Goodbye FM08 - Thanks for the memories.

Well, I've just reached the end of my first FM09 demo game and I loved it. I've got my copy of FM09 on pre-order and I'd planned to go back to FM08 for the next week or so until FM09 is released. But I can't do it.

I loaded up '08 last night and already I miss the 3D, the extra news items, the press conferences, the skin etc etc. So I'll be starting another demo game instead for now until the full game is released.

So with that I thought I'd start a thread to say goodbye to FM08, the most enjoyable FM game for me personally, and to remember my most enjoyable FM08 moments:

When I first bought FM08 I started a game as Man Utd, as I usually do on a new version, just to get a feel for the game and test out some tactics. The highlight for me of this game was that pretty much the first tactic I came up with, a strange 4-1-2-2-1 formation, was fantastic. So good that it became the first tactic that I ever posted in the tactics forum, and it was very well recieved. Soon the 8.0.1 patch was released and my tactic faultered a little and needed some tweaking, which I did and then posted V2 of my tactic in my tactics thread. If anything this one was even better than the first one and I decided it was time to start my long term game.

In FM07 I'd tried and failed to complete Dafuges challenge with Gateshead. So now that I'd developed a successful tactic it was time to try again, and after 1 season of holidaying Gateshead were promoted to the BSN and I was off. But of course my tactic had been developed for Man Utd, all flare and skill. Gateshead weren't quite the same so my first season was spent tweaking my new tactic and almost getting relegated. But not long after that V3 of my tactic was added to my thread in the tactics forum and I was heading in the right direction. It took me many seasons of struggle but in around 2020 I fianlly won the Premier League with Gateshead, the season later I won both the prem and the Champions League, and Dafuges challenge was finally complete.

Sometime during my Gateshead save the 8.0.2 patch was released, but I was enjoying my Gateshead save so much I didn't want to have to tweak my tactics for a new patch until I'd finished the challenge. After the years of struggle with a Gatehead team that now contained only regens I was also ready to try a top team again and buy lots of good current players and develop a new tactic. So fo this game I chose Inter, developed a very nice 4-4-2 tactic and bought some excellent players. This save was fun but didn't last long as it was too easy.

So next I was off to manage my beloved Sunderland using my new 4-4-2 tactic, this would be the final save that I would start on FM08 and between then and now I would switch through the various saves whenever I got bored. The Sunderland one lasted a while but it was the Gateshead save that always drew me back, and on the day that the FM09 demo was released I was up to 2031 with my Gateshead team and attempting to build a completely English 1st 11 that I could also win the world cup with due to also being England manager.

Throughout FM08 I had two long term goals, neither of which I achieved. the first was to have a stadium named after me, and while playing as Gateshead I thought this was going to happen when the board announced that they were building a brand spanking new stadium. Unfortunately, rather than name it after the manager that had taken them from non-league obscurity to Europen success, they named it after some player who'd racked up 398 league appearences for them while the team were still practically a Sunday League outfit .

My second goal was to have a son come through the ranks and break into my first team. But alas this never happened, in all my FM07 and '08 saves there has never been a player generated that even has the same second name as me.

So that's that, my whole FM08 journey in one post. It's been fantastic and I've enjoyed every minute of it. How about you?

With the FM09 demo, did you not find that injuries ruined it? That's what's happened to me..

I feel the same as you about FM08. It was awesome.

With the FM09 demo, did you not find that injuries ruined it? That's what's happened to me..

They really haven't for me, I think I've just been lucky. I've had more than the usual amount of injuries but not enough so far to spoil it for me.

due to being a poor student... i wont be buying FM09, so the endless fun of FM08 will go on for another year

I share your opinion on FM09, I can't go back to FM08 anymore either. Though I can't share cherished experiences in FM08 with you since it was the first game in the series that nearly made me give up on the series completely. FM09 brought back all the fun for me, and I don't think it's just the 3d or added press-conference etc. The whole game just feels better and more enjoyable to me.

I can't even load fm09 at the moment but i feel already that i can't really play 08 anymore, knowing that fm09 is out there. It feels like i'm in between a rock and a hard place!!

