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"The Rip's & Con's Of Championship Manger"

How does it feel when you know a games company wants to make more money out of you? Iíll tell you now, it feels disgusting. Most games companies try to avoid this, but when you have a hugely successful game they can do this ñYes Iím looking towards you ëSports Interactiveí

The latest edition to the Championship Manager series ñ Season 01-02 ñ has left me amazed at how this company can get away with such a rip off!

You may think I am saying the game is absolute rubbish here but in fact Iím not, I play the game for hours a week it really is quite addictive, but I feel conned in to buying the latest edition so I have stuck to my old 00-01 edition. When I brought the 00-01 edition I wondered why SI had brought it out as an actual new game instead of just an add-on for CM3. There were hardly any new features to make it an actual new game and I felt incredibly ripped off.

Now with the latest instalment it is almost identical to the previous instalment but with a different transfer system and updated players ñ I can download that off the Internet. Already SI have released a patch for the game on their website, it includes all updated players and a few fixes. Why didnít they just let me download what is contained in CM 01-02 instead of me going out to buy it ñ a whole £24.99! Thatís the price of a whole new PC game! Or if they wanted to make more money why not just bring out an add-on disk like other games companies?

The reason, well, they know CM is one of the most popular PC games ever and so they are retailing an actual ëadd oní as a ënew gameí. I canít even transfer my old saved games which I have worked hard on to the newer version, I have to start again just with a new ëlets compare two players statsí feature.

Surely doing this will make people like me not buy the game and cause some people just to pirate the software to save themselves their hard earned cash that would be wasted on something you could easily of got for free to update your old version.

I would like your opinions if you have brought the game please and if you own the older version, is their really that much more? Are you satisfied? Do you feel ripped off?

Not really along the lines of the topic so I apologise, but don't you find that highly successful originals don't tend to improve much on the sequel? Maybe this is because of fear that they might do something wrong, and so then all they do is add a few extra features to make it better.

This isn't the case for all sequels though but I find it is with most sport related games, why is this? Is it because of realism or mainly because they are harder to improve? With games like MGS2 just around the corner we are expecting so much from it, and because of this expectation we then want more and would be disappointed if we don't get more.

So how did ISS get away with it? ISS Pro 2 had very few improvements on it from the first with the odd, one handed save and most importantly the Master League two division option, but apart from that then nothing was really done to tweak the game.

With different types of games it is possible to get away with this, all you need is a few extra options here and there and maybe a new skill. That keeps them happy and you've got yourself an award winning game. But then someone complains and people suddenly realise that they've been ripped off, then the games designers are put into full speed and have to create something spectacular that grabs the worlds attention, only for them to be let down again with the next one in the series.

It all comes down to the reputation and because of it being a Championship Manager game you are expecting a hell of a lot from it, the games designers know this and use it to the best of their ability making it worse for us but less time and more money for them.

I more than make up the money i spend through time i spend on that game. In the 10 days since it is has been out, i have alread spent 48 hours on it.

Certainly. There's not really a comparison between the two as such. We'll see if EA have made any strides with FIFA 2002 soon enough. Interestingly enough, EA turned down the rights to Championship Manager, bet they regret that one!!

Considering that Championship Manager is only £25, an is the game that I spend about 60% of my 'game time' playing, I think that I can justify that purchase once a year.

I think the big difference between Fifa and CHamp man, is that the champ man series has a whole new engine every 3-4 years. THe game has a complete over haul, and is is every bit worth the money.

CM2 had the audio commentary by Clive Tyldesley, which they've done away with as well. I think that they got rid of that because people were running through the games on speed setting faster than the commentary would allow and it became more or less redundant.

I agree with you there on one aspect, updated sports games are often targeted as being simple re-vamps of the previous version, but ultimately they can't change the sport so a huge aspect of the game remains the same. FIFA games are perceived as the worst culprit of this, with some justification in this case though. The problem that Championship Manager faces is that the playing screen looks the same for CM3 all through to CM01/02, but the differences in the two games are vast. Four times the amount of players, eleven more leagues to play in, CM99/00 was the fist version available for Mac owners, the list goes on an on.

All of this in three and a half years. My advice to anybody unsure about buying the game would be to download the demo version and see for yourself. Play it for a few hours then play the previous version. If your not satisfied that the changes warrant the price of the full game then fair enough, but I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

there is a similar argument about fifa. hhhhhrrrrmmmmm must have something to do with the game of football then.

