Championship Manager: Season 03-04 (PC)

...History **

Championship Manager began life as the work of two football fans from Shropshire, Oliver and Paul Collyer, who developed the original game at home. Released in 1992 on the Amiga and Atari the game was a big success and prompted the first seasonal version to be released the following year. With each new seasonal release came additional functionality, detail, leagues and players. Made by a partnership between Sports Interactive ...
...culminating in the release of Championship Manager 03/04, which sadly will be the last in the series.

** Single player/Multi-player Games **

There are a variety of ways you can play this game depending on how addicted to it your friends/relatives/acquaintances are. Each have their own merits and disadvantages as detailed below.

Firstly there is the single player mode. As the description might imply, this ... more

Recently filmmakers made a romantic comedy about “How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days”. If the reverse film were to be made this game would almost certainly take centre stage. Such is the addictiveness of this game that it is actually marketed by its manufacturers as something that will destroy your relationship. They are not far wrong. This is undoubtedly the most addictive game I have ever played

** Game History **

Championship Manager began life as the work of two football fans from Shropshire, Oliver and Paul Collyer, who developed the original game at home. Released in 1992 on the Amiga and Atari the game was a big success and prompted the first seasonal version to be released the following year. With each new seasonal release came additional functionality, detail, leagues and players. Made by a partnership between Sports Interactive and Eidos Interactive, the series went from strength to strength culminating in the release of Championship Manager 03/04, which sadly will be the last in the series.

** Single player/Multi-player Games **

There are a variety of ways you can play this game depending on how addicted to it your friends/relatives/acquaintances are. Each have their own merits and disadvantages as detailed below.

Firstly there is the single player mode. As the description might imply, this is played alone and only requires a single PC. The computer will manage all the other teams in the leagues you opt to include in your game. A single player game is the easiest and most accessible to play as all you need to continue your game is yourself and your PC. The drawback being of a single player game is that you are on your own for a long time. It is not a quick game to play and is a lot more fun and sociable if you are competing against friends. Having said that it is easy to save and continue the game meaning that you can start and stop as you like and make your way through the seasons at your own pace.

Secondly there is the multi-player option where all players use the same PC. This option only requires a single PC and can accommodate multiple players. The computer will manage all teams not managed by a player in the leagues that you opt to include in your game. This multi-player option has the advantages of being more of a social event than the single player game and creating additional competition between managers. The drawbacks however are that it may be difficult to get all players together at the same time to continue the game (all managers need to be present to continue the game really) and it is really slow to play the game this way. It can be very time consuming looking for players to enhance your squad and negotiating a deal for that player. If you are playing a multiplayer game on the same PC then the length of this process is magnified while all managers do the same thing. I have never found it particularly practical to play the game this way for this reason.

Thirdly you can play a multi-player game across a network. This option requires multiple PC’s and can accommodate multiple players (not necessarily one per PC as you can combine option two above with this option). The PC’s must be networked together and all have Championship Manager installed on them, although only one copy of the game is needed. A networked game allows managers to search for players at the same time, reducing the time spent waiting for other players to pick their team. A single computer will host the game (this PC needs to insert the CD to start the game). Once the game has been loaded, other PC’s on the network can join the game and become managers. As mentioned this method of playing a multiplayer game is much quicker than the second option described above and still maintains the competitive edge. Sadly it loses the social aspect of option two (unless the networked PC’s are in the same room) and it is still done in phases, so you can’t proceed with the game until all players are ready (which can be frustrating if you are having to wait for someone to search for players when you want to continue). I used to play across a network a lot when I was at University, as a lot of my housemates liked the game too.

The final option is to play a multi-player game across the Internet. I must admit that I have never done this myself but I would imagine that it works in the same way as playing across a network it just uses the Internet as the network. Considering the amount of data used in the game and the fact that a single PC hosts the game I guess you need a fast Internet connection (broadband etc) to consider playing the game in this way.

** Starting a Game **

Starting a game is quite a time consuming exercise as the database that will be used by the game once you are up and playing must be created and populated. It also worth bearing in mind that once a game has been created it is not possible to change the initial settings on the number of leagues included (and indeed the leagues that are included) and the size of the database so it is worth giving it some thought before you start.

The main things to consider are the size of database you want to play with and the number of leagues to include in the game.

