OFFICIAL FM2011 Demo First Impressions Thread

[23 Carra Gold]

My first impression of the demo? Absolutely fantastic. Quite easily the best Football Manager game I've ever played, since FM07. I just love the stunning 3D match engine, which I think is much more intelligent now than it was before, and I agree with *almost* all of the player's attributes. Perhaps a work rate of 14 for David N'Gog is a little much, considering he is lazy, but I'm sure your researchers have put more thought into it than I have. I also thought perhaps too many players had a determination of 20, for when I did a search there was more than a page full of players with this attribute rating, yet when I searched for players with a decisions rating of 20, there were only two of three - perhaps this is because players in general are more driven than they are smart, but I thought it was worth noting.

Anyway, I obviously can't judge one feature yet, which is the revamped regens, but I've been impressed with every new feature I've come across so far, bar none.

- I love how much quicker the new press conferences are.
- I like the new stadium effects, and player animations.
- The new interface is great - much neater.
- It's great seeing players diving into challenges!
- I can't remember if this was a feature in FM10, but the ability to make quick tactical changes and substitutions in the middle of a match is just great.
- Same as above; I like how, when minimised, the widgets, if originally placed at the bottom of the screen, will minimise downwards. It's just the little things like that which please me.
- When you stand 10 feet back, it looks like a real game, no joke. And I was using medium detail.

There will no doubt always be someone who dislikes the game, but they will have to be trying pretty hard to fault this game. Great job SI.

[Keyzer Soze]

What graphical detail are you playing on? I think you'll only see them on high.

Thks! My graphical detail were set on "auto-select"! Change do "high"... and the number show up!

[Wiitastic]

Am currently waiting for the demo to be uploaded for direct download around Lunchtie in U.K if it is 12 noon in UK then it's 11pm in Australia. 12 or so hours to wait. Bring it on !

[Prongsie92]

Hmm, I'm finding the demo to be crashing when I'm tabbing out of it during a load screen (something which wasn't a problem with FM10 - although I obviously know that the FM11 demo isn't FM10 :P). Looks like it's happening with a few people though...

On another note, I'm finding it highly impressive that SI is on top of any bugs/errors found and hunting for solutions

[Misch]

And you are an experienced researcher who understands the affect that attributes have on an ME and you've watched both of these players week in week out for the last 2/3 years have you? No, thought not.
Put your toys back in the pram and either 1) log them in the data forum with hard evidence to back up your claims (less of the OMG!!!!!!!!!! helps people take you seriously). or 2) actually play the game and ignore their attributes and see how good they are before you start crying.

listen me boy!!! first of all you are an impolite countryman.

second I watched almost every game of bayen munchen and I see (as everyone) that muller is skillful player and his technical abilities shouldnt be so low!!!!!
the aim of the forum is to post your opinion.... and the sarcastic and provocateur peopel like you make it place to dispute.

[pelicanstuff]

Haha. Think about it... cuts inside.

If the player is on the left and he cuts inside, he will be cutting in from the left... otherwise he would be cutting to the outside ?!

If you have Gareth Bale and you teach him cut inside. No matter what flank he is on - he will do just that... cut inside.

Let's take Hleb as an example. I've watched Hleb play quite often over a long period of his career. He is a natural left winger but he is (mainly) right-footed, which leads him to cut in from the left hand side. However, when he plays on the right, he doesn't cut in quite so much. In FM, with the 'cuts inside' PPM, he cuts in from both sides, which isn't so realistic for him and makes him even less effective on the right.

So I think that separating them out into 'from left' and 'from right' would be a very good idea.

[Stu Coleman]

In match preparation, do we only have the pre made tactics to choose?

Because the tactics that I use are not in the pre made ones.

No, you can load your own achieved tactics, as well as training your 'current' tactic.

[edgar555]

listen me boy!!! first of all you are an impolite countryman.

second I watched almost every game of bayen munchen and I see (as everyone) that muller is skillful player and his technical abilities shouldnt be so low!!!!!
the aim of the forum is to post your opinion.... and the sarcastic and provocateur peopel like you make it place to dispute.

Its interesting to note that you've taken the time to berate me but not to log your complaints in the official data issues thread. You obviously either can't support your claims or have no interest in helping just in being sensationalist.
btw the 'listen me boy!!!' bit made me lol.

[pelicanstuff]

listen me boy!!! first of all you are an impolite countryman.

second I watched almost every game of bayen munchen and I see (as everyone) that muller is skillful player and his technical abilities shouldnt be so low!!!!!
the aim of the forum is to post your opinion.... and the sarcastic and provocateur peopel like you make it place to dispute.

If you take a look at the data issues thread there has been dome disagreement among the German research team regarding Mueller.

[nev147]

I am a bit perplexed! I try to set my training/coaches set-up to get the most stars for each discipline - yet when I click off and come back to training the computer has changed it so one coach is doing multiple tasks!!! I have tried the manager/options/settings but I cannot see how to stop this. And feedback would be great thanks.

[BradderZ2k8]

First impressions of the demo is fantastic despite only playing about 2 weeks, the detail that has gone into is amazing espiecailly with the knowledge. I know on fm 2010 in the profile section there was a lil bit saying clubs interested in you: despite a club being interested was nevert shown and i see that them options are availble and i hope they come up now and i noticed the other managers had options like management handling with the bar full or not. Sorry about the rambling but IMO its little things like that that make the game that bit more better

Great work and the effort is amazing to those invloved (Y)

KUTGW!

[RSCA4Ever]

I'm impressed with the improvements in the 3D engine.
It looks so much better than before and is much smoother on top of it.

[Misch]

Its interesting to note that you've taken the time to berate me but not to log your complaints in the official data issues thread. You obviously either can't support your claims or have no interest in helping just in being sensationalist.
btw the 'listen me boy!!!' bit made me lol.

i'll of course post there but there is so many things i disagree it would be easier for me to change it in editor than to post there everything...

[SurvivorSoso]

The only thing I don't like is players scoring waaaay to many lobbed goals from outside the area. And I mean cracking goals. Didn't expect this quality when Solihull Moors hired me!

But... the 3d match engine is a joy. The TV camera is perfect and if you could just save your replays to a video format instead of waiting to upload them, it would be simply amazing.

[JamboJen]

Let's take Hleb as an example. I've watched Hleb play quite often over a long period of his career. He is a natural left winger but he is (mainly) right-footed, which leads him to cut in from the left hand side. However, when he plays on the right, he doesn't cut in quite so much. In FM, with the 'cuts inside' PPM, he cuts in from both sides, which isn't so realistic for him and makes him even less effective on the right.

So I think that separating them out into 'from left' and 'from right' would be a very good idea.

I'd agree. Thy need something like that or a PPM that says "moves ball onto stronger foot"

[edgar555]

i'll of course post there but there is so many things i disagree it would be easier for me to change it in editor than to post there everything...

And that helps you.
It won't help anyone else or change it for future patches etc.
Plus if you check the German data thread you'll see that Muller is indeed subject to an interesting feud between the German researchers. Seems everyone has a different opinion of him.

[pooman2279]

I'm really liking it so far. The new UI is much neater, I like how transfer between clubs in your division get reported and the new match engine is a lot better than the mediocre one from last year. Looking forward to the full version.

[Brisvegas]

i'll of course post there but there is so many things i disagree it would be easier for me to change it in editor than to post there everything...

Isn't that a bit selfish?

[jmeast]

Big thumbs up to the game :-)

Player stats could be alot better though! And what are those black dots at the side of the pitch in 2d mode? Physios? Look a bit tacky and wrong.

[Keyzer Soze]

For the games i play, unfortunately we will have to wait for another FM to see implement the animations where a player dribbles the gk and score a goal!

[Dreaded Walrus]

I'm very, very early on in my first impressions here, but there is one thing that stood out as something I very much don't like regarding the new negotiation system. On the first day of the game, I offered Robert Pires a contract. At this stage, lots of other teams were interested, but they were only "minor" interests, so I offered quite a low figure. A bit of negotiation was done, and we eventually reached a figure. The agent said they'd consider it and come back to me. It was still quite low in my opinion compared to what I WOULD be willing to pay, if there were more offers. I pressed continue, and sure enough, I got news that Celtic, West Ham, and Everton had offered him contracts.

I'm managing West Brom, so at this point I know I needed to offer more. In past Football Manager games, when I get competition from clubs higher up for a player I really want, I would cancel my existing contract offer, and go back in and offer a higher one. So I cancelled the existing contract offer, and went onto "Approach to Sign" again.

"My client isn't currently prepared to restart these discussions following the previous breakdown in talks".

Oh. Well that's that then.

For what it's worth, I actually agree with the whole "not willing to talk" thing after previous recent talks went badly. But surely, if the objective is greater realism, then while they are still considering an offer you should be able to go back and say "actually, we'd like to offer you more"? As it is, you can only do the old-style cancelling of the contract, except you can no longer go and offer them a better contract, as now talks have supposedly "broken down". I keep pressing continue to see if he's willing to talk again yet, but it keeps saying the same thing. It's a bit annoying, to be honest.

[pelicanstuff]

Hmmm. It is possible for the player to come back to you and negotiate for a higher offer to match those from other clubs. However it might be a nice addition for you to be able to take the initiative and attempt to sweeten the deal.

Then again, you never know what other clubs will offer. A very very good player turned Chelsea down to come to me, not entirely sure why.

[Rhinocerous]

Two things I've noticed:

My widgets stack over each other when a new match starts almost every time. They stay on the proper side (e.g. the ones on the left stay there, but they stack, same for right side) no matter how many times I reset them in the match.

Second: When going to the finance panel, the summary tab doesn't auto-load, you just get blank fields until you switch to another tab. Summary shows fine afterwards.


A minor third irritation: The match facts widget in-game has some weird bar displays. They work fine for absolute numbers (e.g. shots) but when it starts using percentages, it's as if it's just barely going to one side or the other to show who has the higher percentage, instead of actually representing a margin of superiority. Not a huge deal, but it does make it hard to tell if you are seriously doing better or worse than the opposition at a quick glance.

[DSYoungEsq]

This is a certain purchase. The features are very lush, definite improvement over the versions introduced in FM10. The graphics are about optimum for size and quality, though some more realistic shaping of the players (they all look like hunchbacks) would be nice. Don't want the graphics of the games themselves too lush or you drive out people with low-end systems, and if we wanted to play FIFA11, we would. I have seen several things added to this version that are going to suck me into some serious playing-around-with in coming weeks; around every corner is a new fun toy. And I especially love the banner crawl during the match analysis where information about you the coach, etc. can be displayed as seen through the eyes of the media.

[qadsawee79]

Brilliant .... Absolutely brilliant .. the game is way better than FM10 ... Now tactically ... every change ... every shout ... makes sense ... the match engine is a beauty ... attacking and defending .. AMAZING .. and the varieties in attacks are amazing .. Thanks SI !!

