In the summer of '99, Sports Interactive were busy collecting feedback from fans of the series. The result was the decision to develop another Championship Manager game, this time the 2000 edition. Curious to find out if there were any changes, especially as the producers assured us they modified the engine in order to run smoother and faster, I gave the game another chance.

Honestly, I think Sports Interactive are a little weary of the competition (Premier Manager series from Actua Sports and FA Premiere League Manager from EA Sports). This could be the only explanation for the fact they keep releasing titles that are completely out-manned by the opposition. The manual tells us that if you want to play with more than 4 leagues, you need only 64MB Ram. I tried it and found that four leagues on 64MB will make your computer run worse than a used car. If you're crazy enough to select all the leagues, I suppose you're going to need at least 512MB Ram. This so-called new and improved engine is way outdated. If you think that the low speeds are a result of some outstanding 3D graphics, you are dead wrong. No such thing. Everything is text over bitmaps. Again, there is no graphical simulation of the matches (which I personally think is indispensable to this kind of game) which makes your job all the more difficult. The only way you can see how well your players are performing, is via a rating (from 1 to 10) they receive, as well as their physical condition. There are some statistics showing how many passes (good or bad), shots, and number of tackles they successfully made, but it's all relatively useless. There's information such as the opponent's striker playing unchallenged inside your box, but how do I figure out if it's the defenders fault or mine? How can I tell if my defender is dreaming about a sunny beach, or whether my striker is stepping on his own laces? How do I know which players keeps better control over the ball, who's faster or who's more aggressive? These are questions only Sports Interactive can answer, because there's no evidence in the game, something that really needs to be there.

Not everything is bad about Championship Manager 2000. It is one of the most complex football management titles available. CM 2000 brings a lot of new features and leagues. Now you can interact with your board of directors, asking for new funds, increasing the capacity of your stadium, or even to ask for more time to build a competitive squad. Shooting is divided into finishing and long shots. The list of features goes on and on, so much so that I just don't have enough space to present them all here.

After a careful study over your opposing team, it's time to start preparing your squad for the big game. The pre-game planning could literally take you an hour to do. You can choose a default tactic on which you can build millions of variations with which to determine your adversary's weaknesses. Personally, I like to use a very aggressive 4-4-2 position, with two powerful wings and two attacking midfielders supporting my strikers. You can advise your players at almost every moment of the game, you can change their strategy, and direct your attacks on a specific wing. All this planning could have been rather fun if it would have led to the expected results. When you lose an hour managing your team for the game, only to see the other team scoring four goals in the first 20 minutes of the game on your home field, can you make you very angry. It seemed that no matter what strategy, teams or players you choose, the game will always end in a humiliating defeat. Even If you play with a first league team, against an inferior league, you're going to be hard pressed to win. So whatever I did after the first two or three months, I ended up in the unemployment office, fired for my poor management. The only chance to get a decent result is to save before the game and reload over and over again. I noticed that if you leave the game on the lowest speed, the result will be more appropriate. However, if you speed up the play, you're chances decline drastically. So, you either get bored READING for about 20 minutes on how the game developed, or you end up in a sanitarium after a few incredibly quick nightmare matches. All this is even more annoying since the AI doesn't shine much either. Too few teams use other tactics than the default 4-4-2 combo. I still can't figure out how the game calculates the end result.

Another shiny feature in CM 2000 is the transfer system. Player databases are so huge, it's almost impossible to find the right player who'll be willing to play for your squad. After using all the available filters, you get to select your players best suited for your team and assign a scout to handle them. The player/scout feature is one of the better ones in the game. The scouts actually go to the match to watch the player assigned to them. After the games, they'll file reports about their players as well as other players that impressed them. So while searching for a good striker, you might be able to find an outstanding keeper as well. If the other team is not willing to let a player go, you can always try to borrow the player and after a few months, you can try again to buy their rights. This strategy works very well. I was able to get some very good players in this manner.

When all is said and done, Championship Manager 2000 could have been a superb game. Unfortunately, the lack of realism in match scores, the lack of graphical simulation, the lack of stadium management, and the frustrating and long waiting periods while the game processes results, keeps it down. I hope some day, the producers will be able to tweak some of these things and produce a solid title. Until then, we can keep this series on our hot prospects list, but it's far from being a starter.