I like USM98's fast menu things where you double-click to retrieve the information you need - nicely lined up, easy to compare and such - and close the window by right-clicking. It just comes more naturally, I think. Perhaps it's just me being too much a USM98 fan to be able to oversee this - if you think so, then just ignore what you've just read. Another thing about the game is that it Ea Sports has done some kind of protection scheme on the CD, so that I'm not able to play the game from my fast CD-ROM drive, but am forced to run it from my slow one. It also means that I cannot hear any in-game music or commentary, without having to disable one of my CD-ROM's - and why would I want to do that? It shouldn't be necessary - I bought the darn game! I don't what to invest in special pizza plates, when I order a pizza. Hopefully there will be a patch for this soon, it's annoying. By the way I mailed they're hotline and got a nice reply in just a day or two! Surprise, I didn't even expect to be answered in the first place, but A+ to those guys. So with all this it may seem like the game is a load of crap, but easy now. All this just comes to mind after 4-5 hours with the game. I may become familiar with the navigation and figure out other ways to accomplish my goals, but for now this is all I've to say (write) about this game.

Homepage: EA Sports

F.A. Premier League Football Manager 2000

If it wasn't for the lack of new soccer management games - and my desperate need of the same - I probably wouldn't have bothered buying this game ... and what a shame that would have been. Not that this one suddenly is a favourite of mine, but it has many advantages (despite the annoying [creeps! nervous twitches!] front-end (background) music) to F.A. Premier League Football Manager 99, although they more or less looks the same. And bugger (!) it takes just as long to start as Fifa 2000, but obviously I either have to live with that, or discontinue to buy the games ... but no, don't think so =) As written just before, the interface is nearly the same and regardless of what I wrote in the F.A. Premier League Football Manager 99 review, I feel I can live with the interface now. Perhaps it's the same as when you're hungry, you can eat almost (!) anything. One should be able to turn off the animated popup screens ... though, in the game almost anything is animated and you quickly find yourself in need of the popup screens most of the time. They make it almost too much. While we're at it, I'd would REALLY (sorry) like to right-click to close the window again, instead of moving the cursor to the top right of the screen every time. A waste of time, that only serve to wreck havoc in your wrists. Ok. This' about all the negative things (oh! I had to click the Escape button to get out of the View Stadium screen ... error?) I have to write this game for now. It seems very thorough and I'll just pinpoint a few (all - for now :) of the things, that makes this game seem so great. The match sequence (there's 4 to choose from; 3D, Fast View, Fast View - Highlights and None) is now reduced to both introduce excitement and a bit of playing fun, without spoiling your entire evening. I'd say that viewing the entire match takes about 4-5 minutes. I use the Fast View - Highlights, because you can't change this, without entering the Main Screen. I'd probably go for a full 3D match if I'm in a final or something, but with Kettering Town in the Conference League, that might take some time =). It's easy to sort the players after their strength and they're coloured to show their position on the pitch. The email-function offers great help and be ready to get quite a few of these each day. With the Function keys (F1-F5), you change your tactics while you watch the match - and during the match (Fast View - Highlights) you get the current result from the other matches played, so that you can follow your team’s position in the league. The game of course includes Custom Formations and Team of the Day, - but I miss a Betting feature (is this just me, or is it just something fancy, that doesn’t belong in a management game? Tell me =) The included leagues are: England, Germany, Italy, Spain, Scotland, France and Holland. Great game.

Homepage: EA Sports
Patch: english.exe
Size: 3.9 MB

Fifa Soccer Manager

This one I have been waiting for a long time now, and maybe that has something to with me being a bit disappointed with the outcome. I've got this idea that what EA sports publish is worth the money and I didn't hesitate to buy Fifa Soccer Manager.
Graphically it's much nicer than Premier Manager 3 or Ultimate Soccer Manager 2 and I like watching the games too, which look much like Onside Soccer and the players are nicely animated. The gameplay is worse though. I find it hard to get a overview of the actual standings and I think it's hard to judge whether or not your team is playing at it's best. Maybe it is just like this in the beginning and the game ought to become more enjoyable as one get used to navigate in the game - that is if you bother.
If this is so, it's a game worth checking out.

Homepage: EA Sports
Download: Fifa Soccer Manager
Size: 40.8MB
Patch: fsmdde.zip
Size: 804KB

Football Fanatic

I have received quite a few emails stating that I ought to try this one out. And, well, permanently seeking the best soccer management game around, I have.
It's one of the most detailed soccer manager games around, with a lot of information and statistics about your team and so.
Unfortunately time and progress passed it long ago - and the publishers should've gone bankrupt, so it's has just become another manager game amongst many others (I didn't realise there were so many around!). Many of the DOS text-based manager games reminds of each other and mainly lacks ingenuity - no offence to all you programmers; I think it's great what you do, but surprise us and do something new and different.
Anyway, Football Fanatic is one of those games, I maybe would play if I hadn't had Premier Manager 97 or Ultimate Soccer Manager 2 ... or if I had a 16 MHz notebook :-)

Homepage: Football Fanatic's homepage
Download: Football Fanatic 1.7 FULL [thanks to Luis de Barros]
Size: 730K

Football Masters 98

This one is really brilliant and it’s probably the game (or perhaps just one of a few) where the many aspects of the gameplay is nicely balanced and it all seem very much well-planned and thoroughly tested. The game has a nice appearance and the controls are very easy to use; you quickly get to know the game and then you just fly around the menus, planning the next game - setting up the strategy and the line-up: all very easy to use. If you do get stuck at some point in the game, there’s also a very comprehensive manual included, where every little thing is described in its details. There is also an  incredibly detailed club history database – or encyclopaedia if you will – built into the full game, where you get almost any information you wish, regarding the clubs and players. All this available with just one click in your line-up screen, which practically means that you can view your players previous clubs and achievements. There are also a great number of images included, so you can view them if you wish. Great stuff and it add just a little more to the feeling of managing a club. After playing Football Masters 98, you don’t have the feeling that you’ve been playing a half-finished and not fully tested product (like Premier Manager 97).
There’s not much to complain about concerning the statistics and the interface in general, - the training section could be a bit more detailed, but - anyway - I was getting a bit annoyed of the very complex training you can do in for instance Ultimate Soccer Manager 2, so the one in Football Masters 98 is ok for me. The match sequence is ok, intuitive – perhaps just a bit messy, but gives you all the information and options you need while watching the match progress.
When I think of Football Masters 98, I come to think of Championship Manager 2 and Total Football Management. CM2 for the interface and TFM for the details ... and even though TFM is much more animated and runs in SVGA, I’d go for Football Masters 98 without hesitation. There are currently 10 languages built into the game (English, German, Danish, Norwegian, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish and French) and 5 leagues to play (English, Scottish, German, Spanish and Italian) so what are you waiting for – buy the game!

Homepage: ESP Software
Download: fm98net.exe
Size: 5MB
Updates: here ...