The size of database you use will affect the number of players, teams and match data available in your game. The bigger the database the more players, teams and match reports in the game and visa versa. A side effect of the size of the database is the speed of the game. The bigger the database, the slower the game will be to process the data is a general rule although in my experience it is not normally noticeable until about the eighth season or so.

Similarly with the number of leagues, the more leagues you include in your game the more teams and players from that league will be included in your game. As with the size of the database used the more leagues used causes a reduction in the speed of the game. This is because of the additional matches that must be “played” in the background. An upside of having multiple leagues in your game is that you can manage a team in any one of the leagues included in your game. Handy if you get bored of managing Manchester United and want to try your luck at Real Madrid.

Leagues can also be added into your game on full detail or not. This determines the amount of information held about the league and the matches “played” in it. As you would expect this also effects the speed of the game.

** Leagues **
As mentioned above when you create a game you include one or more leagues. Each league is set up with the teams currently in it (for the season 2003/2004), so for example the premiership consists of Arsenal, Chelsea, Man United, Liverpool, Newcastle, Aston Villa, Charlton, Bolton, Fulham, Birmingham, Middlesbrough, Southampton, Portsmouth, Tottenham, Blackburn, Man City, Everton, Leicester, Leeds and Wolverhampton.

In addition to the league that is selected all other domestic and European competitions are included for that league too. So, keeping with the same example from above, using the Premiership would also add the Community Shield, Worthington Cup, FA Cup, UEFA Cup and Champions League. This is true of other leagues too.

International teams and competitions are also added but only contain detail determined by the leagues selected. If you include the English leagues then you will be able to manage England and there is will be players in the England teams (Senior Team, U21 Team etc). This is true of other nations too.

The bad news for all you budding international managers is that you can’t start the game as a national manager. You have to manage a club and build your reputation first then apply for national team coach when it becomes available (normally after every major championship that they don’t win). The good news is that you don’t have to quit your league job to become national coach. He would probably become quite a dull game waiting for the next friendly or qualifier so you can keep your club job and manage the national team at the same time. Bonus!

** Teams **

Each team in the game carries its own details and these are changed based on the success/failure of the club and the money available to the club. There is an editor that can be used before starting the game to check on the stats for a club. Statistics held on a club include stadium size, maximum stadium size (it is not possible to expand some grounds – like Highbury), supporter base and reputation (which will affect the players that are prepared to come and play for your club).

As in real life, each team has its own stadium where they play the home matches. The stadium has its own features including a capacity, which (along with the support base of the club) will determine the revenue received from each home game.

Training facilities are also associated with a team. The standard of the training facilities will determine how often your players are injured in training and quickly they recover from injury. There are other factors that influence these effects like the type of training, how much time off the players have and how good the physios are at your club. There will be more about that later.

Similar to training facilities, the quality of your youth academy will determine the quality of the youngsters that are produced. New youngsters are added to your squad each summer. Normally they are added into the under 19 team first and are then assessed by your coaches. At the end of their first year you can then opt to either keep the player or release them.

Perhaps the most important feature of a team as far as a budding manager is concerned is the transfer budget and wage budget. Each team has its own budget defined based on its predicted income. The manager of the club (that’s you) must work within these budgets to improve your team and make them successful. Like I mentioned you have two budgets to work with. The first, the transfer budget, determines how much you can spend to get players into the club while the second, the wage budget, determines how much you should be paying in wages. If you over spend on wages then you will lose out on some of your transfer kitty.

A club also comes with profiles for both board members and back room staff. Sadly as a manager you are not in a position to hire or fire board members, but you can pick your own back room staff. Again their wages are factored into your wage budget so the more coaches you have the less money you have for players wages. The board will make decisions on your job (hire/fire you) but can also be asked to improve the clubs facilities. As manager you can request a variety of things from the board, such as improvements to the training facilities, youth academy or stadium capacity. Back room staff are responsible for training the players etc and can also be used to assess a players progress within the team.

A club will also have a reputation based on its recent success in domestic and international competitions. There are various levels to this reputation such as local, national and worldwide. The more leagues and trophies you win with a club the more you will improve the reputation of the club, which in turn will mean that better players will consider coming to play for you.

** Players **

Basically players are determined by a set of statistics. Each player has a number of attributes like pace, acceleration, heading, shooting etc (many many more) and a set of hidden attributes like potential. The attributes range in value from 1 to 20 with 20 being the best. The higher the appropriate attributes for a players position, the better the player is. The hidden attributes like potential determine how good the player can become with the right training etc.

