Championship Manager Xbox Review

James Woodcock May 2, 2006 3 min read 0 Comments

Well ever since the Xbox was released, it has been accused with being a poor representation of a PC by a few people. This game has had a very successful life on the PC, but I was surprised when it was announced for Xbox.

The notable PC advantage right from the start of this game is the mouse. As there are many many screens to alter to give your team the tactics, buying and selling players and many more screens all over the game, the first thing you crave on the Xbox version is a mouse.

The layout is all very good don’t get me wrong, but from the very beginning I thought this is a game that is only really meant for the PC.

As with all Championship Managers the level of detail within setting up a successful team is all there. The text is nice and easy to read even from a distance and the menu’s are easily accessible even with using an Xbox controller, but patience is needed in large amounts. Navigating with the controller can get quite tedious after playing for over half an hour. Thankfully this game does have it’s rewards.

So you have set up your team and you are ready to kick some major backside. You have set up your squad and your tactics and your first match arrives. Don’t expect 3D use of the Xbox because simply there is none. Instead the match is portrayed with a Match Stats screen with details like the score, possession percentages and who has done what with the ball being a pass, shot, corner etc. Seems a shame to have this beast of a machine waiting to explode into life and there you are looking at this screen with a few statistics dotted about. This is not one to show your mates to show off the jaw dropping graphics, this instead has to be given respect for being a very serious football management game where all the efforts are in the realism and the realistic decisions that have to be made as a manager.

Although the price of this game can give you a heavily dinted wallet especially when you look at other Xbox games at the same price which can very easily tempt you away from this offering, but looking at the UK charts since the game was released it has been high up there with the best of them.

Now I am sure you are thinking, “should I buy the Xbox version if I already have an earlier PC version?” My answer would be a fairly strong no. Although the game remains faithful to the PC incarnations, the lack of a mouse really doesn’t help the Xbox version here which is a great shame as I am a PC gamer as well as a Xbox one.

If however you have a slow PC destined to give up the ghost anytime soon, then the Xbox version has all the PC features and believe me the built in Hard Drive is needed on the Xbox for those very large save games.

Conclusion

Don’t let the poor score put you off. Although not an Xbox showcase for showing off to your mates, it has all the features of a serious manager game.