Please please please, no new features for a few years

Get these ones right first

: Press confereneces. There needs to more variation, or just get rid of them. I know press conference must get boring for a manager irl. But atleast they always get asked different questions, even if they are really just the same questions but from a different interviewer.

: News items. I don't want to hear that Roy Hodgson might be about to lose his job, every week, for one year. Thats stupid.

: The match engine (worst I have seen) - no closing down, penalties are terribly in favour of the defending side, shooting is shocking and the amount of times players score own goals or hit the post is absurd. Also players taking forever to take throw ins and corners. Another thing, players shooting from long range when they are not set up to do so.

: Tactics screen remembering to stay on Tactics, not a blank player instruction screen.

: All the problems when making a sub when a player is injured or sent off. Ie when I make a change, come back and 8 more game minutes have just passed by.

: Player chats. Useless. A great idea but useless.

Good additions

: Player contract negotiations, love that.

I have been playing as Arsenal. Won the league and Champions League in first year (against Spurts, haha) but I still had to stop playing in the 2nd season. The game just has to many problems. Its agonizing watching the match engine so I switched to just text commentary but that doesn'thelp much.

Its frustrating, I will buy this game each year, I know I will. Even though I hate this version. But jesus! Sort it out. Do you realise how loyal your fans are SI!!!!!!

Stop adding new features to make more sales and deal with what you currently have and what your current customers love.

My FM 2011 score, 6/10

If anyone does read this from SI I would absolutley love it, and I reckon many more would as well, to hear about your testing situation. How does it work? How many testers do you have and what do they do? Do they play the game like we would or are they testing one off situations? It's very hard to understand how this game has been released (plus patched twice!) and still has more problems than FM 2010 did once it was fully patched. Surely FM 2011 should be FM 2010 but better, not a step down.

From a disapointed customer.

I would agree, nothing new until they fix the the features they have. New features just put them in a deeper hole to fix things because they don't have enough time to fix everything and make new features.

But the reality is that won't happen... it's the new features that sell new boxes each year in SEGA's mind. Not to mention the die hard fanboys are always asking for new fluff instead of wanting things fixed.

1) Press Conferences:

Agree, needs to be binned. They're never going to get it right because they cannot accurately reflect reality. It would be incredibly hard to put in the variation needed to liven it up, like Tony Hibbert having an affair or Peter Crouch slamming his car into a fence etc. They add absolutely nothing to the game so you're right about this point

2) News Items:

Can't agree. The news involves you in the football environment. You'd be complaining if Hodgson suddenly left his position and you didn't know about it, so you can't have it both ways. SI have made credible improvements to the news system this year which, whilst far from perfect, is heading in the right direction.

3) The Match Engine:

To be honest, apart from a few very minor bugs, this is not a bad part of FM11. The problems people have been having are largely tactical. Yes, a few too many red cards, the set piece reset issue and long shots are a bit undertuned (not as badly as people on here say though), but other than that it plays smooth, players follow instructions logically and the new celebration animations are fun. By the by, the players shoot from long range if that's their only option if you're playing a direct passing game - again, it's tactics.

4) See 3 Agree.

5) Haven't seen this. For me, if a player is injured/sent off, the game halts and you make the change. So no idea what to think of that one. The only issue I have seen with substitutions is when you use the Quick Substitution feature, occasionally the pitch graphics vanish!

6) Player Interaction:

I think when fixed this is a great addition to the game. People have been using the same feature in a more robotic format for a few years of FM now - it's a "new" feature in a loose sense of the word. The only problem is players wildly overreacting to reasonable requests.

Afraid to say people have short memories when it comes to FM10 - that game was absolutely shocking when it first came out; FM11 is the same. It'll be fixed by March and a completely superb game.

The lesson to learn is do not buy FM12 till March. Download the update for FM11 for the August 2011 transfer window and get your years worth from the game. That's what I'm doing.

Afraid to say people have short memories when it comes to FM10 - that game was absolutely shocking when it first came out; FM11 is the same. It'll be fixed by March and a completely superb game.

This in itself is part of the problem though.

10.3 was working really well, was fun to play there was minimal frustration and minimal high impact bugs. When you go from that to what FM11 is this is when people get frustrated. What reason is there for the game to go backwards? FM11 should be 10.3 with bugs in the new features. Instead one of the most serious bugs is in the transfer AI, which wasn't perfect in 10.3 but players could be sold and loaned without serious hassle.

If the FM11 bugs were confined to the new player interactions, agents, or even just the ME with it's graphical update then they would be much more understandable. But there are serious bugs in areas that aren't new to the game, they tried to tweak things and made it worse and released it that way when those things worked fine in 10.3. So now they are all harder to fix because their are twice the bugs to deal with because of new features, prior existing bugs, and new breaks to old features.

This in itself is part of the problem though.

10.3 was working really well, was fun to play there was minimal frustration and minimal high impact bugs. When you go from that to what FM11 is this is when people get frustrated. What reason is there for the game to go backwards? FM11 should be 10.3 with bugs in the new features. Instead one of the most serious bugs is in the transfer AI, which wasn't perfect in 10.3 but players could be sold and loaned without serious hassle.

If the FM11 bugs were confined to the new player interactions, agents, or even just the ME with it's graphical update then they would be much more understandable. But there are serious bugs in areas that aren't new to the game, they tried to tweak things and made it worse and released it that way when those things worked fine in 10.3. So now they are all harder to fix because their are twice the bugs to deal with because of new features, prior existing bugs, and new breaks to old features.

I agree - and I've said it before, the problem is SI cannot fit the timetable of development into a game they HAVE to release in time for the start of the next footballing season. If the game were on a 2 year cycle, there wouldn't be an issue.

Basically, it'll come to the point where SI's core purchasers will realise there's zero point to buying the new game in October/November and they will simply continue the previous game until March when the third patch is released. For me next, Football Manager 2012 will be released in March 2012 - that's the way I look at it.

Exactly right.

Let's say FM 2010 was 50/100 when it came out (the rating means nothing other than to prove a point)

After patch one its 60/10, patch two, 70/100 and patch 3 makes it 80/100

I expect FM 2011 to be at minimum 80/100 out of the box. It may not be better to start with, but if I bug was fixed in 2010, why is it back in 2011, like the match engine again being useless. And I won the EPL and CL in my first season so it's not like I am getting thrashed and having a moan.

And I won the EPL and CL in my first season so it's not like I am getting thrashed and having a moan.

I've lost six games in fifteen days of gameplay xD It's ridiculously easy at the moment, but that doesn't mean I enjoy the bugs.

I agree - and I've said it before, the problem is SI cannot fit the timetable of development into a game they HAVE to release in time for the start of the next footballing season. If the game were on a 2 year cycle, there wouldn't be an issue.

Basically, it'll come to the point where SI's core purchasers will realise there's zero point to buying the new game in October/November and they will simply continue the previous game until March when the third patch is released. For me next, Football Manager 2012 will be released in March 2012 - that's the way I look at it.

That is hard for me. I never use the date update because it moves players 6 months early.

That is hard for me. I never use the date update because it moves players 6 months early.

What do you mean? I don't follow ^^

What do you mean? I don't follow ^^

He means Jan 11 transfers already having taken place in the summer of 10.

You can install the 3rd patch and still use the original database.

To be honest if there is anything i do dislike about the fm brand, it's the repetive press conferences, ok you can leave it to your assistant, but what is that telling you about the whole concept, it's not fun or interesting to say the least.

This needs a massive overall with regards to interaction, questions and more in depth.

If they can make the interaction more fun and intresting instead of the usual guff, it would work and people would like.