OFFICIAL FM2011 Demo First Impressions Thread

[Kazza]

The reviewer doesn't like 3D and slates it with a 5? LOL.

Sorry, but 3D makes this game.

Yes I agree with you- I forgot to mention that I did not agree with that aspect of his review. I do like the 3d game.

K

[Scab]

...but in relation to other games, the 3D match engine isn't actually very impressive. I can see why reviewers would not be too keen on it.

[edgar555]

The reviewer doesn't like 3D and slates it with a 5? LOL.

Sorry, but 3D makes this game.

I wouldn't go so far as to say it makes the game but I will say it is massively improved. I was a confirmed 2D classic man, but I've barely used that in the demo. I think I'm sticking with 3D this time.

[Ishu]

I was a confirmed 2D classic man, but I've barely used that in the demo. I think I'm sticking with 3D this time.

Same with me.

The 3D ME is much better than last time. The 'Actual' ME needs to be improved IMO.

[urbanjunkie]

...but in relation to other games, the 3D match engine isn't actually very impressive. I can see why reviewers would not be too keen on it.

It's a fair comment, but I've always enjoyed the 3D. Sure the look of it in the past has not been polished - but when SI get the ME right, it's on the money and I could never go back to 2D.

Love the 3D in 2011.

[grade]

The reviewer doesn't like 3D and slates it with a 5? LOL.

Sorry, but 3D makes this game.

Yes I agree with you- I forgot to mention that I did not agree with that aspect of his review. I do like the 3d game.

K

You cannot be serious about the 3D, right? Like it, is one thing, comparing to the 3D of other games is quite another and put to shame 3D of FM. It still has the looks of a continuation of Virtual Fighter (the first one). I always said, that only one guy wouldn't improve the 3D in terms of graphics (not talking about the ME) that much and I was right, the 3D of FM looks like a graphics game for the Sega Saturn.

I know that a lot of people prefer the 3D to the 2D and commentary and I hope that do enjoy it, but saying that the 3D is what makes the game, makes me wonder what have you been smoking The 3D is far from perfect and this time, there is no reviewers who haven't play this kind of games and made IGN pull the review out and correct it. The 2 points is well deserved and i find it quite a positive remark for the work that only one guy in SI is doing with the 3D.

[tigerhgrrrrrr]

Click on the icon above the news. Whats the point of this feature anyway?

Thanks, found that now.

In answer to your question, I like to wiz through the emails, skim reading to save time - but anything that needs future reference (like pre match scout reorts which are generated a few days earlier than needed) can be marked as "unread" then at the right time it is easier to re-read through them to digest the important points. A matter of taste I guess, but for me it works in business so it also works in FM!

[Kazza]

You cannot be serious about the 3D, right? Like it, is one thing, comparing to the 3D of other games is quite another and put to shame 3D of FM. It still has the looks of a continuation of Virtual Fighter (the first one). I always said, that only one guy wouldn't improve the 3D in terms of graphics (not talking about the ME) that much and I was right, the 3D of FM looks like a graphics game for the Sega Saturn.

I know that a lot of people prefer the 3D to the 2D and commentary and I hope that do enjoy it, but saying that the 3D is what makes the game, makes me wonder what have you been smoking The 3D is far from perfect and this time, there is no reviewers who haven't play this kind of games and made IGN pull the review out and correct it. The 2 points is well deserved and i find it quite a positive remark for the work that only one guy in SI is doing with the 3D.

As I said, I "like" the 3D aspect. For me, it allows me to work out how the players are moving, their tackling ability and if certain instances e.g. penalties are assessed accurately. For sure, I would like an enhanced 3d graphical experience but not sure what that would do to the specs of the game. My enjoyment of seeing those little men glide, ski and float across the pitch is a delight. I never really liked the dots, there were too removed from reality for me, round dots with feet!

Still I am liking all of FM11 including the infuriating agents and unreasonable prima donna players storming out of meetings because you asked them to do something.

