The Ultimate Poll: Best version of the series.

[Super Canaries]

It's All About FM2009

It has it's fault's, But it has it's plus sides

[Harv88]

03/04 for me mainly because i built a team and won the league unbeaten, never done it since! i am loving 09 at the moment though

[cliff7197]

FM09.

I've been buying FM/CM since the very start and never in all my time have I loaded up the new version then thought I should go back to the old version. It's been progress all the way.

[cbrunton]

i reckon 01/02.. it cost me a girlfriend, 2 friends and made me go from a credit level to a general level in maths... damn you champ manager

[ljdzsgffk]

Although my first CM/FM game was CM 4, CM 03/04 still remains my favourite due to the amount of fun I had playing it. May have also been to do with the fact that I was young so had nothing to do.

[ViG1980]

FM07. I cannot believe people voting for FM09 sincerely think it. It has the potential to be the best maybe but it defo isn't.

[aaberdeenn]

I simply have no idea.

I don't think I've played one more than another. They've all be pretty fun to play.

[sydfc4ever]

it's got to be 07 for me, and i don't think you looked too hard mate, i started one of these the other day.

[rancer890]

FM08 imo. All because of Lijia and Jinhui.

With their careers going so well I'm reluctant to play FM09...

[CaptainPlanet]

it's got to be 07 for me, and i don't think you looked too hard mate, i started one of these the other day.

You started it a week ago and it hasn't had any posts since 26th Nov, and it was called "Best FM", both words that aren't included when using the forum search engine.

Like I said, I looked long and hard, but I wasn't going to go through every archived page looking for other polls.

[Cseedorf]

Cooking Masters, obviously.

[Ando THFC]

09 was always going to get a disproportionate amount of votes because it's new. It's the same as these polls of the 100 greatest things ever that Channel 4 do - you always get people/shows/events/albums that have been recently prominant higher up the list than they deserve.

There's absolutely no way of judging a version of FM until you've played it for months - the longevity factor is what decides a classic version of this game from an average one.

[Chris Ritchie]

Although my first CM/FM game was CM 4, CM 03/04 still remains my favourite due to the amount of fun I had playing it. May have also been to do with the fact that I was young so had nothing to do.

I reinstalled 03/04 recently and I still think it's brilliant. Still runs too slowly on a 2007 machine though

[Mattek]

No doubt for me - FM07. That may change when 9.2.0 patch comes, though.

[DarkVenom]

CM4 for me hours and hours of fun on that game

[Maystor]

CM 01/02 was probably the most fun for me but it wasn't very realistic at all. That's why I voted FM 07. With latest patches installed, its match engine was very well balanced.

[Giarc Ronyag]

FM09, it's like going from xp to vista imo, at first i was like hmm, arr, maybe, but now im like I'm so glad i switched.

[rotku]

Most "fun" version was defo 01/02 but in terms of the best game I'd have to go with the new one.

[PaulC]

For those of you who enjoyed the CM3 series more than the FM series I would definitely recommend the PSP version of FM....

[CaptainPlanet]

For those of you who enjoyed the CM3 series more than the FM series I would definitely recommend the PSP version of FM....

Did you vote?

And if so, was it honest?

[glamdring]

I'll always like CM03/04 because it was a version (the only one really) in which I was able to filter lots of players through from my youth team into the full team and build a squad with a very strong core of those players. Admittedly that was mostly down to one of CM03/04s biggest flaws though - that physical attributes, especially pace, had far too big an impact in the match engine and a fair few youth players had great physical attributes and could be pretty naff technically, but still perform like a collosus!

[#4]

For me it has to be 96/97.

I was tempted to say 01/02 but i can't really remember any of my saves to be honest (having said that rarely remember them anyway).

96/97 was the first CM/FM i bought and i played it for so many hours it was untrue. If i remember, Andy Liddell was a machine in my newcastle save......

....wheres the support for CM2 though!? All you very-young ens' obviously don't remember those dizzy days.

I remember the odd spread sheet you used to get that mapped all of the player awards at the end of each season. Oh the memories!

[Nomis07]

On reflection there are only three titles that I feel strongly about;

CM2 (97-98) - Was the first game I played and as such i'll always look back on it fondly.

CM4 (03-04) - It was fun, and that's that. It wasn't great, but I really enjoyed mucking about with it.

FM08 - The first time i've had a decent amount of self made success, with tactics etc. Longest career save.

I picked FM08, it was the first of the FM series that I really got my teeth into and IMO had a good blend of difficulty and fun. I haven't given FM09 enough of a chance yet to give a reasoned opinion on it's merits.

