The Football Manager series has dominated the market. It has become the only real football management sim left (occasionally there is a new one or two from SI Games’ competitors, but it’s becoming increasingly rare). Some say this is a bad thing as it means that SI Games and SEGA don’t need to do much every year to keep their illustrious fanbase. The question is; have they got complacent with this year’s release?

Well, the answer isn’t as black and white as it first appears. All the usual Football Manager elements are here and the UI has been tidied up, with those packing large monitors in for a special treat in the form of mass stat overload. The match engine has also been improved quite considerably, and to our surprise we found that the 3D views work just as advertised on older PC hardware. This was a sore issue for some last year so people running older rigs should be in good spirits. The new director view also contributes to the experience and helps to add to the drama of matches.

On the flip side, match audio is still the same old dull fan noise that has been pre-recorded. It still doesn’t sync up to the game’s matches and it can disrupt what is otherwise a coherent experience. The experience is also broken up by the spotty licensing. SI Games and SEGA have decided to resist going after the Premier League license and instead are satisfied to push an incomplete product for many years now. They have got away with this for far too long and we think it’s something fans should try to demand for. We appreciate that the licensing deals must be expensive, but it’s a fair assumption to suggest that many players of this game will want to manage a Premier League side.

Regardless, the usual array of awe-inspiring stats and up-to-date squads (including the very latest real-life transfers – Arsenal’s desperately cobbled together squad is present) are the main meat and potatoes of the game. The sheer amount of information on offer is fantastic as always and that definitely helped to keep us addicted during the course of this review. All this info intertwines within the gameplay with the new conversational tones and team talks. These vary from being aggressive, passionate or calm amongst others and each one can have a direct affect upon your player’s attitudes on and off the pitch. It’s a surprisingly deep little system, and you will find yourself watching how you talk to the in-game media plus your team in general in order to get the most out of them as possible.

Other new highlights that deserve a mention include the new contract negotiations. You can now lock certain elements of the negotiations and this also makes a sizeable impact to how you interact with the game. The leagues are also improved, matching their real-live counterparts as closely as possible. These league and team improvements seep into the international management angle of the game. Controlling international sides is much more intuitive, with more hands-on elements so it genuinely feels like less of a tacked-on experience.

Youth squads and the ability to add or remove leagues as you play through the game are also game-changers that complement the management sim well without breaking the game. Rounding up the changes are the new in-depth tutorials for new managers and social network integration for all those sociable folks so you can bombard your friends whilst you bombard your opponents when you play the game.

All these new elements are great, but there doesn’t seem to be any real killer-feature this year and the game feels like it has run out of ideas. Full licensing might help, but there needs to be a better hook for new players going forward or the game might be in danger of appeasing to an ever-decreasing niche. We’re not exactly sure what the answer is. FM2012 had us hugely addicted during our review period and it does feel great, but there’s just no big pay-off for all the hours you will put in anymore outside of your team’s success.

Bottom Line: In a time when our personal lives are being eaten up by a variety of different distractions, FM2012 is just a little slow-paced and slightly unrewarding to compete in a world dominated by more bite-sized distractions. However, this is the best Football Manager since 09 and it has pushed the football management sim genre to the furthest it has ever gone. What comes next very much relies on what SI Games and SEGA want to go with the franchise. For the first time, it could be argued that a football management game is fully feature-complete and if you are a football fan you will immensely enjoy it.

As you can see, we’re looking a little different. That’s because we’ve finally decided that now is the perfect time to have a redesign and we would like to take a minute to sit right here and tell you the story of the new site design.

Essentially, our old design wasn’t really planned to last as long as it did. TheNPCs’ wizened elder designer Rob Turner forged our old blue beast of a site back in 2007. We resurrected it back in 2009, and decided that Rob’s design was good enough to keep us going for a long old while.

However, now has come the time for us to rebrand and utilise more features. We reached a point where we could no longer edit or update the older design to improve upon it and that was the catalyst to get a new visual refresh. We aren’t one of those sites that are so desperate for attention that we will instigate random new redesigns every week, so it was quite hard to see the old one finally go but we believe this new design is an evolution for us.

Our entire brand will now be switching to the orange, black and white colour scheme you can find across the new site so you can recognise us across the internet, wherever we end up.

To celebrate our visual refresh, we will be continuously posting up a great deal of new content as we go forward. Look out for our history of TheNPCs piece next week, as we will go through how we started and where we’re going.

