Championship Manager 3
"The Championship Manager series is one of the
PC's greatest soccer success stories."
Using a highly involving
stat-driven approach to
model a thoroughly
immersive and convincing simulation of the
world of football, Champ Man as it's
affectionately become known, has waved a
wanton two fingers at the 3D revolution and
all the latest graphical frippery, to deliver solid
gameplay and what many discerning pundits
regard as the PC's supreme managerial test. Now Championship
Manager 3, the latest incarnation of the footballing phenomenon is
ready to strip off its tracksuit and make its debut and like a seasoned
coach, the resident GameSpot soccer nutters have been running an
expert eye over the boy's progress and putting him through his paces
out on the training ground.
When we spoke to them last year, Paul and Oliver Collyer the brotherly
brains behind Sports Interactive's best-selling series, promised a total
re-write of the game drawing on the experience and feedback they'd
received from the existing 25,000 strong Champ Man fan base. On this
latest showing, those hordes of armchair supremos certainly won't be
disappointed at the result.
The first major development
is the ability to run a total
of 16 leagues
simultaneously (depending on your system's
performance) with all the major European,
Scandinavian and North and South American
leagues represented, plus the ability to slot in
future add-on league releases as required.
Not only does this give you more teams and
players to choose from, but it significantly raises the international
scope of the game as you can now swap jobs and move between
countries with impunity, which really promotes the sense of being
involved in a living, breathing footballing world.
One of the series strengths has always been its supreme authenticity
and Champ Man 3 is definitely the most detailed version yet. Every
domestic and international league and cup competition, plus special
events like the World and Confederation cups are included and covered
in frightening and sometimes almost overwhelming detail. Sports
Interactive have commissioned specialist researchers and used their
existing fan base to build a comprehensive statistical model of all the
games leading players, as well as all the individuals lurking in some of
the more obscure backwaters of the international game. Interested in
the inner workings of the Spanish second division, looking for a bargain
basement buy in the Vauxhall Conference or searching for that special
forward from the African Nations Cup? Champ Man 3 covers them all
and a lot more besides. In fact, the level of depth throughout is
impressive and such that even most hardened soccer addict will
probably be satiated to the point of bursting by the stat-heavy,
ultra-comprehensive nature of the beast.
Yet probably the most
significant improvement is
the new match engine,
which while retaining the radio style
commentary of its predecessor, now plays
out every single pass, tackle and shot in real
time for every single game. Players can be
given detailed instructions for each match and
these interact with their natural abilities to
produce a much more realistic match result. The level of feedback and
response has also improved, with even more detailed match reports
and statistical analysis, plus the addition of a series of monthly and
yearly awards to help you judge both your players' prowess and your
own managerial performance.
Tactically, Champ Man 3 has also upped its standards and the
introduction of the new tactics editor makes designing and
implementing your chosen strategies a much more intriguing and
rewarding task. All the standard formations are at your disposal, but
using a simple grid system, you can accurately design your own custom
playing style, modifying it for when you're in possession or chasing the
game and positioning players to beat the offside trap, make
devastating midfield forays or sit back and catch the opposition on the
break.
One of the most crucial
managerial tasks remains
the buying and selling of
players to assemble that perfect
championship winning squad. In Champ Man
3, the players have also undergone a radical
revision with up to 40 stats (compared to 25
in the previous version) now rating your star
performers on every aspect of their game
from speed and acceleration, to positioning and reflexes and even the
number of languages they speak. This is accurately reflected in the
match sequence with flair players beating opponents, selfish centre
forwards hogging the ball and aggressive defenders weighing in with
some scything challenges. A very useful player search facility is already
in place and a more modern scouting style system will also be
introduced to aid your search for fresh talent and this new facility will
make it fairly easy to sort the potential bargains from the donkeys,
which is a nice improvement over the rather cumbersome player search
in Champ Man 2.
With an impressive pedigree and an already huge following, there's little
doubt that Championship Manager 3 will be a rip-roaring success when
it is released. Of course with few graphical bells and whistles, a distinct
lack of instant thrills and a mass of statistical information to digest, it's
is not going to be everyone's - least of all not even every soccer fan's -
favourite cup of Darjeeling. But with more stats, more players, more
teams and more depth than the Marianas Trench, Champ Man 3 will
undoubtedly become the weapon of choice for hardcore soccer fanatics
looking for some serious long-term challenge.
"How to be the boss in Championship Manager 3"
Well the call has come
through on your mobile, the
chairman's announced your
appointment at a huge press conference and
you're now firmly established as the soccer
supremo at your favourite Premiership outfit.
What next? Well treat yourself to a new
sheepskin (or an Armani if you favour the
continental approach), light a fat Havana cigar
and relax with GameSpot's unique preview guide to your first 24 hours
in the Champ Man 3 managerial hot seat.
Even though I'm a Watford fan, I've taken a momentous decision and
moved up a division to take control of Liverpool for the purposes of
this preview. The reason is simple: at first it's actually a lot easier at
the highest level, because the big boys of the Premiership have much
more money and are definitely more likely to attract quality players and
coaching staff . Of course as the game progresses you'll find the
pressure for results is far greater, but at least by starting with a big
club, you'll have the resources and finance to meet the challenge.
