What year is the best version of football manager?

[Rookie FM]

17 hours ago, grade said:

If by best, it means the most fun version ever, then for me FM07 is the best one.

The best all round game would be FM 2008(much better than FM 07!) and FM 2010!

[forameuss]

On 05/08/2020 at 13:58, Heywood JaBlowme said:

GiveMeSport "Football Manager: Ranking every edition of the game from worst to best"

FM 20 isn't even in the top 10.

https://www.givemesport.com/1587763-football-manager-ranking-every-edition-of-the-game-from-worst-to-best

That is a perfect example of how awful "journalism" is nowadays.  The article spends several entries talking about problems in the match engine, and then awards top spot to FM12, which had the most obvious match engine issue there's been since Diablo.

[pauloolivieri]

Since the 2012 I've been buying FM every two years only.

The most enjoyable
FM16. It's the one I'm actually playing and having tons of fun with my teams playing very nice football. Won all 6 Premier Leagues I played with Tottenham so far (only 2 of them were really easy). Of course it got easy over time when I knew all the great wonderkids, but who cares?

The one I was the most successful
FM08. I nailed this game. Started from Brazilian Serie C and won the Libertadores in the 4th season. Then a second one and a pre-Sheik Moneybags Man City hired me. Had to build a whole new team, but started winning everything after the second season. Bad thing about this versions is the regen aspect. Very bad ones.

The most realistic
It's FM20, yes, but where's the fun? All opponents parking the bus, my strikers don't participate in the build-up (or score at all), LOTS of penalties (Kessie was my striker in the only full season I played, scoring more goals than all my strikers together)

[Carambau]

Can we have a poll on this?

 

[Preveza]

FM17, 18 for me. Both had me log over 2,500 hours, compared to only 250 on FM20. 

[alian62]

1 hour ago, Carambau said:

Can we have a poll on this?

 

i did one last year and the year before

[Carambau]

7 minutes ago, prot651 said:

i did one last year and the year before

got a link?

[SebastianRO]

3 hours ago, Preveza said:

FM17, 18 for me. Both had me log over 2,500 hours, compared to only 250 on FM20. 

Exactly the same for me.

[Double Indemnity]

By playtime, it looks like it was one of FM11/12/13. For pure nostalgia, probably CM97/98. The objectively "best" version of the game is probably from the last few years but not the last couple.

[teodoro]

FM 19 for me, with some adjustments on my tactics shows a very good gameplay, also AI side

[alian62]

14 hours ago, Carambau said:

got a link?

Just started another one 

[Preveza]

On 14/07/2020 at 01:56, Spurs08 said:

Just loaded up FM17 after reading this. And I was amazed by how much better it is in terms of graphics and performance. All the gubbins added to the most recent versions have slown it down, made it much less clean, and the actual in-match graphics have gone massively downhill.

This. FM17 had better lighting aswell. Not sure how SI could actually make the game look worse 3 years later. I mean, the nets even look worse, and not to mention those dark circles on the pitch that are meant to imitate wear. Looks terrible.

[Federico]

Well no, not the nets please, they looked like fishing nets in FM17!

They started being nice and realistics since FM18 if I'm not wrong, and I pesonally love they sometimes are colored after the club colors

[Preveza]

1 hour ago, Federico said:

Well no, not the nets please, they looked like fishing nets in FM17!

They started being nice and realistics since FM18 if I'm not wrong, and I pesonally love they sometimes are colored after the club colors

haha fishing nets. I loved the lighting in FM17. Not sure what happened this year. Moreover, 2pm start on a bright sunny day, and if you zoom out, the sky is pink/orange.

[Novem9]

FM20 has best AI management, newgens, etc. - all things behind Match Engine. And I like purple colour 

FM16 have best reproduction for me - players do exactly what I want. Better only FM19 beta imo - it was feeling that I'm painter and tactical window is my canvas. Unfortunatelly it ruined after release.
FM17 is good too, but results started to be random (Guardiola challenge for example) and Twitter (!!! )

FM10 my favourite by memories but I have no idea how to play in this old interface, I just used to modern versions.

FM12 was funny too, I have this version in Steam but can't play in interface issues too.

 

FM18 was funny, but there are 2 bugs at least started :

• Scout window (bugs still actual for FM19 and FM20!)
• Destroyed corner tribunes (still actual)

 

[Dagenham_Dave]

10 hours ago, Novem9 said:

FM16 have best reproduction for me - players do exactly what I want.

 

There's a whole new debate in there as to whether that's a good thing or not. 

[masno]

I think FM17 is one of the favorites of most player because is one where the broken aspects of the ME don't make the game boring for the player.
If I remember correctly, the middle of the pitch was more vulnerable to plays, so player could play through balls and one-twos against defenders, things that actually happens in RL, but in FM18 and onwards they nerfed it a lot, so this type of goal, that is more produced for everyone that like the possession style of play (which is huge in this forums), was more achievable than in FM20, that we usually see defenders packing 3-5 men in front of the box. Also defensive teams weren't so effective in retaining possession, obviously that they could still have more even numbers with possession/offensive teams, because pressing is a problem since ever, but that wouldn't actually make the game so unbearable that you would be watching the team about to relegate pass the ball between defenders and GK for 3 minutes straight without your team being able to do anything.

The problem nowadays, and why FM17 is "better" than 20 is, while both are not realistic, and FM 17 is lesser realistic because N reasons, SI manage to find the balance between realism, with better open play and tactical instruction getting followed as they should, and fun, with tons of different goals, FKs being scored by good players frequently (at least my team would manage to do this), not boring type of gameplay, and obviously, you could use a lot of styles to score your goals, not just certain pattern. So yeah, FM17 is "better and more complete" ME wise than FM 20.

[Solstad1069]

Happily playing FM17, the game date is now october 2 in the year 2078.

[HotDogManUK]

The most hours I spent on FM was 14 however I remember 12 with the most fondness.

I am really enjoying 19 but I've moved to Touch since 17.

Also there should be a poll.

[Santa Claus]

5 minutes ago, HotDogManUK said:

The most hours I spent on FM was 14 however I remember 12 with the most fondness.

I am really enjoying 19 but I've moved to Touch since 17.

Also there should be a poll.

There's poll every two months. And results are always the same. 12, 17, and the latest version.

[grade]

1 hour ago, Santa Claus said:

There's poll every two months. And results are always the same. 12, 17, and the latest version.

I think if there needs to be proper poll it needs to include all formats.

Sure the mobile and Touch versions should be considered in such a poll. Sure it would a bit pointless since only fraction would vote, but I would like to see the results of such a poll.