[pelicanstuff]

Just had a nice little feature where I went to talk to a player that was unhappy with me. The first thing he said was "So what have I done this time?"

[Mitsunari]

First Impressions of the game are good overall. I like the improved ME graphics and the matches have a nice flow about them. Been playing as City and manged to play some neat little passing football. The only fault i have noticed in the Match engine was when Mario Balotelli pick up the ball at the half way line, ran though both the midfield and the defense unchallenged and slot it in the bottom comer. Not complaining since it was my players goal but 8 players and no one closed him down seems a bit strange.

The only other problem i have encounter in the game is that it sometimes freezes when its setting up the match screen. This happened all the time in windows mode the only way to wake the game up was to Ctrl-Alt-Dealt the game. I ended up missing most of the first half. Happened once in fullscreen just now when the game crashed, lost the save but i was only messing. Anyway a slightly annoying problem but over all good game looking forward to the full version.

[JamboJen]

As far as I can tell this isn't a bug, and I don't think it fits into data issues, so I'll post it here.

When you customise your squad columns the columns for "clean sheets" is entitled "clean sheet bonus" once you actually put it in your view. "Clean sheet bonus" also comes up as "clean sheet bonus" but correctly shows the bonuses.

Presumably the first one will therefore record clean sheets, so it's just the header that needs to be edited.

[pelicanstuff]

Please change the "person age" in the transfer search filters to just "age", as this is where people will expect to find this filter in the alphabet. There are a couple of others with a similar issue.

Also, please slow down the animation of the goalkeeper's legs when he is running up to take a goal kick as it presently looks a bit like roadrunner.

I have to say I'm impressed, I've been playing the demo most of the last 24 hours and have seen fewer bugs than in the same amount of initial playing time last year.

[David Deane]

Some pluses and a couple of small minuses.
+++ The interface is refined wonderfully.
+ The matchengine seems first class.
+ Player animations are first class.
+ Player interaction seems good on the whole

- Why oh why does it still assume that we're all monolingual? "You've taken the job without being able to speak Italian" - where's the "[SNIP] you, I have a degree in Italian" answer option?
- The player chat has lots of potential but at times players can seem like petulant teens. Taddei from Roma, educated, mature, socially aware, comes across like one of the bitchy teens from the Harry Enfield show. Too many liberties were taken with it and the risk its it could all get a bit FIFA managery.

Overall though, good work

[Dreaded Walrus]

- Why oh why does it still assume that we're all monolingual? "You've taken the job without being able to speak Italian" - where's the "[SNIP] you, I have a degree in Italian" answer option?

That's actually a really good point. It would be nice to be able to choose, when starting up a game, which languages you're able to speak, similar to the second nationality bit that's there at the moment. I'm monolingual myself, but I can definitely see the benefit of such an option for those that are able to speak multiple languages, but don't want to cheat with Second Nationality.

[pelicanstuff]

Hmmm, there are some players going for rather less than they should, maybe something to do with leagues not being active - Coentrao, Axel Witsel, Pocognoli are some examples. Also the Bolton board sold Gary Cahill to me for £6m, which is a bit low I think.

[Kritik]

It's not really a bug but still bothers me

I have a player who's unable to play due to medical reason for the next 4 months. So I dropped him to reserves. He's not training nor he's playing anyway. Now he's unhappy. Why ? It doesn't matter if he's in reserves or in the first team. I can't even explain to him why. There is no such option in a private conversation.

[B. Stinson]

Still no fix for the non-British reputation problem.

[Bielsista]

- Why oh why does it still assume that we're all fcukin monolingual? "You've taken the job without being able to speak Italian" - where's the "fcuk you, I have a degree in Italian" answer option?

Overall though, good work

Yeah, I support that one!!

I have to play a lot more yet but 3D engine just rocks!!!

Oh, I started with Arsenal and won 4-1 Man Utd at home and 2-0 Chelsea at Stamford...always happens that in the demo, then when I start the "real" game my team does baaaaaad =P

[Romario999]

loving the game thus far, encountered my first issue tjust now though as soon as i try to get the board to interact on a transfer nothing happens

[Johnnyhugs]

I have a question about celebration....


Why do some players celebrate all ALONE?

Why his team mates don't run up to him, hug , kiss, touch his body parts... lol

[pelicanstuff]

I have a question about celebration....


Why do some players celebrate all ALONE?

Why his team mates don't run up to him, hug , kiss, touch his body parts... lol

This actually depends on how popular a player is among his team-mates. If he is popular, a whole bunch of them will run off together and celebrate (no hugs though). If not, he will run off on his own.

[Spurs_Q8]

first of all, English not my first language, but wish my post would be understandable ..

each year, used to be optimistic and can't wait to buy the new verion for this game, and considering the step forward from FM08 to FM09, then FM09 to FM10, I think FM11 really disappointed me.

the positives are : board requests + Match Preperation, but don't know if the later could really help or not ( at least why no training match or movies ? ) , even board requests, it wouldn't make any difference that before, a bit similar things, the only changes in the game about it's more steps .. same with contracts, or like once i sacked a coach, there option in the news inbox to replace him if he was Reserve coach ( this could be done in past version ) ..

