The thread dedicated to the game where we all prove 150% over that we know what we're talking about when we diss our managers' choices

41 days to go till FM 2009 and it's 3D MATCH SIMULATION. Who's still playing their FM 2008 game? Confession time!

I'm still playing FM 08, in my 3rd season at Hibs, Qualified from a UEFA Group of AC Milan, Auxerre, Sporting Lisbon & CFR Cluj...I finished 3rd on 5 points. Currently sitting 2nd in the SPL. Drawn against Everton in the next round, I fancy my chances against them. For my team lineup see the games thread

How did you guys all find the youth development system in the last one. I thought it was a big leap forward. So many more of my players have made it into the 1st team than in previous incarnations.

Yeah I've had a fair few of the youth kids come through the system better, I'm Vauxhall Motors, in my 10th or 11th season and in mid-table in League One the first season after being promoted from third. I've found though that the easier pre-season games I always seem to be beaten whereas the tougher ones I always seem to perform pretty well (beat Arsenal on penalties in the most recent one! )

Ive brought through Kurtis Byrne, Lee Currie and Patrick Deane at Hibs so far...they get run outs in the cups

I'm (on and off - keep stopping playing for ages) in my third season with spurs, following on from league cup winners in the first and Prem R/U + UEFA cup in second season, I'm now in 2nd place with 3 games to, only going out of the CL to Real Madrid on away goals

First year I signed Asharvin and Van Der Vaart (now reighning world Player of the Year), 2nd season added Owen at the front, Ryan Nelson and Petri Pasanen at the back and Fabio Rochemback in the middle, third season (before christmas last year real time) signed Woodgate, Tim Cahill and a kid called Ever Banega for DM - brilliant little player, absolute bargain.

The kids are doing OK, a few played early this year due to injuries to every striker I had at one point (Even signed John Carew as a stopgap at one point). Dixon, Peckhart and O'Hara have been playing most, whilst Taraabt and a youngster called Georginio Wijnaldum have been out on loan in the prem

Wish there was a way to carry over marking/closing down tactics on the opposition instructions screen - sick of having to set the same instructions for every striker that plays each game

I'm trying to sign Petri Pasanen at Hibs mate, hes quality, i did just get David Wheater off Boro for 200k

he's back-up for king/nelson/woodgate at the moment in my back 3. Bale also drops back on occasion.

But sign Banega - class young player.

I also have a game as Oldham I started on my laptop - Taraabt, Peckhart and Joe Hart on loan, plus moves for numerous 16 year olds on a percentage of sale fee only - including Hoyte the younger, bostock, ramsay......

I took 08 back to the shop after a week, its shit.

I can't wait to play as my local team (Ilkeston Town) on this, although I'll have to edit them into Blue Square North first.

I'll also probably take on the 'challenge' of managing Luton. I'm sure others will be doing that one as well.

I set France, Italy and Spain as playable leagues at the outset and had my scouts look at the Under 18 (U20 in Italy) competitions in those three countries. Has yielded some absolutely brilliant players for peanuts.

Rabiu Ibrahim is my personal favourite. Bought him from Real Betis' youth setup for £3.2m and just had to fight off an £11m bid from Real Madrid after just one season of mostly substitute appearances. Using him sparingly at the moment but he's quickly turning into the new Maradona!

Might I also say that Havard Nordveit (starts off in my youth team) becomes one of the best defenders in the game after 2 seasons.

I didn't get into FM2008 as much as the previous couple. Had a good initial run with Sheffield Wednesday but then just became too busy and lost interest. I am looking forward to the new one however, sounds promising from what I've heard but of course that could turn out to be nonsense.

Still playing it... really frustrated with it though, every single one of my players is rated as 6-7 stars but I've not achieved higher than 4th and I keep going on large losing streaks too, hmm... I think there's a big bug in it. Is the patch that's available able to go over saved games ok?

FM 2008 is more tactics orientated than player orientated. Up until this incarnation you could get away with just fielding 11 world class players in a 4-4-2 and you'd win most games. I won the title in my first season then didn't win it for 3 years (only kept my job because I won the Champions League) because I refused to stop using the 4-4-2.

I found 08 way too easy. Completed 12 years with Arsenal and only failed to win the league twice. Champions league was hard to win but still won it 6 times. I've had Bendtner and Vela as my strikers for 10 straight years with both of them scoring 40+ goals a season. I'm hoping for a more realistic experiance with the new game.

With me I always go Hibernian, regularly qualify for Europe and have won the SPL once though. I always seem to buy a great goalie, then he drops form the next season though so I tend to need 2 of good quality to do well. What system do you guys use in european games??