So once you take charge of
your chosen club, your first
task is to find out what the
board of directors' expectations are for this
season. In this case, the Liverpool directors
will happily settle for a respectable league
position, but I'm sure the fans will want us to
set our sights a little bit higher and I'm eager
to add some silverware to the old trophy
cabinet.
The next task is to check out your squad. The Champ Manager rosters
are among the most authentic you'll ever find and there's plenty of big
names here including stars like wunderkind striker Michael Owen,
sharpshooter Robbie Fowler and dribble meister Steve McManaman.
From this screen you can also take a look at your reserve side and
choose whether you want to manage them yourself or leave it to the
backroom staff.
Looking at the real-life
Liverpool team this season,
there's plenty of firepower
up front, but Gerrard Houlier's current
managerial dilemma is strengthening the
defence and I'm sure it won't be too long
before I'll be hitting the transfer market for a
couple of big name signings to fill the gaps at
the back. Another factor to be aware of is
that several star players (Fowler and McManaman notably) are nearing
the end of their contracts, so intense negotiations are going to be
involved in either getting them to stay, or selling them off before they
leave on a free transfer under the Bosman ruling. Blimey it's still only
the pre-season and there's already plenty of work to be done!
Well there's no time like the present, so let's
delve into the transfer market and see if we
can sort the potential Ronaldos from the
Carlton Palmers. One of my main priorities is
defence, so plugging into the excellent player
search facility, I use a series of filters to home
in on the specific kind of player I want.
Position, Age, Value and Contract Status are
just some of the factors to consider, but I
want a young, skilful defender and a quick search reveals that West
Ham's Rio Ferdinand might just be my man. �4.8 million is a steep
asking price, but with a healthy �31 million in the bank, I'm not afraid
to spend in my search for success. After checking out his stats I'm
reassured that the lad has a lot of potential, so I put in a bid. After a
few more enquiries, I add a few other names to my shortlist, but Aston
Villa's young central defender Gareth Barry comes top of my reserve
shopping list, in case the Rio deal falls through.
Okay, a quick check on the
fixture list and I discover
that there's a few
pre-season friendlies arranged and the first is
against Ipswich at Portman road. Time to get
down to the nitty gritty of management and
start picking the team. The players in Champ
Man 3 are rated on 40 different stats, so you
really do get a comprehensive picture of each
player, but it makes picking your ideal team a very challenging task.
After much deliberation, I finally name a squad of 19 (11 first team plus
8 subs) for the Ipswich game, which should give a lot of players a run
out and a chance for me to assess their early season form.
So the first team is settled, but what kind of tactics should I employ?
Fortunately Champ Man 3 has an extensive set of default tactical
settings and since I usually favour an attacking 4-4-2 formation, I load
it up and have a look at where the players slot in. There's far more
tactical detail than in previous versions, so I can easily see where the
players are positioned in relation to the ball in every single area of the
pitch. For the most part I'm fairly happy with the default settings, but
Liverpool look especially strong down the right and so I adjust the wing
back, Vegard Heggem to make some slightly more attacking runs. I
also think that playing Steve McManaman slightly wider could yield
dividends and a couple of clicks later, he's patrolling that wing in a free
role, ready to deliver some silky dribbles into the box. But football isn't
always about all-out attack and so for insurance, I also tinker with a
more defensive 3-5-2 formation, for when the team need to soak up
pressure or defend a narrow away lead.
Personnel and tactics are
now finalised and my next
task is to set up the club
training regime. Having a look at my
backroom staff, I discover that I've got two
very able coaches but that they excel at very
different disciplines. Joe Corrigan is a great
Goalkeeping coach and fantastic at tactical
coaching, while Patrice Bergeu is good at
coaching outfield players and keeping them fit. Assigning the coaches
to take charge of the relevant areas, I can then move on to setting up
some specific training regimes.
There are six default training methods which include General, Fitness,
Shooting, Skill, Tactics and Goalkeeping and each can be assigned to a
player, depending on how you want him to develop. But you can also
set up your own custom training assignments and mix and match
priorities to focus on various aspects of the game. For example, in the
Liverpool squad Jamie Redknapp is a fine passer of the ball, but I'd like
him to get stuck in more, so I a create a new training profile called
Defence which concentrates on fitness, tackling and the more defensive
aspects of the midfield role. After giving Jamie Redknapp his new
training regime, I spend fairly exhaustive session setting up and
tweaking training for every member of the first team and reserve
squad, until I'm happy with the results.
Phew, that's my first day at the office done and I've already put in
transfer bids worth �6 million, completely revised the training schedule,
designed some new tactics and picked my first team squad. Talk about
a new broom sweeping clean! Still I've barely scratched the surface and
there's plenty more to do: pruning out some of the dead wood, having
more in-depth look at the reserves and the youth team, sorting out all
the player contracts. It's a never ending, but supremely rewarding task
and gives you an idea of the considerable depth underlying the game
engine. For anyone who's ever wondered what is would be like to take
the helm of their favourite outfit, at the end of the day, you have to
say that surely it doesn't come much more realistic than this.
John Houlihan