Championship Manager 2008 Impressions
Eidos is readying its latest football management title for a new season, and we had a look at the new additions to the squad.
By Guy Cocker, GameSpot UK
Posted Oct 23, 2007 3:45 am PT
The competition between Chelsea and Arsenal isn't the only London-based rivalry for the top in football. Championship Manager and Football Manager have been competing in the game management genre for years, with both British developers trying to outdo each other with each annual update. With Football Manager 2008 already released, Championship Manager has a few more weeks to perfect its game, so we headed over to the Eidos offices in South London to check it out.
The big addition for this year's game has been the ProZone engine. Actually, the ProZone license was acquired last year, but the developer only had time to fully utilise the system in this year's iteration of the game. A real-world tool used by actual top-tier managers, ProZone gives in-depth feedback on playing styles, pitch coverage, and passing directions and presents them in minute detail.
You can use the ProZone system to replay any of the games from any of the leagues you've chosen to work in, although the more you choose the slower the game will run overall. You can choose to highlight individual players and see how they passed the ball around, while on the team side you can see the general direction of the ball and, consequently, whether the team prefers offensive or defensive tactics. It's a very impressive tool, and only the endorsement of Steve McLaren on ProZone's Web site may make you doubt the reliability of the engine itself, given his recent results.
One of the other notable improvements this year is actually one that's been revived from previous games in the series. You can now completely adapt player disciplines by changing training regimes. This means that you can change one player from being a defender to a midfielder, or a midfielder to an attacking player by grooming them over time. While it's probably unwise to try to change a player's position too dramatically, you may find this tool useful if you want to fill a gap in your squad and are unable to buy someone new because of the transfer window limitations.
Motivational speaking is another aspect of the game that is more advanced, as you can talk to individual players privately and publicly as well as offer context-sensitive advice to the entire team. You can talk to your team prematch, at halftime, and at full-time, giving a variety of speeches that range from showered praise and subtle encouragement right down to venting your spleen and even picking out individual players as victims for your fury. The feedback system will also react to individual match conditions, so you can emphasise the importance of winning a derby match or encourage them to keep a winning streak going.
The match engine has also received a visual upgrade, something that the team says it will continue to work on over the coming years. It's not a full 3D engine, and indeed it's unlikely to be anytime soon, but the new system shows off a better level of detail and more realistic playing style. The cone-shaped player representations now lean into one another, and the referee is shown running around on the pitch. In the prematch opponent analysis, you can also instruct your players to apply pressure on certain players. More volatile players such as Robbie Savage will become riled by this, and are therefore more likely to make rash tackles and pick up a yellow or red card.
As with many annual updates, there are also plenty of smaller upgrades to the game. There's now "hot seat" user-swapping, meaning that many players can save different games on the same system and continue many different leagues simultaneously. The Australian leagues have been included, and you're able to spend a lot more on "marquee" players for your team to draw fans (think David Beckham at LA Galaxy).
On the technical side, Championship Manager 2008 is notable for its exclusivity to home computers this year, as at this time no console versions have been planned. However, a digital download version will be released for the Mac alongside the PC version on November 2. We're set to receive the final game soon, so keep an eye on the site for our definitive review.
