A Jump From FM15 To FM20

[turlesque]

It's just a few days I'm playing FM20 after years of FM15 (where I reached AD 2319), and I'm happy. 

Giving up on such a savegame as my tenth Me Myself was manager of Chelsea in the 24th Century (with Liverpool and Manchester United in Championship since decades, and West Bromwich as Chelsea's biggest challenger, several stadiums sized at around 140k seats, and some still in use after 400 years) is, and I tell this with great relief, a beautiful thing to move on.

With FM20, I got rid of ALL the things that annoyed me in FM15.

Most improvements are about the match engine. But not only. Teams play better, I now see meaningful and natural side-switching passes, better and more realistic pass timing, free-kicks and shots at target, or striker-typical high quality finishing, more frequent flat shots and finishes and realistic narrow misses - though of course, managing Bohemians Dublin, I see many of them and some less narrow than others. I see fluid attacks, good pressing and positioning. Above all, there's four things I'll not miss: First, in FM15 the ball would rebound from the bar back to the player who shot - no matter what angle, even 45° diagonal to the goal. In FM20, correct bounces. Second, I don't see these countless supertight-angle-finishes anymore; instead, nice key passes into the box. Third, the annoying far-too-many goals after free-kick-rebounds. Fourth, no more stupid simultaneous closing down of your two centre-backs while your two wide backs run backwards to flaw the offside trap. Of course there are other flaws which disappeared, like the no-collision group-buildings in the box, the bad rebounding of keepers when they saved in side-jumping at diagonal shots, etc, or the too many long-flat-bullet-throw-goals. Or waiting a minute or two for the free-kick to be taken after a meaningless sent-off, or before penalties, or you could easily predict how your players would shoot (badly) after a long run from just outside the box, or on one-on-ones.

Transfer market, loan possibilities, contracts and all - especially staff management - have become more enjoyable; FM20 has amended for many little deficits.

I do appreciate the secondary sections, like the revamp of trainings (especially training performance rating), the tutoring stuff, the squad dynamics and the club vision rehaul. With the Medical Centre we got something I really couldn't understand how even in 2015 it wasn't in the game - with all the much more realistic small-scale training knocks and injuries and specific treatments. Coaching staff stuff is a lot better: First, they really show a willingness to improve, and secondly, you just don't get an awesome Assistant manager at Bohemians anymore. Which makes the game more difficult, but more realistic.

I appreciate also the much clearer, better and more precise possibility to interact with players. With FM15, their door was often shut and you might have lost a huge prospect on a free transfer because you promised him a loan and couldn't find a loan move because teams were even unwilling of loaning him in for free with no wage contribution. You'd lose the guy even if you'd play him first-team for a whole season - he wouldn't sit down and talk about a new contract. Now, you can really talk to them and find a better solution. In seemingly any case.

Before FM15, I played FM11 for four years. Before of that, it might have been FM07. I'm glad I only buy the new FM every 4-5 years, but this FM20 surprised me because most of the reviews gave me the impression it would have been a step back or no particular satisfactory improvement. It's a huge satisfaction. The biggest improvement I've ever seen in my 4-5-year-leaps since FM07.

I do think that some things (like the Social Feed) are pretty useless, and the match interviews are not really pleasing, but still a little improvement that can be appreciated. The Scouting section got a nice try, but it's not much of an improvement. Many things didn't really improve, but they were alright. Because it's fun, and it's always been, making history with your club and players you nurture and love, buy and sell, breaking records or chasing titles. Even with Championship Manager back in 1993.

It's with great satisfaction I end this post and get back to Dalymount Park and dive into Bohemians reality. I need a win in Euro Cup II preliminaries to level my balance. I'm slightly overspending on wages but it seems to pay off, despite Sligo Rovers surprisingly challenging us for runners-up behind almost unbeatable darn dirty Dundalk.

Edited September 23, 2020 by turlesque

[ray27]

I also went into 20 from 15 and still find myself drawn back to my 15 safe, 20 has really started to grow on me these last few months

If I could change anything it would be the social feed, I miss to much information preferred everything going through inbox

[Steve1977beyond]

Great post! Up until FM2008 I religiously purchased FM and became over analytical with every change (especially around the CM3 and CM4 era) but now I'm fairly chilled and when jumping a few iterations like you do, it's strange how the things that seem to bother most of the forum aren't really that bad and it also illustrates there is evolution when not getting it each year.