Football Manager 2008

[The Quasi Juice]

Young-Pyo Lee just got called into the South Korea Under 23 squad. Yay.

[stokeriño]

I'm liking the International tweaks thus far - being able to 'attend' Premiership games, ask players to reconsider their international retirement, etc. What I'd *really* like to do though is go up to Carlo Cudicini and ask him if he'd like to cash in on his eligibility for English national status, because I'd damn well play him even if Italy never will. ¬_¬

[Pesci]

I'm loving the layout of this, much better than last year. The blue attributes might take some time to get used to, though.

[Buford Ripley]

Been playing for five minutes now and I'll say that I like the new layout but I'm not too fond of the white skin nor the blue attributes.

EDIT: On second thought, the white skin looks alright during matches.

Edited September 30, 2007 by Stephen Kulebert

[stokeriño]

I don't like how whenever I select an England squad, there's a news message about "so-and-so being left out in the cold". This is whoever the game deems the most 'high-profile' person you've left out to be, and they subsequently become "unhappy about being dropped from the international side" in their personal profile page.

The first time it was Gary Neville. The second time it was Wayne Bridge. Guess why they weren't in the squads? They were both fucking INJURED. The image of Bridge hobbling up to me on his bad hip and complaining about his exclusion may well be an amusing image, but it's annoying in the game.

Also, I wonder - if you ask a player to return to international duty and he says no, can you ever get a second chance? If so, how long until you're allowed to ask again? I tried asking Scholes for a laugh, but I really want Carragher to change his mind at some point too.

[cmb211087]

The massive match engine bug really spoils this demo, and has its the gold release will spoil the main game unless they release a patch on day 1. By the main bug im talking about the one where your players will not close down the opposition whatever you have their closing down set to, meaning they can just waltz through your team.

[Legend_Killer33]

cmb, that is annoying I agree. That is the reason why I lost to Coruda (sp?) 2-1 with Man Utd. I just realised how important the sounds are in a match. I mean, I just can't into it when I can't hear the crowd. I assume that it's because I d/l the Vanilla version. Does the 600MB file have sounds?

[stokeriño]

Nope.

Or at least, I have them set 'on' in the options and don't get anything.

[Steeb]

This is excellent. Love the little new features like the post match report stuff.

[Lord Nibbler]

I like that it lets you know how happy fans are after each result, that's a nice touch.

[Steeb]

Any ideas what the 'Make Available For The Reserves' does - well, besides making them available to play in those matches? I'm not so hip to the inner workings, y'see. Does it have a benefit? Drawbacks?

Also, I kinda like the introduction of 'Travelling' removing players from being available.

Also (.....ALSO~!) half of my team has decided to hate Carvalho. Well cock.

Edited October 1, 2007 by Steebamese Dream

[Steeb]

lol, double post.

So I sold Carvalho, bought Mertesacker instead. And we're 1-0 down to Reading.

However, I have noticed something really small, but really cool, that may have been in 07, but I didn't notice it then. When only one of my Coles is playing, it no longer says 'J.Cole'. Told you it was the little things that impressed me.

[Guest Ringmaster]

It did that on the old FM. Keep up Steeb! Keep up!

This game is so optimistic, it thinks Ledley King's only gonna be out for 2 months.

[therockbox]

Any ideas what the 'Make Available For The Reserves' does - well, besides making them available to play in those matches? I'm not so hip to the inner workings, y'see. Does it have a benefit? Drawbacks?

[9 to 5]

So, impressions then guys since I have no intention of downloading (the demo) of this.

[cmb211087]

So far the consensus is 50/50, there are a lot of big bugs which Si have admitted too, and will be gone only in the first patch (eg closing down doesnt happen, players just stand with the ball until they get tackled, two goalkeepers in the net on a penalty, alot of dissalowed goals etc etc). Without the patch, it's nothing more than database upgrade from 2007 with a few gimmicks. But with the patch I can see it becoming really good, its just that the bugs let it down a lot.

Edited October 1, 2007 by cmb211087

[Guest Ringmaster]

- The minor changes and additions they've done are all cool. I've enjoyed all those I've come upon

- Scouting is a lot more fun. You get reports on a frequent basis of the list of players your scouts says you should buy. This is much better than what they used to do.

- The matches themselves seem to be a lot harder. No more "just pick a winning tactic" style of play from the looks of things. It seems like you're going to have to adapt your tactics from game to game and tell your players how to defend/attack accordingly. In fact, this is now done in a separate window after team talks. I've messed around on a Spurs game to test out the engine. In my match against Man U, I first made the players close down on the likes of Ronaldo and Rooney and give them very little room. This got me a 1 - 0 win. I then restarted the game and played it without any instructions to the players with regards to the opponents and lost 12 - 1. Even in my UEFA Cup game against Larissa, I gave no instructions with regards to the opposition and lost 2 - 1. The necessity for different instructions when you're playing different teams is definitely the biggest change in this, since FM07 just required you to more or less pick a winning formula on the whole whereas this is more of a change things all the time. I'm not sure whether it won't get tedious though.

- Jermaine Jenas is a bastard, a moron and a piece of shit .

[9 to 5]

What kind of manager loses to Larissa in Europe?!

[Dan]

I love how it takes Beckham logner to get home after an international match.

[Guest Ringmaster]

What kind of manager loses to Larissa in Europe?!