| Football Manager 2007 |
| Posted on 28th February 2007 by Rob McGregor |
The late 90’s saw the birth of one of computer gaming’s greatest obsessions. Word is that Lee Hendrie and Gareth Barry even had it written into their contracts with Aston Villa that the team bus HAD to have power points so they could play on their lap tops during away trips. Yes, Championship Manager wrecked lives, tore weekends away from families and made or broke millions of arm chair managers. Since then, Eidos and SI Games have parted ways; Eidos keeping the name, but SI have kept the spirit and soul of the late 90’s editions. The format remains the same, choose up to three countries to run from any of the numerous presets or customise and pick your own choice of three countries and how far down the pyramid you want to go. Then pick the team you want to manage, your preferred team(s) and so on. You can even use the Xbox Live Vision camera to import your face into the game, though options beyond simple having your face in the game as a mug shot are non-existent.
Then it’s time to get down to it. Guide your team from the bottom up, live the dream of lifting the Premiership trophy, take the Serie A crown or even guide Peterborough United into Europe after a stunning cup run. You buy, you sell, you hire and you fire. Fail to live up to expectations and you get the chop. Even take on the role of an international manager. It’s all here, and it’s massive. Send scouts all over the world. Strike up links with other clubs acting as either a feeder club or a farm team.
Soon enough your life outside of the dug out will be forgotten, children neglected, wives a distant memory, work an unnecessary interruption. You’ll care more about the side on your 360 than the real life counterparts. As with previous incarnations, it’s still debatable just how much your tinkering really does, but the addiction and draw is deeper than ever - even allowing you to give team talks or release press statements on players form, opposition managers and their teams or transfer targets. Menu’s are navigated by using the shoulder buttons and triggers, the basics come easily and within a short while you begin to feel like an old hand after a short time as you fly through the wealth of information available to you at your beck and call.
Now you can even play online in leagues and cups, gaining achievement points for success in these Xbox Live encounters. Even the option to carry out a fantasy draft is thrown in to spice things up a little. You can go back again and again, ‘season’ upon ‘season’ and embarrass your mates as you crush them 4-0 or go and hide as he whips you 6-2. These simple options mean that the game offer huge replay value as you can either continue along a long and windy road with one club for years or up and leave for a new challenge in a new league. Single player achievements keep willing you back to try for that next step up the ladder. One or two simple ones to get you going, one or two that seem just out of reach and one or two real testers make it a nicely balanced selection of online and offline challenges to get those points. Some take real dedication, but because of the way this game drags you in you are all the more satisfied to get them.
This is essentially a straight port from the PC to console. Whilst it is a wonderful conversion, ultimately the PC’s potentially greater speed tells when running several leagues, as does the ability to just point and click on anything, or anyone, that you are interested in. Given the choice, the PC would edge it, but only if you are a PC gamer – if you either a) don’t have a PC, b) are like me, and are not down with the whole PC gaming thing or c) simple want to slob on the sofa then this is worthy of it’s title and should definitely be part of any games collection belonging to either a Championship Manager/Footy Manager devotee or any arm chair pundit/fan/wannabe manager across the globe! |
Single Player Score: 9/10
Multiplayer Score: 9/10
Overall Score: 9/10 |
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