World Wide Soccer Manger - $15 (this weekend only)
 

Just in case no one read the other thread, Steam is selling this for half off this weekend.

Steam (World Wide Soccer Manager

thanks. I think today is the day I finally take the plunge

Thanks for the tip.

Now if only I really truly understood what Steam is or how it works I might be even more tempted. (yeah, I know, there's probably a FAQ somewhere)

yep, it is

in a nutshell, it's a way to purchase games via download. They run some nice deals (this being a good example) pretty regularly

Thought I might try the demo from the regular website first (to make sure it runs okay for me, etc) but I'm being prompted that I have to install GameShadow before I can download the vanilla demo file.

Is GameShadow okay, or am I going to have some sort of spyware regret afterwards?

I guess (much like the GameShadow question I just posted a second ago) my concern was whether I would end up with anything on my computer I don't want there versus just buying & d'loading the game through them.

Jon, I'm pretty sure Steam has a demo too, and you don't have to fool with any spyware stuff that way.

Er, correction.

There is a free demo for Football Manager 2009 (which is essentially the same game), but I don't know if you can merely unlock that to the full game by purchasing WWSM 2009, or if you'd have to download WWSM 2009 proper and purchase it if you decided you were in.

That's actually fine (assuming that if FM runs okay then WWSM would run okay), I only hit the GameShadow thing because I was looking to grab the vanilla demo instead of the strawberry demo. I can live with the strawberry via Steam, as long as FOFC has declared what Steam is telling me I have to install in order to get the demo is a-ok.

Yep. I was a little wary of Steam myself early on, but I've had no issues with it. It's as prominent or unobtrusive as you'd like it to be (I'm a fan of unobtrusive, so while I let it run in the background, I do have my executable set up to not load the Steam overlay; I just launch the game through Steam when I want to check for patches).

I still buy most of my games retail, just to have the manual/DVD on hand, but every now and then Steam will have a deal that makes it worth buying from them. This would be one of them for me if I hadn't already bought the game from them.

so, what is the difference between FM and WWSM?

Nothing, really. Spain and Italy are broken in both versions. Spanish B teams spend all the money signing crap and Italian teams keep spending all their cash on co-owned players who never play for them.

Other than that, the game is decent.

Just retitled for the American audience because it was felt that in America Football tends to refer to 'American Football' rather than Soccer ...

(oh and there is an American English translation as well ..)

Sigh.

"fm.exe has encountered a problem and needs to clsoe. We are sorry for the inconvenience."

So much for that I guess, can't even get the demo to launch.

I'm guessing it either doesn't like my video setup (my Nvidia GeForce4 MX Integrated GPU sounds like it's less than the required Nvidia FX 5900 Ultra or greater) or that my 448 MB RAM isn't enough to meet the minimum 512M RAM requirement (i.e. when they 512 they really mean 512 instead of the good old days when games often needed you to be in the neighborhood not always literally).

I always go to the 'Can You Run It' website, I did it yesterday for this game in fact to see if my laptop would handle whatever the 3D engine requires on this version. It checks your computer specs compared to what the game's minimums and suggested specs are.

Can You Run It? Powered by System Requirements Lab

Great tip, should have remembered that myself but hadn't needed it in quite a while. Would have saved me from d'loading Steam for sure, failed the RAM & the video card as I suspected, also failed video RAM and Pixel Shader Ver. Req.

d'oh

RAM is huge for WWSM/FM. The more the better.

I'll second this. Was really paranoid about some of the things I had heard about Steam, but it's been just fine and really a pretty nice way to get your games -- I've got five or six now.

This is funny, as I am in the proccess of loading FM 2009 and was thinking of buying it. I guess I'll try it out, then buy it off Steam.

Had to buy it.

Video card fail on my end.

jeebus...you guys have really old rigs?

Just to confirm, 2009 is the current version that just came out in November or whenever, right? The one with the 3D match engine?

Yes.

I've been playing a setup where all the players are dumped into a free transfer pool. Fun to see the popular English teams struggle.

Cool, may have to buy this later today.

I woulda thought that even after free transfers the big clubs would have big bank balances. You're right, though, that would be interesting to see. The mad dash to sign people must be insane. How did you get that set up? Is it a game option? Or did someone find a way to mod it in?