Football World Manager 2000

Football World Manager 2000, - again that 2K! I sort of understand the hype about naming a game/proggy "something 2000", because to me it sounds like something brand new (well, it is - isn't it) with loads of massive improvements. Could be a sales trick, as I haven't really been digging very deep into Football World Manager I wouldn't know. Sorry.
Anyway, this review goes for FWM2000 and how good/bad FWM is, doesn't really matter, now does it? For the time being, FWM2000 is the only game I bother to play. Don't know why. Somehow it reminds me of a more fancy USM, but just a bit less playable and fun. While I've been playing FWM2000, I scratched notes in Notepad and what you're reading is more or less the essence of those. There's a nice atmosphere in FWM2000 and I like the drawings and the sound effects, - the music has of course been turned off, as I always tend to do in these games. In another game like this I'd probably hate it if the programmers used drawings, but I think Caffeine Studios has managed to line UI/background very well up against each other. No former EA Sports graphics engineer employed there =] The menu(s) are more or less ok, although they may seem sort of messy in the beginning ... which leads to one of my input for a better game: the game area (window) is fixed to something like 640x480 (800x600?) so you can't just run the game full-screen to make some more room for it all: should be implemented in the next update/version, I think, and I just hate to view my desktop behind the game, - probably because it reminds me of all the other things I must continue working on =] and while I'm at it: I could also do without the mug shot type of pictures, which characterise the different involved individuals. For example: my Youth Coach is 58 years old and looks like a 20 year old kid =) I can't see the purpose of these pictures, when they: 1) don't look like the real persons and 2) even don't follow the characters in the game. I find some of the colours in the game way to close (btw. yes I'm colour-blind), so perhaps that could be worked on as well. The actual match sequence is pretty neat. It offers a lot of statistics and an easy interface. It all just happens too fast. I know I've written somewhere that I hate long boring match sequences, but this one is almost too fast. I know (and which the manual state) that I can pause the game, but even so its too fast and I can't slow it down (I hardly have time to review my players and decide on changes) - that should really be in the options! And the small sequences are too often the same and there are scored to few goals, but that might be my shitty tactics =) Ok. I continued playing, when writing this and I just won 4-2, so just forget that …
But lets not forget all the nice things that are in the game (and which other games tend to forget): you have your Team of the Week, Man of the Match, Ratings (so one doesn't have to add and divide and take into consideration all the other ratings offered), you have a fairly nice tactics editor at your service -- although one thing bothers me: I miss the line-up screen, where I can review my team before finally choosing them. I miss one where I can see which foot they prefer and if they are a defender, midfielder or attacker, their current strength and so on. Could be just a simple picture of my actual line-up which a nice popup/tool tip kind of information's- (this way you don't have to journey 'round the screens either) screen, you have all the necessary statistics and then some - and then there's the nice right-click function, which gives easy and quick access to all the most important actions ... and probably most important of all! =) You have Caffeine Studios, which seem very helpful in developing updates. In the game should be 29.000 players, 95 divisions, 1400 clubs and 71 countries, but I haven't counted them for you - and won't; so don't ask =) Btw. the Danish league really needs to be updated! =) In the end: Would I be playing this game if I had the new USM-whatever-it-may-be game? And I guess I wouldn't. Of course that would depend on how USM turns out to be. Before Premier Manager 97, I had high hopes as well and it turned out I shouldn't have had, so lets wait and see. Ok. Let call that a review and just go out and buy the game =) Till next.

Homepage: Football World Manager 2000 Homepage
Download: None

Footmanager 1.50 (and some 3.2)

This is a shareware game in the same style as the SimSoc series. It's not a game for the pro's or more routined gamers, but more for someone who just want the thrill of managing a football club without the hassle and sweat, as one's desperately trying to figure out which formation is the best and choosing tactics and training players. The language is Portuguese and English and the game has three leagues included. These are Portugal, Brazil and England. Unfortunately the English leagues doesn't match the current ones and the team players aren't the original - in this release (1.50) - but just Portuguese/Brazil players (well; I guess - they sound like this). Another minus is that not all of the game has been translated, so you might be presented to weird, unpronounceable sentences (for me) once in a while. Hopefully this will be corrected in future versions, as it is the fundament for further enjoyment with this game. The first you notice is the nice interface - I must admit that I hate these stressed messy ones, where you first has to figure out which button to press and then have trouble finding it! - this is a calm interface that is easy to learn. But one thing is the interface, another is the game itself and here I could do with more information (and the ability to double-click the teams in the League overview and see their season statistics/players etc.), but all in all this is what you expect from the level of the game. There's no match sequences or half-time breaks, - only the result, but it's ok, I guess. I surely miss the (player/club) information part(s) of this type of management game and all in all it lacks the details. So the interface's nice, but the game could do with more detail. It would be fair to give Placao credit for programming a management game, which has the potential to be a lot better when worked with. I definitely look forward to any updates.

Well, I did and last I checked the Footmanagers homepage, I came across version 3.2. Nice, I thought and downloaded the demo. Anxious to see how the game had progressed. I started the game and to my surprise I had to learn Portuguese, just to get started with the game (!) It seems a lot of the translations done in the previous reviews version has been lost, and also no work has been done with updating the English leagues (and probably not the other as well; hasn't/will not check), which is actually a shame, because the game looks really good (for a Windows game of this type, anyway) and seems like a very complete work.

Homepage: Footmanager homepage
Download: select from this page ...

Giant Killers Euro Manager

Here is something for the novice management gamer: A Championship Manager Lite or later -pro to be. The UI look a bit like Championship Manager and Saap (buttons, backgrounds, clicks) and for a game like this (where you (hope for, but--) don't expect a graphical representation of the match), the match 'sequence' is fairly ok. There's a 'where's-the-ball-on-the-pitch-now' strip and an info box, where the match-details pops up. You can choose how much you'd like to know (low/medium/normal/high) about the game and it's nice to see that the text doesn't repeat itself over and over again. Actually (I know I usually favour the graphical match) it's rather fun to read the texts and if you set the information priority to Low, there's 50/50 chance of a goal, so if your opponent have the ball, - pray your keeper saves it =)
There are 5 different levels of difficulty, where 2 of them include training the team yourself. You can have your assistant coach pick the team for you, but be sure to check his selection afterwards: He doesn't always do such a great job (and you can't even sack him =). The team selection is really nice in the game, it's easy to do the line-up and you can move your players around and instantly see their ability at that spot. Your influence on everything else than picking the right team is stripped down to a bare minimum and there isn't much to spoil your concentration. You can view the clubs financial position but no more, and you can do training sessions, but that's about it. There's also a Player Details screen, but that's not much more than the player's physical data and a bit history.
The game has nice menus, which are already prepared for the visually impaired =) Ok. Sorry; shouldn't have written that. Just couldn't. What I meant was that the menus are big. A Giant Killers 2 is on its way, and perhaps an idea for that could be to make better use of the screenspace: perhaps put some static menu items somewhere on the screen, - or perhaps a popup sort of thing on the top. Would be nice. Oh! And I miss a Cancel button (!) (if you ask: I accidentally started a new game and couldn't drop back to the game-selection screen to load one instead, so I had to go ahead and close the game after that) and it lacks the presence of an Options Screen - why do I have to listen to that music?
The game is to be released in June 2000, just prior to the European Championships, of course ... And because the game has two parts (Domestic and International), you can continue playing the game long after the Championships has finished. The 'Domestic' (English) part includes the Conference League - if you ask, and of course in the International (just for those, who hasn't already guessed it) part of the game, you can manage your country's team in the UEFA European Championships. Right from assembling the right squad from scratch. The game is properly an direct continuation of Giant Killers (1), where the only addition is the Euro part, but what do I know? ... Luckily no one can sack me =)

On-Line Sports announce this game as a game for gamers under 16, but I can surely recommend it to anyone well above 16; you definitely not need to be under 16 to find the game enjoyable.

In general I like the game, and I thought a bit about why I do, and have come to the decision that it is because it's funny in a kind of cute way and because it doesn't try to compete with all the other available titles today. Probably also because it doesn't require much from you; it's a game you can start playing without reading a bible-sized manual and you feel confident with the UI from the beginning. I recommend readers, which would like a nice and easy game and which doesn't demand to much smg-game knowledge, to begin with a game like this. Do it, it's nice; And it doesn't scare you away ...

Homepage: Giant Killers
Homepage: Developers
Homepage: Distributors

Giant Killers 2

Just got a review-copy (nice and very motivating to get these copies) of the new Giant Killers 2 and got a nice surprise of how the game has developed. The entire interface has been redesigned and looks great and professional - without bombing by you with flashing text and fancy shifting images (just to let you know; I turned the background image off). I like the simplicity of its interface and that it works, is proved by how nicely you get around the game: The navigation is logical and easy to learn. Thinking about it - it reminds me a lot of Football Masters. This sequel is bigger than the first, - without compromising the simplicity and playability. Still, though, its a game for the novice management gamer as the club funds are enormous, theres no designing of complicated tactics and fitting the right players into it, no balance sheets and economy, - instead you got very easy squad selection and a fairly easy Training Schedule. But _if_ you're after an easy game with plenty of the features from bigger games, this game is designed for you. Its almost superfluous with an review of this game, because I feel that images of the game, would tell you a lot more, than I can fit into this. Be sure to check its homepage for screenshots (when they update, that is - I can only find the first Giant Killers).
The match engine is still the same: Descriptive text tell you what happens in the game, accompaniged by a ball that shows the gameflow and a possession-graph. The text can be _very_ detailed, but 4 levels of information can be chosen. I'm pleased with the use of the ball instead of the emphasized text, because it looks better and is more informational. The text is accurate and potentional funny at times and as I remember writing in the previous review: This is fairly ok. Another match view would compromise the level of the game and probably just ruin it, so I'm satisfied with how its done. Overall the game is designed to be simple and easy and is complete as it is. A few things still bother me though: The tactics could be worked on, it's (almost *too*) easy to pick your best team and it would be nice to develop some more advanced tactics schemes. The training bit is fairly okay, but I'd like to see the whole team at once, though: As it is now, it adds more to a 'bore' effect than it is simple. The players you get info on in the transfer list are automatically deselected, when you return to the list. This is very annoying, if you - like I - tend to search like mad for a replacement player, because you end up thinking ... where was I, what was his name, etc. I know this perhaps just is a minor thing, but anyways: And why not add a 'Wages' column? In general the game could make better use of double- and right-clicking (the right-button would work fine as a 'back' button - double-clicking could pop up the info-screen). Overall the game isn't bad. The interface is much nicer than the previous, but unfortunately its almost to easy for the average hardcore manager, but on the other hand: The game is designed for youngsters and as such it works, including plenty of features from the bigger games. And because of its simplicity, its lack of tactics and fairly small amount of info, its a game thats fun for a relatively short period of time. Its not the kind of game that twists your mind even when at work (I remember USM98 did) and my advice would be to expand the game to include even more info and work on the tactics and training bits. I may be silly, but I always fancied the betting feature in management games. Some years ago a few games had this, but I don't see any today. Come to think of it, it may suit this game.

