Alright Boyz, Here We Go! The FM2008/WWSM2008 First Impressions Thread
 

Just heard the announcement from Miles Jacobsen of SI (this is on the Football Manager Live Beta):

Due to some unnamed retailers once again breaking street date, FM2008 will be released Thursday (Today, UK time), not Friday.

Let's just say the expletives coming from his mouth are impressive. (he's pissed about this.) The breaking of street date happened in Sweden, and then spread to Holland

So.. we still have a week for WWSM to get here, but hopefully one of our overseas folks will have the game shortly.

I'll wait for the Spanish kiosks release on 26th. It's going to be a hard wait, but this year i want to support the Spanish sales, it's just a week and I received yesterday nba2k8 that is going to keep me bussy for a while.

I'm gonna be a good boy and wait for the American release too - maybe one day we'll get it the same day as the Europeans.

Winding up plans for the PLA, baby. Can't wait!

goddamm retailers!!

general question for the SI guys if they can know and can share: what kind of penalties does SEGA dish out to those retailers?

They have to stock copies of E.T. The Extra Terrestrial for the Atari 2600 that were dug up from the dump in New Mexico.

You what is the worst thing about the early release by those retailers?

There are already pirated copies around, and having pirated copies before the game is even released can damage the sales a lot, and at the end, can damage us as customers if SI needs to close doors one day because that.

Those retailers should be really punished with lawsuits if possible (probably too hard with different countries laws etc).

per Miles: Nothing, because they're not buying directly from SI or Sega.

I don't think I have ever waited until the Friday to play a new CM/FM game. I used to go to a store in Glasgow that would sell the game on the Tuesday or Wednesday before release.

http://community.sigames.com/eve/for...153#6502054153

The official announcement.

Oh, I asked Miles just to be 100% sure. This does NOT affect the US Street date, or the digital download date. that is still as scheduled.

Hopefully it won't take SI too long to fix the closing down bug, other than that the match engine seems to be a lot better. The transfer market stuff plus wages/transfer fund allocation is a great improvement.

i am fighting with myself to wait until the first or, even possibly, the second patch before buying so i can start with a fresh patch. i know i don't have the strength to not start if i had the game in my hands.


has anybody know if the install into default directory from the demo has been fixed?

Can't wait for this game, though I think I can live easier until I have it then others. That has always been one of the nice things about driving a truck. Once I put the computer down I will spend the day driving back and forth in the mountains of Arkansas. Takes my mind off this kind of stuff pretty fast....

When are those dates, again?

Wooooooooooooo PLA rox!

Fix what? They short-circuited the install process for the demo on purpose.

From the blog, slight modification made by me

UK, Ireland, Italy, France, Portugal, Greece, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Denmark, Belgium, Holland and any other European countries where the game is normally released apart from the countries below, the release dare will be Friday October 19th (turned out it is today, the 18th). Which really isn't very far away at all.

In Spain, the game will be released on October 26th. Which is slightly later, but we're trying something new in Spain, and will be selling from kiosks for the first time, which is very exciting. There'll be a bit more news about that in tomorrow's blog, coz there's some very cool stuff going on over there.

In Australia, the game will be released on October 25th.

In the Czech Republic, the game will be out on 1st November, and in Poland 8th November. The reason for the delay is to ensure that the translations are spot on for your countries.

For those in Japan, you'll be able to get a fully translated version of the game on December 10th and Korea are planning on launching on 1st November.

Worldwide Soccer Manager will be released in the USA, Canada and Mexico on October 23rd as a boxed version exclusively from www.amazon.com, or as a digital download.

Futbol Manager will also be released as a digital download for the rest of South and Central America on the same day, October 23rd

I haven't done much research on the options of the new game, but for me the difference between 06 and 07 was vast enough for me to warrant the purchase and was very thankful subsequently (the game speed alone was worth it)....I know historically, I've purchased the FM series every other year - can somebody upsell me? Why should I get the 08 version? Will I be telling people to buy 08 like I was telling people to by 07?

