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My thoughts on Fm 2008.


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Hey everyone, been reading these forums for years but finally decided to register! I just bought FM 2008 the other day (shocking I know!) I was having such a good career on 2007 and was in 2021 with Watford and in the top 5 of Prem so didn't fancy ending it.

Decided though that it was about time I bought FM 08 and it was a bonus it was under a tenner for the PC versian. Started unemployed and got employed by Worcester City about 8 months later, found it very difficult to have a solid defence and actually score.

In the off season I have bought some solid players to the club, bare in mind that i'm in the Blue Square South so these players are top class for this level...

Frank Sinclair (Old but he's got good stats for even a League 2 side!)

Chris Lucketti (Same applys for him)

Fabian Wilnis (and him...)

Ok so I made 3 solid centre back signings to shore up my defence. They may be slow but they are great in the air and have loads of experience, for the Blue Square South surely that is good?

Bought in some decent strikers and a goalkeeper and it looked like I would be in the top half for the next season.

Played 6 pre-season friendlys, couldn't win 1. Played 4 teams who were in divisions above me but the other 2 teams I drew to.

Start of the season I have so far won 2 and lost 2.

Ok here is my thoughts...

What has happened to the match engine? in 2007 it was realistic, ok there was still a few issues but it was the best match engine so far in the series. On this it seems you can't close down players and the majority of the time a player will cut through a defender like he's non existent. Also all the goals I have seen so far i'd say about 65% are 20 yards or further out, hmmmm.

So that disapoints me a lot, the match engine is a massive part of the game and I don't feel it's very realistic in 2008.

They have made some great new features like how the match flows and you can make subs without pausing and also the new confidence system is cool but the match engine just ruins the whole game for me.

Anyone else feel the same? I am a loyal Champ(up until 03/04) and FM fan and have enjoyed all previous versians but I am very disapointed with 2008 and if it had a more realistic match engine it would have made the game a true classic.

I don't think I can carry on playing it now because of that, I may go back to my FM 2007 Watford career.

Anyway that's my views on it, feel free to tell me if you agree, disagree etc... :)

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I also took over the reign at Worcester as my third team in 2010 or so. I had a glance at the squad and decided to fire all but one player and went "shopping" on the free transfer market and could sign some decent players, many who developed into good players. It takes a season or so for a new team to find to their play. I personally think FM2008 is great in many aspects. The lacking pace and agility of your central defenders can be the clue to your problems. I thought myself the same like you (experience) but found it's better to bolster the defense with some speedy ones. Also, if you have them set to closing down the whole pitch or own half, they might find themselves more easily out of position, I guess.

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Thanks macflyer good to know :)

I just feel like the match engine has a fair few flaws that I didn't encounter in FM 05 06 or 07. It kind of feels like players attributes don't make that much difference to results. I'm sure they make a difference but not as much as they should maybe... Same goes for tactics, I feel like the tactic changes you made on FM 07 would make a big difference on how the match panned out more than on 08.

Don't get me wrong I dont want to criticise the best football management series in the world but I feel there is inconsistencys with the match engine that can frustrate you.

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I'm not too much familiar with the ME of earlier versions since I gave up on FM after a season or two, not finding into the game. Your complaint might be spot on. But the more matches I watch the more I come to think what brilliant code is behind those dots. I do see some flaws (unescessary corners, etc.), but I do not count the individual mistakes due to player personality/skills as ME flaws. I still have to see a match where I could get the feeling of being cheated by the AI. When I concede too much or lose, I always consider my tactical decisions as part of the result. Maybe I played too long offensive/defensive, etc. I should have substituted the defender who saw yellow at some point rather than waiting for him to get red, etc.

I do not always believe my player stats to judge about quality. I found average stats player many times to be more effective than some quality stats player because of their attitude, work rate, mentality....etc. I rather prefer an average stats player with history of

7.? as average match rating than some "star" who doesn't seem to be able to establish himself further than 6.5

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I'm not too much familiar with the ME of earlier versions since I gave up on FM after a season or two, not finding into the game. Your complaint might be spot on. But the more matches I watch the more I come to think what brilliant code is behind those dots. I do see some flaws (unescessary corners, etc.), but I do not count the individual mistakes due to player personality/skills as ME flaws. I still have to see a match where I could get the feeling of being cheated by the AI. When I concede too much or lose, I always consider my tactical decisions as part of the result. Maybe I played too long offensive/defensive, etc. I should have substituted the defender who saw yellow at some point rather than waiting for him to get red, etc.

