My Thoughts on FM09

I feel I should post my honest feelings on FM09 as I have been playing FM/CM right from the CM01-02 season, switching to FM05 when SI took over the franchise with SEGA.

On installation, FM09 is by far the worst FM game yet. The authentication via Steam is a complete joke - why should I have to sit through two or more hours of downloading the game when I have the CD in the drive??

Mac installation is slightly better, the standard installer works fine on my new aluminium MacBook, however I haven't played it enough on this to be able to give any meaningful feedback. I have a 5-hour train journey next Friday so I guess that will be a good test.

Gameplay-wise, the extended media conferences are definitely a good addition, it gives you a lot more control over how you're percieved as a manager, and I love that we can finally add our own photos so we're not the only faceless manager in the league.

The jury is still out on the 3D match engine. On high settings on my desktop PC (watercooled, overclocked Q6600 @3.8GHz, 4GB DDR2 1066MHz and an ATI HD4870) it runs perfectly - as you would expect anything to run on that hardware. Functionality-wise, it's what FM fans have always craved, however it needs to be put into context. Do we actually need a 3D view to play the game? The answer from previous versions of FM is no. The 3D view may be more suited to action-replays of goals, fouls, offsides etc rather than an actual real-time in-game engine.

Anyway, those are my thoughs on FM09, I will now crawl back into my dimly-lit cave and continue playing FM08 and FM09 until my eyes are sore. Shewsbury Town winning the Premiership in 2022 FTW!

So FM09 is the worst FM because of Steam?

If you liked FM08, then you should like this. Its just a imporved version of FM08.

mate agree with u on some of those points..

i am playing on my mac and its great.... besides the right click button problem ( should be fixed in the patch) and injuries everynow and then its pretty good .. am loving it..

i view through old school 2D its good

love the press conference and the asistant manager feedback during the games

I personally think the 3D view is now extremely good. Sure, there are a load of rough edges, but I'm expecting those to be ironed out. I believe its a massive improvement over the demo which I have to say I hated.

In fact, it felt like such a big difference I wonder if its practise at SI to release an unfinished game as a demo/manufacturing build pretending to be a Gold version, only to continue development and apply the last few weeks of work in a 'patch'...

everyone can not expect the game to change a whole lot... each year they add a bit.. y change something that is good like 08 .. 09 yes updated of 08 but better... the way it should be .. just like fifa 09 compared to fifa 08

Welcome to the Forums, Maiden!

I have to agree, installation has been bad for most users. Fortunately for me, I found it no problem whatsoever, and was playing the game late on Thursday night. Unfortunately, anti-piracy measures usually affect the genuine consumers more than they do the pirates.

The press conferences, I have to say, are my favourite new feature. However, you could add your own photos before. I'm not a huge fan of 3D either, and probably won't be using it very much, it runs okay on my PC, but I don't rate it very highly and 2D does run better (although, of course, the software is still basic so you can't expect 3D to be perfect). I will be using 3D to clarify fouls and offsides; in fact I'd like an option to play in 2D but have goals and controversial decisions replayed in 3D.

Have fun playing FM! Might want to schedule and optician's appointment .

I remember last year there was problems running 08 when it was released some kinf of security issue. Thats why this year i have waited to purchase let all problems be sorted (hopefully)

true true i just watch cup finals or derby games in 3d the rest is 2D faster....

So FM09 is the worst FM because of Steam?

If you liked FM08, then you should like this. Its just a imporved version of FM08.

That's partially what I meant, FM09 is by far the worst game in the FM series for installation - just look at the number of problems people have had here. And also why was I forced to download over 1GB of game content when I could have copied that content from the DVD that was sitting in my drive? That kind of thing is just plain madness. I was sitting and waiting for that to download for over 2 hours last night.

Also, one very, very annoying and quite frankly farcical change is the inability for players to make runs into other positions. I used to have a MC playmaker running into an FC position, but now they can only run into AMC (or AMCL/AMCR depending on their starting position). In short, players can only make runs to positions directly in front or behind of their current position. That is a massive, massive step back and almost undoes any kind of progress SI have made with FM09.

Maiden:

Not really. The beauty of the arrowless tactic engine will dawn on people once they start understanding how it works.

I think it is better without all those arrows everywhere.

As much of a PR disaster as the DRM issues have been (and there's no getting away from it, it was up there with the worst game launches of all time) there is no doubt in my mind that the team at SI have done a great job with this years version, and they always seem to me to be working unbelievably hard to make the game what it is.

Having played a few games post patch I'm delighted so far with the end product and I love the 3d engine.