It's the best manager game ever! (Championship Manager 99/00 (PC))

Member Name: Ooze

Product:	Championship Manager 99/00 (PC)
Date:	27/06/00 (260 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The Man Utd of Management sims

Disadvantages: Erm u loose your life!

Championship Manger 99/00 is the latest in a series of football management simulations (although Champ Man 4 is due out early December 2000). It’s probably the best series in the football management simulation world and Champ Man 99/00 is probably the best football management game ever! Possibly even a contender for the best PC game ever. It really is that good.

However I’m writing this opinion from the point of view of an avid football fan and although it easily holds my attentions, if you don’t love football maybe it won’t make a lasting impression upon you. Although the game does provide the player with a ‘buzz’ it isn’t quite the same as fragging an opponent on Quake so if you’re only into the fast action of a first person shooter than perhaps again it’s not for you. However the game should and does appeal to a huge audience and the series has captivated that audience. I won’t go into detail about the series but I will take a look at the game for you.

It’s easily the most detailed management simulation, and I couldn’t possibly give you all the detail. The basic concept is to ‘manage’ i.e. through tactics, transfers and ideas etc. a football team. Be it Manchester United or Leyton Orient the targets that your management should achieve are different. Ok so the concept is nothing new, we’ve seen Premier Manger, another management sim like it. But Champ Man 99/00 takes it into new depths.

The game itself is an update of Championship Manager 3. It’s more or less the same but with a few additions, either way it’s a fabulous game. There are no fancy graphics so you won’t need a rock of a computer to run it either.

Basically it’s just a system of databases and spreadsheets, each player has a list of statistics which give you an idea of where the player is best suited and what part of the game he will perform
in. The statistics are out of 20 (20 = excellent). Although it sounds simple there are simply loads so the possibilities are endless.

The basic premise is to win matches, be it division 3 or Premiership whatever. To do this you need to spend hours designing your tactics and searching for players with the statistics you need. For example if you’re going to play a counter attack game get some quick forwards with good positional play. I won’t go into anymore detail but it’s tremendous.

I’m not going to say much more about how to play, I’d be here all day, but the thing that’s most appealing is it does actually feel like you are managing a team, you can do everything including training. It keeps you hooked and because it’s so deep and you have to concentrate the buzz is all the better when it comes to getting a ‘result’. I can’t think of any other game that recreates the cup atmosphere like this, I just long for the FA Cup draw to be made. It does all this without even a graphic and no notable sound.

I could go on for hours, but here are some of the key features;
Over 35,000 players, each with their own set of statistics, 16 leagues (I think – even the MLS). There’s the youth teams, the national teams, the U21’s everything!. You can send scouts out, transferring is hard, there’s player power and of course designing tactics, and even a internet play (although not great in this version). I could go on but I won’t cos otherwise you’ll NU me for ranting.

I must warn you if you are a footie or strategy fan this should captivate you. As Norwich I designed 600+ tactics to take on different teams! I spent 20 hours in a row taking my team to glory, and you can manage virtually any team in the world. If you get into this you should really not expect to see any sunshine for a while!

Champ Man 4 promises to be better and thi
s will be out soon providing even more leagues (Even Welsh), even more stats, and a better game engine, my winter will be spent nice and snug in front of the comp!

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