Some thoughts on FM 16

[Hilly27]

Having played CM/FM since it's inception, I must confess that for the first time ever I didn't buy FM16 on release as I wondered what SI could do to make the game more absorbing. Instead I followed the forums and it seemed that all the usual complaints that occur on every release were still there, dodgy match engine, poor player media interaction etc. etc.

However, when Steam offered the game at half price I took the plunge and have given the game a good bashing for several weeks over eight or nine different 'saves'. In my view it differs little from the last two or three releases, but to keep a perspective, I played a few games on FM 10 recently and it's easy to take the later releases for granted, for the difference is between FM 10 and FM's 14/15/16 are staggering and shows how, in a relatively short period, just how the game has come on.

The game is enjoyable to play without any major game breakers that make you want to chuck the game in the bin, but there are several major and minor irritations that have existed in previous games, and still exist in this game.

Let's take our old favourite, the AssMan. Now I have tried every which way to get a decent AssMan, either by employing one with good stats, or in utter frustration, editing him to be a footballing genius. Nothing seems to make any difference. Let's take pre-kick off oppo instructions. Some want you to close down and/or mark every player on the pitch, others don't think we should close down or mark anyone and NONE of them believe it's worth closing down or marking the striker(s). They will advise from time to time that we kick the striker up in the air, (harder tackling), or put him on his weaker foot, but mark him? Nah.

It get's worse during a game. Normal scenario is that I play with one up top, shorter passing keeping possession. So I'm dominating possession, 2-0 up, not giving the oppo a kick, and the AssMan will pop up and suggest I lump it into the box. Yeah, thanks Mate. I think perhaps SI should come clean here and say, that despite their best efforts, it's impossible to get the AssMan to perform as we would like. If it's a technical thing we would all understand.

Media/player interaction has stood still, I fail to discern any noticeable improvements.

Buying and selling players is still is not great, For example I couldn't get any offers for Christian Ericson, in the Jan. 18 window.

There was a problem in previous FM's with 'unknown referee' doing your game. This seems slightly less, however, I was a bit surprised when playing in the World Club Cup Final, that I had 'unknown referee'.

Finally, a question. Why are the teams in the Brazilian Serie a and their lower leagues all three letter names, eg. FLA, (which was Flamengo). When I look on line for the serie a results, all the teams have their full names. Is this a licence issue? If not, please can we have the full names of Brazilian teams back. (I did check the forums and could find no reference to this issue at all, but I may have missed something).

This is not really a moan, just some observations. We really shouldn't expect too much from a computer game, and FM 16 is still fun to play.

[forameuss]

The Brazilian names...just need to go back a week or two to when there was an update, there were loads of threads on it. It is indeed a licensing issue, and although there are ways around it, they won't be discussed here, and officially its here to stay. Just the way it is these days.

One thing that really jumped out at me is your first paragraph where you said instead of buying, you followed the forums. That's probably the worst way you could get an idea of the game. the feedback this year has been more positive than other years, even if it might not seem like it, but it's still going to be mostly negative. People don't usually come on to be positive about the game, just human nature. Honestly, you're much better getting the demo and forming your own opinion than taking others.

As for the rest of the stuff, this probably sums it up well

The game is enjoyable to play without any major game breakers that make you want to chuck the game in the bin, but there are several major and minor irritations that have existed in previous games, and still exist in this game.

I'm not sure I'd say there are any "major" irritations, but there's plenty of minor ones. It's still enjoyable, more so then 14 or 15.

The assistant manager stuff I don't really care about personally. The suggestions aren't always accurate, but then it would be incredibly difficult to make it work in the way that would be useful. The way it looks like it's working, the assistant will look at a period in the match in complete isolation from anything else, and then offers advice based on that. He's going to see you playing a 4-4-2, and suggest that you're being over-run by a 4-5-1. He's not wrong, but you're not going to massively change your system because of it. Having one that knew exactly what to advise in would be either impossible, or severely overpowered.

[James_Fraser]

I'll start by saying that there has been a massive improvement from when I first started playing in 2011

However, there are some bugs that still remain. The biggest bug for me is the ice skating that happens in the 3d match engine. Whether it's my laptop or the game, it really bugs me. This year there seems to be a bug where sometimes the 3d match engine doesn't load properly and some of the images don't load, you'll see part of the pitch and the advertising boards, but that's it.

I am liking the newer displays however. It seems to be a lot easier to get around and managing the side is also easier.

