This game is cluttered and unintuitive

I haven't played this game since probably the 01/02 version, possibly 02/03, can't remember.

Gave it a chance though and bought it a few weeks ago, and man things have really changed. Some things for the better, some definitely for worse.

I know this is supposed to be the hardcore manager game that leaves all its competitors behind, but imo the game has TOO MUCH of some things. This game cannot be played casually! It is quite frankly too hardcore and takes too much time. I'm all for having complete tactical freedom and player interaction freedom and things like that, but I really don't wanna have to sort through my inbox every 2 minutes. Even if you filter out all scouting reports, you're still left with a ton of useless stuff like other managers' tips, skybet odds and round-ups from my league (seriously, I can check that for myself should I feel the need to). And seriously, in my Barcelona game, do I really care about what Frank Rijkaard, Pep Guardiola or some other "Barcelona favorite" thinks about some player in my next opposition? In a game with a million different options, I can't believe there is NO option other than "Manage subscriptions" to filter out the nonsense that is the manager's inbox. If I'm dumb and haven't found this option yet, PLEASE direct me to it and I will gladly admit I'm just dumb.

Also, most of the menus are completely unintuitive, off-the-point and just as cluttered as my inbox. There are many good examples of this;

- If I click the result from my last game, I want to see the gist of it. I want to see who scored the goals, and my players' ratings all on the same page. That is the key components of the game, it should all be on the main page. Keep it simple, let all the minor stats details have its own page.

- The transfer screen is just as messy. Upon going to the transfer screen, I expect to get to Player Search immediately. I don't. No big deal, it's just a click away and it clearly says "Player search". But trying to filter players is, while certainly doable for anyone, needlessly complicated. Who ever filters by Languages, Favourites, Height or PLACE OF BIRTH (LOL)? Again, this is an example of having too many options, too much text. And all in all, the transfer screen suffers the same constipated look as most other menus. Too many tabs, too much text, too much info.

- Sorting your own players isn't very hard, but from all the Views, there is none I feel is adequate in showing me everything I want to know. This may certainly differ between players, but I feel it's reasonable that WHICHEVER view you choose, you should always see the very, very most basic info on all players. Age, position, avg.rating and so forth..

This game may have come a long way since my last visit some ten years ago, but it has become so stale, stiff and statistically clinical that any intuition I once had for it is gone. It takes too long for me to learn the basics of every menu, not to mention the 10 tabs (minimum) for every menu. Goddamn, remove half of these tabs, on ALL menus, they're completely useless and just makes focus drift from the essentials to random clicking like "hmm, wonder what this is", and even when I learn what it is, I will forget about it because in the next minute I will have to learn about 10 new tabs.

Bit exaggerated maybe, but I hope I'm not the only one who feels like this. This game used to be a lot of FUN, I don't know about this installment yet, the jury's still out I guess. If I could only filter out 90% of the tabs and news items, it'd be better.

I have to disagree with you on every point.

The game has changed a lot in 8 years, new features require text which you call clutter.

I don't think you've given it a chance. You moan about things lacking that are in the game.

There are custom views for player screens - so you can see EXACTLY what you want.

Over the years SI have added features we as the community wanted. If you have been away for a long time you will have missed out on all of this.

I have to disagree with you on pretty much all of that too.

You're asking searches for players using language as a filter, I think you'll find it's incredibly useful if you're wanting to sign a player from abroad that won't have a problem with the language barrier.

bigdanio hit the nail on the head

Oops, I missed the custom view for player screens.. nice, thanks! Will make my game a bit smoother.

All in all though I stand by my points.. I'm 100% certain there is no need for 10 tabs on every menu.. The league table has what, 12 tabs or something. Surely that's just too many and many of those tabs could fit into the same one..

I know I've heard many moans about the inbox though, and that is my main gripe, I just can't believe how messy it is..

Who ever filters by Languages, Favourites, Height or PLACE OF BIRTH (LOL)?

Me! As manager of S.D. Compestela I am looking for players born either in Santiago de Compestela or of Galicia/Portuguese decent (shame you cannot search for players born in Galicia - instead needing to put in every city/town in db for said area.

Jeez....

I was enjoying the new game until now. Now I'm just bloody exhausted.

I started playing on CM97/98 and I have to say, I think the game has improved (almost) every year. As for the complexity of player searches, I find this game a hell of a lot simpler than previous series where you had to click buttons to find name searches and all that. If you want a specific player/club/coach/nation, type the name in the search box on the top right corner. It's there on every single screen, never moves.

You're someone after my own heart though mate, a miserable b*stard. Good old British pessimism (assuming you are British?... of course you are. No foreigner could moan about insignificant details like us Brits.)

Cheers to that

I just don't like all the clutter, that's all. I like intuition, I think this FM approach is too clinical, without any real feel. Might grow on me, general consensus seems to point towards me being wrong. But I know what I like and don't like, and I don't like the interface in this game. This game is not for casual gamers, and that's too bad.

I'm swedish btw.

I agree a bit with the op. Im a little tired of endless drop down menus. I want to click on a player and short list, or go to team veiw in tactics with one click.

Just the little things.

