Why I will be playing FMM18 instead of the PC version
I first played Championship Manager, as it was known back then in around 1997. A mate of mine in the little village we lived in was lucky enough to have a PC and I used to go round and try to play it. I had already played a few football management sims but this one just felt different to all the rest in a way I still can’t explain. Once my Mum and Dad finally got a PC in around 1999 there was no stopping me. I bought CM3 straight away and racked up the hours managing Barcelona to 5 straight Champions League wins, along with fantasy football type saves with my mates. We were playing ultimate team long before EA thought of it. We would all start with a blank squad and the maximum money that you could get in the pre-game editor and build our squads from there. The battles to sign Nesta or Batistuta for our chosen clubs used to be epic! Then you have the wonderkids from that era with Cherno Samba, Tonton Zola Moukoko and my favourite Kennedy Bakircioglu all living strong in my memory.
Champ Man hero Kennedy Bakircioglu back in the day.
Since then I have owned every version of the PC game that has been released as well as CM quiz on the PS1 if anyone remembers that. Every year I would either go to the shops on the day of release taking a day’s holiday from work if needs be or I would pre order to download it. The amount of time I have put into this game franchise is unbelievable and still continues. Despite having a family of my own now as well as a full time job and all the other grown up responsibilities that come with them I have played 828 hours (that is over a month of last year playing one game) on FM17 although this is down from 1023 hours for FM16. The reason for this drop? FMM17 of course.
Despite devoting a huge chunk of the last 20 years to the PC version this will be the first year I would guess since 2000 that I won’t buy it on the day of release and maybe not at all. So why am I turning my back on the PC version? I have a perfectly decent laptop that can play it albeit not super-fast and I still have as much time as I did last year to devote to the game. So why the change?
To answer that question we need to go back to the 14th April 2017. I’m on holiday with my wife and daughter but unfortunately my daughter is having one of her common migraines. This means bed for her and Mrs F and I stuck in our accommodation with no chance of site seeing. As I was looking to win husband of the year I hadn’t taken my laptop with us but I did have my new Acer tablet so needing a quick fix of FM I decide to download FMM17. Once downloaded I started a game with Liverpool and instantly I’m a kid again. The game play, tactics, quickness you can sign players and get into matches it’s all like the good old days of CM. Like all holiday romances though your soon home and it was back to the laptop but I kept going back to my tablet for more FMM through the summer. Summer turns to autumn and I find myself playing FMM more and more until I realise it’s all I’m playing. If I look on my steam library I haven’t played PC FM since the 3rd of September and do you know what? I really don’t miss it or have any desire to play it.
So why this change over the last 6 months? With the upcoming release of FM18 I have been watching the teaser videos for it on YouTube and to be honest they leave me feeling cold. It’s not that it looks a bad game or the new features look terrible. In fact it looks well thought out and a definite step up from the last couple of games which have been very similar to each other. I think it is simply the fact that I don’t need these features to enjoy the game. Yes they make it more realistic but to be honest I want to sign players, set tactics and win games and trophies. I’m not bothered by who is friends with who or having my data analyst tell me how far the opposition midfielder runs in a game. I know some of these things are in FMM for example players getting upset because you sold the star man or they aren’t playing but that’s OK it’s around the right level and can be dealt with quite easily without spoiling the save and I do want a certain level of realism.
This isn’t to say FMM is perfect. It could be made more realistic in some ways without ruining the quickness of the gameplay and some more player roles wouldn’t hurt either but in general I love it. I can play a season in a couple of evenings instead of a couple of weeks whilst still feeling I am in charge of the team and that the decisions I make have an impact both before and in match. I sometimes read negative comments about FMM from people who play the PC game but then hear them rave about the good old days of CM 01/02 which is considered just about the best in the series. In fact it was released by SI last year as a free download because it was so popular and I have seen a few YouTubers do series with it. To me that doesn’t make sense as in so many ways FMM is CM 01/02 except we can see the game highlights and don’t just need to read the text. This is why I will be buying FMM18 on the 10th November and not FM18.
I would love to hear your reasons for playing FMM. Maybe you’re like me or maybe your just waiting for the day you can get a better laptop or PC so you can play the full fat version.