Homepage: Giant Killers
Homepage: Developers
Homepage: Distributors

Italian Soccer Manager

I’m not sure why I even bother to review this game: probably it’s only the folks out there with machine power less than a DX - 16 MHz or the very nostalgic ones, that still play this one. It from 1991 to 94 and there’s been published so many great manager games since, that its common sense to choose to play another one. Anyway, I guess I review this one because Metro1026 was kind enough to email me a demo and I think I owe him the review.
The game’s nothing special, just an old one without any fancy graphics or raving soundtracks and you can only manage teams from Italy (right - that’s probably why its named Italian Football Manager?). To be totally honest with you, I must admit that I haven’t bothered to play the game through a whole season or even a month – the old text based games are not that exciting and gamers today demands a graphical UI, preferably easy to use. Ok, now that’s written - and I probably shouldn’t have, because I know that many of you out there have a different opinion, but ok, I guess you wouldn’t be here reading this if you didn’t want my opinion, right? (Oh! You’re just here for the links – knew that!)
No, there’s not much to say. As written just a minute ago, it’s all just plain text, so you probably know this type of game. No match sequences. No sound. A bit detailed information, but surely not up-to-date. I tried upgrading my pitch and the program would let me keep doing that until I didn’t have any money left and I didn’t even play any games in between, so I figure the rest of the program the same …

Homepage: Allenatore
Download: here ...

LionSoft Fodbold Manager

This is a Danish soccer manager game and the first to really give me a thrill. Well, in the beginning I didn't (really) like management games but as time passed, I've become more and more fond of playing these games. The feeling you get when winning the trophy or the league you are in is great, especially when you've put a lot of effort into building a team worth it.
It's a fairly simple DOS game, and let you be the manager of an English (I wondered why the developers chose the English league and not the Danish) team. Not very difficult, but funny and addictive. Reminds me somewhat of On The Ball.
Not many options regarding training, tactics etc. but the newer versions comes with a nice twist. It has a stock market, where you can buy or way into some of the other clubs and all. There are some major and minor bugs in it too, but it doesn't cost much and is definitely worth the money.

Homepage: LionSoft Fodbold Manager

LMA Manager 2001

I just got LMA Manager 2001 for the Playstation and not having played much on the Playstation (mostly just beating up my oldest kid in Tekken 3), I have been reluctant to review games designed for the Playstation. In general I don't like playing console games, probably it's because there is something magical about my keyboard and mouse _and_ surely also because a PC with the right hardware is far better. Therefore, in order to use my PC to play the game I tried a demo of Bleem! (PSX Emulator), but it would only show me the intro, before it came to a halt. Damn! But I don't give up easily and went searching for a better emulator and found (on psxemu.com) an emulator called ePSXe. Downloaded it and got it running ... and it got the game going. It's great and free, so if you're in need of a PSX emulator try ePSXe; I can only recommend supporting this great free (!) product. Of course, in order to write a decent review (are any of my reviews decent?) of the game, I have also tried it on my kids Playstation. It is fun to play it on a PC, but still another thing to play it on the PSX. Your choice.
The first thing I want to write about this game is that it is a shame, that it's not released for PC. I would very much like to play this game with my mouse, - would be great (no doubt, even better than the PSX). You may already have guessed that I'm very keen about this game and it's fully deserved. Codemasters again prove they really understand to develop games that are easy to navigate; Just check Colin McRae Rally 2 (!). Because of the great interface, the game easily catches you and you quickly find yourself working with your staff and players. In general, there is an atmosphere 'round this game, you get the sensation that you are working with something important, like being in a kitchen that smells nice (and no ... I am not a chef, actually, I work at a laundry). The features work very well together and the menus are as they should be; Easy to navigate and filled with stuff you would expect to find. And it's all there: From contract management to sponsorship, stadium maintenance and developing, youth squad to player management. The squad selecting and tactics development are probably the greatest things about this game. It's very easy to compare players, because you can select the two players you mean to substitute and both graphs will appear at the same time. It includes visual aids to show the players best attributes/skills and morale and pitch markings to show where he operates best. All of this is a great aid for positioning players and building the strongest team. There is also something called Dugout tactics, which can be assigned to the four L1, L2, R1 and R2 buttons. It's playing styles, which can be using during the match to influence how the team is playing: All out attack, Wing Play, Counter Attack, Defensive, Long Ball, Direct, Central Play, Keep Ball and Pressing. It's a nice quick way to change tactics, without having to pause the game and going to the in-game menu (which by the way works very well). Before going to the match, you can decide how many days to advance or you can choose to advance till next matchday. I'm the type of guy, that sets the necessary tactics, quick training (preferably having my assisting manager change the tactics - because I (usually) hate having to bother about some more or less stupid tactic scheme: Which in most games doesn't matter anyway - or only shows a depressingly slight increase in player performance and skills) and the onto the next match to see if my changes worked. I (again _in general_ - depending on how catchy the game is) hate all the irrelevant (seems to me; Not arguable) information between matches. Luckily, most games let you either minimize the amount of information or skipping it all together. Not much here: Good! =) The match is okay, although it seems that my team has been sleeping during tactics sessions: They don't always perform like I feel they should, but - thinking about it - I guess that's okay, because no game or result is written beforehand and there will always be some margin for player ignorance, weaknesses or generally bad days. Of course, I may have missing something in my manual-tactics-crash-course (as if I would need it; Played many of these games) I especially like the design of the match view. Reminds me of the Fifa Football Manager or Ultimate Soccer Manager 98. It is not this big Here-I-Come-Have-Your-GeForce3-Card-Ready 3D presentation, but instead a nice view of the entire pitch like in USM98. Another great feature is that if you change your tactics during the match, you are prompted to keep or ignore the changes, when the match is over. I really like this, - wonder why I have not seen that in any other game. Okay, I'd better finish off this, if for nothing else, then just to save the bandwidth.
You should really try this game, especially if you like playing these games on the Playstation. It is a great game, great interface, nice menus, nice atmosphere ...
I should mention that the game require 15 blocks on a memory card to save and that you can't erase your card(s) from within the game - so don't get to quickly going (although, you probably will), because you'll be in a world of pain, when you discover all your work is gone =)

Homepage: Codemasters

Major League Soccer Manager

Thanks to NAORA CLUB for mailing me this demo, - one more of those games that has been recommended by a lot of you out there - which I think I would have downloaded some time or another anyway.
Major League Soccer Manager deals with the league American soccer teams, (who said, he only thought they had Baseball, American Football and Basketball over there?) so I was glad when I picked the NY/NJ Metrostars and saw that I had Donadoni on my team (!). I do not know much about the American leagues and how they work, but I guess I’d be introduced to some of the players next summer – at least for a game or two (just kidding! ?). Ok, there's nothing wrong with the game itself, - i.e. the way it is built - and it seems like Dan Ryazansky has done a lot of work on whats going on behind all the tiny windows. It has all the features that any PC amateur soccer manager would want and there is also another version of the game called MLSM-ESL, in which there have been included the best of the European teams in three leagues. One with the top ten Italian teams, another with the top ten British teams and the last with the top ten European teams ... and that game (which is not freeware like this demo) would be much more fun and relaxing to play etc. etc. than this … (so much for the comfy part of computer soccer management …). I don’t like all the screen that pops up when you click your way round the game, you get the information requested, but in one small, messy and not especially fancy message box to which you can only click ’ok’ and the second after you have forgotten what you wanted to know. It would be so much better if the game could be maximised to fill the entire screen and the option to tile the windows was available, - perhaps a grid of the information wanted would be more satisfactory?
(Or perhaps I should just stop complaining?)
… and I do not like not to have the opportunity to substitute my players during play, you just press a button and there’s the final result … hmmm, Dan Ryazansky ought to work a bit more on the interface before he releases the next version.
But check it out yourself!

