(Now You Can) Bend It Like Beckham (LMA Manager 2002 (PS2))

Member Name: karenuk

Product:	LMA Manager 2002 (PS2)
Date:	23/12/02 (283 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Doesn't get too boring too quickly, Many variations possible, You can have players based on the real thing

Disadvantages: Some loss of clarity in the graphics, Quite expensive at full price

INTRO

Anyone who has ever watched a football match has believed they could do a much better job than the referee, the players or the manager. We’ve all heard people criticising a decision, a team tactic or the choice of players. But how many of us actually get the chance to do these jobs? Very few, usually.

Well, now the opportunity is here in the form of a Playstation game – LMA Manager. Anyone now has the chance to pick the teams, buy and sell players, decide on the vital team tactics and make the financial decisions. Then you can sit back and watch the matches to see how successful your team have been. Will they win, draw or lose? Will your side be relegated or promoted? Could they even have the chance of winning the league? It is entirely in your hands.

BACKGROUND

LMA Manager is available as the original version (covering 1999/2000 players) and has been re-issued each year with updated versions – 2001, 2002 and 2003. This review concentrates on the 2002 edition, which Amazon are currently selling for £34.99 (PS2). It can be found cheaper elsewhere though and is often reduced when the newest version goes on sale. We bought ours from a High Street retailer for £25.

All the family has an interest in football, which made this an obvious choice – especially at such a low price. It is a game which can be enjoyed by all ages and even though it is too complex for our six year old to play by herself, she can still watch the matches. My ten year old son, twelve year old daughter and my husband spend the most time playing this game and it has held all their attention for several months now, often being played on a daily basis.

GAME PLAY

The game initially seems rather complex with a lot of different sections to complete, but it becomes much easier after a few games have been played. I would suggest a good thorough read of the instruction booklet before playing for the first time. It is a
dvisable to ensure that you have a memory card with at least fifteen blocks free, so you are able to save your game as you progress.

To begin a new game, you select whether you want to choose one or two players and which country’s league you wish to compete in (only England and Scotland available on PS1). In the PS1 game, you can buy players from numerous European teams, but this differs to the PS2 version by the number of teams you can be manager of. (On PS1, you can be the manager of any league club in Scotland and England - 134 different teams in 8 different divisions.)

You can choose to play long, open-ended games or short-term challenges. Then you need to make your decision about your staff and the speed of play. This sets the parameters for the game.

To start the actual game, you enter your name and select whether you wish to begin at the start of the season with the Cup Draws or from the first match itself.
As the game progresses, you can add to the interest, excitement and personalisation of it by buying and selling players. As in the real world, you – as the manager – has to make the important decisions as to how to spend your budget. You have to balance the advantages and disadvantages of, for example, buying a high scoring player for your team or selling one of your less successful players to raise some capital. You can also choose if you wish to place one of your team on loan, transfer or free transfer.

When you are considering buying another player, you can study their statistics – what their value is, what level of wages they will expect, their overall performance rated out of ten and if they possess certain specialist skills (which are penalty taking, free kicks, taking corners, long throws or leadership qualities). You can also choose to select a promising player from the Youth squad.

You can pick your players from a database, which contains every 2001-02 European team, strip
and player. This is a total of 17,000 players from 722 football clubs in 16 different divisions. This means there are many recognisable names you can select for your team including David Beckham, Michael Owen, Emil Heskey, David Seaman, Fabien Barthez and Ronaldo.

You can put your players through individual or team training and hire someone to coach them or do it yourself. The individual training can improve a player’s skill and stamina levels. This can assist a team’s performance potential.

As you would expect, players receive injuries sometimes and need the correct treatment. This might entail a short course of physiotherapy, a stay in hospital or specialist care. Each option must be weighed up, considering the comparative financial costs and the amount of time the player’s recovery will take. For example, a stay at a specialist sports hospital will be the most expensive, but the player will recover quickest.

You can improve your team’s stadium as you become more successful and have more capital to invest. You can increase your stadium’s capacity, so you can attract a larger attendance. You can increase the depth of the stands, add more levels, create executive boxes for the VIPs and build corner stands. If you have enough money, you can create a completely new stadium, rather than just improving your present one.

The game is very complicated with too many options to list here, but the main aim of it is to pick a team which wins the matches and rises to the top of the league table. You can watch the matches in their entirety or view them at fast speed.

Your performance at the end of each season is assessed and this results in your chosen team deciding to continue your employment or sack you from the position. You may also receive job offers from other clubs.

GRAPHICS

The game has a reasonable quality of graphics, but is far from perfect. Although the players have the cor
rect skin tone, they barely resemble the real players. So Heskey has black skin and Seaman has a ponytail, but other features are usually standard and players are often indistinguishable from each other.

It can be particularly difficult to recognise individual players during the matches, but there are options to have their shirt numbers viewed above their heads or their names to be displayed at the bottom of the screen, when they are in possession of the ball.

A nice touch is the weather forecast for upcoming matches. The games themselves are regularly played in rain, sleet or snow, which looks impressive but can have an adverse effect on the clarity of teams playing in lighter strips. The 3-D graphics used for the highlights present no problems at all though.

There are several charts and graphs which can be viewed throughout the game. These illustrate your team’s position in the league, its match results and other interesting facts, including the harshness and standard of vision of the referee.

The screens are clear and easy to understand, while containing a lot of facts and information. They are mainly in a combination of light blue and dark blue colours, which look smart enough but do not detract from the information they impart. The second player option uses the combination of light green and dark green.

SOUND EFFECTS

There are some authentic sounding cheers and general crowd noise during the matches themselves, although some chants become tiresome after a while.

After the match itself, there is a selection of highlights which contains analysis and commentary by Ray Stubbs (Gary Lineker in the PS2 version) and Alan Hansen. This is fun initially, but the repeated phrases and soundbites soon become annoying.

The sound can be muted if you find it irritating or distracting.

INSTRUCTION BOOKLET

The instruction booklet for LMA Manager 2002 is thirty five pages long an
d contains detailed, but clear, directions to each aspect of the game. It lists all the various options and functions, explaining each one below in a smaller font. This means it is easy to skip to the relevant section to find what it is you need to know. There are also several illustrations to explain the meaning of the icons used and to show how the various screens look.

OVERALL

I would recommend LMA Manager for anyone who has an interest in football, especially those who continously shout how they would have done things better during a match.

It can be played by both sexes and any age from around nine or ten upwards. Some younger players may need assistance from an adult though, as it can be frustrating trying to play successfully, if you are unsure of all the options available.

The game has an impressive longevity and is still played as often in our house as it was when it was first bought. My son can happily play it for up to four hours and my husband has even longer sessions, but it is also a game you can play for shorter periods.

It does become very addictive though, especially as you can aim for different levels of success. You may wish to strive for a team consisting of certain star footballers or to win a few matches initially. As you progress through the game and become more skilled, you might aim to win the National Cup or the League Championship. After achieving this, you could try to repeat this success the following season.

Each version of LMA Manager seems to improve but to comment on this 2002 game, the graphics could certainly be more detailed. It would be better if the player’s features were more accurate and clearer. The long view of the matches could be improved too, so that the clarity and detail were present, despite the effects of the various weather conditions.

Overall, it is a good quality game and well worth the money. It can become repetitive, but has the potential t
o be the type of game that is played regularly. Recommended.

Summary: