retired_beasleya

Ok SI, I am going to firstly say mabye I have been very strong with my words and what I have posted over the last few days.

I am not in any way apologising because I think not enough is being done to sort this game out. I will apologise for the swearing though. This game has been out since 18th October 07 which is touching on 3 months now. Do you honestly feel enough has been done over the course of, 1/ Pre release and 2/ after release? The answer is unfortunately no.

I understand that you continue to want to add and make it better than before and I praise you highly for the fact you listen to what we want in the game, but you have to realise that you really are letting the fidgety bits overtake the game.

Why are there so many bugs and conflicts in the game? Is it because you are rubbish programmers? No, of course not as you have given us great pleasure in previous formats. It's because you are going mental with all the silly things, now we don't have a game that works, the patches aren't any better tbh, maybe even worse.

I can accept a game so in depth will have minor glitches and bugs but the sheer amount of bugs across the board in FM 08 is shockingly bad, surely you must agree yourselves that there is a ridiculous amount. I mean for every bug in the game, it means a part of the program is either conflicting with another or it has been written wrong, surely a company of SI's size and reputation should be able to release a game which is error free?

If I went and bought a sim game and couldn't defeat the big boss because his hits were so bad and mine were too weak, even if his weapon was a french baguette and I had a machine gun, should I have to find alternative ways to defeat him or should I report and say it is unplayable and take itback even? Thing is, not many people will take the game back, FM that is, because we all love the game, it's format is amazing and we persevere because the game is a challenge, no matter how amazing AI players are, we still want to beat it as that is why we bought it. We want to take our beloved clubs to Euro glory but this is being hindered by Superkeepers, rubbish 'world class strikers' who miss 30+ chances per game!!! We shouldn't even be creating this many chances!!! Then there are history bugs, grey team bugs, closing down bugs, no international players, penalty, corners, offsides, playerfall outs, rubbish AI strikers and players being amazing, undefendable last 15 mins tactical genius moves from AI, contracts bugs, appeal bugs, cant sell players, players whoppingly overpriced, reserve players going for 14m, thats crazy!!! awards for wrong leagues, parent/ feeder bugs,clubs in wrong comps, players not coming back frominternational duty. Now correct me if I'm wrong, do you honestly believe releasing a game with this many errors is acceptable? Do you think it's acceptable that it's still not fixed after 3 months?

Do you think that releasing a patch which doesn't work a greatdeal better is acceptable? The answer is NO. I'd like this post not to be deleted and I would like some clear answers from SI about FM 08.

I would appreciate not being fobbed off, I did pay my money after all for a game which is BROKEN and I have bought every version of CM/FM LEGALLY since I started playing 13 years ago on the old Amiga 1200 format.

I am gutted I can't get the enjoyment from the game I want, the enjoyment I should be getting. The enjoyment that you PROMISE on the covers and marketing of the game PROMISE but which have not been delivered, even now 3 months after first release date.

What does it ay about this game that it is broken so badly? Has it even been tested properly and in depth enough before release?

Obviously not!!!!

What future guarantees do we have from you, SI, that future games and releases will be of 'good standard'? Your fan base is surely hacked off by this one, its obvious from the comments on the forums.

So SI, this is a sincere request from a very loyal but very, very annoyed fan, please tell us ALL whatis going on and when can we expect a fully functional FM??????

(nothing changed - split things into paragraphs a little as it was hard to read previously thats all - Marc)

circlewalker

There'll most likely be another patch in February after the transfer window closes.

retired_cacuna

Hi,

I'm sorry to hear you aren't enjoying the game. SI do our utmost to ensure that all our games are as stable, playable and fun as possible straight out of the box.

We do try to support the games to the best of our abilities and hope to change your mind regarding FM08 at some stage in the future.

I'm afraid I don't work on FM PC these days so regarding possible future patches for that product I"m afraid I can't comment - however I can say I'm 30 seasons into my own game and I lost the most exciting finish to a season ever earlier this evening.

As I mentioned I"m 30 seasons in, I've taken Cambridge City from Conference South to the Premiership and just lost the Premiership title to Liverpool on the final day of the season.

To set the scene, prior to the final match we played Liverpool 5 games before the end of the season - they were top, we were in second 1 point behind. In the match we took the lead in the first minute and then threw it all away eventually losing 3-1.

I was gutted but after the match one of my players 'rallied the troops' and gave me some faith - we battled on through the next 3 games winning them all and ended up coming into the final game needing to win ours and Liverpool to lose theirs.

To add to the tension Newcastle our foes had one of my old defenders in their lineup - I told the press he wouldn't be able to handle the pressure.

The match kicked off and my words struck true - within 30 minutes we were 3-0 up, better still Liverpool were 2-0 down to Millwall (8th in PRM).

The half ended with me 5-0 up and a rout going on, I brought on some kids and spent the second half watching the latest scores - liverpool pulled one back in the 70th minute, then in the 85th they equalised and my dream of the Premiership died ...