As I also said previously, this year will be the first time I begin a new game and not carry over the demo saved game, mainly because of the list of changes due re the release of the game and improvement/enhancment patch.

K

The review did cover the apparent lack of real progress of fm but overall I think it got it right.

[Misch]

i know that this is an off topic but I want to ask you........ what would be the best striker options for the following forvards:

Bojan krkic

diego forlan

Lisandro lopez

(not playing together all three)

[edgar555]

i know that this is an off topic but I want to ask you........ what would be the best striker options for the following forvards:

Bojan krkic

diego forlan

Lisandro lopez

(not playing together all three)

Ask in this thread mate

[Misch]

Ask in this thread mate

thx

[Beefster]

As always the 'skin with the game' is poor - there'll no doubt be countless skinners getting to work soon. Having said that - I do like the option to add in columns to personalise screens - 10/10 for that. Just hate that white everywhere......just looks like these forums/excel...... player pics dont seem to work - which I recall was standard for demos?...and badges etc.....

[Cristiano_Ronaldo09]

FM11 reviews: Eurogamer gave FM11 9/10 IGN UK gave 8/10

[dfa120374]

Okay, did anyone have problems with giant stat drop like this?

This is beckham, i know hes injured/old and all, but the same thing also happened with Pato once, and he was healthy. The only similarity between cases was that i left the match preparation slider on intensive for a few weeks/days. Anyone else got this too?

This happened to one of my Strikers as well and he's only 21. I had him (and the rest of the team) on Very High training for the first two weeks of pre-season and before I changed it some players were starting to say they were unhappy with the high workload. I changed it once the two weeks were over to High and a good few of them have improved appart from my striker who had the attribute drop.

I think it's a combination of him not being happy with the high workload, how much Match Preparation you focus on and if there is any Position/Preferred Move Training/Individual Focus you want him to focus on as all of these will impact his overall training. My striker who had these attribute drops is doing 30% Training, 40% Match Preparation, 20% Preferred Move Training and 10% Individual Focus training, so I think this is the reason for the drops.

The training in FM2011 seems to be a bit more specialised now and you have to find a good balance for the players - you want them to blend more quickly as a unit you put them on higher Match Preparation but this will impact their own individual training as there won't be as much focus going into that. It is a very fine line now I think.

[lostpoolie2]

I have just started the demo where are the stands and the fans, apart from that I like the new contract negotiation and player interaction.

[hursty2]

I have just started the demo where are the stands and the fans, apart from that I like the new contract negotiation and player interaction.

You will need to have the tick boxes selected in preferences.

FM-->Preferences-->Display & Sound-->Tick Show fans,stadiums etc.

[MisterX]

Where can I found quickstarts for FM11 Demo?

[Pires FmSerbia]

Where can I found quickstarts for FM11 Demo?

I will send you on PM.

[tigerhgrrrrrr]

Probably a bug but CBA to read all the bugs in the bug forum....anyway, played a match with same settings as previous match but would only show highlights as text view - all other "camera" views (in TV view) were unviewable!. And replays had defaulted to 2d Classic not TV view. Hope that gets fixed for 11.1.

[edgar555]

Probably a bug but CBA to read all the bugs in the bug forum....anyway, played a match with same settings as previous match but would only show highlights as text view - all other "camera" views (in TV view) were unviewable!. And replays had defaulted to 2d Classic not TV view. Hope that gets fixed for 11.1.

Unlikely to be fixed if SI are unaware and people cba to log bugs.

[tigerhgrrrrrr]

Unlikely to be fixed if SI are unaware and people cba to log bugs.

Agreed, but I cannot upload save games, and I think I have read similar elsewhere. Just annoyed me enough to make the post, im afraid. It seems to me a lot of bugs that are in the game pre-patching are repeated every year - you'd think that previous "problem" issues would be flagged for tighter checking. Still liking the game and looking forward to Friday though! :-)

By the way, a more intuitive search system on the forums might mean I make more of an effort to "contribute" to the development of the game.

