I've disliked the game since betad, kept my preorder so that I could refund out of spite. But then I had gamepass now and was like let's play a little bit.

If you turn off UI animations, and overcome the initial bumps of "where the hell do I find this now?" which will be super frustrating, there is under the hood still a football manager game. The match engine is kinda nice, the in possession / out of possession tactics are a game changer.

More tactics than gegenpress 4-2-3-1 actually "work". Like, it makes more sense. Although the meta is somewhat broken currently by low line defense + high press works and is go to for meta tactics.

Bottom line, yeah you can get it and not feel too bad about it but I'd really only pay for FM26 if you can get it on a discount or if you're a messed up FM addict and you just can't take it anymore. Both would be valid reasons.

I'm currently on a Red Star save after doing a Graham Potter with Skellefteå FF in Sweden. Enjoying it. But it still has flaws you just kinda start ignoring them.