What happened to football management sims?

barbar69

I've recently been enjoying a sort of video game renaissance and decided to revisit the series that consumed more hours of my adolescence than an other: Championship Manager (now called Football Manager).

So i picked up a cheap copy of FM2010 and played it for a couple of days only to be left feeling frustrated and dissappointed. It seems to me that there isn't a whole lot of new stuff to do compared to the classic Championship Manager games of the early 2000s. However it now seems to take a lot longer to perform simple tasks like filtering through transfer targets and there's lots of really repetitive stuff like press conferences and backroom staff meetings.

Is it me or did the genre peak ten years ago?

dreamers75

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=368

have a look there, some decent web based ones if you prefer the less cluttered version.

barbar69

Cool will do. Have you a favourite?

the untitled user

I've tended to buy an iteration of CM/FM every two years or so for the past decade and I'd agree with you, more recent versions have been harder to get into.

I think the series is ailing because it's attempted to be a one size fit's all solution. You've an incredibly dedicated loyal following who want the capacity to micromanage everything, and then you've the more casual player like me who can't afford the time needed and just wants instant gratification And then of course the whole keeping up with jones aspect which has led to the incredibly buggy 3D match engine and the like. I think they just lost their way a bit trying to satisfy the various demographics.

I noticed that FM2011 started differentiating between the general vs. micromanagement aspects (e.g. they have a slimmed down tactics interface with the option to go advanced). I'm hoping this will be extended in future to allow to pick and choose which aspects of the game you want to engage with.

landsleaving

Once they brought in the press conferences and other rubbish pre-match they lost me. Far too much work just to get to a game.

I tried the demo of this years and it has agents when you make transfers, it's easily the worst addition to the series. WHat I wouldn't do for the 00/01 Champ Manager format with up-to-date players. And Ian Wright.

marco_polo

One of the reasons I stopped playing is that I finished college about 5 years ago, so since then no longer have the time to put 100+ hours into the same game. I did dabble with FM2010, we gave it a good go, but it never hooked me like the old ones and ultimately we both had to accept that we were no longer right for each other and move on. :P

Kiith

I prefered it in CM97/98 when you could do a full season in an afternoon or two. Click Done, it's Saturday. Play your matches. Click Done, it's Wednesday and you got that player you went in for. Click Done, it's Saturday.

Many a summer wasted playing that

tallaghtmick

landsleaving wrote: »

Once they brought in the press conferences and other rubbish pre-match they lost me. Far too much work just to get to a game.

I tried the demo of this years and it has agents when you make transfers, it's easily the worst addition to the series. WHat I wouldn't do for the 00/01 Champ Manager format with up-to-date players. And Ian Wright.

you can get champ manager 01/02 for free online and then download patches for it.

barbar69

yeh i tried downloading Cm01/02 with the updated patch but just couldn't get it to run smoothly.

I'm not totally against putting some micro management stuff in there as long as it works well. I found in FM2010 my squad hamony was always low because my players felt I wasn't "giving them enough credit". It turns out that praising them in press conferences every week isn't enough and you have to single out players for praise now and again too. My head melted:mad:

tallaghtmick

barbar69 wrote: »

yeh i tried downloading Cm01/02 with the updated patch but just couldn't get it to run smoothly.

I'm not totally against putting some micro management stuff in there as long as it works well. I found in FM2010 my squad hamony was always low because my players felt I wasn't "giving them enough credit". It turns out that praising them in press conferences every week isn't enough and you have to single out players for praise now and again too. My head melted:mad:

ill try help ye what patch did you download?what goes wrong when you load the game?

Fanny Cradock

On another note, I see that FM live is closed.

Gonzovision

Fanny Cradock wrote: »

On another note, I see that FM live is closed.

Ye I tried it twice, got bored with it very quickly.