14 DAY TRIAL // 
If you are new in this branch, do not let yourself fooled by what the game cover promises. This is by no means "The World's No. 1" football manager game, nor is it the second, it isn't even the worst. It is just the struggle of some desperados to keep the series alive. What did they manage to achieve? Something that would hurt even a rookie. Veterns will surely stay away from it. However, there is still hope that fan communities will lend a much needed hand in the development of some divine patch to reestablish the glory of this brand.
History Championship Manager was conceived by Paul and Oliver Collyer, back in 1992. As it happened in many cases in the early days of the industry, the original game was written from their bedroom in Shropshire, England. In time, their bedroom turned into Sports Interactive Games.
The first two releases (CM 1 and CM 93/94) were handled by Domark. Shortly thereafter, SGI gained shape, and a partnership was signed with Eidos, which concluded in a hefty number of CM releases (CM 2, CM 96/97, CM 97/98, CM 3, CM 01/02, CM 4 and CM 03/04) with over 4 million copies sold.
The fall of 2003 brought an end to the relationship between Eidos and SIG. After the split, both parties kept their intellectual property. SI Games kept the base code, the game database and programming of the game, whilst Eidos kept the name "Championship Manager" and its interface.
The new CM, written from scratch by Beautiful Games Studio does not keep anything but the name of the original brand. The gameplay has changed dramatically and suffers from numerous bugs. Also, much of the CM community deserted Eidos' game, choosing to remain true to the original designers of the CM indifferent to its new identity.
Concept Championship Manager is a football management simulation. For those of you who don't have any clue about what a football manager is, let me enlighten you.
These games put the player in the shoes of a club or a national team manager of his choice. The game's mechanics resemble those of a TBS. Despite being football related, there isn't much football about it. Clashes between your team and its arch-rivals will take just a few minutes to conclude. The rest of the time will be spent setting training schedules, tactics, buying players, coaches, scouts, assistants and physiotherapists or renegotiate their salaries.
The higher the fidelity of the simulation, the greater the value of the game. Even if it is implicit that soccer management simulations should respect the names, positions and abilities of the players or coaches, this does not happen too often. Even the best in the genre are still found lacking in this aspect.
It is not very clear to me what kind of algorithms are used and how do they actually establish how the players' abilities work and how do your tactics affect the result of a match. While the results seem to be plausible, a more systematic approach uncovered the fact that, sometimes, a more than respectable team (let's say Arsenal) playing with a well tested tactic may grant you victory over extremely powerful opponents but prove very ineffective against smaller teams which, in reality, should not have any chance against your players. Furthermore, too many victories against powerful teams may trigger some kind apathy amidst your players. It is nearly impossible to remain unbeatable even if the figures clearly state it. This kind of things would not have bothered me if they were clearly stated somewhere in the game, anywhere.
No! Football management simulators do not simulate game results. They are simulators of how things work with a team, with your football players and club finances. For those of you who love very detailed TBS games but did not play football manager simulators before, I believe it is high time you tried them. Although the economic aspect of this game is somewhat simplistic, the player management is absolutely incredible. Jagged Alliance or Total War fans will surely be delighted to see an incredibly well developed "unit" (football player) mechanic. There are great deals of unit stats and abilities that work accordingly to the player field position (Defender central/sweeper/wingback, Midfielder defensive/central/offensive/winger, Striker/Forward and Goalkeeper) and they are of great importance as you dispense orders. Chances are a player will not follow your indications if he is not trained in the appropriate field.
Gameplay BGS's CM, despite having that 5 attached to it, is years behind it predecessors (CM 4 and CM 03/04) and greatly outmatched by its direct competitors, Football Manager and Total Club Manager. In vain did Mervyn Day (ex-Leeds United goalkeeper, 1985-1993, and Charlton Athletic's assistant-manager) try to explain what soccer is all about; BGS only understood why do football managers smoke so much and how do they manage to wave their hands like tireless lunatics for around 90 minutes. The part about professional football did not receive any interest from the developers.
