Alright well before I get to my question allow me to give the background to my circumstances.

I'm an American who finds it nearly impossible to buy the game here in the states so I've had to buy the 3 last copies of the game off Amazon.com which I'm sure most have heard of here.

Anyways, after thoroughly enjoying FM07 I preorder FM08 on Amazon and receive a good month after you lucky Europeans. It's all good though, I don't mind as I at least have the game.

So I get it running and try the BETA patch immediately which basically kills my game. Figuring it was something with the patch I reinstall and simply play without it. I notice some bugs people have talked about but nothing major like the game closing so don't think anything of it.

Now Euro 08 rolls around and I sort of notice everything seems odd. For some reason the bottom teams of each group have been entered into the tournament. I've seen some other fellows post on here and please don't so abruptly kill my topic and outcast me.

I've done nothing wrong here and can't understand what's wrong. I plan to contact FM or SEGA or whatever and have my serial number checked but I also thought I'd ask everyone here for advice or see if anyone else experienced it.

So yeah, it seems I'm experiencing the bug which goes with illegal games but I've purchased it completely legally. I ordered the game off Amazon and can only see the problem somehow being if Amazon sent me an illegal copy (can't imagine this) or if I have a legit copy with the bug for some reason.

I don't know, I love these games and still am trying to play it despite these annoyances. I'd truly appreciate any help and will definitely try to contact someone official to figure it out. Thanks again!

-Flip

You need to contact Sports Interactive or Sega, as you correctly said. It could be messing up because you're playing it in the U.S

Oh and don't worry about us "judging" you, no-ones gonna do that, it's pretty obvious you have the proper game.

Like i say though, if you've tried the old reinstall approach then contact SI/Sega. I'd try SI first.

You're not not using a no cd crack are you?

Exactly. You paid for the game, but probably installed a crack for it in order not to have to swap discs all the time. I usually do the same too, but the crack that's currently available f*cks up the game. In that case you'll just have to reinstall and use the CD I guess.

BTW the full official patch is available so you can try installing that one and see if your game runs better.

Nah I didn't install any cracks or whatever. I just installed it how you would usually with the serial code and all. I only use it on my home computer so I didn't need to bother with trying that. Anyways, I appreciate hearing back from everyone and plan to contact Sports Interactive.

what serial.. Anyway, the ONLY way you can get that effect is 1. Warez Game 2. Warez FM.exe 3 Playing full game with a demo started savegame.

Anyone know a number where I can actually speak to someone about the game? I've looked everywhere and simply am either left lost or in a frustrating cycle of emailing automated addresses that try and have me email a different department. I'm waiting on a reply from Sports Interactive's inquiries department but figure I won't be hearing back from them.

So does anyone know a number I could contact? Thanks again, everyone's been great here so far.

Have you tried posting this at their forum? Mostly you can get quite a good answer there from the people who made the game.