motion capture work has improved goalkeeper animations, shots, controls and passes (CA helped with this, too, via its mocap studio).
Football Manager 2018 comes out in November.