In case anyone is interested - pop over to sigames.com for the download.

Have Fun,

Marc

uh oh

Fuuuuuuuck. There goes my evening.

Oh Crap!! Just when I thought i had some extra free time.

You noticed they released it RIGHT after the Ashes ended..

didn't want to be upstaged, Marc? :)

(and yes, crap, free time go byebye!)

Are there any mirror sites set up yet? I can't get SI's server to work.

In case anyone is interested - pop over to sigames.com for the download.

Have Fun,

Marc

Interested!! How bout willing to kill someone for it :D

I'm downloading, and it is taking all day.

Trying to download...

Got it downloaded and enjoying the heck out of it. My team beat a team (score 4-0) that was relagated into our conference this year (and they were heavily favored). Hmmm, is this coded to get me hooked on the game? :)

Please offer digital download for this game on release. Thanks.

BTW, I really like the homepage where you get a look at all kinds of stuff at once (standings, stats, next match, etc). I'm not sure if this was in the last version.

trying to download.

OMG. OMG. *dies of happiness*

first the "faggoty joystick jockey" goodness of Madden 2006, and now this!?!?! THIS!!! THIS!!!!

*SI Fanboy*

BTW Marc. Although I very well might just start a new game...are 05 saves gonna be importable to 06?

BTW Marc. Although I very well might just start a new game...are 05 saves gonna be importable to 06?
they never have been in the past CW. issues with new statistics and database structures and what-not I'd guess.

I doubted it, and it's not a big deal (considering I'm barely a season into my current game), but was curious.

Speaking of which, how long can we play this demo. I didn't see it stated.

*drools all over FM2006*

Dammmmmn. This is great. I can already tell I'm going to love it.


as an aside, I never would have thought that of the games I'm planning on getting this would have been the first one I'd see a demo of.

I like the contract issues.

These beta demos, year after year, seem to jump up out of nowhere.

I don't have enough free time to play it yet, so anybody who can post some impressions on the new and/or revamped features is greatly appreciated!

~rpi-fan

Anyone seen any new features yet? What about more American leagues?

something i just noticed that i'm going to miss is the coaches reports on individual players not being accessible from the player's screen.

Anyone seen any new features yet? What about more American leagues?
tracking of media comments made about individual players is something I don't think was mentioned before. It's under player history. player training regime for individual players is now accessible from the player screen

also: found the coaches report on individual players under "overview" submenu under training. slightly more cumbersome, but i suppose I don't use it all that often, so it's okay. And that's also a sweet looking and useful screen.


just playing around and looking at new bells and whistles right now http://dynamic.gamespy.com/%7Efof/forums/images/smilies/eek.gif

just couldn't get on the sigames website but I found this mirror:

http://www.fminside.net/downloads/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=32

It's going quite fast for now...

FM

A list of changes from SI:

*Half Time Team Talks - Interact with your team at half time, or with individual players. Can you turn a 1-0 loss into a 2-1 win with your comments?

* Unhappy Player Interaction - How do you cope when one of your players is unhappy with their role in the team? You now get the chance to talk to the player and try and find a solution to his unhappiness.

* New Training Module - Much easier & quicker to use, the all new training module give your backroom staff a real purpose in the game, with much more obvious effects on the players.

* Referee Profiles - An easy way to see how harsh the ref for your next game is likely to be, with profiles and league tables.

* "Basic" and "Advanced" player positions, with the advanced positions with their own special screen in the game, with also reveal the players preferred moves.

* Manager Contracts - The SI community have been asking for them for years, and now they are in. Interact with your board, negotiate your transfer budgets, and your wages.

* Virtual player contracts - Have you ever spotted a "greyed out" player making up the numbers in your squad who could actually make a difference? Ever tried to manage a lower league side and find that you can't sign enough players to even make up the squad for the season? Well, now you can, by offering the "virtual" players contracts, and letting them live their virtual dreams of becoming professional footballers.

* Snapshot - a great new screen in the game that gives you a homepage of all of the info that you need as a manager - budgets, forthcoming fixtures, a competition overview, team stats and lots more.

* Man Of The Match news - A new regular news item giving feedback on the man of the match for youth & reserve games, as well as key first team matches.