[stevedaytona]

So, playing the demo as Burnley and, as might be expected, am doing alright...4th place at the end of October and in the League Cup QF.

Anyway, a couple of things which may or may not be bugs:

3 successive rounds of the LC we have been away to Carlisle, Millwall & Wigan - all 3 went to Penalties and now drawn away again in QF (to Birmingham)

Changed Keeper from Jensen to Grant 6 games ago. Noticed before the last game on the selection screen it showed his last 5 game average as 6.68. I thought he was doing better than that so checked his form screen and in each game he scored 6.9. How does that work?!

Now it's November 1st and I get a message saying the Board have increased my transfer budget "by $17M to $21.5". That struck me as a heck of an increase, though I did think the initial funds was on the low side bearing in mind the clubs balance was over $50M.

Anyone else seen these sort of things?

[demodave]

Hello, Im hopnig to buy this game, my first since FM08, (dont feel the need to buyo ne every year)

Im pretty much forced to run Classic 2D view because my computer struggled running 3D with last years demo, and i cannot afford to be shelling out on new grafics Gards. Anyway im not the biggest fan of 3d has it doesn't quite give me the info i get from 2D and i find the widgets sort of get in the way.

unfortunatly its awful, once again the pitch looks squashed on the screen but thats something i can live with.

Its impossible to to set the pages to what you want, even if you do it through the menu on your profile it automatically defults to the usual setting.

For instance i like to watch the game using Key higlights and having it switch to split screen with my teams ratings and match stats showing.

How ever ingame when i try to do this the pitch view will defult to the overview page when there is no highlights to he shown on pitch, Then i switch to the split screen view, but then there is something so see on pitch, it shows up in the left hand side of the spilt screen view rather then going back to the pitch view. This can be difficult to see and not the bestview for analysing what my team is doing, but to compund my mysery with trying to use this the the Bar which allows you to make quick tatic changes gets in the way of the goal at the top of the screen so i cannot what the goal keeper is doing.

This makes it alomst impossible to watch and follow whats happening in my matches. Im spending my times in the matches trying to get the best view rather then watching what my players are doing.

I hate to say this for something so stupid, and when the rest of the game seems very good, its making me re-conisider wheather i should buy this game, and im afraid its already steering away towards me not buying it. I know how people who make threads about how they are notbuying another another FM game and they not playing again are greeted, This not a venom filled rant at SI by a fickle fan who splurts out rubbish whenever something doesn't go his/her way, i just find it really frustrating to use, and having a bad effect on my enjoyment of the game.

I do really love the FM series and now im looking at a new FM game for 3 years really likeing the sound of the new features and was really looking forward to playing this game. i would really love it if somebody could find a soloution to the problem and perhaps a patch to fix it if no other method can be found. If you could give me some assurances this ca be sorted by a patch or even if at all possible a realese day patch you would have my money gaurenteed.I know that SI do a fantastic job sorting out problems with fottball Manager but i fear that with the emphasis on 3D engine now this may be something that gets forgotten about and not sorted.

Best regards

Fan FM fan, who is really looking forward to FM11 :-)

[jim cross]

just curious is gabby agbonlahor really the fastest player in the prem?

[Magicz]

My favourite team is Manchester United in real life so I went for them in the demo.

Signings= Lukaku, Akinfeev and Van Der Wiel. Oh and a 16 year old Ajax striker.

At the end of the demo I was top of the league 1 point ahead of Chelsea. Unbeaten until the last game I lost 2-1 away at West Brom in the snow.

Against the big teams: Arsenal home 2-0 win away 0-2 win six points Chelsea away 1-3 win. Spurs home 4-2 win. Liverpool home 0-0. man city home 2-0 win.

In the league cup I played a team of reserves against Burnley and got beat on penalties.

Champions League drew me with Real Madrid, Schalke and Rubin Kazan. I qualified in second after losing both games to Real Madrid and beating Schalke and Rubin home and away. Second has given me a round of 16 tie against Marseilles (OM) to look forward to.

