Championship Manager 2010 (PC)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 3.0 stars Good
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 6.0 (3.0 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Alex Coby
• Reviewed on: 09/17/2009
• Released on: 09/11/2009
• Originally published on GameSpot: Championship Manager 2010 (PC) Review

With increased depth, a better match engine, and endless training tools, Championship Manager 2010 should be a triumphant return to form for the football management series, but its lack of attention to detail means that it ends up falling well short of its lofty goals.

At first glance, the 2010 iteration of this troubled franchise looks to do a lot of things right. The team behind it didn't put out a game in 2008 in an effort to rebuild Championship Manager into a game worthy of the name once synonymous with the best in the genre. That work is obvious from the moment you start up the game, as the menus look cleaner and the animations are sharper.

Unfortunately, this veneer starts to crack the moment you come to pick a team to manage. There are more leagues to choose from this time around, but that said, there are a couple of glaring omissions. While Championship Manager goes into some depth across a total of 32 countries, these are mostly European. And, while there are leagues from the likes of Japan, Argentina, and Brazil, the MLS from the USA is entirely absent.

So you choose your team and get thrust into the preseason, and this is where problems really begin. Small details can be inordinately important in some games, and this is especially true of management games that rely on massive amounts of detail to draw you into their version of the football world under the premise that it's the closest thing to reality. The first thing that strikes you in this regard is looking down your team roster at the start of the preseason and seeing that all of your players are 100 percent match fit and ready to go. This means that your challenge at the start of the season has more to do with making sure none of your players are too tired for the big kickoff rather than the more realistic challenge of trying to get your team and new signings up to speed after the summer break.

The problems then continue off the pitch. Whether it's dealing with transfer rumours dominating your news ticker after the window has closed, learning that thousands of fans took to the streets to celebrate a Chelsea Community Shield victory on penalties, or having bans being applied in the wrong competitions, Championship Manager never quite gets it right.

Similar but more serious issues about detail bedevil the improved match engine. It looks like a massive step forward when you first watch a game play out because the models actually look like people running around for the very first time, many goals look really convincing when knocked in, and strikers' celebrations add great flavour to the game. However, it just goes to show up the underlying code's limitations; defenders are liable to make suicidal passes, strikers and wingers have an alarming habit of leaving the ball behind when they tootle off on runs, and goalkeepers often catch the ball when facing the wrong way. Add to this the seemingly arbitrary system for doling out cards--often no contact seems to be shown in the engine while more serious challenges that give away penalties go unpunished--and you have a match day experience that lets you down. These odd issues even out between teams so their influence on results is minimal, but they do make the game significantly less engaging and fun.

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