Championship Manager 2010 Review [PC]

22 Sep 2009 at 13:39:16 by Peter Parrish
Systems used to review this title: (PC)

In order to fulfil their role as a consumer guide (no, seriously), it's important for reviews to attempt to reconcile any unusual extremes in pricing with the overall quality of the games involved. A 'pay what you fancy' scheme makes this a little tricky. As we reported back in August, Championship Manager 2010 was available to pre-order for as little as £2.51 or, theoretically, as much as the cost of ten Kakas' wearing diamond hats.

Suffice to say, if you paid the minimum, you got a bargain. A single Championship Manager 2010 season (even if blitzed through), is going to work out at something ridiculous like 10p/hour. To throw that into even sharper focus, that's still less than an official match programme at a real game. Hell, it's probably less than access to the toilets at some grounds. The question of whether this gambit will lure enough people away from Football Manager, the lumbering colossus of the management scene, remains open. It'll be interesting to see any statistics that emerge from this little retail experiment.

For those who paid (or who plan to pay) full-price, the situation is less clear cut. There's much to like about CM2010, certainly. The early promise shown by the game has been delivered upon in several areas. Interaction with players, although a bit tucked away, is rather good; to the extent that after some back-and-forth contract negotiations you'll probably be ready to murder an agent. However, not all players in this title are cold-hearted Randian machines pursuing the biggest contract possible. Some actually appear compassionate when you explain that the club can't afford to engrave their name on the moon just yet because home crowds consist of one old bloke and a dog, and the dog isn't even all that interested in their scintillating wing play. Being constantly played out of position, dumped on the transfer list or dramatic changes in squad status will also have an effect on the poor chaps. Indeed, everything about player interaction gives the impression that how you deal with their worries and requests (largely controlled through multiple drop-down dialogue options) will affect their performance and commitment to the team.

As mentioned, these dialogue options nestle quietly within one of the multiple menus relating to each individual player - and this is not unusual for an interface that at times seems eager to be clear and helpful, but at others is slightly obtuse. The small markers that appear by each player's name on the squad and tactics screens offer useful at-a-glance information about injuries, contract status, condition and so on. Shortcuts to other information may (and often do) exist, but are not always clear. There were moments when I accidentally stumbled across a function I'd been looking for in an unlikely place, like the ability to request an expanded wage budget from the board which is hidden away in 'confidence' rather than, say, 'finances.' A handful of minor bugs also hamper the interface screens, such as results of previous matches showing up as 'V' rather than an actual score.

Get a grip on where everything is in the interface, though, and you'll be rewarded with a few excellent functions. Designing unique set-pieces is a relatively simple process, but one that can devilishly suck up time. Such is the flexibility of the set-piece designer that it won't be long before dubious exploits in the AI are being used to create 'foolproof' insta-goals for the development team to then counter in some never-ending battle of wits - but that's the cost of having such an unrestricted tool and shouldn't detract from what a great addition it is for the majority of players. I've yet to pull off a goal in a competitive match with one of my own creations, but that's only because I insist on perfecting a routine that results in the taker nutmegging every single opponent before ramming the ball home in an orgy of total football. At which point I will stand up in front of my computer and perform a billion flips.

As noted in our preview scouting now relies on investment in a global network, resulting in much-reduced knowledge of players outside the club's sphere of influence. This is not revolutionary, but it neatly approximates the unlikelihood of a lower league team having some kind of inside scoop on second division Argentinian wonderkids. Training drills too are the same as in preview code we saw. XI vs XI team drills remain useful for testing out new tactics, whereas individual drills are a quick way to size up which of your strikers can manage to kick a ball into a skip from nine yards this week. Though it still remains a bit of a mystery whether watching these drills actually improves player quality at all.

On the tactics board it's possible to drag and position players all over the place, allowing pretty much any formation you can think of. Fancy trying a straight 4-4-2 while in possession and reverting a cowardly 9-0-1 when the ball is lost? How about resurrecting the pyramid? Go ahead, you can. Setting instructions for situations with and without the ball is especially welcome, as it allows you to, for example, tell a more defensive midfielder to drop back and cover space. It's also possible to issue a myriad of other individual orders; how and where to cross the ball from, whether to avoid picking up bookings, what to tell the court about that evening in the nightclub and so on. Tempo of play, attacking mentality and passing style can also be dictated here.

All ...

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