Zodiak

Hey!

I just wanted to share impressions of the game. I play FM 2008 with the latest beta patch. The whole point of my story is to show people how great the new game is, despite all the bugs.

Started the game as Man City. To get some more money I told the board we'd qualify for Europe, which I though was quite achievable. Bought Modric (he's really great), Arshavin (awesome as well), Contofalsky (decent GK since Isaksson was injured), Lescott, and Ignashevich (free). Loaned Almunia and Jensen (decent player).

I don't want to make this a long story so I'll just say my team started underperforming... I couldn't really wins game I should have won and a lot of them turned into disappointing draws (1:1, 0:0) and I lost quite a few as well. So I never got higher than 12th place and was usually around 15th. The fans were quite OK with my progress and the board weren't piling up the pressure. I desperately wanted to turn things around because I fall in love with my team and didn't want to give them up.

I tried different tactics, different players, different instructions, I started paying A LOT of attention to the details, to Opposition Reports, always looking for some weak spots (believe me, ALL teams have them). I actually started *PLAYING* FM, you know what I mean. Dealing with players, analyzing data etc. etc. And despite my team underperforming I enjoyed the process immensely!

...and it payed off. My first real achievement was beating Liverpool away for the Carling Cup Quarter Final (3:2). I managed to overposess them and to a certain extent eliminate their enormous attacking threat. Next was a goalless draw with 2nd placed Arsenal. And then a victory over Liverpool, this time in the league, away 3:2 again. I managed to get to 10th place. But November was to be a difficult month because up next I had a home match with 1st Chelsea, unbeaten and dangerous as hell. To make it short, 2:1, had more shots and 51%:49% possession.

So the whole point of my pointless story was to show all those people that FM 2008 is not only playable, but highly, I repeat, HIGHLY enjoyable. I've been playing this game for... 10 years now and my current season is on par with all the enjoyable games I used to have.

I sorted out my defense, my attack, my midfield, fiddled with the tactics, was patient enough to wait for all that to work, analyzed my player's form etc. etc. - AND IT PAYED OFF!

Please, PLEASE do the same!!! Don't complain after losing one match! Work on it! The game rewards those who actually PLAY it! And oh my god how good and proud I felt when I beat Liverpool and Chelsea. MY players, MY tactic, you know... It's really what's worth playing for!!!

So good luck and cheers!

Zodiak

Oh, forgot to add: got some transfer money for January and managed to sign Diego (from Werder), Makoun (I needed a DM) and Fabio Aurelio (TL'ed at Liverpool for only 400k) because I needed a left-back. Things looking good!

DeathSpawn

imo fm2008 has the potencial to the a great game when close down bug, offisede bug and moral bug is fixed, until then fm2007 is still better and more realistic. oh forgot to mention that team talks also seem to be broken :p

CGSilva5

I completely agree with Zodiak. There's so much to this game that makes it more than just a good video game. Sure the bugs have held it back, but thats just a formality, sometime this week we'll have the complete patch.

That's an awesome pickup on Diego, how much did you snag him for?

White Raven

I am looking forward to playing FM08, when it's fixed. I am fairly hopeful as SI made a great job of patching FM07 last year.

Unfortunately, I find the closing down bug so bad on FM08 it has rendered the game unplayable. Other issues, which probably aren't quite as serious, also spoil the game (transfer fees, board expectations, possession, morale) so I hope they get fixed too.

I am praying the patch turns this sh*t game into gold as I love the series.

Ranson52

I agree with Zodiak, and with the patch it should be greater.

White Raven - I think calling it a sh*t game is a bit strong, and to be honest this expression "unplayable" is so wrong as to be laughable. Heaps of people are playing the game, so it hardly supports that description does it.

White Raven

Well I'm not playing it for the reasons I specified, so as far as I'm concerned it's unplayable. If others want to play it it's up to them.

It really depends on whether you want a simulation game to be realistic or not - if you don't care then it's playable.

Zodiak

But that exactly was my point... On a season scale, and not just a single match, the bugs are minimized. I really really don't want to draw any bad luck upon myself by saying this, but the closing down bug and all the other bugs were almost non-existent. It's just sort of a different style to the game and honestly I find it more realistic (when fixed). The point is that players aren't on a black-and-whitish "CLOSE DOWN"/"DON'T CLOSE DOWN" mode. They also try to follow their opponent, block, intercept, tackle, mistackle... And that's the essence of the closing down bug (again, when fixed). The 2D engine might not show it but players can't always close down perfectly and tackle with no fuss.

I managed to sort my defence out. Payed special attention to my full-backs because they're often the source of needless goals. And sorted out my centre-backs. They're alright now. Most of the goals I concede are perfectly valid and stem from either the sheer ability of the attacker or my own defensive/tactical faults.

Ranson52

Yeeeessss, well now, I'm not going to get into an argument with you about this, each to their own I guess.

Only comment I'd make is that the description is flawed, as many others are playing it, therefore "unplayable" can't be the correct terminology can it.

White Raven

No, you're wrong. If the game was released with only 10 teams in every division it might technically be playable to the 99.9% of users it would be unplayable. So saying it's "playable" just because you can physically play it no matter how unrealistic it is doesn't really mean much does it?