Football Manager 2011 update is live

The latest Football Manager 11 patch will update the player database to include all the hirings and firings of the January transfer window. As well as the updated rosters, the patch will add a ton of fixes, interface tweaks and balance adjustments. The changes will improve everything from the player/manager conversation system, to the accuracy of Uraguayan TV revenues.

The full patch notes were posted on the Sports Interactive forums, and they're as lengthy as you might imagine for a sim as deep as Football Manager. The 4,000 word list of changes includes improvements to set piece behaviour on the pitch. Goalkeeper AI during corners is more solid, players mark more competently, and SI have "rebalanced number of shirt tugs vs trips."

You'll no longer be able to overwork your players as much, as SI have squashed a bug that caused players not to go on holiday at the end of the season. You can't be quite as bamboozling in conversation either. The option to tell players they cost too much even though they were free has been removed. Occasional cases where players would react cheerfully to being fired have also gone.

Other improvements include de-spamming of the news filters of incessant sponsorship roundups, and more accurate financial models for leagues in Russia, Brazil, Denmark and others. You can read the enormous list of changes on the Sports Interactive forums. The patch for the boxed version can be downloaded from the Football Manager site, the Steam version will update automatically the next time it's started up.

Part of the UK team, Tom was with PC Gamer at the very beginning of the website's launch—first as a news writer, and then as online editor until his departure in 2020. His specialties are strategy games, action RPGs, hack ‘n slash games, digital card games… basically anything that he can fit on a hard drive. His final boss form is Deckard Cain.