You WILL lose days playing this game! (Championship Manager 03/04 (PC))

Member Name: unnameable

Product:	Championship Manager 03/04 (PC)
Date:	17/03/04 (658 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Hugely playable, Enjoyable, Engrossing

Disadvantages: A smidge n the BLOODY addictive side ;)

Here goes for my first game review!

If you like football, and own a PC, you are bound to have heard of (or played) a game from the fantastic Championship Manager series. It is by far the best footie management series ever made (Premier Manager?! PAH!), and manages to keep many blokes off the streets and sitting going square eyed instead!

HISTORY

The series started back in 1992 when two Shropshire football fans (Paul & Oliver Collyer) decided to write their own game. They were fed up with all the other (rubbish!) games out there and decided to make a game for true football fans.

They took their finished game to Electronic Arts, who turned them down! What mugs they must feel now after refusing the best selling PC game of all time! A small company called Domark (later to become Eidos) saw the potential and snapped it up.

History was made!

Over the past 12 years there have been regular updates (mostly yearly), always improving on the previous version. In between each major release (CM1, CM2, CM3, CM4) there were updates released based on the previous release (such as CM97/98 being a much improved version of CM2 etc).

In 1995 Championship Manager 2 was released. With it?s new look, much improved game engine, true commentary, and greatly improved player data it managed to put SI Games on the map. Universally acclaimed, and a worldwide bestseller.

1999 saw the release of Championship Manager 3, with a complete new look but still based around the same basic (award winning) premise. As PC?s were getting more powerful, the amount of data included in the game could be increased, and as such, the games realism was taken to a whole new level.

E
;arly 2003 saw Championship Manager 4 fly off the shelves to the number of 103,000 within the first weekend of its release! Nearly ten times the amount of players were present in this new version, as well as increased team & league data. The biggest change was the inclusion of a graphical display of the match in progress. You can actually sit and watch your players hoof the ball around the pitch!

CM4 was full of bugs when initially released, but these were almost all ironed out within a few months (and five patches!). All in all there was a mixed reaction, as many people thought the game was rushed. Still a fantastic game, but almost unplayable to some people at first.

Anyway, on to the latest version?..

Championship Manager ?03/04 is based on CM4 taking into account all the customer feedback from it (as SI Games are famous for, the only games company who truly listen to their customers!). Very similar to look at, but behind the scenes there has been a huge amount of work done. This game truly is exactly what CM4 should have been!

BASIC IDEA OF THE GAME

Choosing a team from over 40 leagues from around the world, you must take control of buying/selling players, hiring/firing staff, player training, and team tactics. It is up to you to take the team to glory (or crash and burn!). With over 200,000 players in the game you truly have near limitless potential to find the best players to suit your budget and team tactics.

YOU choose the players who will feature in the matches, and YOU chose exactly they will play during the match. Just chomp non-stop on a lump of gum and call yourself Fergie!

Armed with your handpicked team of scouts you can scour the world looking for that elusive genius of a player th
at could make or break the season for your team.

You can even design the tactics for the match from scratch if you feel brave enough!

With all major competitions included (as well as most minor ones) you can take your team to cup and league glory, as well as watch your youngsters improve and even break into the national teams!

IMPROVEME& #78;TS FROM CM4

I?ll say a little about the major changes in this version, and list some of the smaller (but significant) changes that have also been made?.

Pre-game Editor:

As last seen in CM3, the editor is added so you can go in and update any information you want to within the game, you can add, delete, alter any player/team you like, but I wouldn?t recommend it without reading up on it first! I managed to knacker the player data first time I tried ;)

Improved Player to Player Relationships:

Interaction between players is greatly improved in this version. Now you can see exactly what one player thinks of another, whether they idolise them, or want to punch their teeth out! A great added realism, which can affect the entire team.

Improved Media Feedback:

The media is much more involved in this version. Anything from criticising players, to calling for your resignation! You can counter some of the stories by giving replies to comments received through the media, and even use it to your advantage (such as praising players etc).

Match Engine Updated:

The overall match engine has been tweaked to make it more realistic, after many flaws were found within CM4 due to the 2D match display. Problems that were never noticed before became wholly apparent when watched in glorious 2D. Improvements to the offside part, as well
as visual enhancements such as matchday weather (which also affects the play). Visual indicators have been added to improve the 2D display to make it easier to see which players have been booked or injured etc.

As well as the usual flashing text on screen during a match, you also have the added effect of voice commentary (most people tend to turn this off!)

Another improvement to the match engine is the replay function. Whenever a goal is scored you can watch the action through again. Very handy if you, like me, tend to miss the flashing text sometimes!

Training Screen:

In CM4 the training screen was a little difficult to navigate and understand, meaning most people tended to leave it exactly as they found it. A bit of a shame seeing as it is obvious how much work and effort had been out into it by the boys at SI Games.

The updated training screen is now so easy to use, that it is an absolute joy to muck around with! Every change you make affects a little bar chart in the top right hand corner, so you know exactly how your changes affect the overall training of the team, and where it is lacking etc. Each portion of the day in which you can allocate a training session is now replaced by a nice simple drop down menu.

Another good addition to the training is the fact that you can select in each players profile to see the affects of training on that specific player! Very useful indeed.

Also added are the following:

*Goal of the Month
*Goal of the Season
*Past Meetings ? You can check up on how your team did last time you played the team you are about to meet
*Player Co-ownership ? much like in Italy, you can share a player if needs be.
*Coach Profiles Improved ? They now show a list of their favoured players in your team.
*U
pdated Player, Team, and Competition Data.

MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMEN TS

PC:

Windows 98/ME/XP/2000
Pentium 4 1.2 GHz
256 MB RAM
600 MB Hard Disk space
1024x768 Screen Resolution

In practise these are generally recommended system requirements. The game works fine on my 700 MHz Celeron with 256 MB RAM!

Mac:

Mac OS 9.2.2 / Mac OS 10.2 or later
PowerPC G4/G5 500 MHz
256 MB RAM
500 MB Hard Disk Space
1024x768 Screen Resolution

COST

Available through almost every games outlet for around £29.99, although you can get it from Amazon.co.uk for an amazing £17.99.

MY THOUGHTS

As I said already, this game works fine on my lowly 700 MHz Celeron. It actually seems to run quite a bit faster than CM4 did, so a big pat on the back for those poor workaholics at SI Games.

The game is not graphically stunning (none of them have been), but a game with this amount of sheer playability really doesn?t need all the bells and whistles. You?ve just got to look at Total Club Manager to see what I mean (looks good, plays like a three legged mule).

I have spent many hours of my life (probably whole months in fact) playing CM in its various guises, and this truly is the best game so far. Everything works perfectly, and is so easy to navigate around using the mouse and nothing else, that even my 10 year old brother could pretend to be the next Arsene We
nger with ease.

It is so satisfying to succeed at this game, whether you win the FA Cup, or simply beat those b******* Manchester United with lowly Huddersfield! The game is simply a work of genius, and I reckon all at SI Games should be knighted (slight over-enthusiasm there eh).

THE FUTURE

Sadly this is the last ever Championship Manager game to be developed by SI Games. They have split from publisher Eidos who have kept the copyright (and are releasing their own version later this year). BUT SI Games are continuing the series under a different name, so keep your eye out for the next instalment around Christmas time named Football Manager 2005.

I thank you

Cheers for reading,

Marc

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