[Hilly27]

I'll start by saying that there has been a massive improvement from when I first started playing in 2011

However, there are some bugs that still remain. The biggest bug for me is the ice skating that happens in the 3d match engine. Whether it's my laptop or the game, it really bugs me. This year there seems to be a bug where sometimes the 3d match engine doesn't load properly and some of the images don't load, you'll see part of the pitch and the advertising boards, but that's it.

I am liking the newer displays however. It seems to be a lot easier to get around and managing the side is also easier.

I didn't even touch on the match engine. I took one look at it, saw the ice skating and thought this WILL drive me potty, so I just use commentary, with the odd replay to iron out tactics etc. As I said in my post, just one look at FM10 and you can see how far the game has come.

[Hilly27]

The Brazilian names...just need to go back a week or two to when there was an update, there were loads of threads on it. It is indeed a licensing issue, and although there are ways around it, they won't be discussed here, and officially its here to stay. Just the way it is these days.

One thing that really jumped out at me is your first paragraph where you said instead of buying, you followed the forums. That's probably the worst way you could get an idea of the game. the feedback this year has been more positive than other years, even if it might not seem like it, but it's still going to be mostly negative. People don't usually come on to be positive about the game, just human nature. Honestly, you're much better getting the demo and forming your own opinion than taking others.

As for the rest of the stuff, this probably sums it up well

I'm not sure I'd say there are any "major" irritations, but there's plenty of minor ones. It's still enjoyable, more so then 14 or 15.

The assistant manager stuff I don't really care about personally. The suggestions aren't always accurate, but then it would be incredibly difficult to make it work in the way that would be useful. The way it looks like it's working, the assistant will look at a period in the match in complete isolation from anything else, and then offers advice based on that. He's going to see you playing a 4-4-2, and suggest that you're being over-run by a 4-5-1. He's not wrong, but you're not going to massively change your system because of it. Having one that knew exactly what to advise in would be either impossible, or severely overpowered.

Having played the game since it's inception, I had little doubt that there would no earth shattering developments in FM16. The forums are useful in as far as you get a clue as to what has changed, or not as the case may be. My point really was that I've always purchased FM on it's release, it's a habit, but this time I just decided to wait, as I didn't think it would very much different from last year, and it isn't a whole lot different from last year.

[Welshace]

The Brazilian names issue cannot be discussed here, it was for licensing reasons,

Google is probably your friend for info on this...

[forameuss]

Having played the game since it's inception, I had little doubt that there would no earth shattering developments in FM16. The forums are useful in as far as you get a clue as to what has changed, or not as the case may be. My point really was that I've always purchased FM on it's release, it's a habit, but this time I just decided to wait, as I didn't think it would very much different from last year, and it isn't a whole lot different from last year.

There isn't a whole lot they can do to "revolutionise" to be honest. The basics of the sport are there, and the only room for medium sized change is with small additions. You're unlikely to get anything earth-shattering at this stage in my opinion.

Would still disagree on the forums though - you might get an idea as to what's changed, but for me most of the things that have made FM16 better than any previous release are the little things. A lot of which wouldn't get mentioned anywhere. If you look purely at the forums, you'll get the headlines, and then endless negativity from people who are having issues. It's a terrible way of determining the quality of the game.

[Hilly27]

There isn't a whole lot they can do to "revolutionise" to be honest. The basics of the sport are there, and the only room for medium sized change is with small additions. You're unlikely to get anything earth-shattering at this stage in my opinion.

Would still disagree on the forums though - you might get an idea as to what's changed, but for me most of the things that have made FM16 better than any previous release are the little things. A lot of which wouldn't get mentioned anywhere. If you look purely at the forums, you'll get the headlines, and then endless negativity from people who are having issues. It's a terrible way of determining the quality of the game.

Don't altogether agree, but I understand where you are coming from. Just another thought on FM. Having played the real game at a decent level, and still following the game now, one of the things I've really enjoyed over the years, is having my knowledge of the players in the game enhanced, year on year. Having played CM/FM for so long, I get some satisfaction, for example, buying the likes of Vincent Kompany as a youngster, and now years later, having your judgement proved right in real life. Also the fun in failure as well, Freddy Adu comes to mind. What ever happened to him?

[FrazT]

So that all thought on FM 16 are kept together, please use the feedback thread http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/453728-Football-Manager-2016-16-3-0-Feedback-Thread