Review rated by 12 Ciao members on average: very helpful
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Like the returning of a lost friend April brought us the release of CM4. The game which has cause more relationships to break up, friends to go unseen and days in work to be missed than any other in history.
What started off as a simple enough football based strategy has developed, evolved and grown into a full, in depth experience of being part of the beautiful game. It's a game you don't even play in the usual sense as it's all to do with statistics and probability, a game for the geekiest of computer geks. However given a football flavour it is a test of masculinity.
Over recent addictions not only do you get to pick the team and handle transfers but as each new generation has come about you are given more and more control. By CM 01/02 you could control your reserves and training as well as the original basics, giving you much more control than any manager currently has.
So as we waited for this version we wonder what the 'upgrade' will be. To be fair the same game but with up to date players would be enough for alot of fans but Eidos wanted something special. And thus the 2D ingame view was born.
To look at it rates up there with PacMan. A series of named coloured dots running round the screen passing a ball, however this gives the Champ Man fan something to vent his fury at, no longer just looking at a description of the action, now you can see it (if you take your hands away from your face for long enough). Originally I thought this would be a bad thing but was instantly hooked and now consider it to be a real shot in the arm for the series, by adding a dimension and a feature that looking back was sorely missing.
Other than this there isn't much difference, the addictive game play still remains, the players are of course updated and you still have hundreds of teams to choose from, ranging from the Greatest (Liverpool) to some unknown teams in Croatia for a manager who wants to truely prove his skill.
Sadly the same minor problems also remain. Firstly it's almost too addictive and you will find your life sliding out of view. Many is the time my supposed hard work and note taking in class / work was actually me writing out my shortlist or a new formation.
Secondly it can suffer from too much detail, it is very possible to pick a famous, well established team and still spend a week on the games sorting training, shortlist, buying, selling, contracts, reserves, youth team etc. before you even get to kick a ball in anger.
Also, despite offering over 20 leagues, the game is so detailed you need a very fast computer to run it and often you'll find yourself only operating one, or perhaps 2 leagues at once meaning the huge scope of the game becomes limited (otherwise basically you'd be running it at real time).(NOTE - On the processor power need I have put p400+, you can run it with alot slower but the quicker the processer the vastly better the game is).
One further point is that I got a very early copy of the game and found that there were bugs on it (happened to alot of people). If was possible to go to Eidos's website and download a repair patch, however this is not something you want from a game you've waited a year for and had it's release date put back twice.
However despite this I absolutely love the game, it draws you in so much that time seems to flyand you'll find yourself not only playing it for hours on end, but also returning to it after vowing to get your life back. You bring find even the most pathetic points of success taste all the sweeter. One week before mt dissertation was due in at University I won the First Divison Championship with Luton, the fans were chanting my name. It was one of the happiest days of my life.
of the Eidos/Sports Interactive Games doors, and followers of the ever popular series will not be disappointed. With over 200,000 players and staff across 39 national lea...
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14.09.2003 23:34
Great op... but unfortunately not my sort of game! Sal x
03.09.2003 22:06
i like the champ man series tho im still on champ man 2 what a classic, nice review!
03.09.2003 21:31
Superb op. Personally, CM4 frustrates me horribly, but being a Leeds supporter, I'm used to it.