Game Review: Championship Manager 2008 (PC, MAD)

Back in 1992, the first ever Championship Manager game was released by Domark, and programmed by the Collyer brothers of Sports Interactive.  Over the years Domark became Eidos, and then there was a split between them and Sports Interactive, with Beautiful Game Studios taking over production of the sequels, starting with Championship Manager 5 in 2005.  There were yearly updates with teams all updated with statistics and the correct player names for all the main leagues, including all four top English divisions, and in the 2008 version, these would be as at the start of the 2007-08 football season.

With any football management game, you never expect it to be a fast-paced play, so describing it as the fastest football management game to date may not always appeal – yes it could be fast to get into, but inevitably for fans of the series it would be many a late night and indeed many a saved game.  And thankfully, this version happily works on modern PCs without an issue – installation was all working well and the game launched and presented its initial options.  Mileage will vary of course, but certainly one less thing to worry about when playing the game.

Team Selection

When the game starts for the first time, you can choose which leagues you would like to utilise, and at what divisions you would like them to be.  So, you could for example just have all the top leagues in Europe, all the English ones right down to the Conference North and South should you wish, or a mixture.  New to this version at least was the option to have multiple players under one game, by adding each manager’s individual details and who they would manage – and be able to manage both a club and international team at the same time.  Once you have added the managers and the teams in, the game is generated with the fixtures including all the pre-season friendlies too.

What a Way To Equalise

The game will start with several pre-season friendlies, and will require you to pick your opening squad and assign squad numbers to the players.  You can to a degree automatically pick those if that feels like too much hard work.  The main interface also has several icons to the bottom left, which has a manager’s menu including the reserve and youth team statuses, transfer information, a staff search for players on the market (like as if Wayne Rooney would sign for Barrow) and even an option to resign should you wish.  You have then the competitions menu and the clubs and nations menu, to give you more insight into the current season for those, a history menu, and a mailbox menu, where you can view mails coming in which may have actions that are required, such as assigning squad numbers.

The Pro Zone

One notable menu option here is the Pro Zone menu, which will give you analysis on certain games as to how the team performed, what their strengths and weaknesses were and some recommendations going forward.  Sometimes this can prove useful but at other times I found this rather useless, saying that the defence was sound despite losing 4-0.  Well, not a sound defence then, right?   The final menu is for settings, including game options and credits, a chance to save the game or quit.   The large icon at the bottom right allows you to continue with the game and there is an option to right click to fast forward effectively to the next management decision should you wish to do so, which can speed things up a bit if you want less involved gameplay and may be more accessible for some.

And therein lies some of the quirks of the game – almost too many menu options to think about here and not the most well presented in terms of icons to click and what to do.  These may have been better laid out differently or in a more compact format so that they are not too bewildering, as the temptation to just keep clicking on the large icon and constantly attempting to get to the matches to play may be there – or a sensible compromise where you would make scouting decisions periodically, or be able to spend finances more effectively.  Nonetheless, on the other hand, the real diehard manager amongst you may really like all that customisation too, so mileage will vary here.

Tactics Truck

For each match, you can choose the squad including your starting eleven and the substitutes on the bench.  You can then decide to give a small team talk based on a few choices, say nothing at all or have a word with individuals within the team – for example a private word with the skipper, by ticking the relevant box. You can also set instructions such as who within the team would take the free kicks, corners, penalties and so on, by dragging the player’s squad number over to the blocks where the list of each taker is.  There are also team and individual options to choose tackling style, closeness of marking, you name it.  You can spend potentially a long time here just choosing the tactics to employ for every single player before you get out on to the pitch, which although absorbing, may also put off the casual player somewhat.

Guess Who’s Been on Match of the Day?

For the match itself, there are multiple camera angles to view the game from, and multiple speeds.  The text-based commentary can play at one speed and the on-pitch action at another, with the fast button to fast forward onwards if you need.  The key is you do have an option to edit the tactics during play, so if you wanted to make a substitution or formation change, that can be done as you need.  The speed of the commentary and balance of play meters are handy to see how the team is doing.  Depending on camera angle, the highlights will show little characters with the team’s colours on the pitch, playing out key points from the game and giving you an opportunity to watch them – all very reminiscent of Kevin Toms’ original Football Manager back in the day, albeit with better graphics and crowd noises.  The feeling you get when your team scores is still pretty good, and coming back from 2-0 down to win 3-2 with some good changes does feel especially sweet if you can manage the tactics correctly.

Whilst the on-field action is not necessarily anything special, the fact you can play this all back at whatever speed you like and however much tension you may want to stand does still make it an essential feature – and as you progress through the season there may be key games where you could make more analysis with the game going at a slower pace.  Naturally of course there may be a tendency to ignore the tactics, but making essential changes at the right time can pay dividends.  I realised with one game that going over-aggressive with the marking was not working and had had three red cards by the end of the match, which amazingly I did manage to win 1-0 by going all Jose Mourinho and parking the proverbial bus towards the end.  But that does go to show that the differing tactics can make a subtle difference when needed.

Blue Moon, You Saw Me Standing Alone

Naturally, with any football management game of its ilk, having realistic squads and players that are well researched can make a difference, particularly when it is the team you support that you decide to choose for the game.  For me as a Manchester City fan of fifty years plus, the 2007-08 squad was very accurate, with the likes of Elano and Martin Petrov being star performers, along with a certain Micah Richards bursting onto the scene, with Richard Dunne as captain at that time – all a very far cry from the recent times but also enjoyable for a different reason.  Having Elano score some screamers at least did feel expected, especially from free kicks.  I also played as Doncaster Rovers, and as any fan of that team will tell you, James Coppinger was by far their best player (and understandably so) and the key was keeping him fit and motivated and building the team around him if you can.  So, in both cases, certainly that sense of realism did add to the enjoyment somewhat.

Graphics and Sound

The graphics in Championship Manager 2008 are mainly functional, with some effective backdrops for the text-based screens and the different camera angles in play for the on-field action during a match to make it a different view rather than what you may see on television when watching the big match.  The little figures seem to move well although maybe not just a bobbing head on a small body but more realistic figures may have been a good idea here.  The sound is also limited to mainly crowd cheering sound effects and the referee’s whistle during play, and no commentary from an actual commentator, which may have been nice to add some extra insight during the matches themselves.

Final Thoughts

Championship Manager 2008, whilst being another in the long line of games in the series, did at least bring some innovations this time around.  Having multiple managers to play the game at the same time certainly made it a more sociable aspect if you had some friends round for several evenings, and does give you options to skip forward as you need.  Having club and international decisions can give the game variety too, but ultimately your enjoyment may fully depend on how much you put into the management decisions, and what you get out of them in return.  You will need to be patient and as with all games of the type, and at least having updated squads for the time does give it a little more added realism.  If you did not have a similar game around this time, it would be worth it but if say you owned the 2007 version, there are only minor improvements which may be worth consideration.

* * *

You know what we think but why not share your thoughts on this game! Let us know what you think of it in the comments below, or add your own score using the slider in the summary box at the top of the review!

Please follow and like us: