Score: By: Andrew Castenmiller Date: Tuesday, 20 August, 2002
Total Club Manager 2003
Game Type: Management
Developer: EA Germany
Publisher: EA Sports
Platform: PC
Anyone who has played EA Sports Football Manager series over the past couple of years would have probably lost faith in EA, seeing that the only improvements to the game from 2000 to 2002 have been minor additions. However, after years of Championship Manager being the undisputed king of soccer management games it appears that EA Sports Total Club Manager will be more than a worthy challenger for it’s crown.
If you’re wondering why there is such a dramatic change for this year's version, the reason is simple, EA Germany are taking over development of the series. After years of successfully creating Germany’s own Fussball Manager series they have also taken up the development of the International version of the game, adding new life and a fresh name to a series that was almost dead.
To prove how much more committed they are, they have launched an official site (www.totalclubmanager.com) for the game, something that was last seen back in 2000. Official site, big deal? Well if you check out this site you will find bucket loads of information on the game ?vital for any official site ?but they also plan to release data updates regularly and perhaps even patches for the game. EA Sports also wants to develop a community based around this game similar to Championship Manager’s following (although it would take years to reach that level) by listening to your questions and offering support for unofficial fansites. EA’s intentions are clear, they want to offer as much support as possible in order to keep gamers happy, something which has been done by Sports Interactive (developers of Championship Manager) for years.
It is impossible to mention all the improvements to previous versions because the game is basically a brand new game. However, the match engine is much improved. There are very few bugs and the gameplay appears to be more realistic but still not perfect. As Sports Interactive have emphasised, the 3D engine has its limits which is why Championship Manager is not venturing into the 3D match engines in the near future. However, EA Sports has also recognised this and has gone one better: a text engine will also be included. So if you are not satisfied with the 3D engine you can always switch to text and vice versa. Surely this has to be a winning move by EA.
The interface of this game can be confusing, but once mastered you will discover countless original features not found in any other game to date. Occasionally you may be interviewed by the media with not only your reputation on the line but also the support of your players depending on your responses. There have also been some excellent additions to the profiles of the players. They are now rated in many different areas, including their actual level, their potential level and their talent level, not to mention different attributes levels. They also have bonus abilities, where certain players specialise in something, whether it be pace, shooting, passing or tackling. They also may have individual rating bars, where they may be rated as an inspired leader, a troublemaker or even a terminator (if they are extremely physical). However, it would be nice to see players rated in many different areas like in Championship Manager, but EA Sports most likely have a logical reason behind this.
If you are a fan of soccer management games you should pay some attention to this game. It most likely will not deter die-hard Championship Manager fans who are interested in a lot of statistics and in-depth tactics, but for those who are looking for something a little different than CM then this is appears the one you have been waiting for. Of course, not everything could be covered in this preview so it is highly recommended that you check out the official website, if you have time and a fast internet connection you may want to try out the demo, all 239MB of it.
Release Date: September 20th, 2002.
Webmaster's Note: Anyone with a FIFA background will recognise the 3D match engine in TCM from FIFA 2002. The great news is that the thousands of third-party FIFA 2002 kits that have been created can easily be imported into TCM. Meaning there is already a huge array of downloads available for TCM even though it is yet to be released.
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