* Increased Tactical options - You can now tweak those tactics even further, with options for players to interchange positions, more specific target man instructions and even wasting time! * Key highlight replays in match engine - Want to see match highlights over and over again? Key highlights are now instantly replayed for those managers who want to pick every move apart. * Formation panel on match screen - An easy way to see the formations of both your team and your competitor at the same time without having to pause the match, updated live.

* New shirt graphics - Thought the team kits looked good in FM2005? With thanks to the FM community, and especially Jesper from fm.lemonish.net, they now look even better. And with licenses galore, there will be more real life kits in FM2005 than any previous Sports Interactive football title.

* Match Commentary revamp - Heaps of new commentary lines used in match for added atmosphere and detail to identify what's happening on the pitch.

* "Player Form" & "Player Stats" screens - More pertinent information regarding a players form and match stats, presented in a user-friendly manner.

* "Quick" tactic mode - Now you can shout from the touchlines to make small or full tactical changes without having to stop the match.

* Improved match engine realism - Working with Ray Houghton, the ex-Liverpool and Republic of Ireland player, SI have analysed every area of the match engine looking for areas to improve the engine to make it the most realistic experience ever.

* Injury module revamp - No more "physio reports" needed after injuries as the physio's now come to you. Full feedback on injuries, including various treatment options.

* General UI improvements - Improvements to the user interface make it easier to find your way around the game and reduce the amount of mouse button clicks.

* Ticker Bar - Not only can you gain score updates during matches but a configurable news ticker bar updates you on news from around the globe, or just locally if you prefer.

* Media overhaul - Loads more information is now given through news items using an all new "player bio" system, this is inclusive of, but not limited to, club landmark year news, better feedback on your start as a manager, more celebration of success and much more info about players in media items.

* Full Time Team Talks - With the addition of Half Time team talks to Football Manager 2006 , Sports Interactive felt it only fair to add full time team talks to allow you to comment on team or individual performances at the end of the match to the players. How will they react?

didn't have time to save a screenshot, but from Marc Bircham's position screen, in his "preferred moves":

* argues with referees
* gets crowd going
* dives into tackles

:D

There was another player, Kevin Gallen I think (both from QPR) that had something like "places shots to goal" and "plays with his back to the goal" or something to that effect...

I really like that position screen btw, much more intuitive when trying to find a place to play a player...

FM

Great. . . Just when I think I'll get to bed fairly early, all hell is going to break loose. Ughh.

i agree with the Froggy. The position screen is my new best friend.

just couldn't get on the sigames website but I found this mirror:

http://www.fminside.net/downloads/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=32

It's going quite fast for now...

FM

I'm a little concerned to see that there is a mirror. According to the initial post over at SI, they don't want them. Here are some comments from Miles Jacobson, their managing director:

There will be no mirrors. The load will likely be better spread tomorrow, or you could always try first thing in the morning when you wake up, at which point I expect it'll be faster.

I know it's not ideal, but we will not be having any mirrors for the download. This is because it's not a gold demo, it's there for people to be able to experience and give us feedback to help in the run in to finishing making the game.

As MV has said, we've doubled our bandwidth, and hope it'll die down a little bit as the load is spread tomorrow.

When it comes to the gold demo, there will be a plethora of mirrors, and we'll try and get it out to as many people as possible, as quickly as possible.

When asked why:

because we need to be able to control the distribution of the beta. It's NOT a gold demo and therefore we don't want it spread too publically as people might think it is (despite the big disclaimers!). Hence we decided to make it for registered users of the website only. The initial hit of anything like this is always going to be big hence we kept it quiet, and went live at time that we thought the website load would be a bit less, but it looks like word has spread pretty fast. I'm not going to change the policy on mirrors though for the beta - for the gold demo, it will be everywhere, but this beta is for people to try it out and gives us feedback during the last few weeks of development so that we can try and get the game as good as possible for release.

damn, I finally break down and buy FM2005 and they release a new version already. I haven't even played the "old" version.

I haven't had FM 2K5 that long and now they're releasing FM 2K6 demo?

*eyes his backlog of Magazine Writing reading to do*

*glances at demo*

Fuck it.

