Football Manager Handheld.

[Fry Crayola]

On those missing features, now that I have the game:

Transfers aren't too horrible. If they reject it, you can just up your bid. It's nowhere near crippling, although forgetting what you bid is possible if you're trying to sign a lot of players.

Requests don't seem to be important in this game's context - there's no stadium information or training facilities so you'd only be requesting things like more finances for transfers - which you wouldn't do if you can't tell how much you've got in the bank. I think everything financial has been thrown together in such a way to streamline anything other than the players.

Like furq says, CM2 missed a lot and was great. FMH is like a mixture of every CM/FM game ever made by SI. The match engine is virtually identical in feel to the CM01/02 one, which is excellent.

I've won my first three Conference games as Forest Green Rovers - 4-2, 1-0 and 1-0. Lovely.

[Yasawas]

Like furq says, CM2 missed a lot and was great. FMH is like a mixture of every CM/FM game ever made by SI. The match engine is virtually identical in feel to the CM01/02 one, which is excellent.

Yus, my favourite bits of 97/98 and 01/02 without the vast number of overrated players that ruined the latter. Also take me back in the sense that the PC I played 01/02 on could only manage one country too.

That'd be my only real criticsm at this stage, I generally like to move around a bit. Well, that and I started as Barcelona anticipating an easy initial foray into FMH and got a trip to the Bernabeu for an opening league fixture.

[ryodi]

In the end the mostly positive response to the game and the thought of playing Football Manager while sat on the sofa was too much to resist and I bought it from Woolworths a few hours ago. A few hours later and I'm impressed. The menu system is easy to use with little lag between the button presses and the menu appearing, setting you team up with the preset formations is easy enough. Having never really used custom formations when playing Championship Manager the lack of them here is not an issue. The lack of music is not an issue because I tend to turn it off straight away anyway.

I'm currently Liverpool and have started well. I'm on the brink of qualifying for the Champions League proper after winning the first leg of the final qualifying round 4-0, the Premiership season has started with a 1-1 draw at Villa Park and Dirk Kuyt is staring to repay his £8m transfer fee with some very solid performances. Wayne Rooney is also out for 5 months after picking up an injury in the first game of the season which should hamper Man Utd's league ambitions and help mine.

[Fry Crayola]

On the music front, one of the dev team (Marc Vaughan) said he'd like to see custom soundtracks in a future version, though that does mean using some decoder like with GTA to use the sound chip efficiently.

Would be great for bus journeys though.

I've gone downhill since those first three games, but I'm now in the second round of the FA Cup, with Bury as my opponents.

[Doppleganger]

So is this better than Champ Manager PSP?

[Fry Crayola]

Yes. CM PSP actually has more to do in its game, but falls apart with the poor match engine that makes it far too frustrating to play.

FM has a lot less to it, but the core aspects of transfers, tactics and match engine come together to make it more enjoyable. Also, it looks nicer, if that's your bag.

[ryodi]

I've just found something strange. After Dudek injured himself in training I looked for Scott Carson to take his place on the subs bench. Only he is not part of the Liverpool squad in the game he does not show up in the player search at all which is a big oversight on SI's part because he has played a few games for Liverpool this season. I am also getting a lot of injuries. Does anyone know a way to prevent this happening because every week it seems one of my players has crippled themselves.

[Fry Crayola]

I had a fair few injuries at the start but they eased up. Training has been cited as a potential factor so you might want to reduce the intensity.

Scott Carson's missing? That is a bit weird. Apparently they scaled it down based on abilities and potentials and managed to miss the odd players out. Bit shit, that. I'd have thought they'd included Carson.

[ryodi]

I also couldn't recall Kirkland from loan to act as cover. In the end I signed Kuszczak from West Brom as a third choice keeper which has the added benifit of Kirkland also getting some games for West Brom. I'm not best pleased at the minute because I have just lost the European Super Cup on penalties to CSKA Moscow

[Gigga]

when they reject a bid, you can navigate over to the news item and view links.. this lets you go back to bid.. if you increase your bid you will see the option for "negotiate" replace the confirm bid option....