I do think it is a bit of a shame that the newer versions cost more than almost as much as a new game especially when it is just an update, I wouldn't call it a new game thats for sure. In my opinion, £15 for it would have been worth it and more people would buy it rather than moan about the company ripping off the average Joe Bloggs (Why is it when people are using a fictious person as an example that name always occurs?).

Does anyone remember in Championship Manager 2 that you could edit the commentary text? Where has this option gone, it was great for all you Andy Gray wannabes (I aint saying John Motson 'coz he doesn't have a clue, plus I think he is wearing one of SHEEP's relatives).

The best way to get the new Championship Manager (other than illegal means) is to win a GAD on this and pick CM 01/02.

It depends really on the perspective you take when looking at this type of thing. The Championship Manager series are undoubtedly the best football management games ever, in the nine odd years that they have been around the game has evolved very well. The changes that have been made from version to version (CM1 through to CM3) have been brilliant, going through a series of changes as the game experience has become better with age.

Even the intermediate updates for each version have proved impressive. Each version has had a few of these and each time new features have been added to go along with the squad update. It's worth noting that not all of the CM updates have been stand alone games, there were a few data disks. Which is the bigger rip off for the first time player, having to buy one or two bits of software to play in an up to date environment?

Downloading from the net is not a realistic option, the file would be immense. We wouldn't be talking about a five to ten meg patch with a thirty odd minute download time, it just wouldn't be practical. The patch that you mentioned is a language patch that translates the game into ten different languages for the non English speaking fans of the game, though there is a DirectX fix on there as well. SI games have quite nicely produced this 18mb download as a Win RAR version, which is split into handy 1.4Mb chunks so that it can be transferred to disk from any PC and passed around to your fellow CM fans.

Which moves me on to another point about the CM series. SI Games as they are now, have always been very considerate to the supporters of their games. This game series has been moulded in part by the fan base, the Fog of War aspect to the transfer system being one that springs to mind, this was suggested by a fan, and after much debate on the SI forums with players and programmers it was accepted and is now an option within the game. They answer your questions if you have them, if you e mail them they reply with any help they can give. Compared to some other software houses this is a breath of fresh air.

*cough 'Lionhead' cough*

Going back to the point, the more recent version updates that have been released for CM are, front end display aside pretty much new titles. The new CM3 version now includes twenty six playable leagues with detailed profiles and histories of over 100,000 players, managers and coaches. All of the major tournaments are included, be it national, international, B squad or U-21 (all with management opportunities). The EU transfer system is there, the match engine has been completely re-written, along with the match commentary and CPU manager AI. The scouting has been improved, the already touched on fog of war style touch of realism included to the game; you can now play a team and not know the abilities of some of the players in that team - making pre scouting teams that much more important. Surgery for players with recurring injuries, manager notes, board ultimatums (and vice versa) and official complaints to the governing body of your league.

Think of it this way, and I suppose this applies to all great game series;

If a band you really like releases a new album, you will no doubt buy it. You're not going to say "Well I've got their last album, I'm not buying this one - it's the same band." No. You'll buy it, because even though the musical style may be the same and the singer still sound the same, the songs will be different. This analogy doesn't allow for strange 'Concept Albums' by the way.

It's the same with CM3 season 01/02, the front end is the same, it's by the same company, but other than that it's fourteen new tracks that you haven't heard.

CM01/02 is also the fastest selling UK PC game of all time, selling over 100,000 games in the first week end. The previous record of 70,000 was held by Championship Manager 3. All of those games sold, with CM4 scheduled for a release next year. 100,000 football fans can't be wrong.......

Not noticed the new fog of war thing then?

not noticed new commenty addition (tells u if players are roaming forward unmarked, your defender cant handle the oppositions forward etc...

Not noticed extra player emotions? ie, feels squad lacks depth...thinks team should be topping table...etc

Not noticed the ability to give ultimatems to your board?

Its not exactly as if this is the first time they have bought an update to the series out. So why start whinging now? I spend hours on this game, and i can say it as a huge improvement over the last game. I have spen about 40 hours already on this and i have no doubt in my mind that it is the best version to date.

Ant wrote:

I may not
> get the new one-I'm still addicted my game on 01/01, in which I'm in year 2021
> with PSV Eindhoven.

01/01 ? ? A new year huh? :o)

I agree with the original post there 100% percent. Why cant they just release a new version every other season or something. They could release an add on for all the new transfers.

But some people don't have the internet would be their agrument.

Still they make a class game and next season edition is going to be mine!

If you don't think it's worth it, don't buy it. Simple really.

They "get away with it" as it is a great game and loads of people buy it - if you're getting hours of entertainment out of it I fail to see your problem.