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Total Club Manager 2003 Review
Score: 
By: Andrew Castenmiller
Date: Wednesday, 16 October, 2002
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review
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Total Club Manager 2003 |
| Game Type: Management |
| Developer: EA Germany |
| Publisher: EA Sports |
| Platform: PC |
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EA Sports’ slogan for Total Club Manager 2003 is “More control on the pitch. Total Control off it”. This may seem a marketing gimmick, but in all honesty, they couldn’t have summarised the game any better. After many years of the FA Premier League Football Manager series hardly changing from the 2000 version, EA Sports has completely created a brand new series. Not only does it have a new name, it also has a new development team (EA Germany), an abundance of new features, a new match engine and, most importantly, a new life.
Traditionalists may have problems accepting this game. Unless you have played the German version of the game (Fussball Manager), you will have never seen anything like it. It adds an all new dimension to soccer management and is the definite alternative if you have never had a liking to the popular Championship Manager series. Every so-called ‘basic’ feature of the game has something original about it, so it would be best to review the game feature-by-feature.
Training | | Training System |
The training system is the core of the game. It is extremely comprehensive. You can schedule 4 different training sessions per day, for every day of the week. The different types of training sessions are very specific too, such as pressing, short passing, sprinting etc. You can even define different tasks for individuals, with you able to see the progress they are making. At first it may seem a waste of time and you may be inclined to let your assistant take care of it. However, after time you will see the progress you are making, trying to make your team perfect in all areas. It’s really satisfying when you see your team perform more accurate short passes after the many weeks you have trained your team in that area. Overall, it’s safe to say that this is the best training system ever seen in a soccer management game, with others not even coming close.
Transfers
The transfers system is also very different. Each player has a ‘Demand’, which is the amount a club pays to be guaranteed of being able to offer a contract to that player. Of course, these fees are normally quite high, with Zidane costing well over £100million. However, you can try offering the club a smaller amount, with a chance of them accepting it. But one of the neatest features is when you can “attempt to reach a decision” on the spot. This is where you negotiate with the other club until you both agree on the price. However, you have 30 seconds to do this and if you don’t agree within that time your negotiations have failed and you won’t be able to discuss with the club again for quite some time. The transfer system has neat features, although at times is seems a little too easy to buy certain players, which can be an advantage but it does appear unrealistic at times.
Youth System | | Youth System |
The youth squad is separate from the senior team. It features players as young as 10 years old, with you able to train the players into what you want them to become. Each player has a certain ‘talent’. Obviously, the higher the talent the more potential they have and the easier they are to train. The youth system goes very in-depth. You can even select a mentor (a player from your senior squad) for each of your youth players. However, because the youth players are not on professional contracts it will not be all smooth sailing. Some of the players may get bad marks at school, prompting their parents to withdraw them from the squad. You can attempt to deal with problems such as these by hiring personal tutors for the players. At times you can also train the youth team with the seniors, which can be beneficial for the youth players but not so much for the seniors. The youth system is very realistic. The way it is structured it is possible to create superstars, which is where other games fall short.
Finance & Stadium
This is one area that I’m not too keen of, but I’m sure there are many people who are. You can arrange sponsorship deals with clubs for the adboards, sell season tickets, create seating arrangements etc. One of the features I do like is the ability to expand the stadium. Also, if your club is rich enough you even plan to build a completely new stadium. Soccer management purists most likely will not approve of this, because in real life the chairman makes decisions like these. However, as with every other section of the game you can choose to let your assistant take care of this area.
Tactics | | Tactics |
Not a huge lot of original additions to the tactics. You have a large number of standard formations to choose from, with you able to create custom formations, moving players anywhere on the pitch. You can also give team orders and individual orders. One disappointing aspect is that you can only give one individual order to each player. So you can’t give a player the orders to ‘attack’ as well as ‘cross’. A new feature is the ability to set determination. You have the ability to adjust your team’s determination from 0-10 for each 15 minute period of the match depending on your team’s morale. So if you are a goal behind you can ask your players to be more determined or if you’re comfortably winning you can let your players be less determined.
Match Engine | | 3D Match Engine |
Matches can be played through a 3D view, text mode, or simply showing the final result. Personally, I find the 3D engine the best option. The 3D engine (Using FIFA 2002’s graphics) is by far the best I have seen so far. You can actually see the effect your tactics have and when playing it you feel really in-control of the team, noting your team’s strong and weak aspects. The 3D mode unfortunately does have its faults, mainly due to using FIFA 2002’s engine. Crossing seems to never work and when your team goes on the attack your midfielders don’t stream down in support like you might like them too. After the match the player ratings are complete nonsense, with the man-of-the-match receiving a rating of 7 (out of 10), while a goalkeeper that didn’t make a save all match gets a rating of 9. I beat a team 5-0 and the opposition goalkeeper got a rating of 9, and got into the team of the week (or should I say 'team of the weak'). The other option, the text mode, is very comprehensive, with the developers obviously putting a lot of time and effort into it. There is more interaction with your players in text mode and you can easily see (by reading) what changes are needed. However, the text mode becomes very repetitive, has very little atmosphere and (for me) just isn’t as fun as the 3D mode. If you really want a game with a terrific text mode you should wait for Championship Manager 4.
Player Interaction
The player interaction is more realistic than ever. I once had a player making a joke about another player’s heading abilities during training, leading to a bust-up between the two players. The personal lives of the players also play a huge part. Players get married, buy sports cars and argue with their spouses, each with a different effect on their morale. This may seem unrelated to soccer management but in real life these are situations that do occur and in-turn effect the rest of the team.
Bugs
If it wasn’t for the bugs, I would be able to say that Total Club Manager 2003 is the most complete soccer management game I’ve ever played. However, there are so many bugs in the game that makes it very frustrating at times. The major bug is the 3D match engine crashes often. From what I’ve heard, this seems to occur to everyone who plays the game, no matter what type of computer. At first, I thought I was an exception, but after about 10 games into the season the bug hit. There are also a large number of other bugs, more minor ones but they still detracts from the game.
Overall
Total Club Manager 2003 is definitely my favourite soccer management game at the moment. If the match engines were improved and the bugs were ironed out I would definitely recommend the game to anyone who is interested in the genre.
Note: EA Sports is on the verge of releasing a patch, fixing the 3D match-engine crash bugs on “high-end machines”. Whether it will fix crashing on all machines is another question. Check out Soccer Gaming’s Total Club Manager 2003 Online for the latest updates.
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