Tennis Manager 2024
Review
Hitting the court...again
by Howie Howard
reviewed on PC
Run an established academy or create a customized one
Tennis Manager 24 is the fourth and newest edition in this popular sports management series. The Tennis Manager franchise has always been a manager simulator, meaning the game player is tasked with building and managing tennis players rather than controlling the actions of tennis players on the court yourself. In essence, you manage their tennis career by training them and controlling every other aspect of their playing career. In career mode Tennis Manager involves building a tennis academy by improving infrastructure, hiring staff, managing financial aspects of the business and everything else involved in order to excel in the world of tennis. You can accomplish this by choosing to operate an already established academy or by creating your own. Either way, you can then step up to the podium and partake in news conferences while trying to satisfy higher level management by completing their set objectives.
TM24 like it's for-bearers is once again developed and produced by French game house Rebound Capitol Games. As with most manager games whether they are focused on football, baseball, or any other sport in existence today, they are generally updated with each year's release. Some manager games will occasionally release a totally rebuilt game engine, but that is rare. Instead, making some minor updates to player rosters along with improvements based on users input generally is the common procedure used. I can report that the new TM24 does not come with a game engine rebuild this year simply because it isn't needed. So, the games look will be familiar to those that have played earlier versions of TM. The new TM24 does introduce many updates along with some brand-new features which we will talk about in the following paragraphs, so stay with us.
What do you enjoy about managing a sports team?
I have always enjoyed playing sports manager games such as those related to cycling, soccer, auto racing and basketball. For the past few years, I have been into managing a team of tennis players as well. Normally, this wouldn't have been my cup of tea, because I didn't know much about the sport. That's what playing manager games such as Tennis Manager is about because it provides the opportunity to learn something new. Knowing nothing about the sport is not a reason for passing on TM24 because the base principles of sports management is the same across the board. Training athletes, building infrastructure and managing finances is what happens in most manager games. With that said, TM24 once again comes with a very good tutorial. It's the same as previous years tutorials but it certainly is worthwhile for the new player just starting out in the game.
TM24 is basically the same as previous versions in that it contains some 2000 tennis competitions for juniors and professionals, for both men and women's classes. There are 5000 players of varying skill levels available to recruit or play against with real world professional players names not included. Since Rebound CG probably didn't have licenses to use all of the top pros real names, they have chosen to misspell some of them. The players themselves are still recognizable though. Don't worry because TM24 like all the previous TM versions are fully mod-able with player name data bases along with proper tournament names readily available for download. Another nice feature is the ability to mod anything you want and then upload it to the Steam Workshop so others can download. I enjoyed the ability to add my own manager picture and also a custom logo for my academy among other game customizations.
It's always about minor updates versus major ones...
We have talked about what can be considered to be minor game updates with data bases and such but what’s really new in the game? Well, there are some nice new features actually which serve to make a good game better. One of the biggest additions is the ability to design custom tournaments. With this option you can recreate historic matches by having past legends compete against each other and hopefully your character will be good enough to go head-to-head with the top pros from the past!
The training system has undergone a major revamping for this years edition. Now you can work on improving your players form in addition to the players mental and physical attributes. This new training feature will allow managers to set up a different program for individual tournaments and it adds another more in-depth way to develop players. This is a very big improvement in my estimation. As far as graphics go, for 2024 there is a new look to the 3D analysis tools that very aptly details a player's performance on the court. Not only looking quite pleasing to the eye the new 3D tools present a more in-depth picture of how earlier matches played out for players under your charge. Last but not least the developer has instituted a new enhanced match simulation. Match play has been improved with better overall player AI with includes a more realistic decision-making process by computer-controlled players. Plus, it just looks better visually.
Take a look under the hood of this year's model
Improvements to graphics, training, data bases and AI aren't the only improvements that come with the 2024 TM package. Revamped difficulty levels have been added and a new feature called Fantasy Court are available for tennis manager’s pleasure. For those of us that aren't interested in running a stable of tennis players and managing their careers Fantasy Court allows for a more relaxed tennis experience. This feature allows tennis managers to jump right in and play tournaments containing preassigned athletes or create their own events. This will be helpful for folks wanting to enjoy the game without having to go so in-depth while catering to each athlete’s career needs.
I have been playing sports manager sims for quite a while and the main complaint from users about serial game releases always seems to be that the new version looks and plays the same as the previous year's entry. I can attest to the fact that TM24 basically does look and play the same as last year’s version, but the new edition comes with much more that you can't see on the outside. It's kind of like buying a new car that looks a lot like last year’s model in that you don't notice the difference until you start the engine and race off with a big smile on your face! Yes, you are still building an academy and training tennis players; however, with the enhanced athlete training, match animation improvements, opposing player AI upgrade, the enhanced game customization options and the new Fantasy Court feature, it really does make for a good argument to go out and purchase the new model instead of driving the old one around for another year. With that said, I give the new Tennis Manager 24 a two thumbs up rating.
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8.9
fun score
Pros
There's plenty of new things under the hood that add horsepower to this years model
Cons
Tennis might not be your cup of tea...