[Geoff C]

My main problem with the game is reading the commentary text. It's a shame its only displayed over the small possession bar at the bottom of the screen. It would be great (in the overview game view) if the commentary could be displayed in a bigger bar in the centre of the screen.

[ryodi]

I'm completely hooked now and getting flashbacks to playing 00/01 for hours on end and being incredibly nervous when the possession bar of the opposition team creeps to your side of the screen and you fear the commentary in the colour of the opposition appearing in the dying minutes of the game and the opposition team then scoring.

Arsenal are running away with the league with 27 points from 10 games with a +16 GD with Chelsea just four points behind. My Liverpool side are currently 4th with 17 points after 9 games and Cisse has scored 11 goals in 16 games and has remained remarkably injury free. If only he was like that in the real word.

[superpretend]

Jesus, I don't need this game, do I? No, I don't. *returns to PC version*

[therev]

Had this sitting next to me for a couple of days, but hadn't dared start it up until this evening. Faffed around for ages and ages trying to decide who to manage, so in the end went for the random option. The game chose Torquay United for me. Suits me. I don't feel ready for the Premiership quite yet. And I've just check the BBC web site and Torquay are bottom of the real League Two, so I can't do any worse than reality.

Anyway, got two or three rubbish players on free transfers, just so I'd have some cover. Not that that made me feel much better when my two most expensive players picked up long term injuries in pre-season training. I took the fitness part of the training regime down to "light" after that and haven't had anything more than an odd knock since.

I did well in my three pre-season friendlies - two wins and a draw. But the league's proving to be a different matter. First match, lost 2-1 away at Wycombe, then lost 1-0 at home to Oxford. We've just picked up our first point of the season in our third match, away at Wrexham. Hopefully this will be the start of a good streak. Morale's holding up okay at the moment, but a lot of players are merely satisfied and I'm sure it won't take much to knock them down a bit. Goal for this season is survival, I think. Nothing more.

Oh, yes, and it's very good. Works surprisingly well on the PSP.

[Fry Crayola]

It's rather great. I've done nothing but play this and watch sport on telly (good old multitasking) since I got it.

After my blip I hit back on a good run of form. Reached the third round of the FA Cup, met Middlesbrough at the Riverside and managed a 1-1. Well, managed to have the score at 1-1 after 5 minutes. I lost 4-1. No worries though. A shame I can't see how much we made from the cup, but we've been playing great football and have a solid defence, so we sit in third now with 66 points from 36 games, five behind Halifax (who I just beat 2-1 away). Automatic promotion would be nice but I'll take the playoffs.

Alsop has hit 22 goals this season. Nice.

[ryodi]

After a 2-1 defeat at home to Sunderland left me 8th in the table with 6 defeats in my 16 games I have resigned in shame from my beloved Liverpool FC. Big money buys Dirk Kuyt and Mark Bresciano have no performed as well as expect and finishing top of my Champions League group was not enough to save me. 21 points adrift of first places Arsenal and 12 points behind second place Chelsea is too much to claw back with a side that is incapable of winning away games. I'll start a new game tomorrow with a lower division club to learn the management trade in more forgiving environment.

[SomeNaiveChump]

They've taken it away and the game has worked, and people prefer it. As I keeep saying, people don't want the realism they crave, they want a make believe world of what they perceive to be realism.

The illusion of realism is sustained by text commentary where it is destroyed by poor 2D match engines which expose the limited, unrealistic workings of the game.

Of course lots of people are going to take the illusion of realism over something which is flagrantly unrealistic.

[Fry Crayola]

Something irritating about the game (aside from the lack of custom formations - I can't get the setup I'd like) is that the 2D commentary has long periods of nothing in it.

It's like if you played the PC version on Key highlights, but only got text commentary instead of graphical representations. I'd prefer extended - I've had goals appear from nowhere and shots happen without any indication.

I made the playoffs in my first season as Forest Green manager, finishing 3rd. Then I promptly lost to York in the semis. Second season, made the playoffs again finishing 5th, with the same points tally. And ended up losing in the semi against Cheltenham Town. Arse.