If you have any feedback on the new design, we would love to hear from you. Feel free to leave a comment, post on our Facebook page or give us a tweet.

We got our hands on the game’s multiplayer mode through Ubisoft’s PS3-exclusive beta and we were pleasantly surprised with what we played. Brotherhood’s multiplayer was a little side-distraction, and whilst it was fun enough it didn’t really have that little something extra to keep you playing. Going by the beta though, Revelations has improved on the multiplayer experience and provides you with more fleshed-out gameplay mechanics.

We played with the game’s wanted mode, where you have to kill target whilst avoiding being killed by your pursuers. It’s a fun if confusing little mode, as it’s not abundantly clear who you should be hunting. However, that’s part of the point as you’re all supposed to be assassins out and about on the day job so blending in is the name of the game. It’s quite odd though when some of the playable character models stand out from the NPCs (no long-con pun intended) whilst others look exactly the same as the AI folk. Regardless, it still presents an enjoyable challenge.

There are audio and visual clues when you get near your target/get hunted down so that helps, but there’s a large sense of tension in that anyone can randomly turn around and literally stab you in the back. Apart from that, this mode had all the usual bells and whistles you expect from modern multiplayer games such as point bonuses. Killing a higher-ranked assassin nets you more points, as does doing it in an original manner. Deathmatch mode follows the same rules, apart from the fact you’re not allowed to trigger chases or use a compass.

Next up is the manhunt mode, which pits one team against another with each team taking turns to pursue the other. This is where we personally had the most fun, as the points accumulate rather rapidly and the desperation one feels when chasing down a good for nothing assassin is terribly great fun. It’s here that you will get to see some of the game’s more expansive environments and experience more gameplay aspects.

We were impressed with the fluidity of the movement and just how fast you can traverse the landscape. It genuinely feels much faster than Brotherhood, so much so in fact that we’re wondering if this will be toned down a touch for the game’s story mode. For multiplayer, it makes sense as you blindly run around panicking about your next kill but it does make getting to each place ridiculously easy (especially when coupled with this mode’s instant win button: a massive radar).

On the whole then, Assassin’s Creed Revelations’ multiplayer is shaping up to be a sizeable piece of the final game’s package. The experience and unlock system have combined well with the refined gameplay to complete a surprisingly compelling experience. Whether or not it distracts you from Ezio and Desmond’s latest adventures remains to be seen, but we definitely recommend giving it a go.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is one of those delightful little surprises in this year’s gaming calendar. It’s a typical knife-edge wildcard title that could change everything or fall under its own pretence. If you look at its pedigree, you can see a definitively strong title in the original Deus Ex but also the bitter disappoint of Deus Ex: Invisible War so many would be forgiven for feeling a touch apprehensive about Human Revolution.

Fortunately, we’re pleased to report this rich concoction of a game came out of the oven as a deliciously moist feast. Human Revolution is equal parts Metal Gear Solid, Rainbow Six Vegas, Splinter Cell, Resident Evil and Bioshock all rolled into one extensive experience that feels like its own individual slice of gaming history.

Before we get too carried away with chucking in the superlatives, let’s take a step back and remind ourselves what HR is. This title can be best described as a combat FPS RPG (acronyms will be running around heavily in this review, thanks to my review skills not being heavily augmented at this present juncture). However, the way you play the game is up to you.

Do you want to talk people round to your way of thinking or do you want to blow them sky fucking high? Perhaps sneaking up behind someone (like the stalker you are) and breaking their neck is more your cup of tea? No problem. The game’s mechanics allow you to adapt your play-style on the fly, mainly thanks to the FPS viewpoint giving way to a third-person perspective when behind cover. We know it’s a relatively cheap gimmick and it’s cool to head on cover-based shooters nowadays, but there’s no denying the fact that creeping into cover before picking off some unsuspecting poor sod is undoubtedly pleasurable.

The environments that house these theatres of modern espionage action are definitely well thought out and can prove suitably challenging. In essence, there are essentially some major hub locales (we will not reveal exactly how many as we still believe in not spoiling games, unlike some) that host your usual array of shops and other places of interest. Then, there are some self-contained arenas of sneaky (or possibly not so) destruction that you’ll be bouncing around in.