There are two main ways to find players that you want to join your club. The first is to search through the extensive list of well-known players manually looking at their statistics and deciding for yourself. The second is to use the club scouts (part of the back room staff) to search a club or country. The scouts will find players that are not in the well-known player list and will give you an assessment, which is based on their potential and the reputation of your club.

** Matches **

When you come to play a match you pick a starting eleven from your squad as well as some substitutes (between 5 and 7 for competitive games). The match is generated based on the statistics of the players fielded and some other conditions like weather etc. As a manager observing the game you can watch written commentary on the match as well as watch some stats on your players that will give you information on their health/fitness as well as their contribution to the game. Each player is awarded a score out of 10 for their performance in the game. The higher the rating, the greater the performance.

** Tactics **

As any good football manager will tell you, match tactics can win or lose you a game. Luckily help is at hand where your team tactics are concerned. The game comes with a number preset tactics that can be used to organise your team during the game. The tactics included are varied in style and include a variety of tactics for adventurous, attack minded managers and cautious, defensive managers.

For more adventurous players there is the option to define your own tactics. There are several elements to be defined when building your tactic:
- Basic Positioning – the basic formation your team should use (4-4-2, 5-3-2 etc etc)
- Positioning with the ball – the positions you want your players to take up when you have the ball
- Positioning without the ball – the positions you want your players to take up when you lose the ball
- Mentality – what you want players to do with/without the ball. You can define if the team will run with the ball, try through balls among others. This level of detail can be applied to positions as well as the whole team.

** Training **

Training has become an integral part of the game and should be a big part of your management. As with tactics you have the option of using predefined training regimes or define your own training schedule. There are a few predefined routines included with the game and players are automatically added to these default training schedule when they join the club.

A training schedule is defined by splitting days into 3 sections. Each section can have an activity in it and each activity is designed to improve a set of attributes for players. Rest is defined as one of the activities and it is important to remember to give the players a rest. The more intensive the training, the more likely they are to get injured doing it.

Players and coaches can be assigned to training schedules on an individual basis making it easy to customise your squad training.

If it all sounds too much for you, it is possible to get your Assistant Manager to organise the teams training.

** Transfers **

Choosing and signing the players that are going to bring glory to your club is probably the most time consuming activity for a manager in this game, especially when you are working in a tight budget. The first thing to do is to identify your target (see above). Once identified, you have a couple of options:

Buy the player – put a bid in with the players current club and once a fee is agreed, sort out a contract with the player and he’s all yours. Players can be part-exchanged to reduce the cash fee where required.

Sign the player on a bosman – a player in the final year of his contract can negotiate with other clubs without the need to agree a fee. A tribunal determines the transfer fee later on.

Loan the player – if you can’t afford to buy the player it is possible to loan him for various periods of time and with various options on wage contributions etc. It is also possible to negotiate a future purchase fee when agreeing a loan period.

There are various other transfer options worth considering including buying first option on players and co-owning a player with another club.

** Player Contracts **

As was mentioned earlier you have a wage budget that you need to work within when agreeing player contracts. The wage budget is set by the board and is derived from the wealth of the club and the expected earnings for the forthcoming year.

It is possible to assign your Assistant Manager the task of handling contract renewals, although in my experience they tend to agree contracts that are too big and too long.

** Manager Options **

As mentioned it is possible to remove elements of the game from your control by assigning them to your Assistant Manager. This is true of other areas of the game too. For example it is possible to let your Assistant control the Reserve team and the Under 19 team. Alternatively, you can take this responsibility yourself and guide your reserves to glory too.

Arranging friendlies is another aspect that the Assistant Manager can do for you. I am normally engrossed in shopping for players and forget to organise some pre-season friendlies till the last minute. Your Assistant can do this for you and save the last minute run around trying to find some opponents.

** Moving Jobs **

Nothing lasts forever, and neither will your management of a single club. Weather you are sacked for a poor performance or you feel you have taken the team as far as you can, there are two ways to find a new club to manage.

Firstly there is the chance that you may be offered a job at another club. This normally happens when you are being successful at a club, you will be offered a job at a different club.
Secondly you can apply for jobs when they become available or when the existing manager has a rating of insecure (each manager has a security rating on their job which is based on the boards assessment of their progress). If another manager is having a bad time then you can apply to the board to replace them as manager of the club.

