Football Manager 2024

[purpleronnie]

Does football manager on the commodore 64 count?  That was the last time i played FM.

 

 

Edited 21 July 2025 by purpleronnie

[Finnegan]

16 minutes ago, Stadt said:

I wasn't old enough for the CM days but my impression is a lot of the nostalgia is because it was so easy

 

It was pretty easy but also pretty new remember. Largely the series is quite tired now. 

 

It's a bit more complex now but I still wouldn't say it'd particularly difficult. 

 

[Stadt]

Just now, Finnegan said:

 

It was pretty easy but also pretty new remember. Largely the series is quite tired now. 

 

It's a bit more complex now but I still wouldn't say it'd particularly difficult. 

 

I agree it's a bit too easy. Attributes at least how they're displayed need overhauling - trouble is you make it too difficult and the player base drops off

[RoboFox]

On 21/07/2025 at 12:45, Finnegan said:

 

It was pretty easy but also pretty new remember. Largely the series is quite tired now. 

 

It's a bit more complex now but I still wouldn't say it'd particularly difficult. 

 

I haven't played for a few years but it seems like the consensus amongst many long-term players is that it's just too complicated now. SI has spent years basically introducing largely arbitrary systems so they could justify a full-price game every year in lieu of a much needed total-engine overhaul.  

 

This is why the CM/FM games from the 2000s are so well regarded. It struck the perfect balance of management without all the bloat. 

[Finnegan]

31 minutes ago, RoboFox said:

I haven't played for a few years but it seems like the consensus amongst many long-term players is that it's just too complicated now. SI has spent years basically introducing largely arbitrary systems so they could justify a full-price game every year in lieu of a much needed total-engine overhaul.  

 

This is why the CM/FM games from the 2000s are so well regarded. It struck the perfect balance of management without all the bloat. 

 

Bloat is right.

 

I would describe current FM games as both artificially and superficially complex. 

 

They aren't actually anymore difficult and you don't really need to engage significantly with a lot of their new systems but they can be intimidating and off-putting. Instead of focusing on making the game more challenging by making the AI better at key decision making (recruitment being a big one), I feel like they've focused a lot on deliberately increasing the average time it takes a person to get through a season. 

 

Most of it can be avoided and is just extra clicks for nothing. Needing to talk to an agent before bidding on a player, needing to make promises before offering a contract, it's just extra screens to go through and can usually just be ignored and skipped.

 

Stuff like overhauling the training schedules can be avoided by just having your assistant manager do it with almost zero loss of actual performance. 

 

Meanwhile, the same tactics you had in 2010 can almost certainly be copied in to a save on 2020 with no significant problems. New roles like mezzala, trequartista, pressing forward, raumdeauter all sound good but can just be ignored and I find that generic Winger (Attack) and Winger (Support) either side of a couple of CM (Autos) can still win you the league.

 

It's all largely just fluff to make the game appear to be more detailed and in many cases it's often stuff that was always in the game, it's just been added to the UI. Recruiting Data Analysts so you can see all of the underlying data the game was already recording anyway, for example. Does nothing for you largely, to be honest, I doubt many people really use it and often what they show isn't helpful. But it's there and it's pages to look at and the game will tell you to look at it and new players will go "????? ugh wtf?" and get lost.

 

[CosbehFox]

My issue with football manager stems that each edition you just need to find the winning pattern. The tactics that work for that edition. It never differs upon each save rather than the task is towards work to the winning formula (the challenge is rather how long it takes than having to find different patterns). The AI is not intelligent enough. 

 

Maybe that's a bit of my autistic tendencies making it seem easy but it's how I read it. 

[Sly]

I actually paid and downloaded this when it game out. 
 

I even went and purchased a new laptop to do it.

 

I installed it and found it so bloated, I just didn’t bother with it. I didn’t enjoy it as a game, like I once did. 

[AjcW]

I'm aware it's not a gaming laptop... but lets be honest i'd never really consider FM something that needed a 'gaming' device.

 

But to back up the points above, i've got a 4 year old MacBook that I do nothing else on these days, not much installed, barely any files, and I get half a star game speed even with just one nation installed

 

It's a ****ing nightmare, takes about half hour to get through a week!

[RoboFox]

1 hour ago, AjcW said:

I'm aware it's not a gaming laptop... but lets be honest i'd never really consider FM something that needed a 'gaming' device.

 

But to back up the points above, i've got a 4 year old MacBook that I do nothing else on these days, not much installed, barely any files, and I get half a star game speed even with just one nation installed

 

It's a ****ing nightmare, takes about half hour to get through a week!

CM01/02 has a data update released every season by a dedicated following, but it doesn't work with the newer M-series of chips sadly which it sounds like yours might be. 

 

Original CM2 is abandonware and playable via DosBox. Great for a hit of 1997 nostalgia (I yearn for those days) and still works.

 

[RoboFox]

On 22/07/2025 at 14:04, CosbehFox said:

My issue with football manager stems that each edition you just need to find the winning pattern. The tactics that work for that edition. It never differs upon each save rather than the task is towards work to the winning formula (the challenge is rather how long it takes than having to find different patterns). The AI is not intelligent enough. 

 

Maybe that's a bit of my autistic tendencies making it seem easy but it's how I read it. 

This is definitely the case and TBF has been for ages. Instantly after every release people are uploading tactics that basically exploit the absolutely ancient game engine.

 

I have to say it's not the worst thing in the world, I can't be arsed to set up the minutiae of tactics every game. I just want to select a squad, avoid the bloat and power through a season. 

[filbertway]

Never really had the issue if finding it too easy because I don't copy other people's tactics. Even when I do seem to hit gold, at some point the team will inexplicably just bomb

 

I never play with top levels teams though to be fair, being in the Prem is pretty easy as you're going to be better than the AI at squad building. 

 

Working your way up there from step 10 is good fun though, if you want to call being stuck in the Regional Prem for 3/4 seasons "fun"