After really liking the demo at first, the injuries thing has ruined it for me. So I've stopped playing. However, I am convinced that the patch is going to make FM09 really, really good.

I just hope I can get a game going like my Man. United one from '08, my Panathinaikos and Dinamo Moscow ones from '07 and my Morecambe one from '06. They were all awesome. I'm thinking of starting with Roma once I'm all patched up.

I'm glad the OP described the 08 game so positively.. I've heard a lot of people a lot of the time say a lot of bad things about FM08, and i've always considered it to be the very best FM game so far. I won't lie, I didn't think much of the demo, and I have no problem playing on with FM08 until FM10 comes out.. it hasn't even started to scratch the surface of boring me, there's always something to do with FM08. Hell, it might take me another year to get Derby to CL glory yet.

So yes, i'm more than happy staying with FM08, even if FM09 was for me, I still wouldn't want to give 08 up just yet.

I had my longest ever game on FM on 08, 7 and a half seasons with Celtic, in which time I built a squad capable of reaching the CL quarter finals and winning the domestic treble every season. So for me personally I'd agree with you chopper, the game was immense and I'm still playing it (in between working hard on my essays lol) until the full version of 09 comes out. Oh an joey6, I'm an impoverished student aswell mate but FM09 warrants the use of an interest free overdraft!

Goodbye FM08 - your silly transfer system and lack of winning 4-4-2 formations shall bug me no more!

Goodbye FM08 - your silly transfer system and lack of winning 4-4-2 formations shall bug me no more!

If you read my post you'll see that I managed quite easily to create a winning 4-4-2 tactic. Maybe it's just you?

4-4-2 worked well on FM08 pour moi.

I do see the potential of the new and reworked features in FM 09 and I do not doubt that with some fine tuning this is going to be an awesome season for FM.

But from the very beginning I enjoyed FM 08 very much. It was the first of FMs since I got to know the series in 2006, that I found very accessible, easy to navigate, and with a serious approach towards tactics and stuff very rewarding. I won't give up on my FM 08 save just now and plan on finishing my career there which should take me another couple of months. At the same time I will get involved in FM 09 for the whole football kick.

But I am already sure that the 3D match view won't be my preferred setting until some rough edges in the animations flow are smoothed out. I do think that the reworked 2D is awesome and now with widescreen support and higher resolutions I can see better than ever before what is going on down there.

Interesting to see, that FM 08 in the end seems to be a memorable season for many, despite the bad kick-off in the beginning.

I know other people who have had the problem with 4-4-2 in FM08, I am not alone

I've played a lot of CM/FM over the last 15 years, and I watch an awful lot of football in real life - and between my real life understanding of the sport, and my experience playing the game, I simply could not get a 4-4-2 system in FM08 to be anywhere near as effect as a different formation.

I'm still head over heels in love with FM08, and had a particularly pleasing session with it last night.

I started out with Man Utd to get a feel for the game, then moved on to Newcastle and then on the 28th December 2007 I started a game with Bayern Munich. I didn't view the league as much of a challenge, but was basing my entire save on winning the CL with Bayern, it took me 9 months and 16 seasons, and I enjoyed every minute of it.

Then disaster struck and my comp got a virus and I had to restore, I managed to move a majority of my stuff to a separate hard drive before restoring, but forgot to move my save game I started various new games, but none of them lived up to that FC Bayern save and I rarely played FM in September or October.

Last night, in bed and mucking about on my wife's laptop I found a file called "FC Bayern(backup)" hidden away in the My Pictures folder Could it be? I frightened the life out of my wife as I ran past her down the stairs to get my memory stick (this sounds awful ) in order to transfer the save. The PC seemed to take an age to load and 08 even longer, but YES it was a backup copy of my save, only a season short of the original. I didn't get to sleep until about 2am, and FM08 is back on my mind 24/7.

I downloaded the demo last week and hated it, but it's growing on me and i'll probably buy it. Having found the Bayern save, i'll probably wait until after christmas to get 09 for bargain basement price