[CaptainPlanet]

I picked FM08, it was the first of the FM series that I really got my teeth into and IMO had a good blend of difficulty and fun

See I really couldn't get into FM08 at all, combination of Match Engine and my own inability to win anything

[glamdring]

I found FM08 a good way to induce schizophrenia on the whole

[Nick Habershon]

CM 97/98 and CM 01/02 were games that I remember very fondly - probably because that was a stage of my life when I had a lot of spare time to play all day! I've been working on CM/FM since CM4 and I think there are probably aspects of every version that the people who worked on them are very proud of and enjoy.

My own personal opinion is that FM09 is the best version because I know from playing and working on it that the improvements that have gone in have taken the game forward and that is the only direction to go. In the same way, I fully expect FM2010 to be the best version when that comes out.

[CaptainPlanet]

CM 97/98 and CM 01/02 were games that I remember very fondly - probably because that was a stage of my life when I had a lot of spare time to play all day! I've been working on CM/FM since CM4 and I think there are probably aspects of every version that the people who worked on them are very proud of and enjoy.

My own personal opinion is that FM09 is the best version because I know from playing and working on it that the improvements that have gone in have taken the game forward and that is the only direction to go. In the same way, I fully expect FM2010 to be the best version when that comes out.

How very corporate

[drummondwat]

has to be FM07 for me. I managed to win the UEFA Cup three seasons in a row, the Super Cup once and I managed to get in the Champions League this season. I still play on it now as I thought FM08 was a massive disappointment and I haven't got 09 yet.

[Nick Habershon]

How very corporate

I'll take that as tongue-in-cheek as I know you wouldn't create a poll and then question the individual's right to express their vote.

[CaptainPlanet]

We all know you lot secretly play Fifa Manager instead

[scottmp]

wow - weird how loads of people are complaining about 09 and voting for it here. The word hypocrite springs to mind. 07 or 05 for me surely. 05 revolutionized things while 07 was 2d pitch perfection.

[Suttface]

Too early to vote on FM2009.

CM3 was epic. Those days spent drooling over Jesper Llung, Bakayoko, Tonton... I'm welling up.

[mermel]

CM 01/02.

it was absolut amazing. In 2049 i had with Inter a transfer budget of 4 bilions dolars:)

[Grantus86]

01/02 was brilliant. I spent so much time playing that. I did like the 97/98 one as well but 01/02 romps ahead.

[Grantus86]

The first CM i played was the red disc, Zidane was at Bordeux. Can't remember what year it was, could of been just after Blackburn won the league, or maybe just before. Might have been called CM2 i can't remember, but comparign that to 2009 my god how times change!

[Irish_Yid]

has to be 09

mainly for 3d

go 3d!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[bored101]

erm tricky one. i will probaly go for 01/02 i think it was. in terms of addiction it was defintly that one.

[CaptainPlanet]

Clearly a two horse race - and if you take out all the SI and Sega employees and their multiple accounts then it's clear who the winner is

[CaptainPlanet]

Suprised with the free release of CM 01/02 that it hasn't shot up and overtaken FM09

[Jimbokav1971]

I think you might have got a different result if you had seperated CM4 and CM03/4 in the poll.

CM4 was an abomination.

CM03/04 was simply phenomenal.

[Roel Dijkstra]

CM '93, it was a revolutionary footy managment game at the time, most football manager games (and I bought them all, just to get that one break) were *****, when I landed CM '93 I was overseas for the Army so I stuck with this other game for a while. But when I came back after 6 months and had a two week leave, well, I never left the game again.

[CaptainPlanet]

I think you might have got a different result if you had seperated CM4 and CM03/4 in the poll.

CM4 was an abomination.

CM03/04 was simply phenomenal.

Stupid limit on poll options

[George_Spurs]

Championship Manager 3 (CM3, 99/00, 00/01, 01/02) by far!!

[www2]

01-02...nuf said

[JustinJJ]

Come on, everyone knows that CM03/04 was fantastic

[CDL]

The CM 97/98, I started the journey with the 96/97 version, but the following year release got me really (and I mean REAAAAAAAAAALLY) hooked.

Never stopped playing or buying my copy since then, FM 2007 was pretty great and I think FM2009 is the best so far, just need some patch to correct some issues, otherwise, fantastic stuff IMHO.

André

[JB]

'05 for me, totally addicted to that until I lost the CD! Nearly cried!

[mike007lp]

2005 was my first fm game, and I loved it and played with that version the longest. SO I voted for it. 2007 was better, but I couldn't get into it as much as the '05 version. And yeah.. 09 is still too buggy to be playable for me but it has the potential to be the best FM.

[MartinGregory84]

2009 by far I must be one of the lucky ones who havent had a problem even with the activation and barring the odd bug which will be corrected in the patch the gameplay is good.

[MadGamer]

CM4 for me, though I voted Football Manager 2009 as I like the look of the features its got included, and plus I will be getting it Next Week (25th Dec).