Training slighty improved, but still no real schedules which lower league fans like, no training matach ( which could effect on players form or morale ) , no changes once you want particular tour ( improve morale or fitness or techinque etc.. ) , no development for Youth Players system ( like if you want to start to manage Youth teams U16 or U18 only and explore young lads from schools ) , no system made for teams used to have DoF who had the final control in transfers & availabilty for change if the results or financial problems happened ? , no availabilty to be DoF ( for people who like to make ins and outs ) ..

people could suggest i didn't look a the bright side in the game, for sure i'm happy with improved 3rd matches, but i think these things must be expected, because everything developed in the last two years about HD, we wish key things make the game more realistic and challenging ! Also the changes in backroom staff didn't mean that much in the game, if i've a money, and sacked the Assistant manager each day, the board wouldn't say anything even if the coach doing well ! and still other staff could easily join me despite my treatment for my assistants ! ( same with players ! ) ..

also, no more favourite teams, we can't add favourite persons, we can't add favourite system, we can't add particular staff as friends who could prefere to join me everywhere appointed as manager, for ex, if I won A champions-league with Barcelona, and decided to quit and then join 1st division club, why i can't take my world class Assistant ( who i picked as favourite friend ) to be my No.2 too ? it wouldn't happen at all as those world Class or highly rated coachs would only join top clubs.

Feel sorry for my criticism, I've used to be big fan, but it's the first time i'm really disappointed with the new verion, anyway, would thank SI for their work and this version, and hope they will take my criticism as constructive one .

cheers !

[Chriskfc]

This might be a daft question but in all the other Fm's i used to change the squad screen to overview (classic way/iphone game) where the whole 1st team squad on the one screen so that it wasn't just a big list.

I can't find it on the demo, have they taken away or am i just being a tube?

[Ter]

I'm very, very early on in my first impressions here, but there is one thing that stood out as something I very much don't like regarding the new negotiation system. On the first day of the game, I offered Robert Pires a contract. At this stage, lots of other teams were interested, but they were only "minor" interests, so I offered quite a low figure. A bit of negotiation was done, and we eventually reached a figure. The agent said they'd consider it and come back to me. It was still quite low in my opinion compared to what I WOULD be willing to pay, if there were more offers. I pressed continue, and sure enough, I got news that Celtic, West Ham, and Everton had offered him contracts.

I'm managing West Brom, so at this point I know I needed to offer more. In past Football Manager games, when I get competition from clubs higher up for a player I really want, I would cancel my existing contract offer, and go back in and offer a higher one. So I cancelled the existing contract offer, and went onto "Approach to Sign" again.

"My client isn't currently prepared to restart these discussions following the previous breakdown in talks".

Oh. Well that's that then.

For what it's worth, I actually agree with the whole "not willing to talk" thing after previous recent talks went badly. But surely, if the objective is greater realism, then while they are still considering an offer you should be able to go back and say "actually, we'd like to offer you more"? As it is, you can only do the old-style cancelling of the contract, except you can no longer go and offer them a better contract, as now talks have supposedly "broken down". I keep pressing continue to see if he's willing to talk again yet, but it keeps saying the same thing. It's a bit annoying, to be honest.

Some fair points in there. What would be better is the agent coming back saying "Haw! This team have offered more than you and my client is likely to take that offer. Do you want to make another offer?"

[Ruh Roh]

The managers you set up at the very beginning of the game are primitive and some change really would have been good change. They've been around the same for a while, I think. You can't make yourself the club's real manager (there's always that Alex Ferguson or whoever floating around in the database wondering why he's been sacked), you can't do things like determine which countries you played in so you're always monolingual if you don't take a second nationality.

Game's awesome, though. Really can't wait, the demo never has most of the things I like to mess around with in it. Is it just me or are press conferences easier now? I'm not getting my team's good defenders annoyed anymore when I say my team has good defenders. Maybe it's just small sample size.

[TigerTime]

My thoughts about the demo so far:

- New interface is easy to navigate round and looks good
- ME is brilliant. It runs smooth and the graphics and animations have been improved
- Live negotiations now make contracts more interesting and realistic
- Press conferences less dull now and answers make more sense
- Player interact system is really useful, I use it a lot

[Dan Madeley]

Something I've struck a head scratcher with:

One player in my team is now (Alienated) Unhappy with his manager's team talks.

Now unless the player tells me exactly what it is that I've said wrong on match day then how am I meant to be able to work towards a fix to their problem??

Realism would be "I am unhappy (or whatever emotion) that you said "this" before/at half time/after the such and such game, - at least then I could look into where the player thinks I'm going wrong.

[Ruh Roh]

Something I've struck a head scratcher with:

One player in my team is now (Alienated) Unhappy with his manager's team talks.

Now unless this player tells me exactly what it is that I've said wrong on match day then how am I meant to be able to work towards a fix to their problem??

Realism would be "I am unhappy (or whatever emotion) that you said "this" before/at half time/after the such and such game - at least then I could look into where the player thinks I'm going wrong.

Team talk reports are under the assistant's tab somewhere, they have been for a while. You'll get to see if he's angry about the halftime talk in the Blackburn game or whatever. Would be nice if you could try to sort the issue out with the player, though.

[Dan Madeley]

Team talk reports are under the assistant's tab somewhere, they have been for a while. You'll get to see if he's angry about the halftime talk in the Blackburn game or whatever. Would be nice if you could try to sort the issue out with the player, though.

Is there any way to back track to how they reacted to previous team talks? It only seems to be the last game from what I can gather (even though it doesn't say what game it was).

Edit: Or am I looking at the wrong thing?? I'm looking at the Assistant Manager Team Talk Feedback.

[dr p wigwam]

This might be a daft question but in all the other Fm's i used to change the squad screen to overview (classic way/iphone game) where the whole 1st team squad on the one screen so that it wasn't just a big list.