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Why I will be playing FMM18 instead of the PC version
I first played Championship Manager, as it was known back then in around 1997. A mate of mine in the little village we lived in was lucky enough to have a PC and I used to go round and try to play it. I had already played a few football management sims but this one just felt different to all the rest in a way I still can’t explain. Once my Mum and Dad finally got a PC in around 1999 there was no stopping me. I bought CM3 straight away and racked up the hours managing Barcelona to 5 straight Champions League wins, along with fantasy football type saves with my mates. We were playing ultimate team long before EA thought of it. We would all start with a blank squad and the maximum money that you could get in the pre-game editor and build our squads from there. The battles to sign Nesta or Batistuta for our chosen clubs used to be epic! Then you have the wonderkids from that era with Cherno Samba, Tonton Zola Moukoko and my favourite Kennedy Bakircioglu all living strong in my memory.
Champ Man hero Kennedy Bakircioglu back in the day.
Since then I have owned every version of the PC game that has been released as well as CM quiz on the PS1 if anyone remembers that. Every year I would either go to the shops on the day of release taking a day’s holiday from work if needs be or I would pre order to download it. The amount of time I have put into this game franchise is unbelievable and still continues. Despite having a family of my own now as well as a full time job and all the other grown up responsibilities that come with them I have played 828 hours (that is over a month of last year playing one game) on FM17 although this is down from 1023 hours for FM16. The reason for this drop? FMM17 of course.
Despite devoting a huge chunk of the last 20 years to the PC version this will be the first year I would guess since 2000 that I won’t buy it on the day of release and maybe not at all. So why am I turning my back on the PC version? I have a perfectly decent laptop that can play it albeit not super-fast and I still have as much time as I did last year to devote to the game. So why the change?
To answer that question we need to go back to the 14th April 2017. I’m on holiday with my wife and daughter but unfortunately my daughter is having one of her common migraines. This means bed for her and Mrs F and I stuck in our accommodation with no chance of site seeing. As I was looking to win husband of the year I hadn’t taken my laptop with us but I did have my new Acer tablet so needing a quick fix of FM I decide to download FMM17. Once downloaded I started a game with Liverpool and instantly I’m a kid again. The game play, tactics, quickness you can sign players and get into matches it’s all like the good old days of CM. Like all holiday romances though your soon home and it was back to the laptop but I kept going back to my tablet for more FMM through the summer. Summer turns to autumn and I find myself playing FMM more and more until I realise it’s all I’m playing. If I look on my steam library I haven’t played PC FM since the 3rd of September and do you know what? I really don’t miss it or have any desire to play it.
So why this change over the last 6 months? With the upcoming release of FM18 I have been watching the teaser videos for it on YouTube and to be honest they leave me feeling cold. It’s not that it looks a bad game or the new features look terrible. In fact it looks well thought out and a definite step up from the last couple of games which have been very similar to each other. I think it is simply the fact that I don’t need these features to enjoy the game. Yes they make it more realistic but to be honest I want to sign players, set tactics and win games and trophies. I’m not bothered by who is friends with who or having my data analyst tell me how far the opposition midfielder runs in a game. I know some of these things are in FMM for example players getting upset because you sold the star man or they aren’t playing but that’s OK it’s around the right level and can be dealt with quite easily without spoiling the save and I do want a certain level of realism.
This isn’t to say FMM is perfect. It could be made more realistic in some ways without ruining the quickness of the gameplay and some more player roles wouldn’t hurt either but in general I love it. I can play a season in a couple of evenings instead of a couple of weeks whilst still feeling I am in charge of the team and that the decisions I make have an impact both before and in match. I sometimes read negative comments about FMM from people who play the PC game but then hear them rave about the good old days of CM 01/02 which is considered just about the best in the series. In fact it was released by SI last year as a free download because it was so popular and I have seen a few YouTubers do series with it. To me that doesn’t make sense as in so many ways FMM is CM 01/02 except we can see the game highlights and don’t just need to read the text. This is why I will be buying FMM18 on the 10th November and not FM18.
I would love to hear your reasons for playing FMM. Maybe you’re like me or maybe your just waiting for the day you can get a better laptop or PC so you can play the full fat version.
Thank you for reading.
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