In a nutshell:
The biggest name in football management returns for a new season in which it's suddenly the underdog. Despite giving 110% though it doesn't quite walk away with the silverware this time. The lowdown:
Since 1993, the Championship Manager series has been the most popular football management game in the world - for a while it was the best selling PC game of all time in the UK! Ever since original developer Sports Interactive left to work on Football Manager for Sega though it's never quite been the same. This new version is a definite improvement on last year's game though, with a brand new interface that's arguably better than any of its rivals. As well as the new Match Analysis Tool there's also a new team talk feature and the chance to give individual instructions to specific players. The accuracy of the database of players still doesn't come close to that of Sports Interactive, but it's still far from second division.
Most exciting moment:
The new Match Analysis Tool is probably the game's biggest new feature, with a truck load of statistics to examine at the end of every match, for not just the game itself but every individual player involved. Not all of it is always useful but it certainly does help when deciding what changes to make to your side.
Since you ask:
After Sports Interactive left the series, publisher Eidos set-up their own brand new development studio just to work on the Championship Manager series. Named Beautiful Game Studios, the team is based in Wimbledon with their own in-house research team for player statistics.
The bottom line:
Second best is still good enough.-HARRISON DENT
