21-01-2005 09:41									#1
	Should I get: Football Manager 2005 or Winning Eleven 8? Support Apolyton or Terrorists Win

Well, I've been playing the Football Manager 2005 (TRUE successor to Championship Manager) demo for a while now. I was thinking of buying it. But on February 1st, Winning Eleven 8 (considered the best soccer video game on the market) is coming out. Which one should I get?

	21-01-2005 10:05									#2
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I never really got used to CM after CM01/02, too many clicks to do simple things now, too many drop down menus for contract negotiations, player searches and other repetitive actions, its just far too in-depth now and doesnt play well enough yet. Wait for the last in the current series, its always the best. Like CM01/02 was to the CM3 series.

WE8 will give you a lot more fun, even on your own, and last longer. Easy to learn, difficult to master.

If youre buying it for PC just make sure you have a pad with 8 buttons, 2 analogue sticks (with button function) and a d-pad.

	21-01-2005 10:22									#3
	Support Apolyton, pre-order Civilization IV

quote: Wait for the last in the current series, its always the best.

Yeah, that'd be Football Manager 2005 .

quote: If youre buying it for PC just make sure you have a pad with 8 buttons, 2 analogue sticks (with button function) and a d-pad.

X-Box, so no worries . I was actually juggling buying FIFA 2005 (don't hurt me ) because of all the league tie ins.

	21-01-2005 10:43									#4
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quote: Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui quote: Wait for the last in the current series, its always the best. Yeah, that'd be Football Manager 2005 .

Oh, well definitely dont buy it then.

quote: quote: If youre buying it for PC just make sure you have a pad with 8 buttons, 2 analogue sticks (with button function) and a d-pad. X-Box, so no worries . I was actually juggling buying FIFA 2005 (don't hurt me ) because of all the league tie ins.

Same here. The only thing with the xbox version, is its too much bother to update the game using a maxdrive (I dont have one) or FTP over the updated files to your xbox with an already edited option file from the internet, on PC it's a simple patch. Its great though because they include all the official kits/badges, transfers, names etc, basically what you pay for in FIFA.

For all its dodgy team/stadium names though (that takes 30mins to correct yourself) its still a million miles ahead of FIFA in gameplay.

	21-01-2005 10:50									#5
	Support Apolyton, pre-order Civilization IV

Yeah, I haven't bought a soccer game in ages because FIFA was waaay too arcady. And this is the first year that Winning Eleven 8 is being sold here (same for Footbal Manager/Champ Man, but only limited release this side of the pond).

	21-01-2005 11:12									#6
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations: Deluxe Edition

Limited release?

	21-01-2005 13:17									#7
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Yeah, SEGA is supposedly distributing it, but you can hardly find it anywhere (ie, **** distribution). But I can get it online from Gamestop.com.

	22-01-2005 07:55									#8
	Support Apolyton, buy Call to Power 2

Anyone else?

	22-01-2005 16:06									#9
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization: The Boardgame

on xbox i've gravitated away from Championship Manager 01/02 to LMA manager 2005.

The only reason this happened was because in LMA you get a match screen where you can watch your team play their matches, and its the best attempt i've seen a football management game do.

On the statistic side of things CM is superior to LMA, but LMA has enough meat to keep me happy, plus since i loved SWOS so much - having that in game match really makes it feel like i'm managing a team and not just some numbers

link for info for xbox CM(you probably know it):

http://www.xbox.com/en-gb/champions...ger/default.htm

link for xbox LMA 2005(you probably dont - its like an xbox secret ):

http://www.codemasters.co.uk/games/?gameid=1556

	22-01-2005 16:17									#10
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Codemasters? So they are still about.

	22-01-2005 16:35									#11
	Enter the AD-FREE zone

quote: Originally posted by DrSpike Codemasters? So they are still about.

Yep Dizzy lover

One of the last big, still succesfull british game publishers(maybe THE last, thinking about it?).

	22-01-2005 17:29									#12
	Support Apolyton, buy GURPS/ Alpha Centauri

FM '05 is pretty good. Its not really that different to the older versions though. A few extra features that are fun for a while are the in-game viewing and media bashing.

	23-01-2005 12:44									#13
	Inflate your Upload Space

quote: The only reason this happened was because in LMA you get a match screen where you can watch your team play their matches, and its the best attempt i've seen a football management game do.

Football Manager (and the last CM) also had/has a pitch view. It's pretty good. And I'd be getting FM 05 for the PC. Don't need text sims on the XBox .

	23-01-2005 15:33									#14
	Get a bigger avatar today!

Winning Eleven!

	23-01-2005 23:57									#15
	Support Apolyton, buy Alpha Centauri

I'm actually now leaning towards getting both (somehow). Though I think I may get Winning Eleven 8 first (on Feb 2nd).

	03-02-2005 10:10									#16
	Tired of ads?

Just picked up Winning Eleven 8! Great fun, though I have to learn the controls!

And I ordered Football Manager (Worldwide Soccer Manager in the States) last night .

	03-02-2005 10:24									#17
	Increase the size of your Attachments

Take a run through the training courses first, although some of them are pretty simple, I think you know how a goal is scored

	03-02-2005 10:45									#18
	Put an end to popups!