Homepage: Major League Soccer Manager

One-Nil

No way! I'm not going to spend my time, reviewing two of these games. One is more than enough. Read the review of Two-Nil, but keep in mind that this one much worse ...

Homepage: Wizard Games of Scotland

On The Ball - league edition

I tried a demo once and went out the next day and bought the full game. Found it on a low budget collection CD (The Ultimate Football Collection '96) along with Fifa International Soccer, Striker, European Challenge, Premier Manager 3, Sensible Soccer, Goal and Championship Manager. A fairly good buy if you're the sentimental type and like the older soccer games. Unfortunately some of these are not very good. Still it has Sensible Soccer, On The Ball, Premier Manager 3 and Fifa International Soccer on it.
On The Ball - league edition is great with a nice gameplay (I like to strangulate the commentary, though). You begin in the Premier League and have ten years to become the national manager. You have three difficulties to chose from and depending on them, you have to reach a final score within these ten years. As I was playing I found that it wasn't as fun as I have though at first, but this is mainly because I don't like the main goal. I would still be playing the game if I could've started in the conference- or third league and worked my way up.
There's another edition of this game, which I unfortunately haven't tried yet. It's called "On The Ball, World Cup Edition" ... well, as I recall anyway!

Homepage: Sorry. Not yet available!
Download: No download either, then

Player Manager 2000

This review is of the Playstation version of the game - and I know I don't usually review console games, but some nice folks posted me a review copy of the game and somehow this PSX version ended up on my (very messy) desktop. I believe the version for the PSX is very much alike the PC version, so I reviewed it ... and sure: I got this so of course I'll review it. I generally hate playing strategic simulation games on the PSX, because I think the it's designed for fast paced action games ... and because I hate the controller; makes my hands and arms ache, does it =( The first thing I tried was see if Bleem! was able to run the game on my PC, but it wasn't (suddently the screen went black) ... so -- demanding to get access to my oldest kid's PSX (well, actually buying him away from the damn console =) I armed myself with a piece of paper, a cup of coffee and went write the keywords to this review. It should soon turn out that the navigation was much easier than I dared hope. The most important buttons in the game have their own 'hotkey' on the gamepad and the pointer is configurable - so you can choose the Smooth Pointer, where you move it with the movement keys and with 3 different speeds and there the Item-to-Item one, which is generally preferable. The interface is nice and easy to navigate with the above turned on. I didn't turn the music off (volume) in this game (I usually do) (and not that I precisely tend to like this kind of music) but the music was very fitting and tolerable. The UI's very nice and clean in Player Manager 2000, - not cluttered with statistics or less meaningful information. In fact, the amount of information on one screen, is nearly at all times kept at a minimum, which helps tidying things up, without letting out any of the football-nerdy player/team statistics. I know I usually complain about the games not displaying enough information on-screen, but the menus in Player Manager 2000 are easy to find. I must admit, that what at first seemed like an amateur game, should quickly prove not to be. The statistics and more hardcore related parts of managing a team *is* in the game, but it's programmed well, because the information is not far away and yet hidden from the not so curious one, again: you find it in the menu and not cluttering the screen.

Wondered about the name yet? Well, it says it all. I've yet to play the first Player Manager games, but in those you should be able to control yourself as a player during the match, which you cannot in this. You can however enter yourself as a player on your team as well as manage it. Funny perhaps, - following yourself improve (or the opposite) over the seasons, - but ... ah, don't know: isn't it sort of ... well ... It's what an editor does in other games, isn't it? Anyway as I chose a lower division team, I was on the team, but in another game I tried managing Glasgow Rangers and I wasn't on the team. Guess I could buy myself (I'm not on sale =), but I haven't tried. Woa! Daniel Henriksen is coming on for Paul Scholes =) ... (wouldn't happen anytime before Scholes was tied to a wheelchair - and I'd probably be dead at that time) ...
Personally I don't think that the option should be in the game - but which editors you are fiddling with and which names and attributes you change after you bought the game are none of my concern. And the title makes me think of it more as a football game than a management game or perhaps a unserious/low level management game - that's if I hadn't tried the game. But I have - and what goes for leagues, the included ones are: England (incl. Conference League), Scotland, German and Italian. The match sequences are: Commentary -- which is the fastest, but it seem to have no History, so the text just fly by and you'll have to be very quick to see what's happening, - however this mode gives you most control and information about the game in progress. Scanner -- look a bit like the match sequence from USM98, Watch -- where you watch the entire game in full 3D, Quick Watch -- which is the game from a birdseye view ... in all these match-modes, you have a 2 speed option, so you can speed up the game if you're the impatient type. I can't really think of any mentionable downsides to the game, although I feel it need a History-tree sort of thing, so you can go back and view what has happened in the leagues/clubs etc., but this is just because the messages that 'comes in' after each game (can) disappear to quickly, so don't go get coffee, because you can't scroll back to view them. I like the Friendly Tour thing, where you can have the game pick 3 teams from a country you select and you go there to play Friendlies against them. Uhm. Perhaps you need to click/select a bit to much before you reach the actual game (Next Game -> line-up -> Select Matchtype). But it's definetely one of the games on this site, which has the nicest presentation of it's statistics, bravo (!) and it's pretty easy to define your own tactics. The data is pretty much up-to-date and if you decide to buy the PSX version, you might want to know that it requires 15 memory card blocks to save. A game (I can't really think of any game to compare it with) whose advantage is it's nice UI and it has statistics and information enough to be considered for the medium skilled smg gamer, but buying it for a Pro (I'm not one of them) would be taking the prompt away from a nerd =)

Homepage: Player Manager 2000
Pick a download here: www.anco.co.uk/download.html

Premier Manager 2

It's very much like the third, but with less nice graphics and without a match to view. The match here is just a slider that slides from side to side (I know that's what they usually do) to show you where the ball is. Boring. Buy the third.

Homepage: Gremlin Interactive
Download: prem2.zip
Size: 509K

Premier Manager 3

This is a game I've been enjoying playing for some while now.
It very difficult in the beginning - like in: almost impossible, to be promoted from the Conference League to the 3'rd league. Anyway. Once you keep trying and develop your abilities both as a manager and changing the team formation to match the opponents, it (of course) becomes much easier then. Even though you finally (!) end up in and win the Premier League, the FA Cup and the League Cup all together, you (I) found it hard to quit playing, improving my team. Easy gameplay, lots of options. The screens could be improved slightly, though. A better resolution and I would really like a 'print' option. Anyway, it's a really great game and you should buy it.

Homepage: Gremlin Interactive
Download: None

Premier Manager 3 Deluxe

Not much to write about it, as it is almost identical to the above. Includes an editor and more pictures to chose from (haha). If you're downloading, you should download the demo of Premier Manager 3 instead of this as it is smaller and as I wrote: almost identical. Whoa, almost forgot - I downloaded the deluxe demo, and had some trouble installing it. It seems that it doesn't place the files where they should be (*.dat files, I think it was) but just copy them to their should-be location and you're off.

Homepage: Gremlin Interactive
Download: pm3ddemo.zip
Size: 2.3MB

Premier Manager 97

This might very soon become my favourite!
The interface is brilliant, it's very easy to navigate around the game and you get a touch of it in no time. It has a database with a lot of text on the players and managers in the premier league - their experience with past clubs, age, height - hell, you have enough material in the file on Peter Schmeichel to found a fan club ... but, that's not the game. No.
As for the game, you can choose to play the Manager League or the Pro-Manager League: the latter having a primary goal for the season, i.e. promotion and such. The Manager League also has four different levels of difficulty, so there's one for us all. It supports play for up to 20 managers at one time (8 in the Pro-Manager League), and when you watch the match it's in full 3D, sort of like Actua Soccer. It's nice, pretty detailed, but the ball movement isn't always realistic and many of the goals are the same. Here you have the option just to view the highlights, none (but why?), or watch the whole game.
There are quite a few injuries and some own goals too, but, hey, If it's in the game - it's in the game ... I know this one's not from Gremlin! :-) ... Some bugs and that it's not as statistical as many other games are the only downsides to this great game.