Against teams better than me I go with the wing backs and 3 cbs or one sweeper and 2 cbs, an anchor man a playmaker and an attacking midfielder with 2 up front. I use my wingbacks very attack minded though! At home I go 4-3-1-2 with regular fullbacks

Demo out tomorrow. Anyone getting it?

JK wrote:Demo out tomorrow. Anyone getting it?

Yeah I will, I want to see what this new match system will be like.

Whens it due to come out properly?

Amazon has it down for 14th November. So I assume thats a general thing.

Sweet if its any less than 20 notes I'll buy it after the Manchester Raw taping

Wow. The media section has really been revamped this time around and the match engine is just bloody fantastic!

Looks like SI are keeping to their usual pattern of odd numbered years being the better products. This has all the makings of being much better than 2008.

I can't import my 2008 tactics though. Maybe that's just a demo thing...

A week before FM 2009 my FM 2008 savegame is erased by a computer crash. Then again I had nothing left to acheive on this one. Finished with an unbeaten league season, the quadruple + Super Cup + World Club championships and as England manager I won the Confederations Cup and European Championships and just as my game crashed I had brought the World Cup home.

I'd say that's a good place to leave it.

So, my final team on FM 2008 was:

GK: Marco Bonnassi

DR: Bakary Sanga
DC: Curtis Davies
DC: Havard Nortdveit
DL: Armand Traore (would have been Clichy but for chairman)

AMR: Theo Walcott
MC: Cesc Fabregas/Samir Nasri (rotated)
MC: Henri Lansbury/Fran Merida/Jack Wilshire (rotated)
AML: John Fleck

FC: Rabiu Ibrahim
ST: Scott Sinclair

Awesome Awesome team.

Now that it's up and running I am LOVING FM 2009. A VAST improvement on FM 2008. They've added all the little things I prayed would be in the last version and weren't, inculding:

1. Active Assistant feedback - I have been longing for a 2nd opinion, this is brilliant.
2. 3D camera - obviously
3. Better media handling - it's still not perfect but it feels a lot less robotic and ineffectual than before.
4. Ability to just tell the computer to make every first teamer you're not using available for the reserves indefinately without dropping them.

What does everyone else think?

I haven't played it much, but atm I'm not a fan of the pre-match & post-match press conferences, they just seem a bit too repetitive to me.

JK, did you install the game using Steam or did you choose the other option?

Also, because I had to type in the 'keycode' is that why I don't have to put the disk in when playing?

I used Steam.

Not using the disk has been the case for ages. You only need the disk in order to load the game but once it's up and running you can take the disk out. That's been the case since... CM3 I think?

Ah, this old chestnut.

I had an epic game on 08 with Newcastle. Got them 3 league titles, a Champions League and 2 FA Cups by 2013 and made some pretty awesome signings. Henok Goitom is a striker and was my first big signing at 11.5, this guy is the best player I've ever had. His goal record was ridiculous, I have a screeny of his form where he scored in 10 or 12 in a row and in the last 5 or 6 had at least a brace each game. 30+ goals every season. My final team was...

Krul/Fabianksi

Hoyte/Hutton (both free)
Taylor
Samba/Kruijswik
Antunes/Insua

Milner/Wijnaldum
Bruins/Lucas
Denilson/De Zeuww
Bjarnason/N'Zogbia

Goitom/Balotelli
Benzema/Saivet

What a team. Started on 09 with United and signed Wijnaldum again, he's brilliant as usual, not played much, 2 wins and 3 draws so far. Could be better.

They seem to have refined the tactics system. The Rule of One (one mentality space between each position going GK - CB - WB - DM - CM - AM - FC) doesn't seem to work quite as well as it did on 2007.

It still has the defensive solidity it's always had but getting the strikers to put the ball in the net... that's a tricky one!

Maybe I just haven't found the right starting point...

Bit of help needed please. Basically I get this annoying box appear everytime i load the game up and it doesn't go away. I think it's a pop up from Steam or something but I don't how the hell to get rid of the bloody thing. It means I have to rely on previous experience to know which order the action buttons are in on news items (thankfully my experience is vast )

Edit: the re-sizing has made it smaller. Click it on to see the full extent of the box.

JK wrote:I used Steam.

Not using the disk has been the case for ages. You only need the disk in order to load the game but once it's up and running you can take the disk out. That's been the case since... CM3 I think?

For some reason, I don't even have to put the disk in at all, not even to load my saved game.