It’s an interesting mix, with the hub worlds demonstrating a large scope in terms of the buildings they possess (houses, apartments, shops, clubs and others all feature) and the hidden nooks and crannies you can get yourself into. The self-contained areas wouldn’t look out of place in a MGS title and whilst they deliver a suitable challenge with multiple pathways to reach your goal, you can’t help feeling you’ve seen this all before. It’s an odd sensation as there’s nothing essentially wrong with the areas in question (quite the opposite in some places), but on occasion it can feel like you’re essentially plodding along for the sake of it.

The main problem with the game’s areas is one that is also one of its main strengths: every room, corridor and building has its own place in that gameworld. While this can be great, you will tire of seeing the same old computers, photocopiers and toilets by the end of the game. Essentially everyone in the future has exactly the same suppliers for everything by the looks of things, even across countries (that’s the only spoiler you’re getting). The attention to detail has to be commended though. Hacking office computers and reading typical office banter between staffers can be a nice distraction before you suck it up and decide to blow up more naughty people.

Thankfully, the hidden areas and multiple pathways really add to these sections. Eidos Montreal wasn’t lying when they said that the multiple pathways would actually be different (as opposed to just choosing left or right in most games). We became so entrenched with the gameworld and wanting to experience the game that we backtracked a lot to find any hidden loot, which is all too common here thankfully.

Now, you can’t talk about a Deus Ex game without bringing up augmentations (essentially enhancements for your main character). HR’s augs are surprisingly well-balanced; with only a few giving you a completely unstoppable advantage over the game’s AI folk (even if the AI is typical dumb stealth-game fare) if you so choose to max them. They mostly present ways for you to handle situations differently, from eye and cranial augs to help stealth or hacking (which takes the form of a pleasant-enough mini-game) through to more combat focused augs like taking less damage. These dovetail quite nicely with the whole “adapt your play-style” mantra and can make some of the duller locations fun to traverse.

Another pleasantly surprising aspect of the game is the gunplay. The guns feel suitably punchy, and the fact that most of them are easily upgradeable adds to the game’s copious customisation options. They also make you feel like a complete bad-ass, which can come in handy when things get a bit wobbly.

All of this gaming goodness is complemented by a decent presentation. HR’s locales look stunning, but the character models can leave a little to be desired when compared to the beautiful hub worlds or pre-rendered backdrops you can lay your eyes on when you’re on top of a suitable massive building. These low-quality models definitely show their age during conversations with NPCs unfortunately.

Square Enix seem to be more than happy to add to the problem by adding in some frankly bizarre CGI cutscenes that ark back to their Final Fantasy RPGs. We know they had the game’s best intentions at heart (to make it look all cinematic and dramatic), but if they stopped and worked on the models a little more you couldn’t help but wonder if they would need the odd cutscenes in the first place.

Whilst we’re on the negatives, we would also like to point out that the boss battles are a pointless addition to a game that’s supposed to be about tactical action and reek of MGS’ equally pointless boss encounters. In a world where ammo can be sparse if you’re not looting every corpse or hacking away at every door you see they can be frustrating.

In all honesty, the characters themselves are like the bosses in many ways: they are instantly forgettable and voiced by seemingly bored individuals. It’s a shame really as the writing is good (the protagonist has a particularly humorous encounter with a cop where he mentions Che Guevara), but it’s quite telling that we haven’t even mentioned the typical brown-haired spec-ops-style tall muscular lead until this late point in the review. His name is Adam Jensen, for all those that care.

Thankfully, the story is much more gratifying and frames the action well. It’s not a typical mainstream-style plot and isn’t afraid to offer surprises to keep the game feeling fresh. Deus Ex fans will enjoy the fan service and newcomers will be equally happy to find it suitably bad-ass.

Bottom Line: At this part of the review it may seem that we are being a little down on Deus Ex: Human Revolution, but it’s only because the game is so close to perfection that its shortcomings stick out more than a fat person in a nightclub. However, we’re confident enough with HR to say that what’s here is unashamedly game of the year material thanks to its stunning gameplay and flourishes of architectural/story genius. The augmentations, different play-styles, fun environments and RPG elements really help to deliver something that is both comfortably familiar yet completely original. It’s an intelligent but lengthy experience that will put a silly grin all over your face.

SEGA has today announced that Virtua Fighter 5 will see a major update and expansion in the form of a standalone title on both the XBLA and PSN. This standalone release will be called “Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown”.

SEGA is claiming that the game will offer a “full overhaul” of Virtua Fighter 5’s mechanics, balance and animations. Also expect new game modes, new dynamic fighting arenas, new customisable character items and two all-new characters. Final Showdown will be released in Summer 2012 (a full 9-12 months from now by the sounds of it).