I can't find it on the demo, have they taken away or am i just being a tube?

that view is gone. discussions yesterday about when it was removed, but its all elementary as its definitely gone now. sorry man

This actually depends on how popular a player is among his team-mates. If he is popular, a whole bunch of them will run off together and celebrate (no hugs though). If not, he will run off on his own.

i had Stevie G run to the fans behind the goal on his own last night. everyone else just trudged back to the halfway line, even cole who provided a beautiful assist. cant tell me stevie is not popular...

It's not really a bug but still bothers me

I have a player who's unable to play due to medical reason for the next 4 months. So I dropped him to reserves. He's not training nor he's playing anyway. Now he's unhappy. Why ? It doesn't matter if he's in reserves or in the first team. I can't even explain to him why. There is no such option in a private conversation.

all i can suggest is move him back to the first team and wait. since he's injured he'll probably get over it before he's fit. and then in the future just dont do it. they changed it a while ago for players to react to which squad they are in, and rightly so imo. "cause i think having injured players on the 1st team view is annoying" is not a good reason to drop a player...

[dr p wigwam]

Is there any way to back track to how they reacted to previous team talks? It only seems to be the last game from what I can gather (even though it doesn't say what game it was).

Edit: Or am I looking at the wrong thing?? I'm looking at the Assistant Manager Team Talk Feedback.

only the last game i'm afraid

[Matt_no_7]

All in all i like the demo and i'm sure the game will be another i spend upto 3 months of my life in the next year or so playing. There are a few things that have caught my eye that i feel are wrong/should be added....

1. Ability to input the amount of international caps you have when first creating your manager profile (should you select experience level as international footballer).
2. Ability to add multiple favorite clubs when creating a new manager profile.
3. (Taken from a post #1142) Ability to add playing history (including clubs, apperances, honors, etc) when creating a new manager.
5. (Taken from a post #1142) Option to play as a real manager.
3. I caught a glance at my brothers game, checked Leeds out and found Peter Risdale on the bloody icon list.... Are you being serious?! Also no Jack Charlton?!
4. Choice of different colour boots in the editor (can't be that hard to implement and would add a bit of colour to the game and realism as it's not the 60's anymore lol).
5. Players in the 3D match viewer don't have numbers on the back of their shirts (that i can see anyway and i'm using the TV camera angle, though this could be a detail issue).
6. Should be able to have talks with players who are unhappy with you again after a set amount of time. Clear the air talks if you will. (Bare in mind this may be possible as i'm only 7 games into the demo so maybe i'll see in in the future)
7. Full game should be out today rather than in two weeks time :P
8. Ability to add future stadium expansions (not new stadiums) via the editor (may already be possible but we'll have to wait and see).

Thats roughly all i can think of right now. I know, small things but small details can make a big difference. But again, game looks good and can't wait for the full version!

[ommerson]

I think I found a bug in the demo. As I am dutch the game installed in dutch language, but as I'm not fond of the at times awkward translations from english, I always switch to english language right away. So yesterday I did the same, and suddenly I saw that the headings of the 'team-talk' at the end of a game (where the 1st and 2nd-half ratings are, and where you can choose 'well done, good result' and such) were still in dutch, when everything else was in english like it was supposed to.

Apart from that little bug the game seems a nice improvement on the last version, especially the 3d engine looks nice, and is good to watch even on my low-graphics netbook, but as I can only play half a season I didn't bother much going into the details much. Just played some friendlies with East Stirlingshire, to find out if everything works nicely on my netbook..
What did strike me as odd was that every game I played (several away, also on mainland europe) the scenery around the stadiums seemed identical, and unmistakably typically british. But apart from britain I believe towns don't look at all like that and this is not a very common surrounding for a stadium in Holland fort example. It might be a coïncidence that I just picked the wrong clubs to play against, didn't try far extremes like Al-Hilal away or something, but I hope whén I play at Al-Hilal the scenery is less british than this. But maybe it's a stripped demo version and there's only a couple of surroundings available.

[Sharpy07]

There seems to be a problem with some night games. I dont know if it is associated with certain types of stadiums. When i choose to have a friendly at home with AFC wimbledon for example on the 14th July at 19.45 its fine, u can tell its a night match. I then tried a new game with Man u and had an inter squad friendly on the 2nd day (game time) again a 19.45 kick off and this time no night affect and then i tried an anyway game on the 14th July at 19.45 and that was showing as no night affects. This happens on other games aswell, i think its certian grounds that are having this problem. SI can you look into this please??

[TheGulls]

OK, well the best thing to do is start a Suggestion topic about it and I'll tag it for discussion at our feature meetings.

Thankyou, will do shortly

[Deisler26]

Is anyone else having the old FM10 problem of 20 shots a match, 18 of them straight at the keeper?

[number11]

Just a couple cosmetic things: the windows 95 blue is simply disgusting. The attributes graphic is too saturated and it is difficult to see the polygon within it. I thought the 2010 skin was perfect. Why change it?

edit: my god, I thought those things were bad, but the transfer offer screen is just ridiculous. It looks like someone took a screen shot of the original Mac OS X and combined it with a black-colored window frame from windows xp.

IMHO, the 2010 skin was the probably best looking interface design I've seen. I've been wishing there was a complete windows skin with the same feel. This year everything looks thrown together at the last minute.

[Suzie MUFC]

Just to add another couple of things:

- The speech bubbles are annoying and look like something out of a game for under 10's - really highlights the "dumbing down" of everything
- There is no option to mark a news item as "unread"

It's reminding me more and more of FM09. Bloated with stuff that isn't needed, I still can't see how everyone's getting so excited over it to be honest. If only they'd taken FM10 and fixed what was wrong with that instead of adding and changing everything, would've been perfect otherwise. Uninstalled now.