Homepage: Premier Manager 97 [At Gremlin Interactive]
Download: None, but here are some cheats

Premier Manager 98

Ok! I didn't know Gremlin was about to release the next in the Premier Manager series, and it was to my surprise that I suddenly came across it in a store. Well, I knew I had to buy it then or curse myself at home for not buying it, when I had the chance. So I did; buy it, that is! Still really nice and even though the UI looks great, I could do with some more user friendly navigating. Why not enter Player Details, when a player is double-clicked? Why can't one go directly to the League Tables from the Results screen? Why is there such a great navigation bar at the top of the screen, when they doesn't use it for anything else than the game setup things? They ought to think about adding shortcuts to related stuff like in Ultimate Soccer Manager 98 =). Anyway, it's still nice and I might get used to the navigating. The match sequence is great (whatever happened to 3DFX support; not necessary?), but watching the full game is only for the hopelessly addicted players, as I think it takes a loooong time - and you have to click Continue every time something happens. The commentary is a great add-on, but only to hear him tell me that my second Friendly Game is a 'very important game' and so on. The included database is very detailed and includes a lot of text about each player and manager. There's pictures of most players (in the top leagues, nevertheless) and all this is ok, but PM3's still my favourite in the series (ok, e-bomb me). The game supports up to 20 players (the manual doesn't tell you if this option also support network- or Internet play, but for what I can tell neither is available). Opinion (finally): for what I can tell Premier Manager 98 is nothing more than a patched version of PM97. All the new players [97/98] should be included and the artificial intelligence should be greatly improved - according to the cover. The players seem to be included and about the AI how can one tell? There don't seem to be many changes to PM98, so if you have PM97 stick with it or buy the darn game if you want it to look good in your shelf.

Homepage: Premier Manager 98 'page at Gremlin
Download: no

Schoolboy Sixes

I came across this game by accident (not that it matters at all, but ->), I was checking the link to the full and free release of Supremo 98 at dazsoft.co.uk (actually there are several others there; You should check it out) and that's where I found the game. Of course I got curious and downloaded it. Didn't take long, neither to download or install ... And that's more or less how I think about the game today: A small game - easy to complete (if you ever 'complete' games like these). I mailed the developer of the game - asking my occasional Review-copy question, but he didn't want to email me the full game to review (but - obviously - wanted the review anyway =), so I'm trying to review a demo, that let's me play (try?) one game and doesn't include the stats or anything for most of the teams (so it'll be a short one, eh?). Well, let's see about that. I remember liking the the simple interface (although I couldn't really get the hang of viewing my team stats under ... League Table - shouldn't this instead be a submenu to The Lads?), basically because it was nice in a rather calm sort-of-way - and not that there is much UI at all to the game, but not unlike some other games reviewed here, you don't expect something fancy to come sneaking out of the game. Not that non-fancy games isn't amusing (!) - at times, it's quite the contrary.

You have your team of fresh young 'lads' at Brentwodd's U15 team, eagerly awaiting to play for the team every sunday - if their parents let them ... or they don't have to visit grandparent, go shopping with mom or attend to piano lessons =) (btw. who would want Jim's Junk Shop as a sponsor? =) And instead of Training these poor fellows, you can choose to sign a trialist and let go of one in your team (nice and simple: - the wastebasket culture of today). You have a minimum of stats (but enough to decide) to help your way to what (?) ... winning the league, be promoted to the next, or? I can't find information about this in the readme.wri file or in the game, so figure it out yourselves., but obviously, something going to happen or it wouldn't be worth the trouble, would it? The game-part is like what the rest of the game is, just enough to get your attention, but enough to get you excited. For what it's worth I found this game somewhat amusing; The couple of times I played Brentwood vs. Ronksley Boys. I *would* have given it more time, perhaps played an entire season (and this might have been an entirely different review), but I think I've sucked all the fun out of the demo now =)

It's a small game for lunchbreak players, that just want the non-addictive fun the game has to offer. Again; This might not be the credits the full game deserves, but I've just told you what I've seen in the demo - and that's it, really. It's big brother 'Premier Sixes 2000' is (I believe) under development for WinXX machines, so watch out for that at the URL below. Hell! It doesn't cost much, so give it a shot, knock yourself out =)

Homepage: schoolboysixes.f9.co.uk
Download: ssixes.exe
Size: ~500KB

Sick As A Parrot 1.61

It's been awhile since the last 'real' update of this site, although I've several times hunted the Internet for something new to write about. And (jeeez!) have I longed for a new smg! I've grown tired of those I have and nothing new dropped down on me. No emails, no nothing, - been rather busy lately, so perhaps it's for the good ... ask my kids, they're properly wondering if their father really live at home or at some hotel somewhere. And so today (99.07.15) was my lucky day. Malcolm Howard was so kind to email me a copy of his latest Sick as a Parrot (1.61) (that name still bothers me) and so this is the 'review' (not much review, more just me babbling) of it: First of you should know that I had a helluva time writing this, because the game doesn't run very well in Windows. The GFA-Basic thing obviously don't support multitasking (whoever said that Windows supported multitasking? ;-) and whereas I normally ALT-TAB switches between Notepad and the game I'm reviewing, I couldn't do that here. So this' like play for a while - [remember-think-remember, check notes ...] - write this stuff and start the game again ... I'm not a complete Windows-geek, so I'd rather the game would still run in DOS, well - at least I could still ALT-TAB =) The interface has been pretty much cleaned up and is now very nice. The game is up to date (!) and as far as I understand (properly not very far!) Malcolm Howard continuously updates the game data and publishes this data on his website. Check it for more information. His members page is a nice service on his page, where you for this minimal fee every year are given access to this page and are free to download both Sick As A Parrot and Supremo (both are of course the newest versions!) and all the data updates. Again: check his page for details. Oh!, and you'll of course receive the monthly (or so) newsletter from him with the latest news about the game and his ideas for future versions. btw. cheers Malcolm =) There's a nice atmosphere in the game and I think it's basically because of the UI (yup! there it was again) and his choice in colours and frames (not *those* frames! ... DOH!). The game has been developed through a number of years and it hopefully comes down to that your activity with the mouse and the puzzles of team management, reflects on the pitch: I can't decide if it does or not, but I suspect it do. It seems Malcolm Howard has big plans with this game, but you would've known this if you received the newsletter, wouldn't you? <g> However one can feel the progress with the game and with this version you see the differences too, - or did most of the previous look the same; I can't remember, but it doesn't matter now, does it? The match representation is in 3D (not *real* 3D!) accompanied by texts. Graphs show you your player’s performance and energy (No! Not a word about EPO), and you can as the match progress choose how they shall play. You can print most of the text from almost any screen, which is ok (just ask Mr. Tree in the Brazilian Rainforest =) and you can define how each player should train as it should be. You can also talk to each of your players and make them work harder or congratulate them for a good job done (my boss could learn from that). Retrieve report from your coaches, etc. Great features, but .. Some things I don't like about the game is that you can't click your way through it. At certain points you'll have to wait for the information shown to disappear by itself. It should be possible to disable this function from an options-screen or such. I don't have the patience to wait for the text to disappear (when I've already read it, seen it tons of times or know what comes next). Another thing is the Player Statistics page, - hmmm, I can't see why you can't compare two players on screen or have all the data lined neatly up against each other as it would surely help picking the right team, but this might already be considerations for future versions, I don't know. One, which should be considered, IMHO is the opportunity to start in the lower divisions. I'd rather pick a team filled with nervous drug-addicts (well, perhaps not =) and train them to be the new Ronaldo (btw. I've never understood why Ronaldo is considered such a great player: I've never seen him do anything spectacular!?), than pick a team and start in Premier League. Of course embedding this feature is a programmable marathon, but it should be considered nevertheless. So this was in fact the review of SAAP 1.61. As always, you ought to give it a try regardless of what my opinion is. I've had a hard time getting a real overview of the game, but you'll properly do much better than me. Till next ... enjoy.

