My 1st Opinion ! (Championship Manager 00/01 (PC))

Member Name: doobster

Product:	Championship Manager 00/01 (PC)
Date:	29/09/01 (153 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Realistic, Addictive, Perfect in Every way

Disadvantages: TOO Addictive!!

Here I am writing my very first Dooyoo opinion. I've been on the site a couple of days and had a good look round. I must say i've seen some very detailed and interesting opinions by people who are obviously great writers. I hope i can be half as good as some of you!!

Anyway I decided to write about a computer game. It's one that I play all the time, so i know it inside out. Here Goes...

Lets take you back...
I started playing Championship Manager on the Amiga back in 1993. I knew as soon as i took control of my first team, and played my first match, that this was a game i wouldn't forget. Here I am, eight years later, playing a version of that very game, virtually unrecognisable from the original, due to all the amazing advances.
The thing about Champ Manager is the addictability, and this results from the ease of playing (once you get used to it). You take control of a football club in one of.. well, ive lost count of how many different countries you can manage in now! well you take control of a club and you are in total control of everything, and i mean everything. Its amazing to think that all this text on the screen can be so much like real life. The makers of the game are so obviously great followers of football because the game takes absolutely everything into account... a player fails to turn up for training? give him a one week fine! you unfairly leave a player out of the team? what happens? he gets upset and looks elsewhere. There is so much i could talk about because this game goes into so much depth, but i'd be here all day. If you've ever seen the game but not played it, you may think... so when do you actually play football? The thing is, you dont. Everything's based on text and you play your matches in amazing real-time sequences. You might be wondering what all the excitement is about, but trust me, if you get into it, you will be on the edge of your seat, waiting for that flashing bar signalling
a goal! If i'd never played CM before, i'd wonder how people could play it so much, but the thing is, it just works!
Another factor is the actual display. Whenever you are playing the game, sorting your team out, buying or selling players, organising tactics, or anything, there is always an amazing colour photograph in the background. I've always had a soft spot for these and it really takes away any slight boredom that may occur. The whole game, despite being entirely based on text, is just wonderful to look at. The way the fonts are set out, the use of colour, the pictures of stadiums for background when you're playing, everything.
The thing with CM is that its not just a game, its a social thing. You will be suprised when you realise how many people you know are actually closet CM addicts who sit for hours on end, releiving stress with a blast at winning promotion on Champ Manager. With each new version or update that the Collyer brothers bring out, all the fans can discuss who the best players to buy are, what the best tactics are and all sorts of stuff like that, and theres always the "I took Hartlepool to the European Cup final in 5 seasons" sort of stories that you hear from your mates, wondering whther to believe them. Oh yeah i almost forgot... it's not quite the same, but the multiplayer game can also be very enjoyable, very competitive, and very fun. If you've never tried Champ manager, maybe you should, but i would be suprised to find any football fans with a PC that havent tried it. Some people are just not suited to it, perhaps they dont have the patience or they are missing the point, but believe me, if youve tried this game and you like it, you will probably find that you spend more time with Champ Manager than you do with your Mother!!

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