*downloads demo and forsakes all hope of sleep though he has 4 classes tomorrow*

BTW Marc. Although I very well might just start a new game...are 05 saves gonna be importable to 06?

Afraid not - sorry, we've added too much stuff and also a lot of the competition formats have changed which could easily confuse an existing save game.

Apologies,

Marc

*drools all over FM2006*

Dammmmmn. This is great. I can already tell I'm going to love it.


as an aside, I never would have thought that of the games I'm planning on getting this would have been the first one I'd see a demo of.

Please bear in mind it IS a beta and not a Gold demo ... as such it does need bug fixes, tweaking and hasn't got the final database in it.

Any feedback which people can give to help improve the final build would as always be appreciated :D

something i just noticed that i'm going to miss is the coaches reports on individual players not being accessible from the player's screen.
They are - if you click on a players profile and go to his training overview you'll find the coach report on that.

Combine this with the 'quick flick' menu next to the title bar (top left - cycles through associated items in the case of a player its his team-mates) you can view all the coach reports very quickly.

Hope this helps,

Marc

:mad:

I got to 91% and the d/l stopped. I go to resume and I keep getting Error. :mad:

I'm afraid the site is somewhat flooded - we did double our bandwidth in antipation of the beta release but we're still struggling a tad.

This is partially because we're trying not to let the beta get mounted all over the place (both on other websites and magazines etc.) - this is simply because it is important to note its a 'beta' and as such isn't indicative of the final game at all, its been released to attempt to get feedback to tweak and tune the final game with.

My wife is going to be so pissed...

I've been playing Space Rangers during almost all of my free time and I told her last night that I had almost beaten it and would set it aside for a few weeks...now this. And our sofa is very uncomfortable. :(

How's the actual game speed thus far? Noticably faster/slower?

How's the actual game speed thus far? Noticably faster/slower?

The very question I was about to ask. I have memory issues, and FM05 is a very very slow game for me (esp. with my current dynasty). What can I expect from FM06?

I can't decide if I want to force a delay in a major project at work so I can play the demo, or lock myself in my office for the next month or so to clear out some time for the actual release.

Or just quit my job and play FM... :D

Can't even get to SI's site to download now. Bah!

Slow day at work, perfect time to screw with it too.

The very question I was about to ask. I have memory issues, and FM05 is a very very slow game for me (esp. with my current dynasty). What can I expect from FM06?

To be frank (and contrary to what some posters on the SI Games forums are saying) the beta is most likely slightly slower than FM2005, however the final game shouldn't be as we haven't approached optimising the match engine for this version yet.

Generally each version is slightly quicker than the last as the code base matures and we spend time optimising the more stable (and less likely to require changing) parts of the game engine.

What about print options? This is important to me since I like to print out information and take it to meetings and pretend to work...

Generally each version is slightly quicker than the last as the code base matures
Funny, I actually found I could last longer as I matured, and...oh, damn. Wrong thread, sorry. :redface:

What about print options? This is important to me since I like to print out information and take it to meetings and pretend to work...
I was thinking about dynasty reporting but that works for me too...

:D

FM

Dammit, I still can't get to si's site.

Anyone have a fast server they can upload it to an PM me the link?

Dammit, I still can't get to si's site.

Anyone have a fast server they can upload it to an PM me the link?
and why don't you try the mirror I posted before? I know SI doesn't want a mirror, but I downloaded it from them and it forked fine. In English no less, despite the fact their whole site is complete jibberish to me...

FM

'Cause I totally forgot about it. :)

'Cause I totally forgot about it. :)
time to get them glasses checked, or get some stronger coffee for the warlord ;) :p

FM

time to get them glasses checked, or get some stronger coffee for the warlord ;) :p

FM

You Posh bastard. :)

Well, that mirror was taken down and you can not touch SIGames right now. Oh well, I guess I need to do homework anyway.

Marc...I posted a thread a couple days ago about an issue I found in FM2005 that I'm sure you're aware of but I was wondering if it had been addressed in the code for FM2006.

