Football Manager 2008

[Rewinder]

It's that time of the year folks. Let your friends and family know that you aren't dead, you are just busy scouting south america at 4am for the next big thing.

Everyone remember their "Just one more match" mantras!

I'll manage our team first for a season, just get a feel for the match engine - which I hope is nothing like '07. Then probably jump to a big transfer budget team is spain or italy, just to find some good players (usually phase out the team I inherit within 2 seasons and rebuild a new one).

Once I get a hang of the transfer market and match engine I'll dive in championship teams and below.

[Rewinder]

Got a nice fat 34m transfer budget from the board (could have asked for more).

Got Adriano on loan (had space in the wage budget), Rosina, and Nasri.

Match engine seems a lot better so far.

[Bluto11]

i'm debating getting this.

last one I had was 2005, and it taxed my computer a bit (it would run ok, but some of the load times were really slow) and I haven't upgraded my computer since then, so I'm not sure if I want to get it if I can't play it without slow loading times sucking out the fun

[Guy Fawkes]

It's out already??!!?

Bah, I just bought FIFA... I'll buy this in a bit.

[TheImposter]

I've downloaded the demo, but I'm really going to try hard not to buy it this year. It's just too consuming. I get sucked way too far into it, and it really is like an addiction, especially when it gets to the point where it's not even pleasant to be playing anymore, and it dominates my thoughts night and day, but I still can't quit. If I can stay away from it for even 2 days that usually gets me out -- right now I haven't played since July. I'm literally afraid to give it another try.

Help me!!!! ;)

[thebigman]

i got this and doing well as arsenal

played about 8 league games, drew 2-2 with chavs at home but won all the others, including the scouse at anfield 2-0

bought in enyeama (cheap gk whose good backup) as i sold almunia to man city for 3.9 milly

bought in quaresma for 10 mill as rosicky gets injured and hes quality on this, competition for the winger spots!

got amauri upfront from palermo because he scores in every match basically and eduardo isnt great and van persie doesnt score much for me

ade and bendy are beasts of target men and score a horrible amount of goals between them!

also bought in some italian youngster and iago from barca for the reserves

and ignashevic as defensive cover for djourou at the blues

its a much harder game than last years but the match engine is better and transfers happen more frequently

[Rewinder]

Rosicky gets injured a lot in this game, which is unfortunate because he has so many assists. Diabyfilling in has been a monster for me out on the wing.

Rosina has also done a decent job filling in there, and occasionally I play eduardo or clichy there.

Eduardo had a very sluggish start, but right around november he caught on fire and has 7 goals and 4 assists in his last 5 games.

Denilson has also been really good for me in this game, and I'm not sure how recently they updated the player database, but Cesc has been scoring some great long range goals, 6 so far.

Adriano has been the beast leading our front line though as RVP had a slow start, and then picked up a long term injury. Adriano has 15 goals and it's only November.

[Gooner_for_Life]

Downloaded the demo and played it through fully until Jan 3rd as Arsenal.

Bought Farfan for like 10+incentives and he did fairly well for me contributing assists and a couple of goals but the fans seem to not like him. His popularity goes up and down drastically like if i dont play him the fans hate him but as long as he is on the field even if he does jack all the fans love him. Seems to be a glitch.

Overall the match engine is better which is nice.

The overall look of the skin as well as the new graphics are also nice additions that just make the game more pleasing to the eye.

Other then that nothing else that is new really stands out, just a lot of little things that were improved upon.

I just got a new job though so i will hold off on buying this for awhile which is good anyhow because the game has lots of bugs that hopefully will be sorted with patches. As well ill just wait for the Worldwide Soccer Manager so i can just purchase it online and download it.

Bluto11 dont even bother man. I played the english quickstart which included conference north/south and up with a small database and framerates would drop on my comp with only firefox open. Granted you cant do much else while playing FM but when i had a page loading (in Firefox) the graphics on the match engine would skip along. As well i would noticed a lag between trying to switch between pages in FM.

[thebigman]

you guys should check amauri out from palermo! goal machine when combined with ade or bendy

[Rewinder]

I didn't get to sign him - someone else made a big offer.

Good thing I didn't sign him too, picked up a 3 month injury.

Fabregas is being a little prick and asking to leave in the first season, despite tons of playing time, and reasonably good performances by the team. Sevilla came in with a 35m offer, and since then he has been pouting.

Peter Hill Wood also undercut me by selling Diaby without my consent when Newcastle came in with a 10m offer.

[Rewinder]

He also sold fabregas to Inter - good thing I picked up van der vaart before hand.

[thebigman]

theres a guy whose a super player i hear in the game who plays for vilalreal, fernandez

by the looks of things he is better than cesc as the am role seems to have replaced the target men role as the 'super position'

[Rewinder]

Matias Fernandez.

He was actually very poor for me in his first season, but in the second season he has been on fire. I don't play him in the cesc role though. I have van der vaart where cesc used to be - and he is scoring a goal a game, and matias fernandez rotates on the wing, or in the AMC role right behind the striker.

[TerpSoccerFan]

Matias Fernandez.

He was actually very poor for me in his first season, but in the second season he has been on fire. I don't play him in the cesc role though. I have van der vaart where cesc used to be - and he is scoring a goal a game, and matias fernandez rotates on the wing, or in the AMC role right behind the striker.

In 07 I played Mati in a free role right behind the strikers and he was fairly prolific. And that was with Rossi and Nihat in front of him.

[thebigman]

man im owning this game

unbeaten in all games, won every game except chelsea at home and they just lost to man u at home

so im 3 points clear, scored over 10 more goals and that means played 15, won 14 drawn 1

amauri and bendy are monsters!!

[glennaldo_sf]

i'm debating getting this.

last one I had was 2005, and it taxed my computer a bit (it would run ok, but some of the load times were really slow) and I haven't upgraded my computer since then, so I'm not sure if I want to get it if I can't play it without slow loading times sucking out the fun


LOL! I'm still playing FM2005.... James Beatti goes on to form England's strikeforce along with James Defoe and Luke Moore! :D

I'll get the 2008 version probably. Just a quick question, what are the main differences between 2005 + 2008. I got FM2006 and didn't notice too many.

[CRASH 4 ARSENAL]

Don't you guys find it a bit too easy to use Arsenal?

[TerpSoccerFan]

Don't you guys find it a bit too easy to use Arsenal?

If I just played the games with the current Arsenal squad plus whatever you can buy with the money... then yes.

But I sell basically the entire squad and buy new people. Then over the next two years sell all those new people and buy other new people - generally in the age range of 16-21. The team changes completely for me every 2-3 years. I know that strategy can destory morale and such, but it makes for an interesting and ever-changing experience, and one where you rarely ever have world class players, because the moment they reach their potential someone offers you 40 mil and you say "yes."

The youth element of that strategy can be fun for an Arsenal fan. Some seasons it gets so bad I virtually ignore the senior team and spend basically all my time with the U-18s.

[Gooner_for_Life]

LOL! I'm still playing FM2005.... James Beatti goes on to form England's strikeforce along with James Defoe and Luke Moore! :D

I'll get the 2008 version probably. Just a quick question, what are the main differences between 2005 + 2008. I got FM2006 and didn't notice too many.

Ha between those two a lot. I know it may not seem like much changes from year to year but across 4 versions. I downloaded the FM08 demo and it is by far the best yet graphically. You can look at attributes graphically, there are tons of pics, faces, crests, logos, etc. The match engine looks a ton better. This is all between 07 and 08 by the way let alone 05 to 08. The training is a lot better. You have multiple coaches now including youth and first team as well as gk and fitness. More categories to cover in training and a youth training module as well as senior one. The list really does go on and on. Just download the demo and it comes with a variety of quickstarts for the most popular european leagues. As well you can play up to Jan 3rd, so half a season. Just see for yourself if you like it. :)

[Bigpapa42]

Like this version so far, though I did end up buying the digital download version of WWSM while me actual FM copy is coming from overseas.

Oddly, I never really enjoy taking over Arsenal in FM. I find it difficult to find the balance between just having fun with it (buying whoever) and being "realistic" (having some loyalty).