Neville_Roach

I have been reading through posts in support and dismissal of FM08, and have to say im still struggling to pulled either way.

i am enjoying some success with a game started on the release day, however finding a suitable tactic is frustratingly baised toward repuatation not players ability, and other niggly bugs however i resevere my judgment until i am ready to post a long constructive post.

My point is that admidst all these posts i scan about the bugs my major grievance with 08 is the lack of new features.
I was disapointed as were many people about the new features and the general comeback to that was:
"id rather a polished game with a few new features"
well i wouldnt, 07 was a haven of new exciting features ready to burst when i scrolled my mouse and i overlooked the bugs until Jan when all was solved with a patch.

Looking at 08 i would be very surprised if we see a patch before Jan and many of the problems ive experienced are old(match engine, feeder clubs, registration etc..) which would take us to the same time as 07, but with far less 'bang for your buck'

the question i pose is have these bugs been used to distract attention from the lack of invention in the latest incarnation?

bridport_james

I dont think there is a lack of invention at all.

I simply think it is the other way round. The bugs have stopped people from enjoying all the suprises and inventions that FM can throw up, which is a shame.

But take a look at it, it is a very improved game compared to FM 07. There is no doubt.

furney89

I cant help but think they need to move the game on in the way they did from cm0102 to cm4

they overhauled it majorly, but it laid foundations for things we love now (such as the 2d engine, something we couldnt play without now)

but it had awful problems atthe start, but i think we'd now say it was worth having a buggy release, in order to move the series on

FM feels stagnant, this year it wasnt exciting at all, infact it went sidesways than forwards for the first time

the same old repetative media comments and questions, same old options for team talks, it needs to move on, let us create our own set pieces, and style of play

in FM, all good teams play the same football, theres no difference, you cant tell if ones a arsenal or a chelsea style of play

make it intresting and exciting when come to buy FM again, ive lost it, i never got FM2008 after playing the demo a couple of times, allthough ive had to play it because of my soundpack,

it just seems more of what weve got, than anything new, which seems, erm , boring, hows speeding the game up, exciting? hows match flow exciting, when we allready had it just in a different order, hows a new transfer page exciting? more tweaks to the match engine, exciting?

i guess after playing the past 3 FMs, 2008 doesnt stand out as anything new

i love the series, and i look forward to see what there adding to 2009 allready, but 2008 just isnt worth it for me

plus why cant they just import the 360 live options they had for FM2007? id love to play one off games with my seville 2025 team or even create a league and export my team,come on!

Neville_Roach

Furney - i couldnt agree more, and i have been blaming myself as i spend so much of my spare on it, and felt perhaps i needed a break, but normally when i get thinking that the new ones out and bam! Im into it again.

This time around seems somewhat laboured, like im waiting for it so i can have fun.

James - If you put any of the new features against the 100+ released with 07 i bet they would hardly get a mention, i mean come on: fan days? - a uninteractable news item?

I have found a few new things in the game and im glad they wernt documented, but wih each release you cant stand still or you get caught up. Be inspirational and methodical: How can this be better? How can we implement that? - 07 was full of it

furney89

what fun is a uninteractable feature? you cant do anything with it, or have any control!

worrying thing was the marketing for the game was spun around so called new things, such as it being faster, and now had more graphics, new transfer page, match flo<STRIKE>p</STRIKE>w which rejumbles what we allready had

im all for subtle changes, but after the 4th game, you need something major, and i dont class any of them major in anyway that gives me a buzz

after all its just a textbased game, it needs to get away from the spreadsheet image, that football manager games have,

to make it clear im not looking for wholesale changes, its a great game, FM2008 is better than Fm2007, but by how much? in my opinion not enough to buy,

im not bothered by bugs, all games have them, you live with it, at least si do something about it, but its more the game moving on that im bothered about, take it to another level

MadWoodster

I have to agree here, we were told how the international management side of things had been much improved, and yet when we looked into it what did we get:
The ability to scout players.
This is a very useful thing, but something that you could do in club management and so was just waiting to be put into the international module.
U20 world cup
1 new tournament, and a couple of qualifiers for it.

What didn't we get:
Any training options
Any of the regional tournaments such as the Carribean cup.
FIFA rankings that are even from this year let alone the last few months.
Pre-tournament friendlies, while all national teams arrange a couple of friendlies before a major tournament, we still can't.
Option to create friendly cups such as the Tournoi
World Cup hosts that aren't hard coded.

earmack

Perhaps SI should write a new game instead of updating the old one. I mean seriously rewrite the thing you can't keep polishing it forever.

Neville_Roach

i am genuinly surprised by the landslide of opinion here so far, and i think the many that said they would prefer a polished version would be disapointed at what has been delivered given the time scale.

International management was the biggest oversell i have ever heard and find it frustrating that the blogs are brilliantly written to wet our appetite but I aswell as so many feel let down by what is delivered.

The fact is it would take a few hours scouring these message boards for new innovative ideas that the fans really want, and working on development from there - some ideas are so brilliantly written that it seems half done already!

Drunk Beware

I think the confidence feature is a superb new addition to the fm series, the only thing is it is not quite implemented correctly.

Writing a new game would seriously take to long and not meet the demands of Sega for release date.

All fm needs is the new confidence to be worked on, the match engine to be sorted out properly e.g. one on ones, long shots etc. and i reckon everyone would think more postive. Maybe this could be ready for the patch in February.

Then for fm 09 with these working top notch just need some more additions Even though i am enjoying the game more than ever now :thup:

Neville_Roach

Got to agree with the confidence feature - how could i forget, really brilliant to assess strength and weakness, i havnt found any probs with it so far either

As for the match engine, as the bbiggest part of the game it just has to be right upon release, and if it takes until Feb i go bac kto the original point:

07 released tonnes of new features, all fixed by Feb.

08 was allowed to slip out with limited features, still not fixed, and its faults are in key areas.