Homepage: Supremo and SAAP homepage

Sick As A Parrot 2000 1.10

This text is more a repetition of the above, than it's an actual review, but I more or less promised Malcolm Howard to keep my reviews of SaaP more up-to-date (tough job, when you're up against as efficient a man as him,) so here is my remarks about the latest (1.10) release of his popular game. As I wrote in the previous review the interface has been worked with and has had a remarkable facelift and is now much nicer than before. Its now possible to choose between backgrounds and by downloading additional backdrops from his website, you can get a more appealing interface. In general the menus has been worked with and it has turned out really nice. Still though (-and yes, again!) I feel the game needs some options. It would make the game much more playable for a guy like me, if I didn't had to go through the game, the same way over and over again. I would like to be able set the training options a week ahead and perhaps just the day before the match, get a detailed report from my assisting coach, and then based on that, decide the lineup. Personally I think the story-line approach to the game should be included in an options-screen or something, I could do without it. It seems a lot like the game is one big of these famous Wizards every decent program has today. In a game, I don't what to be told what to do next! I like to be in charge and explore the UI/menus, scurrying around trying to make the best decisions for my team. I would also like to begin in the Conference League to prove myself capable of beating the game at its best: that's the fun about sm-gaming. It's like chess! =) For instance: at the Team Selection it always asks if I want the assistant coach to sit in on the decision. Why not just confirm this at some Options screen instead. It would surely compensate for all the unnecessary clicking -- and what about the "Just minutes to the kick off" screen - come on! I know this, its just another click. At the Player Statistic, it would be nice to have it on one page, at players lined up against each other - it would be a lot easier to pick the team of the day. In the Select (substitute) a Player - lineup? - screen before the actual match, it would be nice to see whether they're already on the team or perhaps in the substitutes. I find it hard to keep track of all the teams players. Come on, Malcolm: there's room for the information in the 2' and 4' column, f.x. center / on team or center / sub (?), and when positioning a player it would be nice to see details about the player directly on screen, I mean whether he's right- or left footed, what his strength is and etc. Bugger! I just bought Andy Cole on a free transfer =) (!) but unfortunately, this was after the Team Selection, so I couldn't get him on my team ... It seems I couldn't turn back and use him as a forward/striker. Ok, this pretty much is a "what would I like in the game" brainstorming session, which now comes to an end. With all this written, I assure you that the above is what stand between me and a good solid game, that could last for a long time (and certainly, with all the enhancements and updates Malcolm Howard comes up with =)) The game now has a new website [http://www.saap.net], where you can order online and download the game instantly. It also comes on a CD-rom now, with additional pictures etc. From what I understand, the game is always under great development and Malcolm Howard has a lot of great ideas he want to implement in the game. You should dig into this, try it - and mail/post him your ideas, so that can make it the ultimate smg. It surely has the potential to be so.

Homepage: Supremo and SAAP homepage or www.saap.net

Sick as a Parrot 2000 1.35

I've decided not to merge this review with the one previously done with Saap 2000 1.10, because this game is so much different, that I feel it wouldn't be fair. A better one too, so that's nice. I could decide to completely remove the previous review, but I don't think so, I probably come around aspects there that I don't here or visa versa. The October newsletter from Malcolm Howard issued updates to Saap (now 1.35), that I had missed in the game for a very long time. I simply had to download it to try the new things out ... Which I did more or less instantly from the members' page (wish you were a member, right? (or reviewer =P)). The full game is 5.3 MBs, which is extracted to somewhere around 23 MB. And there are noticeable changes in the design of Saap from this version on. It feels like the touch of 'underground'-production has been removed from the game (and the backdrops has been chosen nicely: Does not disturb game play ... but I'll like to see other pictures than only of Michael Owen, - Liverpool fan, eh? =), but unfortunately, though, not all. The last bit probably a captive of Malcolm Howard's pride ... and how he thinks games like this should be developed. In other words, I don't think the last bits will be removed from the game, - although they could be included in the options menu included in this game. But perhaps: I only think it would enhance the game play a lot. Just like the new changes has. The game now has a MUCH nicer UI, that encourage you to play the game more often and underlines the statement, that Malcolm Howell takes requests from gamers seriously and is continuously improving the game, implementing these requests in the game, which is really great. In general, I don't feel that game developers (although they might say differently) care much about public criticism ... oh! Ok: Sure they do, but it's like they have their idea of a game and they more or less stick to that, perhaps improving a bit here and there, a new interface or so - but doesn't really go in-depth like Malcolm Howell. Let's give him a hand, boys and girls =) Like I wrote, the game is now much more user-friendly and playing it, you get (to some extend) the feeling that you're in control of what's next and a bit of the linear fashion of the game has been dropped. You can now skip to the match and compare players more easily than in previous versions. In-game options have been added, so that you can skip the delays that have been programmed into the game and skip results and reports. But it's not just cosmetic changes: The match-engine should have been enhanced too and I've now played it for a while and really haven't won that many games ... perhaps that tells something about the complexity of the engine? Or perhaps I'm really not that good at playing these games? =) I know I'm nearly always complaining (that always how my wife begins ...), but there are a few things I've come across (or is that *not* come across?) that might enhance the game play a lot. I'm thinking about pure basic things like: A Cancel button ... you can't go back directly from the screen where you transfer list your players, so you'd have to go on selecting a player and _then_ choose *not* to transfer list him, at half-time during a match, I wanted to substitute a player, but accidentally selected the wrong one, - now I *had* to substitute him, because I couldn't just go back (and if you substitute during the match, the names-buttons are not displayed in positional colours like elsewhere) ... this is just what I've come across. Surely there are other screens that could use a Cancel-button and not just these, so perhaps that could be something to work on; Surely it's not just me that missing them (?)! When you're altering a players training schedule it could be nice to see his stats as well as his name. Even though I remember quite well, I have a hard time remembering which skills I'd want to train/enhance. Also if you alter the training schedule for a lot of your players at the same time, you might find yourself mixing them up. So perhaps if they were all listed below each other, it would give you the opportunity to easier review and change the training for those in need of such (and you wouldn't have to click so many times! =) And how about being able to alter a players training schedule from the training report? And a bug: Some of my players are displayed twice in my squad (?) (just sell the clone, hehe =) And finally there's something annoying about the commentary text, - because always when I'm about to make a tactical change, the text pops up and the buttons disappears, okay, I know I can slow the game down, but anyway, perhaps if the text was somehow displayed without pausing game play (tricky one: I know). Oh! Just one more (and you'd probably tell me I'm right: Still can't multitask Saap/Notepad; Really turns my 'reviewing' (even more) into something awful =)

Homepage: Supremo and SAAP homepage or www.saap.net

Sick as a Parrot 2001

A few comments about the latest SaaP:

The final 2001 edition has been released and a lot of work has been put into developing the game engine. The match is now more realistic and more lively.
The price has been changed and is now very competitive.

Homepage: Supremo and SAAP homepage or www.saap.net

Sick as a Parrot 2002 1.02

Just some thoughts about this new version of SaaP. It has definitely become a nicer game and I'm afraid that this review (well, not much review) might have given you a wrong impression of the game. You might find the team setup and navigation easier than me - and you might remember better than me (probably), so be sure to ask for a demo and choose for yourself. I have gotten used to go through my coaches to get the information I want and am familiarizing myself with whom to ask for what and where and when to go directly to the players and that works okay for me now, but all the paperwork alongside the game really is a pain. I would very much like to peek into a game from one of you hardcore SaaP gamers out there - if, for nothing else, then just to see if I'm doing something wrong here. Also it might be a lot easier, when (or: If) I get to know my players, but unfortunately I doubt I ever will ... so I need the info up front =) Be sure to check out the game and its very competitive price, - or do you by any chance know any other developer, that gives out lifetime updates for a one-time fee? =)

Homepage: Supremo and SAAP homepage or www.saap.net
Download: www.freedrive.com - [Logon and password is "saap".]
Size: Around 1.3 MB plus additional pictures if you care to download them - makes the game nicer and I prefer having them.

SimSoc 4

This is a neat little game, which in it's simplicity and addictivity reminds me somewhat of the Danish LPS Fodbold Manager. The latter having more features though. SimSoc is written for Windows, and therefore it offers a nicer graphical view - opposite LPS Fodbold Manager's endlessly tapping the keys. As it should be, you begin in the Conference League and sweat your way forward till you reach the top. It hasn't got as much to offer as some of the others reviewed, but it's ok, especially if you keep in mind that it's not from one of the big software houses.

Homepage: Simsoc's Homepage
Download: pick it from the homepage

SimSoc 5

Something has happened since SimSoc 4. The interface a bit different. The game is faster now - or is it? [I have bought a faster machine in the mean time] Anyway, it's nicer than the fourth, but still not especially detailed, very simple and I would say that it isn't for the enthusiast, but for those who wish they had a fun game without many options and things to remember.