In-game editor.

When I say all players, it's global(all leagues).

Yeah, I figured that. I'm just wondering why the big bank balances of English clubs don't stack up with other potential suitors, like from Italy or Spain or France or Germany? Interesting. Thanks, tucky.

Or better yet, a setup with no transfer budget for any team.

Thanks for the heads up on this.

Okay, Steam's pissing me off.

I added WWSM 2009 to my cart. I am logged in to my Steam account. So adding it to the cart takes you to a page that states that WWSM 2009 has been added to your cart, and you have the option to either Continue Shopping, or you can Continue Checkout by selecting "Purchase for myself" or "Purchase as a gift". So I select Purchase for myself, and it takes me to a screen that tells me there is an error, because I don't have anything in my cart. WTF? So why the hell did I just come from a screen that said WWSM 2009 has been added to my cart?

I logged out and back in, went completely away from the site and came back fresh, and even selected Purchase as a gift (I'll just gift it to myself), but, no, I get the same error page. Is this how Steam does business? :mad:

that's weird chiefy...idk what to tell you

Just sent a support message to Steam, and basically told them, 'fix this and get me in on this deal or go ahead and cancel my Steam subscription'.

So we'll see how that works out.

I'm having similar problems, I can't create an account to buy the game.

Weird. I didn't have any problems setting up an account, either the one for buying games or the one to send a message for support.

Steam's really dropping the ball right now.

weird

I couldn't get Steam to work right for me until I down-loaded it and bought the game from the program. It wouldn't work right straight from the website.

This game is so different from the previous versions, it is a bit over-whelming.

is the sale still going on? Also, I've never played a FM/CM game, what will the learning curve for this be?

Not sure for how much longer (couldn't see anything on the product page), but the sale is still going, as I finally broke down and picked it up just now. Can't remember the last version I played, but a few years back the learning curve was pretty steep.

I do have to say though that I'm starting at the disadvantage of not knowing much more than the very basics of soccer, which seems to be the true divide in those who argue about how difficult the game is to learn.

I know very little about soccer other than the basics of playing a game.

It's not likely a game you can just pick up and play right off the bat and succeed. The game is very in depth and has quite possibly the biggest immersion factor of any sports sim in the market. If you're patient though there's a lot of really good documentation on tactics, training, press releases, etc that can not only help you understand the game, but succeed as well. I would suggest stopping by the Soccer Text Based Sims area of the FOFC forums once you have purchased the game to learn more.

http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/...splay.php?f=19

Euro crowd: 19.49 on Play.com. Just got me a copy!

That was where I was way back in 2000. It took me a few tries for the game to hook me and awhile longer before I had any grasp on tactics, etc. Luckily as someone above mentioned, the soccer sim forum has tons of information that weren't widely available then.

Between that and the improved help info in game I think the learning curve is way better than it used to be -- but it is a detailed game, it's going to take a little while and some effort to get a good handle on it. The payoff is well worth the effort though IMO.

The learning curve is large but well worth the effort. If you are like me you not only don't know much about the on-field tactics but you also know nothing about transfers (how you bring in and get rid of players) which is totally different than US sports. In football you buy and sell players sometimes just to make money sometimes to improve your team.

I spent a lot of time on the SI forums in the tactics section which both taught me about the game WWSM and also real world football. I found topics by a user named wwfan that were a great help. This year he put out a 50 page pdf on tactics and how to set them up. Don't think you have to read and understand a 50 page document it is that large as it goes over several formation types, the basics are covered in a few pages and it even has a cheat sheet to help you set up your own tactic. And of course here at fofc there are some knowledgeable players can give some good advice.

It took me about 6 months to get comfortable with the game, keep in mind I'm a slow player. I never felt like quitting though as I could see the incredible depth the game offered. There is nothing like the feeling you get the first time you are managing a game and you change your formation and tactics during a game and see them succeed in either bringing you back from behind to win or hold onto that one goal lead on your arch-rival's pitch.

I love playing OOTP, FOF, FBCB, and on consoles The Show and NBA2k but no game I have ever played gives me the feeling I am dealing with human beings and the real world like FM\WWSM.

For $15 it's a good time to give it a try.

Crap, sales over.

Lousy weekend to not check the boards . . . .