News - Even though its beta was supposed to be over, Football Manager 26’s latest patch requires you to go back to install it—here’s how.

Football Manager 26 has had, shall we say, a mixed reception since launching this week - but as preorder players will know, it's been playable in beta for a fortnight now. Despite the game being out, though, Sports Interactive has taken the surprising step of rolling out a massive patch that can only be accessed via the public beta. Confused? So were we, but it's thankfully pretty easy to get it installed. Here's how to download it, and what's included, courtesy of Sports Interactive. How to install the Football Manager 26 public beta Image credit: All SEGA Sadly, this is only available via Steam right now, but if you do own the game via Valve's platform, here's how to roll out to the big new patch. Right-click Football Manager 26 in your Steam library, then click Properties. From here, look on the left-hand sidebar and select Betas. Under Private Betas, enter the access code "public_beta", then click 'Check Code'. This will let you pick the beta from the Beta Participation dropdown, installing the latest version. As for the fixes included, they number in the hundreds at the time of writing. Top of the list are crash and stability fixes, which is a big result, as well as additional Match Speed options between and during highlights. The UI, which is a big new change this year, is getting a litany of fixes, too, while smaller tweaks like Manager Creation wrinkles not working properly are there, too. If you're curious about the full list, you'll find it here on the Steam page. In our review, I said that Football Manager will need to step things up next season. "I fully expect patches to iron out a lot of the issues, but reviewing what’s here as a footballing sandbox that has some sand missing, it’s still the best around – in fact, it’s the only name in town." "That means Football Manager 26, rightly or wrongly, gets a bit of a pass this season because you can still update Football Manager 24 with more recent transfers. If Football Manager 27 isn’t a title contender, though, we could have a new name in the sack race."