Homepage: Simsoc's Homepage
Download: pick it from the homepage

Soccer Management Simulator

Darn! I hate it when I find it necessary to negatively criticise a game. The last few games I have reviewed all deserved (sure –_I_ think it was fair criticism) the review, but it is always nicer to review games, that you can write positive things about. I do not just criticise a game for the fun of it – it just my opinion and other people might think differently about things than I do: visit their homepage instead :-). Anyway, - thanks to Steve Barry for mailing me this demo.
A company called Serious Games is the publisher of this game and I do not know if this is supposed to be _serious_ or …(?) because it isn’t. A game like Supremo98’ serious and well done: definitely not this one. The interface is about the most boring interface I have seen in a long, long time. No pictures, no text, no icon for what it matters, no nothing, zero!, just a white background. I quickly click ‘Files’ -> ‘New Game’ to get rid of the annoying background, choose one player (it supports up to four players) and here hides the first bugs, (-or programmer errors?) that have sneaked into the program. It doesn’t appear to check if you enter a name or not and just for the fun of it, I just hit return and Mr. NoName (me) are allowed to choose the team he wishes to manage. And if you start a new game, without ending the last you get a GPF and the program crashes! Three divisions are available in the game, but a quick look at them and it seems like the teams are not ’97 updated. Too bad – but ok, if one is allowed to edit the teams, but you can’t do that: not in this demo anyway. The windows that appear are as boring as the background and do not add some excitement into the game. The tactics part in the game are mainly ok, but when you play the game (even at the slowest speed) it is still hard to enjoy the game, because it’s just some colours and stuff moving ‘round the gamearea - like cheese under a microscope :-) … it hard for me to find anything fun about this game. It doesn’t appear to be something the programmers have thought about a long time beforehand – more sort of a time-killer and that’s to bad. It could be a lot better if they spiced it up a bit. The necessary features are all there, but presented in a dull, boring way. The demos not more than about 175K so download it yourself - just for the heck of it! and see for yourself.

Homepage: Nope
Download: None

Supremo 96

This game has been recommended by a lot of you out there, and I must admit it's the best text-based manager I have tried. All the necessary features are there and it's easy to navigate through the game - using the keys or the mouse, but the keys being the easiest and fastest (although the game isn't as fast as it could have been), and the possibility to print the different screens is nice.

Homepage: Supremo and SAAP homepage

Supremo 98

Well, here it is. The best Soccer Management game for DOS. I like this game. Nice. Very detailed - and includes statistics and information about almost everything, the players different abilities, seasons gone and so forth. It is really brilliant. This '98 version offers you the match in 3D if you wish, but in my point of view it doesn't matter that much. You ought to buy this game in order to play the full version - or you'll miss some good features: like editor, International matches or combined League/International matches. It's a great game, but not for the novice. As a new thing the author has added the option on the games' homepage to buy a years subscription of the game - and it's three brothers Supremo League, Supremo International, SAAP League and SAAP International. Supremo being the DOS version of the game and Sick As A Parrot (SAAP), the Windows version. As far as I can see, not many changes - if any. This subscription lets you enter a Members Page from where you can download all the four full games, including updates and new versions, that'll be available as you're a member. Nice right? This minor fee is really worth it.

Homepage: Supremo and SAAP homepage
Download: Supremo.exe [full game!]

Tactical Manager Worldwide

This demo is very sophisticated and looks very good. You can use for free for 30 days, or run it 45 times. It has teams/players from most of the world and obviously represent a great deal of work, but - err, - I wish that I knew what the point is. I can't come to think of any goal in the game. It's like you're the superior chairman of all the leagues in the world and supervises the leagues or something like that - but anyway it's detailed and nice and you ought to try it out. Please, if you get the point - mail me :-).

Homepage: Laughing Gravy
Download: Click the soccer ball & download
Size: 2.2MB

Tactical Manager 2

I'm sitting here (alone in darkness ... anyone remember the old Candlemass LP? Perhaps you Swedes out there?), uhm, well, never mind, - sitting here trying to figure out how to begin this review. Would be nice with a great punch line, but I just can't come to think of one and it's not because of the game. What I can come to think of is that this game is free and that should be reason enough to grab it from the developers homepage. The game has passwords to unlock its most powerful features and they can be found on the developer's homepage (or the more skilled can find them in the tm2.exe file). While playing it - it occurred to me, that the game writes directly to the data-files as it progresses, so I thought: So much for cheating and I was going to write something about how difficult it is to cheat in the game (unless you'll want to backup your game-directory between matches and big events), but with the codes, you can actually edit more or less what you want - change the price of players, wages, change bids, swap between clubs and etc. - but of course, we don't do that, now do we =) ? A great feature for those of you who run a fantasy-league here on the Internet. You can more or less set up the leagues, customize prices, statistics, players strength, manager names and alike and alter the programmes in whichever way you want. Really great. I haven't tried this, though. This game is probably the game reviewed here, that can be customized the most ... or which has the Editor built in for quick access. In fact, it seems, that you can change all of this while being in the middle of season (!) Sure, a lot of other games also have an editor, but you'll have to jump out of the game to use it and you'll probably have to begin a new game afterwards. This game is ... uhm ... hacker friendly =)
I must admit that I hadn't high hopes about this game, but that was pretty much based on what I thought about Tactical Manager Worldwide, so it was with this: Okay,-so-let's-give-it-a-chance attitude, that I installed it. But although this game is not straightforward, it fairly quickly caught my attention and once I got the hang of how the game works (or maybe it's more how to use it), I actually enjoy playing the game. I tend to play it for smaller periods at a time, though, but this is mainly because the Training sessions in the game are a big hurdle and this is one aspect of the game, which the programmers ought to concentrate on. You cannot just create a specific training schedule, - focusing on shooting for the attackers for instance. You have to 'open' each player (and you cannot just double-click, grrrr =) You have to 1) select him 2) click select and 3) click a couple of times more to do his training ... and this with each player in your squad) and choose what he should be training this time. Takes a lot of time and if you're like me, it ends being funny halfway through your squad ... so you (I) blindly select the players weaker spots and training them; To bad in a game like this. Also, when you train your players, you get instant results - if the player is injured during training you'll know it right away, - and also if he strengthens or weakens. Hmmm, normally a player would develop over time and not right away like this (during a training session 4 of my (best) players were injured in a row. Damn!), but this is of course great if you run fantasy-leagues and you need to do training right now and such, well: I guess it is. But I can live with this, if I have to. It seems like the game from the beginning was developed mainly to calculate data for online-tournaments, and later the programmers decided to change it to be playable on a one-man basis. You get the feeling that the game has been developed over a long period of time (which only (ought to) strengthen the game-engine), but I think they may have forgotten the graphics ... although the game UI (you can more or less design your own: Deciding which windows to view) is much nicer than Tactical Manager Worldwide, most of the images are unfortunately not very good and I truly believe TM2 could be a much nicer game, if they (also) worked a bit on the graphics/dialog screens. The game in itself is great, but it's almost too straight for pure gaming purposes. I generally don't like the font, the very bright pictures and the small, but correctable errors in the game. Try using the keyboard, when the Tab's doesn't fit - it's like they have added several options, without thinking about the Tab sequence =( And also I'd like to be able to sort the players in all the lists (everything is presented/viewed in these windows-type lists) - like I can in the Squad Sheet. Offered, however, is the possibility of printing (you can do a hardcopy of many of the data in the game) a really handy Skill Sheet to get the quick overview of the players and their attributes. The game-sequence is not overwhelming, but quite amusing nevertheless - amusing in the same way, that I remember Giant Killers - Euro Manager to be. You cannot select how long time the match should last, but you can enable/disable the commentary to speed it up. It catches my attention and I think it's okay as it is. My advice to the developers would be to work on the photos and perhaps do a kind of Quick Bar for the beginners (ok, ok, the really dumb ones like me) and work on the player detail screen. It would be nice to have a bigger box, which more info in it instead of having 12 categories. I think the About/Skills/Photo/Roles/Stats to be fitted on one screen - and you could decide his Role without having to cycle 'round 12 screens. The Training/Physiotherapist window could be better ... perhaps letting the user select all the training/the two physiotherapist visits and then press a Go-button or alike and it all would be calculated then. Again you would not have to click so many times to get the job done and a message could let you review the changes. I had an injured player that miraculously cured because he went to the Physiotherapist twice the same week (!) Also I began a game with Kettering Town and because my Goalkeeper got injured in the very first training session, I was suddenly without a goalie. I then tried to buy one without a contract, because I hadn't the finances to get a club to release one. The Goalkeeper I found was out of contract, but when everything was in place, the club wouldn't sell their only keeper (I don't care if it their only keeper! =) ... and besides I can't buy new players, because I do not have the finances (but I do!) =( ... the game changes the system colours before loading, - changes it back when you quit, though, but disturbing and unnecessary and I don't like the buttons, that don't have any effect when you click them.