I am tired of SI trying to oversell features which are, in truth, repetitive, boring and requires a standard way to tackle it, which if not done properly, will be detrimental to your game. IMO, there are some things that are just too human to be scripted into a game using complex codes and numbers, not to mention horribly bugged. I don't want to try to be sarcastic in the media and then backfire because my players don't understand sarcasm and option A must mean this and option B must mean that and nothing else. I don't want to have to give a standard answer to every press conference because other answers would mostly result in a negative reaction, and then have to keep doing the same press conference over and over, and I can't even leave it to my ass man because he tends to say the wrong things and then the players blame me for it. These kind of things are too human to try to be coded into a game, and the end result if you try, is what we have now. Having to give the same type of answers over and over, or else players will take it the wrong way.

You can call me old-fashioned, but I just love the simple way CM/FM used to be played. No fuss about doing pointless, repetitive things to keep a player happy. Just find players, buy them, set up tactics, and go.

But at the same time, I like the classy sleek interface of the new versions and I don't think I can bear to go back to the clunky interface of say, CM 00/01. If only I can play FM 11 and disable all the imo pointless and boring interaction and press conferences and things like that, I would be a very happy man.

I am tired of SI trying to oversell features which are, in truth, repetitive, boring and requires a standard way to tackle it, which if not done properly, will be detrimental to your game. IMO, there are some things that are just too human to be scripted into a game using complex codes and numbers, not to mention horribly bugged. I don't want to try to be sarcastic in the media and then backfire because my players don't understand sarcasm and option A must mean this and option B must mean that and nothing else. I don't want to have to give a standard answer to every press conference because other answers would mostly result in a negative reaction, and then have to keep doing the same press conference over and over, and I can't even leave it to my ass man because he tends to say the wrong things and then the players blame me for it. These kind of things are too human to try to be coded into a game, and the end result if you try, is what we have now. Having to give the same type of answers over and over, or else players will take it the wrong way.

You can call me old-fashioned, but I just love the simple way CM/FM used to be played. No fuss about doing pointless, repetitive things to keep a player happy. Just find players, buy them, set up tactics, and go.

But at the same time, I like the classy sleek interface of the new versions and I don't think I can bear to go back to the clunky interface of say, CM 00/01. If only I can play FM 11 and disable all the imo pointless and boring interaction and press conferences and things like that, I would be a very happy man.

You can just ask your assistant manager to take press conferenes for you if you do not want to them. My assistant says a lot of things I wouldn't say either but nothing bad has come of it. Some players might react negatively to comments but it barely has any effect at all, I find. I used to do it for every game and had practically no detrimental effects at all. That's pretty much as close to "disabling" it as you get.

Sometimes I filter by Height as one of attributes to search for DCs or TMs...

ubos clearly has a point. I've only played one season so far but I'm also asking myself every press conference "which answer is the right one?". I feel that whenever I use too much flair (i.e sarcasm) it has a bad effect in how my players view me.

In short, the game bites off more than it can swallow as the press conferences, which are a great idea, just don't quite work to the point of satisfaction just yet.

"You can ask your assistant manager to do it" is the cop out answer. The feature is there to be used and should be a nice spice in the game, instead it is watered down with what seems to be right/wrong answers, and just a click-fest to get to the end without revealing too much or saying something that might upset someone.

I might seem disappointed with FM2011 but in reality I think it's a leap forward from when I last played the game. Really I do. But it has its problems and somehow they just stand out more than they used to. Most of the game's problems back in the day were just downright bugs, I don't think you can say the same for some things in FM2011.

Despite it's faults, i would never want to go back to the CM days. FM is evolving and rightly so, because the old Cm's took half a brain cell to play. Pick team, play, buy player, sell player repeat. There was not half the depth there is now.

I would prefer FM to cater to the fans who want an immersive experience rather than those who want a casual one. Again, FM has faults, but it is getting better and better.

No big deal, it's just a click away and it clearly says "Player search". But trying to filter players is, while certainly doable for anyone, needlessly complicated. Who ever filters by Languages, Favourites, Height or PLACE OF BIRTH (LOL)?

Actually, place of birth will come in useful if you're ever managing Bilbao who only sign Basque players, or, if you're from the lower leagues and trying to sign local lads. Languages and height are very valid searches regarding what you're looking for in a team.

Anyways - I disagree. It has come a long way and is far more complicated, but imagine the last game you played was fifa 98 and you're playing fifa 10... surely you'd feel overwhelmed again. It'll take a bit of time getting used to it, but it's good craic once you get in the flow.

SI should go back and do some house cleaning for some of the fluff features that are a waste of time than anything else. I don't know how anyone enjoys press conferences. It's the same 10 questions over and over again. If I let my assistant handle it, he just finds ways to f*** it up and upset my players.

ubos clearly has a point. I've only played one season so far but I'm also asking myself every press conference "which answer is the right one?". I feel that whenever I use too much flair (i.e sarcasm) it has a bad effect in how my players view me.

In short, the game bites off more than it can swallow as the press conferences, which are a great idea, just don't quite work to the point of satisfaction just yet.

"You can ask your assistant manager to do it" is the cop out answer. The feature is there to be used and should be a nice spice in the game, instead it is watered down with what seems to be right/wrong answers, and just a click-fest to get to the end without revealing too much or saying something that might upset someone.

I might seem disappointed with FM2011 but in reality I think it's a leap forward from when I last played the game. Really I do. But it has its problems and somehow they just stand out more than they used to. Most of the game's problems back in the day were just downright bugs, I don't think you can say the same for some things in FM2011.

There are no right/wrong answers in the press conferences. The best advice here is: be honest! Say how you feel... not choose which one you think is the right answer. There is no right/wrong.