crouchaldinho

Work Rate is not a physical attribute. Both Determination and Work Rate are mental attributes.

Great career thread, Iacovone! It really makes me want to get back into an FM career. Always find your careers inspiring. What was behind the decision to change to 4-2-3-1? Are you going to do the same with the national team?

Why are they putting a picture of Platini on the big screen?

Thanks NF.

I've got a message for Nobby next time he pops in here. I tried to PM you but it says that your inbox is full. Any chance that you (or anyone else in here, for that matter!) could remind me which recent version of FM had a reliable non-league update (EE Update, I think it was called) release? I really fancy starting a save with a step 4 club (Royston Town to be precise - I quite fancy trying to get promotion for the Crows). As I understand it, FM15 doesn't have a proper step 3 & 4 release. When I say proper, I mean realistic, thorough and reliable as the versions by Uncle Ron always were. I'm not worried about going back to an old version. I was thinking maybe FM13 was the last one that Uncle Ron worked on? I forget. I know you tend to download it for a better non-league experience. Also, I know you have high standards, so thought I would write to ask for your advice. Whichever one you can vouch for will be good enough for me!

Yes, I think I will try to give FMC a fair shot on FM15. If I'm honest, I've always had this perception of FMC as being an inferior game mode and it has put me off playing it. Probably something to do with being an old CM/FM player who used to be quite 'hardcore' about playing the game. However, the appeal of being able to focus solely on the aspects I really enjoy - tactics, team building, signing players, playing the matches themselves - is convincing me that I should challenge my prejudice and give it a try. Ultimately, I realise that I tend to ask my assistant to do most of the interaction stuff in full FM anyway so why not just play FMC where I don't have to worry about it at all. My manager always has 'rarely talks to his players and the media' on his profile! I guess the heavy interaction stuff isn't for me. I've always been bad at it so that doesn't help but mainly I get a bit tired of the repetitive nature of it. I always start out with role-playing and I've always tried to do that on FM but, with the interaction, I usually find myself just clicking the answers that I know will do the job after a while instead of really role-playing as a manager. I find them an obstacle to my immersion in the game world and a frustration when they don't do a very good job (and let's be honest, regardless of what you think about them, interactions in FM games definitely have quite a few flaws). Anyway, I definitely long for that classic CM or FM feeling where the game-play always felt engaging and fast-paced so I'll try FMC and see how I get on. Thanks for the reply Hunt3r.

I've been playing the series since Championship Manager 2 released in 1995. Twenty years later (I'm now 32) and I've been playing these games by SI for the best part of my life. There are some really great memories to look back on. For me personally, it's usually the regens/newgens that stick out. Dean Clarke and Scott Rimmer were the best English strikers of all time for me on CM2. How I miss Enrico Caceres, the flamboyant striker of my CM3 playing days. John Dawson played in every league from the Conference to the Premier League on FM07 and then Enrico Muratore came along to fire my St Albans team into the Premier League for the first time in my CM/FM playing career. And then there is the legendary Michel Vermeer, the prolific Dutch striker, who broke records for my St Albans team on FM10. Finally, Davide Vangi the Trequartista pushed my Hellas Verona team into Serie A and also into Europe on FM12. Happy memories! They might not mean much to you but these are treasured memories for me and I think any long-term CM/FM player knows what I'm talking about! I had a blast with so many of these games. My favourites probably being CM2, CM01/02, CM03/04, FM07 and FM10. Such amazing times as I played huge careers out on these games. The last time I had pure enjoyment from the game was probably FM12. I felt that version was continuing to head in the right direction for me personally. Since then, I have played a bit of FM13, which I thought was going okay although I did suffer from an unfortunate save killing bug that put me off the game. I can't really give a proper and fair judgement on it because I was so annoyed at losing my save at the time. I played FM14 and felt really disappointed by the removal of the tactics sliders and what I perceived as a very poor attempt to offer the tactics creator as a replacement for the old system. I put a small amount of time in but felt so frustrated by that and also by the user interface that I quickly put it to one side. Recently, a friend got me a copy of FM15 and I have to say that I was really surprised. The UI is way better and the game seems to have improved quite a bit since FM14 (which I felt dissatisfied with). Having said that, there are still some issues for me and I'm not really enjoying it in quite the same way as the 'glory days' of CM03/04, FM07 or FM10. I have had to accept that the game has changed and so I have moved on to play other games such as the grand strategy genre of games produced by Paradox. Ultimately, what I used to love about football management games was the squad building, player buying, tactics selection and team picking. These days, as others have said, there is a whole layer of player interaction to deal with too and I have found it frustrating and tedious. Today, for example, I had a session on FM15 that drove me crazy. Players were complaining about not getting first-team football all over the place. The issue was that these players were making ridiculous complaints. An under 21 youth player, for example, who was nowhere near the first-team. Or, the most ludicrous example, a player with 'backup' status who had literally just played 90 minutes of league football complaining about his lack of chances in the first-team (he had alreadymade about 11 appearances in half a season)! Then I have to chat to the player, talk to the press and so on and so forth. I mean, I'm managing non-league St Albans City for goodness sake! It's crazy! And I get one or two of these every week despite having a small squad with clear player status set for each squad member. I'm really not a fan of the new tactics system either. I thought FM10 to FM13 had a good synergy of the tactics creator and the ability to alter the sliders too. Now that we just have roles, duties, team instructions etc., I feel frustrated. I've always wanted to tell my players what to do. I really hate selecting a role instead of giving some instructions. I think it is the single worst change to the series since I have been playing it. It removes a lot of the fun for me anyway. Having said all of this, FM15 has been fun for me for a while and I think the UI is way better than many of its predecessors. Overall, I've had about the same success as I've had on previous versions. I've played for about 100 hours and eventually managed to get a couple of promotions under my belt as well as a couple of league titles too. I've never claimed to be great at the game but I've usually managed to get there in the end when it comes to winning the odd trophy. It's not the same game for me though and thanks to having a wife and two kids, I have to say that I'm way more picky these days about the games that I spend a lot of time with. I suspect I probably spent around 1,000 hours on each of FM07, FM10 and FM12. It's very unlikely that I'll put much more time into FM15 as it just tends to make me frustrated. It's not a rewarding experience for me personally these days. I really should give FM Classic a try. Maybe it will scratch the itch for that classic CM/FM gameplay. I haven't really given it a fair chance before as I've always been put off by the feeling that it has gone too far the other way. Plus, I just hate the idea of the unlockables which have no appeal to me at all. I'll always love the idea of an FM game but it seems that maybe the game has changed and it's not what I want these days. I think CM2, CM01/02 and CM03/04 were the glory days from the CM series. FM07 to FM12 were probably the glory days of the FM series. That's for me personally, of course. So many happy memories!