It's the issue of chairman at wealthy clubs not just going out and signing players over your head (which is fine) but that they are VERY fiscally irresponsible when doing so...paying $122 million for a $27 million player, and forcing the club's finances to the point where the board limits wage funds and unilaterally releases players. Has this been tweaked a little in these cases (Chelsea, Madrid, etc.)?

Marc, if we find little bugs and stuff, do you want them reported here, or over on the SI forum?

Just found a little text-bug with two words mashed together on a transfer offer news item. "upto" is shown that way instead of "up to"

edit: also as I'm easing a player's concern over the lack of his first team place it says "Chelsea manager" when it should probably say "Chelsea's manager"

Oooh.. I just noticed this after getting my internet back today. I probably won't play too much as the demo is just torture since I know I can't play past 6 months or so, but I'll certainly download it just in case I need something to do during downtime in Jackson, LA or wherever I end up next week ;)

Oooh.. I just noticed this after getting my internet back today. I probably won't play too much as the demo is just torture since I know I can't play past 6 months or so, but I'll certainly download it just in case I need something to do during downtime in Jackson, LA or wherever I end up next week ;)
you should definately DL it Eaglesfan, even if just to ruin your enjoyment of FM2005. It's the same as it has always been, once I touch the demo of the next year's version I have such a hard time going back to the previous year's version. There's already things that I'd miss and I've only logged maybe an hour on the demo so far (damn work!).

hey how are things going btw? i havn't popped into any of the related threads in the past couple days...how's the apartments and such? wife find somewhere to cook?

NEW UNREPORTED FEATURE: When you go to "offer a player to clubs" you no longer have to select the clubs. You can simply select to exclude rival clubs and the offer is "faxed to every club" and you are contacted if anyone has any interest!

Yessssss. Should make getting rid of people easier...

NEW FEATURE: Comments on opposing managers are now divided into sections, "Mind Games" "Negative" and "Positive." Small, but helpful for some of those comments you never knew without seeing how the text read.

NEW FEATURE: The Team-of-the-Week is fully displayed in the news item so you don't even have to click it.

Marc...I posted a thread a couple days ago about an issue I found in FM2005 that I'm sure you're aware of but I was wondering if it had been addressed in the code for FM2006.

It's the issue of chairman at wealthy clubs not just going out and signing players over your head (which is fine) but that they are VERY fiscally irresponsible when doing so...paying $122 million for a $27 million player, and forcing the club's finances to the point where the board limits wage funds and unilaterally releases players. Has this been tweaked a little in these cases (Chelsea, Madrid, etc.)?
Yeah this should be fixed already in the beta - if you find any problems in the beta please do post them on the sigames.com bugs forum so that we can ensure they're rectified before release.

Thanks,

Marc

NEW UNREPORTED FEATURE: When you go to "offer a player to clubs" you no longer have to select the clubs. You can simply select to exclude rival clubs and the offer is "faxed to every club" and you are contacted if anyone has any interest!

Yessssss. Should make getting rid of people easier...

NEW FEATURE: Comments on opposing managers are now divided into sections, "Mind Games" "Negative" and "Positive." Small, but helpful for some of those comments you never knew without seeing how the text read.

NEW FEATURE: The Team-of-the-Week is fully displayed in the news item so you don't even have to click it.

Heh - we always like to leave a few surprises for people to find themselves ....

(and don't worry there are a few things which aren't visible in the beta demo which I know you'll like .. so you'll find a few surprises come the gold demo :D)

Played this through the end of the year and enjoyed it alot. I'm gonna miss my team of hopefuls. I didn't get the chance to buy FM 2005, but will go out of my way to get FM 2006. Hopefully in digital download form.

you should definately DL it Eaglesfan, even if just to ruin your enjoyment of FM2005. It's the same as it has always been, once I touch the demo of the next year's version I have such a hard time going back to the previous year's version. There's already things that I'd miss and I've only logged maybe an hour on the demo so far (damn work!).

hey how are things going btw? i havn't popped into any of the related threads in the past couple days...how's the apartments and such? wife find somewhere to cook?

That is part of why I'm resisting downloading it. I want to get at least a few seasons more of my dynasty in. In reality, I plan on running at least 15 more seasons of FM 2005 to see how a few of my favorite young players play. Even if that means I'll run concurrent FM 2005 and 2006 careers. Therefore, this should not be a reason not to download the demo.