[Sheffield Sunday]

Right having had a little go with both Sheffield Wednesday and Stoke last night here are my impressions based purely on the demo.

1) Love the new layout, and even the skin that's attracted some criticsm for brigthness (hey, turn the lights in your house up and the brightness of your screen down!)
2) There are some fantastic touches I saw like the individual player training screen accessible from their profiles. With percentages of workload etc. Excellent touch.
3) The match engine is just drop dead gorgeous. I spent some time with it on elevated and main stand view, and then flipped to TV mode. Boy, I'm never taking it off that for the main highlights now. Love all the new animations, players with hands on hips, sulking, and even aeroplanes after scoring.
4) Agents - great addition, loving how everything is in real time - it's like a mini game in its own right.
5) Manager interactions - far greater improved - fantastic that you can now comment on the teams strengths and weaknesses, and comment on the managers style. I had Hitzfield compliment my Sheffield Wednesday team's passing after a 0-1 Friendly defeat. What a nice man!

Only negative - I'm not fond of the tactics screen this year. It's difficult to keep track of whos on the pitch and who isn't when you have 12 subs. I'm sure I'll get used to it with time though.

To sum up. Some great little touches that add so much to last years incarnation. Can't wait for 5th November now.

[Johnnyhugs]

I get this screen sometimes during the game.
Any idea?

[patonki]

I'm having a slight issue with the demo. I use five different match info boxes (or what do you call them) during matches. I also use windowed mode, and it seems that every time I leave fm11 in the background and click it back again, those boxes are all over the place in the next match. Seems like those had lined up for a different resolution while I was browsing other windows.

[Sheffield Sunday]

I'm having a slight issue with the demo. I use five different match info boxes (or what do you call them) during matches. I also use windowed mode, and it seems that every time I leave fm11 in the background and click it back again, those boxes are all over the place in the next match. Seems like those had lined up for a different resolution while I was browsing other windows.

I have the same, when I minimize one of the match stats menus the whole section moves to where the header was. I also had this in the FM2010 demo too which was then fixed on the main release so I have every confidence this will be rectified.

[Deisler26]

Having a lot of long shots on the demo, even though I have it on low creativity, long shots on rarely and 'work into box' enabled.

[dr p wigwam]

someone was saying they upset their players by moving them to the reserves, so they could play in an inter club friendly. he said he had to move them, cos making them 'elligible for the reserves' didn't work

i thought i'd test this and he's absolutely right.

i set half my first team as 'elligible for reserves' from the team selection screen and then i set the rest of my team. then i click continue and my assman has only selected his team from the rest of the reserves squad and ignored those players i made elligible...

*edit* i started again and this time made them elligible for the reserves the day before the match. same problem.

my guess is the only way to do it is to what the original guy did and move them to the reserves, but then they get upset...

seems daft that you cant get them to play each other

[data6930]

Christ the bright skin again, surely SI enough people have complained about that previously!

Why only the bright skin out of the box ..... how difficult is it to give people 2 or 3 options for skins!

Very disappointed, sticking with FM2010

[BaYa]

PLEASE make asap a dark skin available for the demo...

[data6930]

PLEASE make asap a dark skin available for the demo...

Couldn't agree more!

[moneyhero]

massively im actually able to sign players at what i call a fair price, ...over the odds if not listed but not to high & low if listed or needed ...this for me is great and what the games needed for the last 4 years...altough it may be the same as last years engine lol

im not keen on match day prep or agents (because they rip me off) and i really dot get how to work the set piece creator but i agree there all very realistic additions to the game enhancing your manager experiance

[BaYa]

I regularly get the message that person x wants to join my team (staff members), but then they are NOT interested in a contract negociation...

[dr p wigwam]

someone was saying they upset their players by moving them to the reserves, so they could play in an inter club friendly. he said he had to move them, cos making them 'elligible for the reserves' didn't work

i thought i'd test this and he's absolutely right.

i set half my first team as 'elligible for reserves' from the team selection screen and then i set the rest of my team. then i click continue and my assman has only selected his team from the rest of the reserves squad and ignored those players i made elligible...

*edit* i started again and this time made them elligible for the reserves the day before the match. same problem.

my guess is the only way to do it is to what the original guy did and move them to the reserves, but then they get upset...

seems daft that you cant get them to play each other

ok, i'm just going round in circle with this. now i've taken control of the reserves to see if i can manually select them, and all the players i have selected as 'elligle for reserves' are on the squad list in the reserves tab, but have 'Ine' in red, and the tooltip says they are 'in opposition squad'.

then i select U18 players for my bench of the senior squad, and they have the same 'Ine', which i get round by moving them to the first team squad.

then it goes to the match, and i done get to select the reserves team at all!!!

[playmaker]

Only negative - I'm not fond of the tactics screen this year. It's difficult to keep track of whos on the pitch and who isn't when you have 12 subs. I'm sure I'll get used to it with time though.

If you go to Preferences, then Display and Sound, there is a tick box in the Display Settings called 'Sort team lists in TV view'. It only does the widgets and not the tactics screen, but it's better than nothing.

[BaYa]

- the agents are asking astronomic sums,
- the "new" training "system"... euh... where is it ?!

[wally13]

PLEASE make asap a dark skin available for the demo...

Not a prey

[Sheffield Sunday]

If you go to Preferences, then Display and Sound, there is a tick box in the Display Settings called 'Sort team lists in TV view'. It only does the widgets and not the tactics screen, but it's better than nothing.