Made the 3rd round of the cup again and lost to Millwall in a replay after they got a last minute equaliser in the first game. The good thing is that the club is definitely getting money from these games, because our finances have grown to "Secure" and I've got £27K to spend in this third season (from £1K in the first season).

All I need is consistency and I'll be in League Two.

[SomeNaiveChump]

The single biggest irritation and the only thing which goes even close to ruining my party is "Sheffield Wednesday withheld the pressure".

No we didn't, we fucking WITHSTOOD it.

Must do better, etc.

Cracking otherwise though

Come to think of it, CM97/98 had a text file you could edit. Essential, as their "viscious strike" bugged me loads. I remember this well as you could change all the commentary to whatever you like. "[player0] kicks [player1] in the cunt" etc. Hours of fun.

[Fry Crayola]

You can still do that in FM2006 on the PC, although it's lost its edge now that you can actually see what's going on.

I'm getting irritated by my board who are happy we made the "playoff's".

[ryodi]

I am really really bad at Football Manager Handheld. After a brief rein at Liverpool I decided to start again with a lower division side to learn the ropes. I picked Sheffield Wednesday and by the end of December I was rooted the bottom of the Championship 9 points adrift from safety and having conceded 11 goals in three games. So I decided I would start a new game and try Sunderland whose board have no illusions about what the season will hold. It started well with 4 points from my first three games but quickly turned sour and at the end of November I am now second bottom with just five points, haven't scored a goal in league in five games and have an annoying habit of losing each game either 1-0 or 2-0. But tomorrow there is hope. A home game against Everton where a win would boost confidence and hopefully get the team in gear to drag itself out of the relegation places. On the plus side the board still likes me and the fans aren't protesting yet.

[Fry Crayola]

In theory, learning the ropes at Celtic, Rangers or Gretna should be an easy route.

[Jolly]

Bugger.

I'm going to have to buy this aren't I?

[SomeNaiveChump]

Yes.

I was losing all the time at first (Sheff Wed) but sit comfortably midtable now that I am adjusting my strategies appropriately for each opponent.

Sign Steffen Iversen on a free if you can, he's the balls.

[furq]

The single biggest irritation and the only thing which goes even close to ruining my party is "Sheffield Wednesday withheld the pressure".

No we didn't, we fucking WITHSTOOD it.

Let's hope they don't this afternoon.

[ryodi]

YES!!! My first full season in the game as manager of Sunderland and we finished in 17th place, only above West Brom on goal difference (-21 to West Brom, -18 for Sunderland) with both teams finishing level on 36 points. Fulham and Wigan accompany West Brom down into the Championship and my Sunderland side live to fight another season in the top division. Highlights include reaching the 5th round of the FA Cup only to be knocked out by Crystal Palace and beating Aston Villa 5-1 at home. Top scorer was Jonathon Stead with 12 goals and heroics from Kelvin Davis kept us in the division for another season. A decent off season and the clearing of dead weight and 16th place will be ours next season

[Fry Crayola]

You'll be champions by 2022. Keep it up!

[siread]

Picked up FM Handheld today, then realised i'd need to update my PSP firmware. Ah, who cares, i thought and started the install, only to be presented with a blank screen (pink) with an X and O at the bottom. I click X, it leaves an O. I click O it leaves and X and O. So i have to shut down the PSP by holding the power button.

Anyone heard of this problem? I even tried installing via the network, and then from the disc without the memstick in there, but the same thing happens.

HELP!

[siread]

Woo! Genesis UMD Launcher works. I'm still 1.5 baby!

[Fry Crayola]

I upgraded.

Now, I could have faffed about with UMD launchers and whatnot, but for two things.

Firstly, there are at least two more PSP games on the horizon (or out) that I want to get - Syphon Filter and Ghosts 'n' Goblins. And with any luck, this tally will continue to rise.

Secondly, a simply weighing up between the ability to play Sonic on a bus, or get Football Manager working right now with no problems or worries about saving and such...

Meh. Much as I loved emulation, I never really used it much. I've spent more time playing actual PSP games, especially since I got World Snooker Challenge.

Still, there's always the GTA exploit if I absolutely must play an emulator.