This game has it all, not just the routine goings on that take place in a football managers day, but also those things that make the front pages of the tabloids, rumours of player transfers, players who seem to get into trouble every week, and the all too common dodgy referees and their decisions. This game has absolutely everything; it has serious depth and detail. If all this sounds too much for you, you can select how much involvement you have in the game from the start. Obviously you do need to have control over team selection and transfers. You don't have to take part in the tactics as the players can decided which player they will mark and how far they can wonder round the pitch. Although you will probably want to control the tactics yourself, give your players individual roles and positions.
After a short while you will be adjusting the smallest details and tweaking the figures in order to better your team.
The XBox version of Championship Manager has been compromised, although not as much as some people expected. If you like numbers read this and you will be in a state of utopia. There are more than 80,000 players, leagues from Japan, France, Argentina, Scotland and Greece etc; there are a total of 3,000 teams to choose from.
That's the good news, as for the bad news the major point is the number of leagues you can run simultaneously. In the PC version you can run all 26 leagues but the XBox version can only run three leagues simultaneously. Plus you can't edit the player's stats. So the bad news isn't all that bad unless you are a global football manager wanting to take over the world.
This shouldn't detract from the game as it is fantastic, it's as good as the PC version even though it has a couple of concessions.
Every major league is in here which is very important, because without this depth you loose the illusion of living and breathing football, and the game would loose most of its appeal. Apart from the aforementioned compromise it's all here, the tactics, the coaches, the media, the training and even club fines.
This is what makes the game so good, the attention to detail that so many games lack in this day and age.
The concessions shouldn't detract from the game as it is fantastic, plus Championship Manager on Xbox is as good as the PC version even with the fore mentioned concessions. If you have an Xbox and you want to become the next Sven, by this now.
9.0
