Review: Championship Manager 2010

Just 18 days to go. Or 410 hours, 30 minutes, 40 seconds... 39 seconds... 38 seconds... Football Manager is almost here! Hoorah.

I'd tried to ease the pain of waiting by investing 1p (on top of a £2.50 handling charge) for the latest edition of Championship Manager on the PC a few weeks back... but it did little to satisfy my hunger for Sport Interactive's next iteration.

I'd like to emphasise that I entered into this transaction with a completely open mind - it's no secret that I'm an FM fan and I defected from Championship Manger a few years ago - but I really wanted to like it. Alas, it was rotten. I can't quite explain why it didn't work for me; it just didn't feel right. On paper, it seems to match Football Manager and it's certainly undergone a very welcome facelift. But it didn't get off to a good start.

After all the hassle regarding the actual purchase of the damn thing (servers were down, websites were kaputt, payment methods were playing up and the support team was pitiful), I couldn't actually get the game to load!

After reinstalling it several times, the main menu magically appeared and I chose my team and picked my leagues. The layout was fairly logical, with all options, menus and toolbars easy to navigate.

I can't complain about it's appearance; the game's skin was attractive and "shiny", while the various team and tactics screens making the best of what are effectively funky-looking Excel spreadsheets!

I liked the look of the scouting screens - a nice departure from the usual drop down menus. Here you pick a countries from which you wish to pluck talent from and designate how much cash you're willing to plough into the recruitment process. Then you just sit back and wait, as new blood from each region pops onto your screen for you to sign.

The actual 3D match engine is a marked improvement on previous versions of Championship Manager too. Matchday comes and you can see your players run about the place, with every kick of the ball accompanied by a reassuring "whack" sound. It's frustrating that the data menus flash onto your screen every time there's a break in play though.



Loading times are still excruciating and it often took me an entire evening to play just a couple of matches. Ultimately, there's plenty to see and do - but none of it is particularly enjoyable and it still lags behind Football Manager in terms of depth and realism.

As I say, I bought this for a miserly £2.51 thanks to a much vaunted marketing initiative. I'm pretty pleased with the purchase but would have been disappointed if I were asked to spend the full price of around £30 that the retailers are now demanding.
There's clearly no longer such a chasm between the two titles - more like a fairly sizable trench... But for me, I'd recommend you save your cash and wait to sign the world class management sim that is Football Manager in a matter of weeks!
(Photo credit: Stevec77, Wha'ppen)