I do not always believe my player stats to judge about quality. I found average stats player many times to be more effective than some quality stats player because of their attitude, work rate, mentality....etc. I rather prefer an average stats player with history of

7.? as average match rating than some "star" who doesn't seem to be able to establish himself further than 6.5

Yes I agree there is good code behind the engine :) Maybe it's just me too used to the old way the match engine was and i'm struggling to adapt to the faster more fluent one. When I first started the game I was loving it, the new confidence. The new way you can adjust your budget. The new skin which I think looks great etc etc...

But then I wasn't used to the way the new match was... To be honest I have only managed in the very lower leagues on the game so far that might be why there is quite a few mistakes from both teams on match day.

I did see a few topics on here earlier though where someone showed a match where they drew 2-2 or 3-3 and had like 10 shots on target and scored 3 and the opposition had 3 shots on target and scored all 3! That did put me off a bit because it felt like something wasn't quite right but I hope that was just a very rare occurance and it doesen't happen more than it should.

Yeh I think many factors come into play when a player is on the pitch, consistency, attitude, work rate etc...

I suppose i'm just a bit frustrated because it seems that my players won't really close down properly and on the older versians they closed down better and it felt they kept the game tight against teams of a similiar quality. So far on this it feels like teams of a similiar quality can be superior against you or be terrible rather than being a tight game.

I will try and continue with my career on it though and see what happens :) I suppose the fact I had gone till 2021 on FM 2007 made me know every nook and cranny of the game and the way the match engine usually panned out. So i'm probably just not used to this one yet.

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Yes, give FM2008 a chance to fall in love with. If not love, it should be good enough to wait for a patched FM2009 :-) And as I said, maybe your spot on with your criticism, since you have the experience of immersing yourself in earlier versions, whereas I only have FM2007 I gave up on after a 2 seasons because of high frustration, failing to dominate the game with all its menus and stuff. There's still or more menus but it seems easier to get the picture. Maybe it's just me..... So, I won't ever go back to an earlier version. And maybe there is the odd game that could make you smash your mouse or screen, but by now I've seen too many odd mathces in real life. Recently, a recording of Real Madrid vs. Valencia, me thinks. The goals for Real happened almost every other minute. In FM we tend to look for flaws behind every odd score sheet. I remember a Euro Cup match in the eighties of Werder Bremen vs. I don't remember. If I recall it correctly, there was no hope for them to move on since they were heavily defeated abroad and started the match with 4 or 5 goals behind. It was one of the most upsetting games ever! I don't recall each phase, but they made the miracle happen, scoring, conceding, scoring, scoring, scoring, scoring....until they won the match and stage. In FM I would have felt cheated, but in real life?

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You're basing your thoughts on 10 games, that's just pointless. You say you're a CM/FM veteran, well i've been playing since CM97 and it took me about 3 months to finally create a consistant and good tactic, each FM is completely different to the last in certian ways and knowledge of tactics etc from previous is not going to guarantee success.

Most people seem to think that the match engine is much improved on FM07 etc, with other glitches/bugs outside the match engine usually the focus of peoples grumbles and complaints.

I wouldn't give up just yet, go over to the tactics forum and have a read through some of the articles on there and they should help you out. Like I said i've been playing the game for 10 years and I had to use the tactics forum to help me so length of CM/FM service means nothing, whether you were a past master or not.

But most of all, compelte a couple of seasons before you make a judgement, 10 games is nothing and your team will not be used to your tactics yet let alone your new signings gelling together.

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Agreed.

The game is a piece of **** compared to past versions.

Unless drastic changes are made i'm afraid FM2009 will never be inserted into my computer...that would be cruelty to it.

What is it, in your opinion, that makes it so crap?

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I agree Nomis and Ritch, I shouldn't be judging it after 10 games that is true.

I just feel like my tactics and what I tell the team to do in instructions is not happening on the pitch for some reason. On Fm 05/06/07 I remember if you set your tactics for individual players you would see them being implemented in the 2d match to pretty much what you asked them...

In this if I tell the players to close down everywhere they still back off and the opposition player can slice through my midfielders or defenders easily when they have attributes like 4 dribbling and 7 pace. I found on FM 07 for example that players like that would have little chance of skinning a defender with 13 tackling, 18 determination, 18 bravery, 15 strength but on this it happens a lot.

I know the match isn't randomised like some people think it possibly is but I kind of feel i'm not in full control of the result so to speak. On older versians if I lost I admitted we were 2nd best or that I implemented the wrong tactics, On this it usually feels like I lost because of unrealistic things that happened in the match I.E: Rubbish players dribbling past or beating in the air players of far better quality. I don't feel like that happened much on 07, maybe i'm wrong I don't know but I can't get into it like I have done with previous versians.

I hate to criticise anything about FM games, I love them so for me to mention this is hard because I don't like to pick fault with little problems on it but I feel this is a fairly big problem, for me anyway.

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Are you definately patched to 8.0.2, because closing down was a major problem before that? Otherwise try the tactics forum, the tactics are very intricate and will certain variation closing down can be negated by other setting e.g. creative freedom etc.

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Yep defenaitly installed 8.0.2. Isn't there meant to be problems with re gens in fm 08 too? In fm 07 I am in 2021 and the re gens that have come through have been good, theres been variety between poor and good quality re gens.

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What is it, in your opinion, that makes it so crap?

1. The match engine is so unrealistic it's sickening. I don't even put much effort into my tactics like on past versions due to the players NEVER doing what I tell them. Like I have Obafemi Martins to run with the ball alot due to his blinding pace and dribbling yet he looks up and passes it to a player in a useless position. I'm sick of seeing unrealistic goals against me, every ball that's a 50/50 my team don't win.

2. The interactivity is completely **** in this game, not enough options in team talks, the players are rarely grateful when you praise them, when you say something to the media some of the players have the balls to say they agree or disagree when it has nothing to do with them. I don't see why they ask your OPINION on certain incidents if they are gonna ban you everytime you disagree, it's called an OPINION for a reason which means you shouldn't be punished for it unless it was OFFENSIVE.

3. Unrealistic stats for players...nuff said.

4. Transfer system sucks. When a team want to buy your player they very rarely pay more than his value. If you want to buy a player for say...£7mil then you have to pay £18mil for him, it's completely ****ed up. The players shouldn't even have a value because you always pay alot more than what they are worth anyways.

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1. The match engine is probably the best so far and I think most forum users agree with that now. If your team aren't following your instructions you should try the tactics forum, mine play just as I ask them to play, it isn't always the games fault.

2. Team talks are crummy, but interactivity on a whole is very good and the best available IMO. Being punished for criticising refes decisions happens IRL so it's realistic to have in the game. Don't reply or stay neutral if you don't want to be punished, but to never be punished would be unrealistic and to the detriment of the game.

3. I find the stats are usually ok, but I take your point and guess it's more to do with the two footedness factor. It isn't a major problem IMO, their attributes might not seem as good as you would expect but they do play well in the games so the do the job.

4. I've sold countless players for more than their valuation, I actually sold a £17m regen midfielder for £43m to Real Madrid. As for paying over the odds and your £18m for a player worth £7m, i'll simply answer that with a few players from real life; Gareth Barry, Shaun Wright-Philips and Damien Duff. It happens IRL so it should happen in the game.

IMO too much is made of this transfer fees malarchy, it's very easy to buy players who will perform just as well for far smaller prices, I sold Ribery for £21m (when his valuation was £11m) and brought in Gourcuff for £1m and Gourcuff proceded to win German player of the year 2 years running and was eventually sold for mega profit.

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Its taken me ages to get used to fm 08 whereas on the older versions you could basically walk straight into it. I find it alot more complex especially tactics wise but once you get the general idea the game is pretty good. I would recommend the tactics bible on fm britain it helped me out loads and I thought after 07 i couldn't really learn more. There is alot of good info on there which will take ages to read but should be worth it.

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