FA cup third round draw: Carlisle away.

Impressions: The menu system is cleaner in my opinion and the whole game is easier to use compared to FM 10. The only downside of the home screen is when, especially if you are managing a Premier League or Championship team, you get a message saying that a blue square south manager has been sacked. If I'm managing United then why would I care about the ins and outs at Ebbsfleet United?

The match engine also appears to be quicker and, while I use 2D classic usually, 3D seems much improved after my first two friendlies used it. The only gripe that I have with the 3D engine is that, especially when playing on low powered laptops or PCs it can stutter and jerk around a lot. I found this and turned it off after my second friendly.

I also found that the conversation system, while being a good idea, can be volatile. If, for example, you tell you're star striker to tutor a reserve team forward you don't expect him to turn around and say that he disagreed and storm out. I did however convince Edwin Van Der Sar to become a goalkeeping coach at Old Trafford which I thought was a great idea.

All in all I believe FM 11 to be the best iteration of FM yet and I can see myself sinking hours and hours into the game. If only my laptop supported 3D...

In my opinion this FM is a 10/10.

[trekman]

I've played the demo four times now and here are my thoughts. Overall I think it has the potential to be the best fm released to date. I do however have 4 problems with the demo.

1. Game crashes.

I dont know why but for some reason the game crashes at random intervals during the 6 months playing time and I have to press the fm11 icon on the taskbar to get things running again. Thankfully the game continues where it left off. I dont get any error messages the game just stops. I plan to have a read of the threads in the bugs forum and if its not been experienced by anyone else I will bring it up in there.

2. The weather.

When I first downloaded the demo I picked the Scottish quickstart and picked celtic as my team. I noticed that it rained in every single match both home and away and in european competition. I know that the British weather is bad at the best of times irl but its not that bad that it rains every day! If this is not tweaked a bit for the release day patch that Miles announced I think I'll just swich the effects off until its addressed.

3. Unhappy players.

I've noticed that players are becomming unhappy and requesting to be transferred because I've apparently went back on my word to play them in the first team even though they've featured regularly. Again I'll have a read of the threads in the bugs forum and if it hasn't been mentioned yet I'll bring it up.

4. Red Cards.

In the games that I've played there has been an excessive amount of red cards given out even though I have tackling on default of easy settings. In one save I had a red card in every other league match I played and there was even 3 red cards in one.

[rougess]

Good idea, there should be a thread for everyone's opinions on the demo

[Magicz]

Yeah I felt the need to air my views

[GioGio85]

As Manchester Utd manager it is posisble to filter out what news you receive, just unsubscribe from the conference ansd you wont receive this news.

[Magicz]

Fair enough Gio. I just don't think that it should be there as a subscription in the first place. But that's just me

[Dovydas]

After being fifa manager series fan for long time , I decided to try football manager this year and what I see is very nice . I enjoy 3D matches more of football manager , because gameplay is much more realistic IMO , I like to see these little aspects like players warming up during a match, change of weather, doctor coming to injured player etc. Its very nice . Graphics could be better , but its fairly good , because 3D engine is only 3 years old , so its very "young" . Menu is still difficult for me ( maybe need more time ti adopt ) . Also I would prefer dark menu ( hope it will be in full game). Also I like news, interview system ( its very depth and I like it). My final verdict of Demo is 9/10 . I enjoy playing this game

[GioGio85]

Fair enough Gio. I just don't think that it should be there as a subscription in the first place. But that's just me

When you startthe game you get offered the chance to manage your subscriptions.

Some manager's may wish to know about all levels of football but the option is there too remove this news if thats your preference.

[st.cronin]

Haven't yet read the whole thread, and have not yet done much with the game. Started a game with Morton, played two friendlies, came here to post.

This is the first version I've looked at since 08.

I like the tactics creator.

I love the 3d.

I wish when you took over a club, there was an option "offer mutual termination to all staff" since thats what I prefer to do.