Thanks for the tip

[oi_oi_ginger_roy]

How come so many teams don't have a transfer budget or have a very small one?

Started a game with AC Milan and surprised to see they have no money to spend in the transfer market, is that right? - then checked out a host of others and was shocked to see they too were being offered £0 to spend in the transfer market.

[FelixForte]

My team is finally getting in shape after 3 matches

[private pyle]

massively im actually able to sign players at what i call a fair price, ...over the odds if not listed but not to high & low if listed or needed ...this for me is great and what the games needed for the last 4 years...altough it may be the same as last years engine lol

im not keen on match day prep or agents (because they rip me off) and i really dot get how to work the set piece creator but i agree there all very realistic additions to the game enhancing your manager experiance

Can anyone else confirm that it is now easier to buy players and sell players. This was one of my biggest problems with FM for many years that you would need to pay well over the odds for players and yet when you tried to sell your own players nobody would be interested.

[higgins]

The 3-d view has been improved, even if that horrible "holiday on ice" effect is still here.

[BayernMB]

Same thing every year - I've preordered the game as soon as it was available, and promised myself I wouldn't download the demo...then yesterday I do it, I say to myself I have to tweak around with tactics, get familiar with training, scouting etc. to have a foundation for the time when FM is released, so I can dig into first season as soon as possible...now 6 months have finished and all I can do is wait looooong two weeks for the game, I've suddenly lost interest in FM2010...

The good side is I love the new game and can't wait to play it, but this demo has ruined my next two weeks...

[robertcornell68]

Strange. I spent all day yesterday watching the clock and trying to make it go faster, then when I got home I only played for 2 hours. The Demo certainly didn't grab me the way I had hoped/expected.

The new training & set pieces creator (which is nothing of the sort) will be more useful for noobs than veterans.

I've never been interested in transfers and contracts, so agents don't really affect my style.

Player interactions & pre-match training are medium term things, so I didn't really see them in action. Obviously, DLR & better newgens are long term things that the demo won't touch.

On the plus side: the match engine looks great and seems to handle wide-play much better. I was getting goals from crosses in my friendlies.

I do love the way you can skip quickly through press conferences. Makes me much more likely to attend. Haven't seen any sign of all those new questions, though.

Hopefully, playing properly over the weekend will get me into the total immersion stuff.

Initial impressions: no big difference from FM 2010.

[jayahr]

And this couldn't be posted in the demo feedback thread?

[FelixForte]

I got in a huge fight with Jô for putting him on the transferlist xD

[cuzn1984]

Not a fan YET!

Light skin a big put off!!!
Too many long shots even though low creativity, no long shots and work into box.
Played as Chelsea for couple of games and players couldnt hit a barn door even in 6 yard box.

Back to FM10 for abit i think.

[Lagarr]

Couldn't agree more!

Seriously,can you not wait 2 weeks until the full game comes out and someone makes one?
Talk about moan for the sake of moaning!

[BayernMB]

I guess you're right about that...sorry. If possible a mod could move this there.

[Erimus1876]

So far so good...

Just one complaint/suggestion regarding 3D views. It would have been nice to improve the 3D camera angles with this years game (TV view is ok) but a slightly more zoomed in and 'flatter' look to Touchline and Sideline views would have been perfect - or at least the option for us to tweak them ourselves.

[BayernMB]

I've seen a very good addition regarding mutual termination of contract...Kaka has about 11 mil € yearly wage, when I tried to sell him he accepted an offer but wanted me to pay 6,25 mil. yearly untill end of his contract (untill 2015), then I tried to mutually terminate his contract and his response was that he was so confident to find another club that he agreed to terminate his contract without any compensation. A very good deal for me, considering about 30 milions payment if I sold him for 10 mil.

[Nottingham Forest]

I like the demo it's really good imo. However I have a question. When offering a player a new contract(my own player). I have found that I can't click confirm offer until he agrees. Then my player still has to accept. Is that right or am I missing something. Sorry if it has been covered before and sorry if it is in the wrong place.

[David Crammond]

I'm very, very early on in my first impressions here, but there is one thing that stood out as something I very much don't like regarding the new negotiation system. On the first day of the game, I offered Robert Pires a contract. At this stage, lots of other teams were interested, but they were only "minor" interests, so I offered quite a low figure. A bit of negotiation was done, and we eventually reached a figure. The agent said they'd consider it and come back to me. It was still quite low in my opinion compared to what I WOULD be willing to pay, if there were more offers. I pressed continue, and sure enough, I got news that Celtic, West Ham, and Everton had offered him contracts.

I'm managing West Brom, so at this point I know I needed to offer more. In past Football Manager games, when I get competition from clubs higher up for a player I really want, I would cancel my existing contract offer, and go back in and offer a higher one. So I cancelled the existing contract offer, and went onto "Approach to Sign" again.

"My client isn't currently prepared to restart these discussions following the previous breakdown in talks".

Oh. Well that's that then.

For what it's worth, I actually agree with the whole "not willing to talk" thing after previous recent talks went badly. But surely, if the objective is greater realism, then while they are still considering an offer you should be able to go back and say "actually, we'd like to offer you more"? As it is, you can only do the old-style cancelling of the contract, except you can no longer go and offer them a better contract, as now talks have supposedly "broken down". I keep pressing continue to see if he's willing to talk again yet, but it keeps saying the same thing. It's a bit annoying, to be honest.

Yes, what we could do with is a Re-negotiate contract action in cases like this. The reason for the "Not willing to talk" is to stop people cheating by offering an initial contract and after seeing what other clubs have offered, withdrawing and offering something lower. But really what you want to do here is quite valid. Thanks for your post we'll take it onboard.

