Mac gamers have been missing out on the fun for the last six weeks, thankfully that will soon change though, and I’m sure there will be many Mac users across Europe getting stuck in to Championship Manager 2010 come mid-November.

The game is to have an SRRP of £29.95, and will be available across Europe from November 13th in selected retail stores and online.

Starting out a season with Oxford City in the Southern Premier League, what instantly struck me about the game was how bad it made football look at this level. Players were unable to remain on their feet, falling over at every kick of the ball, with a passing style that was bizarre to say the very least. The football at this level just didn’t look right, starting up a new game and playing as Manchester United in the Premier League soon sorted things out however, with the 3D match action then looking a lot more natural and true.

My fun in football management titles tends to come in taking on small teams, attempting to get them promoted as far up the footballing system as possible. With the ugly style of lower level play in Championship Manager 2010, this seemed to take much of the fun out of managing a non-league football team, and this I feel is something that could affect quite a lot of people’s overall enjoyment of the game. This is by no means a ruining factor of the game, it’s certainly something that has affected the way that I play the game however, and it may well have an impact on your Championship Manager 2010 gaming experience also.

Managing a team from the top-flight, Championship Manager 2010 is a good, solid football management title, and one that is without doubt great fun to play. The screen set-up took a little getting used to at first having played with the Football Manager system for so many years, the controls feel quite natural after a while though, and definitely aren’t particularly difficult to deal with.

The graphics of the 3D match action in Championship Manager 2010 is pretty impressive, and the crowd sound also works well within the game. When in the middle of the match it is easy to get your team to change tempo, take a more attacking/defensive approach when necessary, and the tactics also can quickly be altered at any point in the match.

Where the Championship Manager 2010 team has seemingly failed in getting this game released is in ironing out the creases; taking out the small bugs and making the game as problem free as possible. One problem I have personally come across in the game is the matter of the match day team talk loop. Having been sacked by Manchester United and moved across to Middlesbrough; I was into my third/fourth friendly with the club, was winning 2-0 at half-time, and found myself stuck in the half-time team-talk, unable to get into the second-half of the match. This is a problem that has been officially identified by the Championship Manager website staff, and the team are currently working on a fix; this is a problem that really should have been removed before the game was released however, and it’s quite frustrating to say the least when you do get stuck in a team-talk halfway through a match. When this happens it is not possible to save the game and exit, and you just have to bite the bullet and close the game down. What made this issue ten times worse for me was that I hadn’t saved the game for several in-game months, and therefore lost several hours of gameplay as a result of the bug. An auto-save feature could have saved me here, sadly for me however, an auto-save never took place.

Championship Manager will have difficulty ever overtaking Football Manager in terms of popularity, and come October 30th I will be one of the many paying out somewhere in the region of £25 for Football Manager 2010. I have no plans to ditch my faith in Sports Interactive just yet, having been reasonably impressed with Championship Manager 2010 I do feel that I will probably be buying the game again next year though, and this year’s Eidos experiment of letting people pay what they want for Championship Manager 2010 should help them increase sales figures for the future.

Championship Manager 2010 is quite an impressive football management sim, and whilst it’s not without its problems; Championship Manager 2010 is still a game that is well worth playing, and I’m sure that the title will continue to improve in the future.

7/10

When I first loaded up the game I started out as Oxford City in the Southern Premier Division, and my initial feelings about the game weren’t particularly positive. I’m used to playing Football Manager, and to begin with found the Championship Manager 2010 set-up a little fiddly. After a few days the controls of the game were no longer an issue, the actual quality of play in this division did seem a little iffy however, and the players at this level within the game seem unable to kick a ball without falling over, pass in an incredibly peculiar manner, and watching the 3D match action at this level just doesn’t look right.

The Southern Premier Division is a seventh tier English league, and granted, the football at this level isn’t as free flowing and perfect to watch as Premier League level football; within the game the quality of football just seems a bit too rubbish though, and if you’re thinking of managing a lower level team then this is something that you may well find quite frustrating about Championship Manager 2010.

Having had issues with the in-game quality of football at Southern Premier League level, the second team I chose to manage was Manchester United, and found this to be a far more pleasurable experience. Usually I enjoy taking on lower level clubs and getting them promoted up the divisions; with the 3D action so frustrating to watch at the lower levels however, with Championship Manager 2010 I far prefer managing higher profile football teams, and have very much enjoyed managing Manchester United.

I only paid £2.51 for Championship Manager 2010, and for that price I am very pleased with my investment. Will I still be playing the game when Football Manager 2010 comes out at the end of October? Almost certainly, and will I be buying Championship Manager games again in the future? I think there’s a very good chance of that happening, yes.