** Other Features **

There is some media interaction that the manager can make use of too. You can praise or criticise players for their recent performances. Praising a player can make them happier to be at the club and help them feel appreciated. Publicly criticising a player can either encourage them to admit their errors and improve or cause them to fall out with you can become unhappy.

Additionally you can disciple players either verbally or financially. Financial penalties are not normally received warmly by either the player being fined or the rest of the squad, so beware.

** Graphics and Playability **

The user interface for this game is fairly basic compared with most modern computer games. As I mentioned before the game works based on statistics and so a complicated interface is not needed. The interface is functional with most of the main links and functions you will need as a manager on the left side of the screen. The basis of the user interface has not changed a lot through the series, although the functionality has improved a lot.

An improvement in the last two versions of the game is that you can watch the matches as they are played rather than just reading the commentary. The match is viewed in 2D with the players represented by coloured dots moving around the screen. I have never warmed to this view and prefer to watch the commentary and the player statistics.

The game is very easy to play and also very addictive. The main menu easily facilitates the navigation around the game. The only draw back to the playability is the speed of the game as it can sometimes be quite slow to process all the scores.

** Technical Spec **

The minimum requirements for this game are:
Windows 98/Windows 2000/Windows XP
PIII 600
96MB for one league and a small database – 128MB on Windows 2000/XP (Obviously more memory is needed for more leagues and larger databases)
DirectX 8.1 compatible sound card
4x CD-ROM drive
1024x769 32bit colour display
300MB free disk space
Windows compatible mouse and keyboard.

In reality a much better PC should be used to play this game. My PC exceed this specification and can struggle at times, so I would say this is an absolute minimum and serious players should be looking at something a lot better than this spec to play this game.

** Websites **

I was going to include some cheats and some players tips in this review, but have decided against it now. I will however tell you about some good places to look if you do want this information. The Championship Manager series has become something of a cult game and as such has numerous sites devoted to forums and tips on the game. Possibly the biggest of these and certainly the most comprehensive one I have found is on the SI Games website. There is a section to their site called Community Forums where there are literally thousands of threads about players to buy, training schedules and tactics. Anything and everything you want to know about the game can be found here.

** My Experience **

I became addicted to this game back in my first year in university when a friend of mine talked me into having a game. Once installed on my PC that was the last anyone saw of me for a couple of weeks as I attempted to guide Wrexham to Champions League glory. I would appear only to occasionally eat something and the rest of my time would be devoted to the development of my team. My grades at university slipped slightly after being introduced to this game and in all honesty I could probably point the finger at my addiction to this game for the reason behind my disappointing final grade.

Anyway, since the earlier games in the series there are been a vast improvement in the complexity and detail in this game. Having never managed a football club I can’t say how true to life it is but this game covers every aspect of a managers job that I can think of and it covers it in sufficient detail to be realistic.

I have had many (solid) months worth of fun playing this game and continue to do so now. In my opinion the game is best played with friends in one of the multi-player options described at the start of the game, although the hardcore fans of the game may find it frustrating waiting for your playing partner(s) to be available to continue the game.

This game is designed to be addictive and to take a long time to play. Theoretically a game can go on indefinitely, playing season after season. With this in mind I would only recommend this game to football fans or fans of previous versions. Alternately if you are looking to lose a couple of weeks of your life you could do a lot worse than buy this game. From speaking to people, it seems that everyone has tried one of the games in this series. If you liked an earlier version of the game then you will like this version. If you didn’t like the earlier versions then aside from having a lot more detail, this is fundamentally the same game.

If, like me, you are an armchair football fan and are convinced that you can do a better job, then why not prove it?

** Future Releases **
I mentioned at the start of the review, this game is the last in the series. This is because the partnership between Eidos and Sports Interactive has come to an end and both parties have decided to have a go at their own version. So, from later this year there will be two versions released in direct competition:

Eidos are releasing Championship Manager 5 (they have kept the rights to the name) around October, which I believe will be a development of the user interface from the current game with a new database.
Sports Interactive have teamed up with Sega to release Football Manager 2005, which is due to be released before the end of the year. I believe this will use the database and stats from current version and have a new user interface. I have seen some of the screen shots for this version and it looks impressive.

Only time will tell if these two versions can replicate the success of the original game. For now enjoy Championship Manager 03/04 and try to find time to do other things.

Thanks for reading
 

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