Things are going well, but it is odd living in so much chaos. I don't want to detour this thread, but my plans change daily as new info comes in, and it is odd having so little control of the future right now. We are in a nice small apartment for 3 more weeks at least, but I might be going to work in a "tent city" starting this upcoming week (in which case I'll be away from my wife for 10 days than hopefully off for 5-10 days, repeat cycle for a while.) However, Mayor Nagin just announced yesterday that they might start letting people at least temporarily return to some parts of New Orleans this upcoming week. That could drastically change my plans. Overall things are good and I just have to deal with the uncertainty. Kathy has been cooking some great meals in our apartment kitchen.

Marc,

I PMed you awhile back but did not hear back... My account on SIgames was disabled or I am no longer able to get in for some reason. I would like to DL the demo but without my login working I am unable to in the abscence of mirror sites.

THREADJACK:

I have a CD version of 2005 if anybody is looking for a less expensive game. This isn't a hustle, just helping to turn some people on to it. The CD runs on both mac and pc.

It's real too, not that bullshit stuff you find on ebay from Korea or whatever.

Marc,

I PMed you awhile back but did not hear back... My account on SIgames was disabled or I am no longer able to get in for some reason. I would like to DL the demo but without my login working I am unable to in the abscence of mirror sites.

The account you need for the main site is seperate to the forums and will auto-confirm you on the spot so you should be able to re-register without too much hassle, if you do continue to have problems please pm me.

PS> Its a BETA demo - not a 'real' demo please bear this in mind when trying it ..

Marc,

I PMed you awhile back but did not hear back... My account on SIgames was disabled or I am no longer able to get in for some reason. I would like to DL the demo but without my login working I am unable to in the abscence of mirror sites.

If you have a free email account like hotmail, etc., SI disabled those types of accounts on their forums in order to cut down on problems. If you had one of those kinds of accounts, I think it would have disabled your access to their forums and you probably won't be able to register with it. If you have a normal account, then there should be no problem.

Marc,

I PMed you awhile back but did not hear back... My account on SIgames was disabled or I am no longer able to get in for some reason. I would like to DL the demo but without my login working I am unable to in the abscence of mirror sites.
I PMed Marc too and did not get a respone. However, mine was about a feature suggestion and to try to get info about American leagues. I know why he did not respond. http://dynamic.gamespy.com/%7Efof/forums/images/smilies/smile.gif

Every year this game just gets better and better. There are so many little additions that I keep discovering, it's very cool.

Has anyone else noticed during the 2D match engine some of the "circles" representing the players will have a symbol beside them? Anyone know what that represents?

Just wow, potentially anyway.

The new training does annoy me slightly (no more creating uber-schedules and throwing my youth players in with my first team to mature quickly) but it's definitely realistic. I'd have liked to see a few more options (e.g. i'd like to focus my wingers on crossing as opposed to my midfielders who I'd like to focus on passing, rather than it being lumped into "attacking") but it's still a nice implementation.
The screen whereby you can track players development is an absolute godsend.

The match engine is so improved it's unreal. No more does there appear to be 20 one on ones in a game. The ball actually gets knocked around the penalty area. There are still some issues but I have 100% faith that these will get ironed out.
Team talks is a great addition, although I'd have thought these would have made it into CM/FM sooner.

Love being able to sign the "fake" greyed out players. It actually feels like I am getting players from my youth team rather than them being gifted to me randomly. They are a bit too good (I've had a couple of 17 year olds make the Cardiff first team squad) but this is a known issue.

I don't know if this is an issue with the beta, but this game is HARD. My 4-4-1-1 that won me 4 straight divisions in FM2005 is getting killed. So is the default 4-4-2 and 4-5-1, and I had a pop at coming up with a new 4-5-1 which did slightly better but still didn't work very well. I have a feeling this game with the new improved engine is going to be based more on solid football tactics rather than finding a formation that can take advantage of the game engine. Which is awesome.

DOLA - Bee, the only one I have noticed is the green cross, which means your player has picked up a minor injury.