Returning player with doubts... Please advice

Good evening everyone,

I am a fan of the series and played all the episodes until Football manager 2018 then for personal reasons I stopped.
I'm considering playing this amazing game again but I have a doubt.
Do you think it is better to buy the 2023 version or the 2022 one? Taking into account I haven't played for a long time, could you list the most important news compared to 2018?

 

Thank you in advance

Not sure if the 2022 version is still available to buy, but I think vs FM18 either one would be worth upgrading to. I'd recommend playing the free FM23 demo before buying so that you can decide for yourself, especially for the match engine. As a summary of the bigger changes:
 

• Training changed a lot in FM19 (probably worth reading up on by itself, I wouldn't be able to do a good summary of the changes).
• The Mentoring system is very different, instead of one-on-one mentoring you have groups of 3+ players and you can't ask a senior player to mentor a player in your youth team anymore, you need to promote them to the senior squad.
• They introduce a Data Hub, and instead of “Clear Cut Chances” you have xG and a lot of other stat metrics to use.
• The Match Engine itself has improved in each release; FM22 and the current FM23 MEs have an issue with AI teams centre backs just passing between each other all the time and attackers not being able to press them enough, so possession percentages and pass completion are artificially high. Hopefully this will change in the next FM23 update. Overall both FM22 and FM23 are more enjoyable than FM18 was in my opinion.
• You can't change Team Shape (Fluid/Flexible/Structured etc) on its own in the tactic creator anymore, now that's decided based on your player roles and duties - More Attack/Defend = more structured, more Support = more fluid.
• A few new roles were added (Wide Centre Back for a back 3/5, and Defensive Forward was renamed Pressing Forward and given more duties). The sweeper position/role is gone.
• In FM23 they changed how AI managers use midfielders - in a 4-2-3-1 for example instead of 2 CMs they'll now play with 2 DMs because (according to SI at least) it more accurately reflects how a double pivot works in real life. Quite often before, AI managers would play a double pivot with “MC/AMC” players such as Mason Mount, Martin Ødegaard or Pedri (who can play as an 8 in a 4-3-3, but not really in a 4-2-3-1 in real life) without a true holding midfielder.
• A lot of Team Instructions were reworked, and pressing is quite different with a Counter-Press instruction. The instructions have been separated into In Possession, Transition, and Out of Possession too.
• There are preset Tactical Styles like Tiki-Taka, Gegenpress, Control Possession, Park the Bus that you can either customise or use as-is.
• The Match UI has been changed completely, there's no more widgets and now it's just a few stock panels and a “Touchline Tablet”. You can use a custom skin to change this though.
• VAR and Goal-line technology has been added.
• The Scouting system has been revamped as well for FM23
• There's a Development Centre for your youth teams and loaned-out players.
• The Team Talk screen has been changed and looks pretty awful, instead of this it looks like which is “supposed to resemble the layout of the changing room”.
• Press Conferences, International Management, Set Pieces and the 3D Graphics/Stadium Environment are pretty much the exact same as in FM18. The player models changed a bit and the player animations are a lot better now though.
• There's a “Manager Induction” tutorial when you first begin a save.
• And finally, the UI has a lot of purple in it now.

There are also quite a few reports of people finding the game being laggy in 3D even when they have powerful computers that should have no problem running it with max settings, so I do recommend you try the demo before buying.

Thank you weeniehutjr, just bought my boxed copy and activated today on footballmanager.,com website! Can't wait to start the new career.

Any suggestion on must have mods?

I'm undecided between FMSCOUT & Sortitoutsi as major mods source for DB updates..what do u think? I know you're a staff anyway 😛

PS:

Thank you for your time writing a so well answer! Highly appreciated