So in short I'm sorry you don't like this version, I personally am enjoying it (as are a quite a few other people. We will obviously continue to try and improve upon its current status and I hope soon you will be in a situation where you enjoy it as much as I do.

Hope this helps,

Marc

retired_thebug816

Jose, there is a lot of pressure to get these games out for release dates designated. I was a tester when Marc was working on FM08 for the PSP and the amount of testing done on this game is immense, I went through a several day period of like 15 hours a day on FM08 just for the PSP and behind me were guys sat on the PC version doing exactly the same.

Ackter was one of the guys who worked on the PC version so he too can verify just how much effort was put into the series. The fact of the matter is - not all problems can be found, I mean I can't say much about it but ultimately, even though days, weeks & months are spent on this game, pretty much 24/7 for the entire testing period there is no way the amount of testing we did, and the future testers will do, will ever equate to the actual users quantity of play.

There is only one alternative for SI really, to develop the basic skeleton of the game - release it to the public and every few days bring out a new update - which would be terrible considering by the time the game was finished there could be thousands of fixes having been done along the way.

Also, you will struggle to find any game out there that doesn't have a single bug in it, no matter how trivial or major, but on the PSP version I remember an amusing bug during the early days where you during a match you could get out of it and restart it - made getting the unlocks much easier but it was fixed.

At the end of the day FM isn't perfect, but, it could be a lot, lot worse and in an ideal world there would have been thousands of testers around the clock testing the product but thats impossible so its one of those things in life mate.

retired_qwerty

Hi Marc, it was interesting to read your experience. However, I am wondering whether you could also share with us whether you have noticed a general decline in player quality in top teams over the 30 years and also whether you have noticed that older players (age 30 +) are losing their stats way too quickly irrespective of their natural fitness.

I have played till 2018 and I have experienced both of the above. The quality of the newgens simply can not match the quality of old players and most young newgens have low physical stats and also low CA. Also my old players have their stats decline very very fast, world class MCs such as iniesta and de rossi all have their passing, creativity, decisions etc declining at 30 years old along with a faster decline in physical stats. So I am just wondering whether you have experienced the same.

Cheers,

Wolfsong

retired_thebug816

There is a way around this in a sense wolf. Basically what I do is wait until the first crop of players like Henry, Giggs etc are all reaching their later days.

I then have these pass on their knowledge to my 20 year olds etc and this is a huge boost to their abilities, Luca Toni was especially good for helping young strikers develop their strength and I could pass this onto holding AM's etc and work it through my team just by changing contract status's between young players.

It's not certain, but it helps the curve a lot, but on FM07 especially, I think I could attribute some good strength development in a few of my young players to Luca Toni and it passes on prefered moves too which is a bonus.

retired_mixxster

Did you even read the post the OP made? No, really, did you read it?

He describes serious flaws/bugs in the game, flaws/bugs that have remained for years in the series and you reply to him by saying "I like the game, I'm sorry you don't?"

Do you think he is 15 or something? Instead of addressing the problems he mentions, you choose to overlook them and describe how you lost the title in your 30 season game???

Really, do you think we are idiots? What the OP says is not about preference. It is not about whether he likes the game or not, which is subjective and no one can condemn another for liking it or not liking it. What the OP says is about things that exist, problems, bugs, unbalances and design flaws, and you reply to him by saying "I like the game, look I've played 30 seasons?"

No wonder the game is in such shape.

To the OP: Don't waste your time. Just don't buy the game immediately next year. Let them see that their fecking lies and incompetence can not go unpunished.

retired_beasleya

Exactly the response I expected!!!

No answers to my questions, not just my questions but the majorty of players!

It's exactly this response and attitude that ****es me off. I asked not to be fobbed off and what do you tey and do??

This response not only shows the arrogance of you people, but also that you really don't care about what we are trying to say. If this is how you deal with every complaint of a bug then it's now wonder three months down the line we are still waiting for a patch that makes the game properly playable!!!! When did I ask for you to tell me how you play it? Also you SHOULD BE A WINNING PLAYER, didn't you create the game??

The response above is an insult to all of the fnas who feel cheated by this lousy game you have created, it's a joke and so are you SI.

As for you Marc Vaughan, this reply shows you are an ignorant self centred....I'll use the word fool but there are plenty other things you deserved to be called.

Total letdown!!!

retired_mandy023

Oi, yellow card!

There is no need for that kind of response. Marc may have missed the point of your post even deliberately so and I understand you may be frustrated but that kind of personal attack is out of order.

Yes SI seem to have real quality issues with this version of FM and yes your absolutely entitled to your opinion but betting personal about the co-creator of the whole franchise is just not on.

Just remember, Marc could probably afford to be in Barbados now sunning himself rather that sit there and take that kind of abuse. For crying out loud this guy was answering threads on Christmas day!!!

Just chill.

retired_hoenste

There are quite a lot of quality issues with FM2008.

* Registration bugs, transfer markets, training/regens, One on One situations... etc etc.

Personally I skipped FM2007 and I was hoping that things would have made leap for the better in 08 version.