We saw this whilst making the usual rounds across our favourite websites and we thought we had to share. Be sure to watch the entire video, including the ever-so soppy ending. We can assure you it presents a feeling women undergo when watching a romcom (apparently). If you follow the watch on YouTube link you can even go and play the level. We wouldn’t condone modding it further for your own romantic entanglements, for the sake of emotions everywhere.

EA is running a livestream of Battlefield 3 for the next four hours. Apparently the stream will show a few videos, have some interviews and will hopefully have some live gameplay. Feel free to join us in watching it right here with the fancy embed you can see above these here sentences. Expect some awkward military dudes talking about games confirmed.

Tecmo Koei has announced that Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge will be coming to the Nintendo Wii U. The game was shown off during a brief montage at Nintendo’s E3 Press Conference earlier. Not much is known about it yet, but it will apparently stack up well when compared to the PS3 and 360 versions of the game. Expect blood.

Nintendo has shown off a new Super Mario 3DS trailer at their E3 press conference just now in Los Angeles. The game is built from the group up and features the Tanooki suit. Expect it to ship before the end of this year.

Nintendo has showed off a new trailer for Mario Kart 3DS at their E3 Press Conference earlier. The game is shaping quite nicely, and seems to be pushing customisation. Also expect new hang-gliding segments for great justice. We’ll keep you updated when new information from the game is unveiled.

Satoru Iwata has just confirmed that Smash Bros. is coming to both the Wii U and the 3DS. According to Iwata, the two versions can link up to each other. He also let slip that Masahiro Sakurai (currently working on Kid Icarus Uprising) will be developing the game. Other than that, there has been no other details or information on this game yet but we’ll keep our ear to the ground and keep you updated. Iwata warned that this will be a long-term project for the future.

Nintendo has just announced the Wii U at their E3 press briefing. We’ve covered what the system and its interesting controller look like and what they can do, so now it’s time we tackled the nitty-gritty. Of course, we’re talking about what’s under the Wii U’s hood.

Let’s start with the controller. It has two analogue sliders, a d-pad, four face buttons, two shoulder buttons and two triggers. Furthermore, it has motion controls and a big giant touch-screen in the middle. The touchscreen is 6.2” big, and is running in a non-HD resolution (Nintendo isn’t confirming what resolution it runs at yet). Disappointingly, the touchscreen doesn’t support multi-touch which is a bit rubbish when you consider the PS Vita and most modern touchscreen devices have had multi-touch support for years. Plus, you need to be in the same room in order for the technology to work. We guess the range isn’t all that great. Regardless, the controller is also packing a front-facing camera and a microphone.

The console itself finally takes Nintendo into the HD era. It can support up to 1080p via HDMI and has a variety of other video and audio connections (more on that later). The system also uses internal flash-based media storage. Disappointingly, it doesn’t have a full-on HDD like the 360 and PS3 but you can use USB devices and SD cards for increased storage. IBM designed the system’s CPU, and they have confirmed it’s a 45nm custom chip with “a lot” of embedded DRAM inside a silicon on insulator design. Apparently, it packs the same processor technology found in Watson, the computer that beat a load of Americans on a TV game-show.

Games ship on proprietary iDensity discs. Nintendo is being a bit coy on how much data those discs can hold, but they claim it’s a “large capacity”. Games will be available as downloadable content, and the Wii U also supports Wii games and devices too. However, the Wii U will not upscale Wii games so they’ll be no saving those archaic relics. It’s due to be released between April 1 2012 and December 31 2012 (after the end of Nintendo’s fiscal year).

Here’s the official spec sheet from Nintendo:

Launches: 2012

Size: Approximately 1.8 inches tall, 6.8 inches wide and 10.5 inches long.

New Controller: The new controller incorporates a 6.2-inch, 16:9 touch screen and traditional button controls, including two analog Circle Pads. This combination removes the traditional barriers between games, players and the TV by creating a second window into the video game world. The rechargeable controller includes a Power button, Home button, Control Pad, A/B/X/Y buttons, L/R buttons and ZL/ZR buttons. It includes a built-in accelerometer and gyroscope, rumble feature, camera, a microphone, stereo speakers, a sensor strip and a stylus.