The first thing that will ruin your day is the reduced assortment of teams from which to choose. Powerful championships are indeed present, but what happened to the Romanian "A Division"? Well they do not have an A.C. Milan or a F.C. Barcelona, but some of its teams often qualify in the UEFA Cup, not to mention Steaua won the Champions League back in 1986. Instead, players may have the great opportunity to experience the incendiary Scottish Third Division. I do not want to be mean, but I expected much more from this game, especially knowing how great the last CM release was.
Well, maybe teams are not that important (someone please tell me how can I make a national team without players of corresponding nationality), but what happened to the players? I am not talking about misspelled names. I would rather accept some fictional names to misplaced players. There are so many errors concerning their abilities and stats, club status or field position that it really doesn't matter they bothered to spell their names correctly. For example Arsenal's elite striker, Thierry Henry, is not a striker anymore but a forwarder. I may be stupid, but from what I know, pure strikers are valued for their finishing abilities while forwarders are valued for their creativity and flair, therefore for their ability to serve the striker. The difference may be small, but it means a lot overall. I'll surely use Bergkamp as a playmaker for Thierry Henry, never the opposite. The same with Barcelona's attacking midfielder/winger Ronaldinho, which has become a striker overnight. It may be a competent striker, but it does a better job as a winger, a much better job. (Wingers are players of great pace or dribbling ability to provide cutbacks or crosses from which strikers can score).
To be honest, there are only a few rare cases when names refer to real life football players. How could this happen? Because CM5 is a revolution in soccer simulators, that's how.
The nightmare isn't over. All players have a natural tendency to do exactly the opposite you tell them to do. At least you know you can issue the exact opposite commands to what you are trying to achieve and score some success.
What I found really useful was the fact that your club may be contacted by an impresario to offer the services of the player/players he represents. This option is missing form Football Manager, thus making it much harder to make transfers. However, do net let this fool you. There are great chances the board will refuse your transfers. After you fried your brains trying to find a way to convince a club or impresario to leave your puny budget alive and kicking, you may fry your brains even furthers watching the ease with which your club account was blocked by some unseen, arrogant board. It is outrageous. And if it isn't the board, it is that God-forsaken green card. Forget about transfers. Love your club as it is. And do not worry if you lose. For some odd reason the club executives will continue to show their appreciation. It does not matter your best players left because they were underpaid, neither the fact you lost five matches in a row.
The training schedules are from my point of view better than those from FM. It has not the same accuracy and detail, but it is far easier to use and much more intuitive. The schedules are very well structured, like recovery, positional, aerobic, and so on, so you will not have to crack your skull trying to find the best schedule for each one of your players. They are already available.
The other aspect for which CM5 deserves praise is the incredibly short loading times. And low means seconds, not minutes as it often happens with SIG's Football Manager - no matter what the power of your system is.
The menus are finely drawn and easy to use. Challenges will take place on a 2D field. It doesn't matter really. Being 3D would have ruined the whole thing. One cannot stay focused on what is happening on the field if things get too eye-candy. But the lack of options is of utmost stupidity. It's just one thing among many that makes you feel your work clearly deserves to go down the drain. You should not bother. Things were going just fine. Push the "continue" and let the game play by itself. It is much more easier this way.
Conclusion I should not have been so harsh with this game. Beautiful Game Studios has indeed failed to develop a reasonable football manager, but there was no way they could have managed to recover the Collyer brothers' years of hard work and what was gained thanks to their community support.
There is still hope that, one day, they will provide one of the best titles in the genre. The Championship Manager title has written a legend and it would be a shame to die out in anonymity.
Looking on the bright side of things, it is a great thing some people (either from Eidos or from BGS, it makes no difference) still believe in this game and its legacy even if SIG does not have anything to do with it anymore.
