Score: By: Andrew Castenmiller Date: Sunday, 21 November, 2004
LMA Manager 2005
Game Type: Management
Developer: Codemasters
Publisher: Codemasters
Platform: PS2, Xbox, PC
LMA Manager has been the king of console management, and rightly so, for quite some time now. There is a very good reason for that. LMA Manager 2005 combines the passion for the world game with depth that is unsurpassed in any console management game.
LMA 2005 comes just over half a year after its predecessor so those expecting a completely different game to LMA 2004 will be disappointed. I can’t imagine that many will be disappointed though because the latest version just improves on the excellent foundations laid down by the 2004 version.
Match Engine
The biggest notable improvement this year is the match engine. In 2004 the engine was very good, perhaps even ground-breaking for the genre, but it came with many annoying niggles. For example, a frustrating situation that would occur in LMA 2004 too often was a player been called off-side even if the pass was not intended for him. Another example of a bug found in last year’s version was goalkeeper stepping over their goal-lines when they catch the ball, resulting in a goal. Thankfully Codemasters listened to the fans and have removed just about all these annoyances along with improving the match engine further.
While LMA will never win a prize for graphics or sound, the match engine captures the football management experience very well. It is not as realistic as other match engines, such Football Manager 2005’s top down view, but arguably is more fun while more importantly reflecting your tactics and playing smart football in the process.
The major improvement this year is goals typically follow your team’s good play rather than relying on errors from the opposition. In LMA 2004 players would often be caught in possession resulting in too many turnovers or defenders would run around in circles, paving a passage for the attacker to score an easy goal. These errors still exist, as it wouldn’t be realistic if they were completely removed, but they occur far less frequently and in the end makes it a much more enjoyable experience.
The beauty behind the LMA 2005 match engine is reflected in its relative simplicity. It just does what its meant to do. Tell your team to play more short passes and that’s what they’ll do. That is also why LMA’s match engine is groundbreaking. For years management games sported flashy 3D match engines but with further investigation behind the gloss there were no fundamentals. Codemasters realised this, provided a 3D match engine that did the job, and in the end that is why LMA Manager has been so successful.
Of course it isn’t all rosy as the match engine is concerned. As mentioned previously the graphics and sound won’t do anything you haven’t seen before. And despite the improvement over last year’s engine there are occasional glitches, such as a ball rolling into a goal that beat the goalkeeper could all of a sudden magically appear in the goalkeeper’s hands. Thankfully these bugs aren’t gamekillers as they happen very rarely. There’s also a notable increase in the speed of the match engine over last year’s version, whether that’s good or bad is a matter of personal taste.
Interface
This year’s interface has hardly changed from the last installment, with the developers taking the philosophy of “if it ain’t broke, then don’t fix it? As I mentioned in the LMA 2004 review the interface is very intuitive, well thought out and can’t get any better really for a console game.
Tactics
There is not that much new in terms of tactics this year. Compared to Football Manager 2005 and other PC alternatives the tactics are fairly limited. But having said that the range of tactics available is more than enough for most gamers. You can choose between many different formations and adjust sliders for the style you want your team to play. Most importantly these tactics are reflected on the pitch. In addition there are dugout shouts, where you can change your team’s tactics at the press of a button. Or if you own an Xbox and a Communicator you can shout your orders directly, meaning you’ll hardly need to use a controller during a game at all.
One thing still lacking in the tactics is to assign particular instructions to individual players. Again, if you are looking for more depth in tactics then Football Manager 2005 is more your go.
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