Proof is in the pudding. Download the demo and see for yourself.

For me, this game is another giant step forward. I would say the differences between 07 and 08 are bigger than 06 to 07.

COuld you elaborate on what you're seeing as a major improvement? In looking at the new feature's list, I didn't see anything that really jumped out at me.

The speed of the sims, the expanded depth of press and player interaction, the interface itself are places that have improved greatly, just off the top of my head. I haven't been keeping a running log of all the improvements I've run across, but have been very impressed with the overall product.

Like I said, get the demo and see for yourself. Just reading a list of new/added features really doesn't convey just how much stuff was improved and the level of polish in the new version.

From playing a bit of the demo, there seems to be less of those utterly ridiculous "from the goal kick, the keeper passes directly to opposition striker for an easy chance," "awful backpass straight to opposition striker for an easy chance," and "your team goes 2-0 up against some relegation fodder and all of a sudden the opposition starts to resemble the 1970 Brazil team" incidents.

Players seem to be less outrageously priced in the transfer market and there seems to be more room for actual negotiations as opposed to last year's take it or leave it stuff.

These are two big things for me, but if you didn't have a problem with them last year you might not find huge differences in the gameplay.

Well, maybe now my copy is on the way.

I want to buy this but where is the best bet for me that is not digital download? amazon?

IIRC it's either Amazon or import from UK/Europe, it won't be sold in stores here.

Can anyone post machine specs for the game? I can't seem to find the info anywhere on Amazon or SI's site.

http://www.gogamer.com/Football-Mana...VVviewprod.htm

Gogamer has the FM version of it

so it works correctly in the finished game?

This is great news. Some of that stuff seemed ratcheted up a notch last year and I wasn't able to get into the game as much as a result.

Yes but how is the AI? (joking, really):D

Why did you have to post that?

The last 3 years I have bought from Gogamer and paid the higher price. This year I have told myself I was going to wait and get the US release or DD...

Now I see "in stock"...must resist..serenity now...urge getting stronger..

I just got the same damn feeling.

I'm so weak....

I will be buying this while I am down in Australia, I will grab any copies for those that want FM in the states, let me know through PM...

They have one less copy now.

i should smack you

2 less now :)

Why are you guys buying the FM version when the US version comes out on Tuesday, is cheaper, has free shipping and will get to you faster?

because I like "hearing" the English commentary as opposed to the American Commentary.

I just really wish you could turn team talks off forever... I don't care to see what my assistant says to my players, because I don't believe it has THAT much affect over the game. It seems like i have to click and go through 4 or 5 more screens to get to the game now. It's just a minor annoyance, but it is an annoyance :(

I've got it set up for my assman to handle team talks, so I haven't seen a team talk screen in forever.

Ive got WWSM and my prefs are set to use English as my language as opposed to English (US), and it has a distinct British flavour.

eh, oh well then. call it exuberance then.

Yeah when you have the asst. manager do team talks now it still shows the screen and what he has said to the players... I just want it to skip that screen like it used to...

Because the FM version works with all of the editors and third party tools and WWSM doesn't.

Was this the case last year (re: third party editors) I bought WWSM05, FM06, and FM07 so I've been out of the loop for a few years regarding the headaches with WWSM.

$20 extra for getting the game four days early is silly, but the editors and FM Scout (I'm not sure what other third party tools even are) are a big deal IMO...

gogamer cancelled my order because Im on a temporary debit card as my debit and credit cards were stolen from my car last night :( I guess "Preferred customer'' is not the "name on the card" eventhough it is. So now that Im back at square one and Ive learned about the UK English choice, what should i do? Order it from amazon?

You could just wait

for what, I asked Gamestop if they'd carry it and they told me "no", so I'd have to buy it online anyways. Is it going to be at a B&M?

I was hoping GoGamer would ship today! :(