I love the match preparation.

The layout is still a bit unfamiliar for me, but I'm sure I'll get used to it.

I'm having a difficult time figuring out how to save a custom view of my roster.

The media interaction seems solid, but I'm apprehensive that it will get tedious.

I placed my preorder through Amazon, and was emailed an expected delivery date of 11/19, which seems odd.

[CaptainPlanet]

I've given the game a decent amount of time now, playing a mixture of different clubs in different leagues and have put in quite a few hours getting used to a lot of the differences (I skipped FM10) from FM09.

I've posted a few opinions in one other thread, but apart from that I've stayed away from creating a new topic, or posting any detailed feedback regarding my opinions based on the demo. Until now.

I'm sorry to say that overall I'm disappointed with this installment in the Football Manager series, and will not be purchasing FM11 at this time. My expectations were set at a reasonable level given previous versions that I've spent countless hours playing. I kept up to date with all of the new features announcements, so knew what was changing.

The frustration I have comes from the game's inability to mix two elements.

The first is the very complex tactical set up, the scouting, monitoring, negotiation and purchasing of players to fill certain roles, getting the best out of those players, tweaking their training, giving them opposition instructions and scouting the opponent for weaknesses. And then watching it all unfold out on the pitch. These are all the things I enjoy about FM, it uses my brainpower and my love of football as a great combination and plays out a simulated match better than anything else on the market.

Sadly these great indepth features are offset by a lot of features that I feel dumb down the game such as press conferences, team talks, player interaction, board interaction and more than several of the different types of in-game mail received, that whilst all having small effects on your squad individually, collectively influence the ability of your team and from a gaming sense cannot be ignored without detrement to the rest of the game, and are no fun to participate in.

There is a massive game just out of buying the right players and putting them in the right position with the right tactics depending on your opponents. This is what I feel should be made the centre of the game (and to some extense it is in terms of the massive amount of Match Engine work) but there's so much fluff around it it devalues what I enjoy about the game.

I also found the new user interface to be counter-intuitive, uncustomisable and of poor colour choice. No other series revamps the UI with every version nearly as much as FM does.

Hope this feedback is received well and I'm happy to go into further details if it will help the future of the game and series.

[Joshehh]

My defenders (Man City) are playing like tards, got them set to the tactic I usually use for defenders in FM but they are getting embarrassed by poor strikers, just conceded 6 in the last 2 games (but I have scored 8 on the + side) also goalkeeper animation needs to be improved. Another weird thing is teams not celebrating I mean how often do u see a player score and nobody joins in with him.. its like 99.9% of the time they do, you can score a equalizer in the last minute and he just runs around on his own.. defo needs to be fixed.

[st.cronin]

With the players position arguement, I'd like to add my tup'penny worth.

I like it, but I think that the non-dominant positions should be in a slightly smaller font, in order to distinguish and make it a little clearer.

I agree with this.

[Nijuu L]

Like the demo.Plays well. Two things though (data issues aside for Liverpool) - goal celebrations - like the new ones, but a lot of players more than not celebrate the goal alone??. Other thing is the new skin is ummm too bright.... will this be changed for the retail release?.

[totti_is_god]

4. Red Cards.

In the games that I've played there has been an excessive amount of red cards given out even though I have tackling on default of easy settings. In one save I had a red card in every other league match I played and there was even 3 red cards in one.

My game appears to have a problem with red cards. I wrote up my statistics as follows on the bugs forum, and I'd be interested in seeing the results other people are experiencing...

"At the end of my demo - after 18 rounds of matches in Serie A (one under halfway) - there had been 66 red cards. When I searched the web for the disciplinary tables for Serie A over the past couple of seasons I found two websites with conflicting sets of information. However, according to statbunker (which seems to be correct in its data for the Premier League), there were 91 red cards in 09/10, 119 in 08/09, and 116 in 07/08. Obviously the results in my game alone count for little, but the number of red cards is clearly high compared to the real-life stats."

