FM 2005 Setting Up Football

CM games are the kind of computer games that many of the players spent sleepless nights playing it. Fanatism and dedication is at very high levels.

The creators of the game Sports Interactive resumes the series with FM 2005 this time.
(By the way, Eidos will release another football management game called CM5 towards the end of the year.)

After CM4 bug nightmare we will see whether the fresh starts will work or not.

FM 2005 keeping the basics of CM games, made many differences and by releasing it earlier got the upper hand.

While the interface has changed a lot, the feel of the game is still the same.

The aim is to manage a football team with most of the real life methods. Transfers, training, tactics and many others.

The summary of the game is selecting a team and competing in tournaments for bigger successes. On your road to success you can make transfers, train your players, make improvements to your club facilities and other things. The game simulates a life style. In previous games you can communicate with the players, staff and the board. You can discipline your players because of his poor form or encourage him by praising in media. You can sell or exchange underachiving players with better ones by paying the price if it's affordable. You might be praised or warned by the board according to your performance. Also you can ask and even demand some from them.

The goal of the game directly depends on you. You might aim to promote from a lower league, winning a major league title, or Champions League cup, World Cup and etc. You don't unlock any new levels or etc. It offers satistaction.

And now with the mostly wondered feature you can communicate with other managers. While the managers commenting seems interesting at first sight this new feature is a bit raw to be tasted. It is not the deadliest weapon while it can do some harm. The principle of this feature is to comment on another manager to effect his players. When a comment is released some players have a PR button near their names. This shows they reacted against the public relation. They might be boosted by a prasial to his boss by another manager or discouraged by their criticsm. You also can discourage the opponent players (which is frequently done by CPU managers) but this brings the potential unrest in your players. You can make friends or foes.

This does not mean every player is effected by this comments. Some of them (indeed the effected players are generally the same) are immune. But affected players morale can go down.


The first thing that the addicts will realize is the change in interface and especially the menus. By default a very nice blue theme (which can be changed by installing other skins) appears.

Menus on middle left, bottom left and top offer easier access to game part but they might look a bit complicated at first.
In previous versions you had to click on your name to view the items related to you. Now they are generally on the middle left menu.

Cascading menus which allow users to view all items in the same window is used for managerial links such as training, tactics, transfer, search, etc.

The bottom left menu, works for actions on the selected item. (Right clicking the player name displays the same menu)
For example when you select a player, all the possible actions that the game allows are shown in this menu.
In this menu you can release a comment about a manager.

It looks much like a website now. There also are a set of buttons at the top of the window. Game and Manager Options are reached through this menu.
Also as a new feature this menu provides shortcut links to competitions around the world and recently visited parts.
Go to Match and Continue buttons are placed on the left of this top menu.

At the bottom of the screen the item is listed with a hierarchy. (For example: When you view team window of Arsenal > Europe - England - Premier Division - Arsenal)
Each of this items shows lists which displays same level continents, countried, organizations, clubs and players.

The player listing is not in two columns by default. It lists all players on a single column. You can view in two columns through View > Overview menu.

Some player ratings are added. Composure (effects bookings), a seperate "corner" rating, concentration, natural fitness are some of these.
Ratings are still out of 20 and there are still ratings that are hidden(scouting does not show this ratings) which you can only view through the game database. (For example dirtiness)

You can deselect attribute masking while starting the game to view hidden ratings (the "-" that can be revealed by scouting the player)

Player database seems to be more realistic. Previous games made some players totally superb even if he lacked some special skills. For example exaggrated defending abilities for strikers.

As a new feature, the player photographs are shown in their profiles. Unfortunately most of the famous players' photographs are missing.

Selling or buying players is easier.

A new feature "mutual termination" brings another real life option of player and club settling on departure of the player without release payment.


Game contains many of the major world football leagues with the lower divisions.
Also I didn't see or hear any fixture clashes (made you play the first leg of a Champions League round with the reserve team.)


The match screen introduces "Preview" where you see the formation and players of both teams. In match menus are moved to the left pane, where you can see stats links.


2D engine works on the same principle as before. Balls with numbers represent players. The football is not single colored. It is designed to be like a real football.

The very needed improvement, 2D highlight speed is now implemented. You can view the action going faster, consuming less of your time. (You can disable highlights completely by setting highlight mode to only commentary)

You can also save highlights and share with your friends.

2D engine introduces the notification of fouls and off sides. As the game got realistic with goals disallowed more frequently due to offsides or fouls, just after you are told to have scored, you may be disappointed as it is disallowed.

More and more variations are added to the 2D pitch. (Unbelievable misses from great players.)

Sounds are nice. You can hear the crowd's response to a penalty or a ball hitting the post.



More team and player instructions are added to tactics. Also as the selection changed from strict menus (such as ultra defensive, defensive, normal, attacking, gung ho) to sliders you can fine tune your tactic.

You may set the creative freedom, tempo, width and defensive line in addition to the previous mentality, tackling, passing style options.


After the CM4 bugs that came with the package, bugs became a major concern. While I saw some bugs, the game is generally bug free. But for example one of my players that is injured (broken leg) started to moan why I did not have him played.


To conclude it is real fun to play the game. As you get used to the interface you'll figure out the small changes in the game concept. And then you'll start to build your dream team.