Early FM '09 Review (buying FM vs. buying a car)

Would you buy a car that...

... is advertised for nearly a year as having "breathtaking looks", but when you first take a peek, it seems like a crossover between a Trabant and a Lada (yes, it's the 3D I'm talking about)?

... is advertised as having been thoroughly tested, yet its wheels come off in the test drive (yes, it's the gameplay issues in the demo I'm talking about)?

... is advertised as being on sale starting a specific date, then you find out (the day before D-Day) that your country has to wait one week more, for unnamed reasons?

... finally gets delivered, but you realize you were given several 'possible' keys to choose from (yes, I mean the crappy printing of the licenses)?

... you realize it was delivered with two more people already sitting in the back, which will follow you wherever you go (yes, you guessed it, it's the magnificent duo of Steam & SoftAnchor)

... you discover one of the guys in the back has the bad habit of telling his friends how you drive your car (yes, SoftAnchor, it's you and your invasive reports I'm talking about)?

... you find out you were paying much more for the same car than people in other countries and that's not due to taxes (yes, SI, it's your pricing policy I'm bashing here)?

... your neighbor bought with a couple of extras for the same price as you paid without them (yep, Steam price >= "hardcopy" retail price)?

... tells you when you first insert the key into ignition "Sorry, mate, I don't feel like starting right now, why don't you take a walk for a couple of hours?" (yepee, here go the crap activation servers which can't cope with the extra workload)

... tells you the second time you insert the key "Look, buddy, why don't you do the whole thing all over again"? (see the repeated prompts for game key)

... finally starts on the third attempt, two days after delivery, but the performance is utter crap and the manufacturer tells you "Yep, we know, we're aware, it will be fixed soon"? (you thought I forgot about the release day patch?)

But hey, look at the bright side, the people who built the car are always present on their forum to provide support. Hm, wait, the forum just went down as well.

I wouldn't buy such a car and I'm seriously reconsidering buying FM '09.

I completely agree - I'm glad I held off pre-ordering now and seriously thinking about not buying it at all. The real shame is there isn't an alternative game at anywhere near an equal level (Fifa / Pes for example) so basically if you want an up to date football management sim you're stuck with FM or nothing at all.

Couldn't agree more this is an unmitigated disaster.

do you know where I can buy a decent car for 30 quid?

do you know where I can buy a decent car for 30 quid?

Very funny.. hardly the point though mate was it?

Don't get me wrong, I work in the IT support industry and "hell on earth" is probably the best description for the poor folks in SI/Sega/Steam who have to answer angry calls and e-mails these days.

But it's not their fault.

Say thanks to the white collars who were sooooo concerned about maximizing their profits by cutting down piracy that they forgot the main purpose of a game. It's called, surprise-surprise, PLAYABILITY.

And the same "thanks" go to the white collars who rushed an obviously unprepared, ill-tested, poorly designed, badly prepared product onto the market.

I remember laughing my ass off when I read out about the FM competitor releasing their '09 version in April '10. I don't feel much like laughing now, maybe that will be a FINISHED game, instead of a you-suckers-pay-for-testing-and-troubleshooting-our-early-beta.

And getting back to the car industry analogy, would you buy a car which looks worse than advertised, doesn't start, has a lot of performance and reliability issues (provided that you manage to get it started, of course) and is obviously overpriced? I wouldn't.

If you go to a scrap-yard you can get a car that doesn't run for less than 30 quid... and beings though this game doesn't run either...