[MisterX]

I will send you on PM.

Thanx, but that weren't the quickstarts I mention. I was looking for quickstarts like playing in Germany, who weren't in de demo, but for Germany I found already a quickstart on the web. I'm looking for that kind of quickstarts. Were can I found them

Germany, Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia, Holland and Slovenia are the country's I already found.

[anthony wright]

A darker skin will be supplied for the full game

Are you sure. I have seen posts suggesting that it will be in a release day patch (What abouit the people who don't access these forums and only play from the box) If it is not available from the box and only on a patch I really dont understand SI's stance here.

I remember there were lots of complaints about the bright skin inn FM09 and it was solved with the choice of light or dark in FM10 so wheres the logic in then removing that choice and reverting to something that was not popular.

I have seen suggestions that the light skin is not as bright as 09 or 10

Come on Miles or Ter could you shed some light (excuse the pun) on the truth and logic of what is clearly an issue for a lot of people

[edgar555]

The dark skin will be in a patch, not out of the box. This was the same in FM10.

[anthony wright]

The dark skin will be in a patch, not out of the box. This was the same in FM10.

Not quite correct

I played the game out of the box last year, and used the dark skin.

If you went to preferences there was a choice between the light and dark skin

[edgar555]

Not quite correct

I played the game out of the box last year, and used the dark skin.

If you went to preferences there was a choice between the light and dark skin

Not according to the guys that made it!

[BaYa]

last year (FM2010) even the DEMO had a DARK SKIN

[Pim1984]

Not according to the guys that made it!

They are wrong, because I remember the same. I bought the game from the start. The only skin they released for download was the FM09 skin, which was only for Steam users for some reason.

[LennyBernstein]

both on loan

i have no idea how that works regards the registation tho...

Doc, great to see you on the FM11 forum. I hope GW Voller is still going strong...

First impressions. Well, the new agent interaction is the biggest and best improvement I've come across so far. I agree with those that find the player interaction tedious and negative however. And press conferences are still a drudge and something I always end up asking my assistant manager to deal with. Overall, the game doesn't seem to have moved on that much from fm10, which makes me wonder whether buying fm11 will be worth it. And the amount of bugs that are being found suggest that if I do buy it I'll wait until a few patches have been brought in to resolve them. It's still the best management game in town, but that's mainly because there isn't much competition. Like others, I think the series is feeling pretty tired and needs a serious refresh in 2012 to keep people like me interested...

Lenny

[Red.devil88]

Looks impressive as always. Very much looking forward to the release date.

I have one issue though, for some reason it doesn't show the stadiums when playing, only grass banks where the stands should be, all I get is similar to 2009. Maybe my laptop isn't powerful enough?

Can you recommend any programme to download to increase the performance and enjoyment of FM2011?

[edgar555]

Looks impressive as always. Very much looking forward to the release date.

I have one issue though, for some reason it doesn't show the stadiums when playing, only grass banks where the stands should be, all I get is similar to 2009. Maybe my laptop isn't powerful enough?

Can you recommend any programme to download to increase the performance and enjoyment of FM2011?

Check preferences, you may need to tick 'show outside scenes'(or whatever its called), you can also change the graphical detail level.

You can try downloading gamebooster to see if it helps your laptop but despite working on FM10 fine it seems to have caused a couple of crash dumps when used with 11. That could be coincidence though.

[Micado]

Didn't read the whole thread, but I tend to get a lot of yellows as a team, no matter what tackling settings (more cautious, default, more aggressive) or do I miss a other setting here. Now with three demo saves played (Man City, Spurs & A. Madrid) my team tops the table for yellows, get 4 yellows on average each game. No reds, just yellow for any player, not only limited for defenders but also AM and ST's get them.

Am I the only one??

Thanks,

[Guest]

Just downloading the demo now. Not sure if theres that much point because they never seem to be like the full game and it takes about 4 or 5 seasons to realy find out what the game is like.