Yeah, I did play some of them... I am getting smoked on normal difficulty early on. Though one star was definetly too easy to learn the game (I won 6-0!!). I have to gradually work my way up.

	03-02-2005 18:43									#19
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization: The Boardgame

The AI starts to become a real bastard at getting to the loose balls and rebounds on higher levels, especially from their own shots, and the referee seems to be on their side if its a really important game and you take an early lead.

Playing Liverpool this morning (theyre 2nd 2 points below me loads of games left) I take an early lead with a total fluke from a free-kick - curled a cross in, everyone misses it and it bounces and flies in at the far post. Straight from the kick off they take it down into my area and I brush lightly past one of theirs, he falls like hes been shot and the ref gives a penalty Although the worse team for those dodgy referee decisions is Man U and Arsenal at home, I was smashing the pad on the floor after that.

	04-02-2005 01:04									#20
	Tired of ads?

Damn refs! I hate when you feel a game is decided by the penalty calling! But hey, at least they go for realism against ManU and Arsenal at their home field .

	04-02-2005 08:16									#21
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations: Deluxe Edition

The Gunners lost to the Losers 4-2 at home. So much for realism.

	04-02-2005 18:59									#22
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I guess the ref got confused who to side with in that fixture, or perhaps Alex Ferguson pressured the ref in the tunnel at half-time, as he likes to do.

Theres definitely some bias toward Man U in WE8 though, those crafty Japs

	04-02-2005 19:03									#23
	Increase the size of your Attachments

You would think after Beckham left, the Japanese wouldn't favor ManU so much (IIRC, they LOOOOOVE Beckham there), but the reach of the Red Devils is far and wide .

	04-02-2005 19:23									#24
	Browse Apolyton AD-FREE

I think Real Madrid would be pretty sick if they didnt see bigger returns in Asia put it that way

Also Imran do you have WE8 International? As I understand it Konami tweaks each version. WE in Japan, PES in Europe (slightly tweaked) then the most upto date and tweaked WE to the US last.

	04-02-2005 20:05									#25
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Yeah, it's official title is Winning Eleven 8: World Soccer International. Even though it is most up to date, I wish they would have made the rosters more up to date. Wayne Rooney, for example, is still on Everton (or Merseyside Blue as they call it ) rather than on ManU (Man Red). And Gravesen is also still on Everton rather than Real Madrid, though that did happen fairly recently.

	05-02-2005 10:18									#26
	Lose 30 kilos (of popups)

I guess they didnt update the transfers because its still the start of the same season... and probably too much effort. Its not like it takes 3hrs to correct the transfers you notice are wrong yourself. Although at some point it doesnt really matter if youre playing the master league because everyone gets transferred everywhere anyway.

	05-02-2005 19:23									#27
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization 2

quote: Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui Yeah, I did play some of them... I am getting smoked on normal difficulty early on. Though one star was definetly too easy to learn the game (I won 6-0!!). I have to gradually work my way up.

I recently beat AC Milan 8-0 on 6-Star difficulty level, but then again I must have clocked up something like 200 hours of playtime on this franchise over the years so I've sort of got the hang of it now.

Even so it doesn't get to the point where I can be sure to win a game easily - even when I play as the better teams it's unusual to go through a whole 30 game season without losing a couple of games and drawing 4 or 5 more. That's my favourite thing about this franchise: the AI is so good that it always stands a chance of beating you no matter how good you get. Best. Games. Ever.

	05-02-2005 19:27									#28
	Got spare money?

I would encourage you to never play on anything less than the 3rd difficulty level (apart from the first couple of games where you're learning the controls). Just like when playing Civ the easier levels get you into lots of bad habits and poor tactics that simply won't work when you move up. It's best to move up the levels very quickly until you find a level where you're only winning maybe 50% of the time.

	06-02-2005 01:12									#29
	Full PM-box? Change here!

Yeah, I think I'll be playing at 3 star level soon. Don't want to pick up bad habits . When I actually start a league, I'll have it at 3 star.

	06-02-2005 01:23									#30
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations

quote: Originally posted by FrustratedPoet I recently beat AC Milan 8-0 on 6-Star difficulty level, but then again I must have clocked up something like 200 hours of playtime on this franchise over the years so I've sort of got the hang of it now. Even so it doesn't get to the point where I can be sure to win a game easily - even when I play as the better teams it's unusual to go through a whole 30 game season without losing a couple of games and drawing 4 or 5 more. That's my favourite thing about this franchise: the AI is so good that it always stands a chance of beating you no matter how good you get. Best. Games. Ever.

Its really frustrating sometimes but I guess thats the price you pay for such a good AI. Like when you see how fast the AI runs sometimes when the ball is loose (could be my imagination) or how quickly they turn and pick up where loose balls or rebounds are about to land, I cant tell you how many goals Man U have scored from a Robinson fumble or clattering the post from 30 yards then battering in the rebound.

Heres some replays i saved a while back, each one is like 1mb.

one
two
three

Notice vs Locomotiv Moscow goal the slight realistic deflection it took, sweet The Bobson one is an AI goal just a few seconds after I scored the Defoe goal, guess I pissed him off