Other Controls: Up to four Wii Remote™ (or Wii Remote Plus) controllers can be connected at once. The new console supports all Wii™ controllers and input devices, including the Nunchuk™ controller, Classic Controller™, Classic Controller Pro™ and Wii Balance Board™.

Media: A single self-loading media bay will play 12-centimeter proprietary high-density optical discs for the new console, as well as 12-centimeter Wii optical discs.

Video Output: Supports 1080p, 1080i, 720p, 480p and 480i. Compatible cables include HDMI, component, S-video and composite.

Audio Output: Uses AV Multi Out connector. Six-channel PCM linear output through HDMI.

Storage: The console will have internal flash memory, as well as the option to expand its memory using either an SD memory card or an external USB hard disk drive.

CPU: IBM Power®-based multi-core microprocessor.

Other: Four USB 2.0 connector slots are included. The new console is backward compatible with Wii games and Wii accessories.

Nintendo has warned us that this screenshot hasn’t been officially tied to any new games yet, but we thought we should share it with you. Behold, this is what a Zelda title on the Wii U could look like. Nintendo showed this screenshot in a video explaining the new system on a TV-screen to demo the Wii U’s link with the system, but strangely enough it has wormed its way into their press material they’ve just sent over. Coincidence? We think not.

Nintendo has just announced that their new console is called the “Wii U” at their E3 press conference. We would like to say we just made that name up to troll you guys, but that is sincerely not the case. The big new Nintendo HD system is called the “Wii U”. The console has a touch screen controller surrounded by the usual array of buttons, and we are pleased to confirm that dual analogue sticks are back. It also has a camera, shoulder buttons and motion sensors. Players can decide whether to play on a TV or roam and play on the controller itself.

Nintendo is promising zero latency between the console and the controller, and they appear to be giving developers the ability whether to adopt a dual-screen configuration or not. During the conference, Nintendo themselves showed a Zelda demo with the game kicking off on –screen and Link’s inventory being displayed on the controller. We have an assortment of Wii U controller and system images plus a load of videos of the system available after the jump.

Nintendo has just announced Luigi’s Mansion 2 for the 3DS. The game was shown as part of a montage so details are thin on the ground, but going by the gameplay that was displayed it appears to be the same as the original. Obviously, expect 3D and ghosts.

Something a little different for you now, here’s Ubisoft’s E3 live press conference. That’s right, it’s live and taking place right now. They’ve just announced Far Cry 3 and now Gearbox is taking to the stage. Join us and watch it live right here!

Like you guys, we’ve been waiting for some gameplay footage from Batman: Arkham City. Well folks, wait no longer. Rocksteady visited the folks over at GT.TV and showed off a bit of ol’ Catwoman and the caped crusader himself. We hope you’re going to go as crazy as we just did when we grabbed this! As always, we’ll keep you up to date with everything important from this year’s E3 so stick around and pull up a cold one.

Seeing as you’ve all been good boys and girls this year, E3 has delivered a gameplay video from Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim already. We won’t spoil the video for you, but expect to see monsters, dragons and wide open spaces. We’re incredibly excited for this and we hope you are too. Enjoy!

Microsoft has announced some new features for Xbox Live at this year’s E3 at Los Angeles. Firstly, they’ve confirmed that gamers will be able to save their games to the cloud so folks can download their saves and resume playing their games on other online 360s. Secondly, they’ve announced ‘Beacons’, which is an alert system where you can tell your Xbox Live and Facebook friends about what you’re playing or that you want to play something.

Thirdly, Microsoft has announced some new TV partnerships for the 360. Expect to see YouTube and UFC content spring up on 360s, alongside content from Canal and Sky in other regions. Also, there will be Bing search integration with the 360 dashboard soon (not all news is good news).

There’s also the small matter of a whole new dashboard, built from the ground up to emulate Windows 8’s new touch interface and to appeal to those super-sprightly Kinect-wielding casuals. Just when you thought your Xbox UI was finally safe.

EA and DICE have just announced a multi-platform open beta for Battlefield 3 at EA’s E3 2011 press conference. The beta will begin in September, so look out for it then. We’ll be throwing up a gameplay video from the game later so keep your eyes open for that when it hits. We’re currently watching the game now on EA’s livestream (http://live-event.ea.com/e3/press) and it’s shaping up to be something special. We have also managed to get a snippet of footage of the game’s multiplayer too, which is available after the jump. It’s 49 seconds long, but that’s more gameplay than you’re going to see of The Old Republic and other titles this E3!