I also checked the 1,000 year game spreadsheet and saw that St Albans City (the team I support) did have a few seasons in the Premier League and even won the FA Cup so I was pretty delighted with that! This will be interesting Deltablue.

Some of those are awesome. I want a James Richardson one! Sadly I haven't been able to find a decent straight-on picture that doesn't have him pulling a weird face. Sadly it looks like Duccio isn't taking requests any more. I'm useless at these kind of things as evidenced by my attempt at doing a newgen version of myself. He doesn't really look anything like me! Your one is cool though, Dafuge. Does he actually look anything like you? Are you bald irl?

Haha!

A future FMer then? I have a one-year-old daughter who is quite frankly a liability when it comes to playing any games. I let her play around on my laptop sometimes but her favourite button is the off button. She's absolutely adorable and keeps saying 'press' but then gets upset when she presses the off button and the laptop turns off. I don't think I would have her around when playing FM on my desktop PC. Maybe when she's a bit older, like your son's age, she'll like to watch me playing. Right now, she's all about pressing all of the buttons!

Hey Daz. Cheers for the reply. I'll take your advice and start slowly! I'm quite tempted by Italy as I've always enjoyed playing there. I remember on CM03/04 having the most epic save with Cremonese working up through the divisions and becoming a top European side. Ever since then I've always had a certain level of nostalgia for playing in Italy and I've had some great adventures (especially with Hellas Verona). So maybe I'm off to Italy again! Although, having said that, I'm also quite tempted by a career game maybe starting in Sweden. I've always meant to have a proper game in Sweden as it seems fun. Also, a career game appeals as you don't get stuck at one club and you are free to jump ship if things become stale. One thing is for sure, I'm really off the idea of managing in England! I've done it too much in the past and it really isn't appealing to go there again right now. Will have to have a think about which option would get me hooked on a save. I don't get as much time to play these days thanks to having a one-year-old daughter to look after. Also, I got into playing some other games like Paradox Grand Strategy (CKII and EUIV). Back in the day, FM was my primary game and I didn't really play much else. I was also a post-graduate student and had way more free time to play. Probably a good thing that it's different these days as I think I more or less burnt myself out on FM back then!

Awesome! I thought that it might be your son.

Thanks for replying Iacovone and Romanista. Having read through Duccio's posts, I see that I do have a chance of getting them to be promoted if I holiday for several seasons. Might be worth doing. I managed Mezzocorona on a past version and feel like I might do well to return there.

Hi guys! It has been a while since I've posted here. How is everyone? I've recently installed FM15 and I'm looking to get stuck into a save. I've had some major FM cravings recently having not really played properly since FM13. I've just been customising the game and getting it set up to my liking. Seems that there is more and more of that to do every time I get a new copy of FM these days! Not sure whether I'm going to try for a one club game starting at the lowest level or go for a career game. I was tempted by a Big Euro Challenge attempt in Italy as I've always had fun managing there. However, I'm also considering a career game instead as I think sometimes it's more fun to be able to get sacked or jump ship in a save. I really don't fancy managing in England though as I think I've done too much of that in the past. So how is the game this year guys? I didn't really get into FM14 but then I didn't really give it a chance. Think I burnt myself out on FM but I'm ready to give FM15 a proper chance now I've had a break.