[darkson01]

Transfer Craziness

first of all, a quote from miles from his mirror sport blog, day 15:

The transfer system in Football Manager 2011 reflects this current state of the world. It means that in the first season, it’s pretty hard to sell players, as clubs don’t have much money, and their squads are full, so you’ll see even more loan to buy deals than normal in this first season.

ok, so its now August 29th and Chelsea have bought:

Neymar: £17m
Miranda: £7.25m
Moussa Sissoko: £10.5m
Vaclav Kadlec: £1.4m
Hangeland: £13.25m
Atila Turan: £1.6m
Raphael Holzhauser: £1.7m
Ibrahim Afellay: £7.5m
Terence Makengo: £3.1m
Vagner Love: £11.25m

Total Spend: £75m

Seems odd...

And what seems even odder:

Robert Pires [36] to Aston Villa
Pascal Cygan [36] to Everton
Roberto Carlos [37] to Birmingham

i dunno, but this all seems very odd while I'm playing

I know this has been said before but i've got this (almost) exact same transfers. What is also weird is Terry, Drogba, Anelka, Malouda, Mikel, Essien and Kalou are either constant subs or not even in the squad. Very un-realistic!

[Pipo2525]

I know this has been said before but i've got this (almost) exact same transfers. What is also weird is Terry, Drogba, Anelka, Malouda, Mikel, Essien and Kalou are either constant subs or not even in the squad. Very un-realistic!

Apparently everyone is playing with the same saved game so these transfers will happen in every game!

[spankie]

I know this has been said before but i've got this (almost) exact same transfers. What is also weird is Terry, Drogba, Anelka, Malouda, Mikel, Essien and Kalou are either constant subs or not even in the squad. Very un-realistic!

It's a quick start, so the short lists for every club on everyone's game are identical.

[edgar555]

How come so many teams don't have a transfer budget or have a very small one?

Started a game with AC Milan and surprised to see they have no money to spend in the transfer market, is that right? - then checked out a host of others and was shocked to see they too were being offered £0 to spend in the transfer market.

Of course its right. How much did Meelan pay out for Ibra & Robinho? A lot for a club thats broke.

[dr p wigwam]

ok, here's a wierd one

when i create a tactic, say a 4-4-2, i get to step 8 and it says, in red for effect:

"A tactic with that name already exists, the tactic will be overwritten"

now my 4-4-2 is available on my dropdown tactics

so, if i then go and set individual tactics and such, and try to save it with the same name i get:

"A tactic with the name '4-4-2' already exists but cannot be overwritten."

hmm

so i save it with the name 4-4-2a, then go onto manage tactics, and delete the 4-4-2 i created, and it still wont let me call this one 4-4-2.

i know in previous FM games you couldn't call your tactic the same name as the default tactics, but not it seems to initially let me do that, but then only when i use the tactics creator, and not subsequently. very odd and vaguely annoying

[Fabio MVP]

Torrent links

Strawberry PC - http://torrents.sigames.com:7000/tor...0825EE4CF5AC77
Strawberry Mac - http://torrents.sigames.com:7000/tor...48CDC254AE0DEB
Vanilla PC - http://torrents.sigames.com:7000/tor...3C1C2793D1A00D
Vanilla Mac - coming soon.

Direct download links

Strawberry PC - coming soon (estimated 1pm)
Strawberry Mac - coming soon (estimated 1pm)
Vanilla PC - coming soon (estimated 1pm)
Vanilla Mac - coming soon (estimated 1pm)

[gazsmith6]

Vanilla version now available. Woohoo!!

Already downloading.

[Kazza]

Fabio did you get the game to work?

K

[Fabio MVP]

Fabio did you get the game to work?

K

Unfortunately not mate.

[Kazza]

Unfortunately not mate.

Blah that is so unfair - i think you may need to download again and test it at least that way you can eliminate any issues with the game? Then start to concentrate on your PC apps/drivers/config if necessary - if not already done so!

Fingers crossed for ya.
K

[Fabio MVP]

Blah that is so unfair - i think you may need to download again and test it at least that way you can eliminate any issues with the game? Then start to concentrate on your PC apps/drivers/config if necessary - if not already done so!

Fingers crossed for ya.
K

Already updated everything as in Neil sticky mate. Will download now the non-steam way and see what happens. thanks for helping.

[Fabio MVP]

All flavours of the DEMO now available via torrents, direct downloads and STEAM - http://www.footballmanager.com/demo

[eldereth]

While I think the game is a great improvement overall, I find there are some defensive issues with the ME. I feel the marking and decision making is awful at times. Especially when on a counter over the flank, my central defenders often close down on the winger leaving the centre wide open. I also find that there are ridiculous amounts of space between the central defenders and the fullbacks/wingbacks. That said, it could all be my tactics.

Will play some more to see if it's me or the ME

[Dreaded Walrus]

What would be better is the agent coming back saying "Haw! This team have offered more than you and my client is likely to take that offer. Do you want to make another offer?"

That would be a great addition to this new system. It would be great if that was used for the sort of players who wouldn't mind choosing a lesser club over a bigger club if the money was right (the kind of players who in real life often go to play in countries with poor levels of competition but rich clubs). But then there are those who are interested in playing at the highest level no matter what the offer from smaller clubs. I don't think the agent should come back in cases like this, where obviously the money isn't a factor. Although I think the "Re-negotiate contract offer" option as suggested by David Crammond should be included and available right until the moment when the player has made up his mind.