This review went the wrong way ... I began with the idea of praising the game (it is funny), but I have been focusing much more on it's small, yet significant, errors, than I had planned; It sounds much worse than it actually is. Remember this game is free (and not a huge download, so go ahead and download it - or even better buy the CD to get it all (I believe it also includes commentary, all the badges and kits and whatever additional stuff there might be) and support the minimum of developers that let us download free software.

A final conclusion: A nice game whose strength lies in it's editable data files and size (1050+ teams, 32000+ players, 21 cup tournaments, +30 different leagues (both worldwide)) and a great game for simulating online-tournaments and fun to play over short periods of time. However, if the developers fix some of the things I've written about in this review, I'm a sure buyer ... or downloader.
That depends =)

Homepage: Tactical Manager 2
Download: Select one on this page also includes the manual in *.doc format
Size: Depending, but 3 MB or 5.2 MB

Total Football Management

This game from Software 2000 - the makers of Bundesliga Manager Hattrick & Bundesliga Manager 97 - should be the international version of the latter (thanks, Martin). It looks really cool and impressive and adds some of those new thoughts I have been missing. It is the soccer management game that I have played, that has the most features and options. You can configure a lot in this game - and in a fun graphical way. An example is when you place your players on the court: they look happy when they're placed where they should be and hangs with their heads when they are placed where they shouldn't be. The game seems to be very well planned and I haven't come across any big mistakes and/or bugs ... yet anyway. You have the option to be the manager in the Premier League and the manager of the national team or just choose one of them. You can import your own picture if you wish - and you do, when you see those that are available! - (a option that I missed in Premier Manager 3) and this might be handy, because you can play up to four players in this game. The designers have, I guess to lighten the bit messy interface, created a lot of help in form of buttons and images - just like the players I mentioned before ... all is smoothly animated and looks good. A nice feature is that you can create or choose if you wish, your own shortcuts, - you just go to the pools screen to bet on the teams (a + to the programmers here) and with just the click of a button, you have created a shortcut. There's three different modes to play the game in (i.e. the higher the number the more you have to control!) number three with 10 levels of difficulty, so there's one for everybody. The matches are shown in real 3D - if you have this option turned on, that is - and when it comes to build your stadium, there's also a lot of options. You can for example build a highway right in front of your stadium - SimCity goes to the world of soccer ... As you might already have guessed, the manual's huge with a capital H - over 90 (!) pages to read, if you don't find it all too boring. The intro's nice as well, and I guess that when I play this game a bit more and figure out the controls and stuff, it will surely be worth the money.

Homepage: Total Football Management homepage
Download: Nope sorry ...

Two-Nil

Hmmm, ahem, you guessed it! - this is the next game to follow One-Nil from New Era Software, and - erhh, well, at first the interface is redone and the graphics nicer than One-Nil ... but the graphics still very poor, as is the sound, the interface may be easy to navigate, but it is still hard to get an overview of it all.
With Supremo 98 around for DOS, I'll stick to that.

Homepage: The Sports Game Shop

Uefa Manager 2000

Wow! Great. I've must admit that I've practically just begun playing UEFA Manager 2000, and this' just written in a frenzy ... but you probably know this feeling you get, when you sit back and relax (with a cup of coffee =) and open a new book and it have you hooked from the very beginning. Well, that's how the game caught me (ok: drop the sit back and relax part). In the end of last year, a very few number of new smg games were released and now it's like the bubble finally has burst, flooding the market with great games. I've tried to keep up and reviewed quite a bit lately, and it's like when you review so many games right after each other, you get quite numb and probably overlook details and such (and you tend to not actually enjoy playing the games, sounds weird, doesn't it?! But you can compare it two meals after each other - unless you're very hungry, you don't actually enjoy the second meal) and it was with that: ok-nice-probably-just-another-one-like-all-the-rest kind of feeling I had when installing this game, but as it turned out I should be wrong.
This game is great. I can't help thinking about the game as a Championship Manager 3 game engine, wrapped into a nice USM98/FAPLM environment, - oh! nice cocktail. That's how I feel about the game ... it's static and it uses the screen very well and displays all the information needed on the screen, so you don't have to click or search for it and there a nice feel to the game, it's almost as you played it for a long time or something. You know where to click without thinking much about it. I guess it must be logically developed or just thoroughly tested. A nice thing about the game is, that you can choose to pick the training yourself - or you can let the assistant manager do it for you; you don't have to choose what you want to do at the beginning of the game. It seems that you can delegate a lot of these daily management tasks, which I like it's a nice option. It's not always funny to renew the Training Schedule week for week (perhaps not always necessary), so it's nice to have your assistant do it for you. The game just like EuroLeague Football seems very much complete. It's seems to have all the options and analysis and statistics, you'll ever need, and many of these you can delegate to your assistant (how well a job your coaches does, are of course up to their ratings/skills). A lot of the screens/tables can be printed, so if you'd rather sit examining a hardcopy, marking your best players with a pencil, you can do that as well.
The only downside to the game (and it's not really the game's fault) is that the match sequence demands a great deal of CPU power, unfortunately a bit more than my humble PC can handle. I can watch the 2D sequence, but with both 3D and 2D enabled - hmmm, let's just say that it slows thing a bit down and the enjoyment quickly wears off. Anyway, the match sequence offers both 2D top view and 3 3D cameras to choose from and on top of that, you can follow the statistics in the bottom of the screen. Really nice. But no-matter what monster you (no, not in your pants =) play your games on, be sure to disable your virus scanner (and be sure to enable it again =). Oh - and unfortunately the savegames eats up a lot of disk space.

This game is highly recommended. Sincerely. Buy it. It deserves it.

Homepage: www.uefa-manager2000.com
Download: Sorry, none found, but check this FTP.

Ultimate Soccer Manager 2

USM2 is the soccer manager game that I have been playing for the longest time now - and I haven't even reached Premier League yet. It really has it all. The best graphics. The nicest gameplay. You can control almost anything in this one. From building shops and cafes and improving your stadium to what a cup of coffee should cost. Detailed information about the players and offers very detailed training possibilities. Furthermore it has the great option to let you print your squad and share it with your gaming friends. It's tough, but fun. The king of soccer management games. I can only recommend this one. If you wish, you can find a patch to the game below, but according to Jens Persson it's not recommended. Try for yourself.

Homepage: Ultimate Soccer Manager 2
Download: Pick one ...
Size: 5.3MB
Patch: pick your download here
Size: Hmmm, about 1.5MB

Ultimate Soccer Manager 98

Darn! Since I ordered the game, I have been trying to keep my expectations as low as possible, but its difficult and I’m not quite sure if I have succeeded. I sure hope so; nothing worse than playing a game for the first time - just to find out that the sequel has ripped the original for the best things. Like Premier Manager 97. Well, the wrapping comes of easy (I’m practically tearing it of like my kids at Christmas!) and the CD is in the tray just a second after … installation … time passes … playing the game … time passes … damn! … there went my evening.
This’ really nice. It took no more than a moment to get used to the interface (just about as long as it would take to turn off the commentary [just kidding] :) and – again! - this is really great. All the things you known from USM2 are still there, but even better and nicer. I actually enjoy sitting here and setting up the tactics, training them, checking my finances, building, betting – all of the pre-match things, you have to do, which in so many other games are rather boring, because you think: what for? Why? In USM98 the difference is much more present, your players really improve, they use the set-pieces you have made – you notice the differences you make … or your assistant will certainly tell you about them if they are about to go out of hand. There’s one more thing, which’s so great about USM98. You’ll receive several messages, email, phone, faxes telling you about your position, what you should do, etc. and after each match, you can read about the match and your replies to the journalists in the newspaper. See the current standings, forms, MOMs, top scorers, top players, players on form at the moment, most assists and a bunch of other things. There’s a whole bunch of things in USM98 that deserves a notice in this review, but doesn’t get it. You need to see for yourselves. The match sequence’s ok. Like USM2, you see the game being played. Not 3D like Premier Manager 97 and Total Football Management but still ok and you can change your players positions on the pitch as they play. The commentary, hmmm, not much to say other than its there; a feature you can disable if you wish.
Finally: Impressions has taken a great product and improved it. A hard task not many succeed in these days. Great work. Thanks (! ->) I know I’ll get many sleepless nights wondering what wrong or if I win my next game ;)

Homepage: Ultimate Soccer Manager 98 homepage
Update to 1.08: usm98.exe
Size: 700KB

World Cup Manager

Just got aware of this small World Cup 2002 simulator. Trying it, I felt like, I could write something about the game, so I'll try. A small little game presentated in these typical windows-like boxes, - like SimSoc or Tactical Manager, without being as big a game as those. I like the design of the game. It really was the design that made me want to review it. Although the game has frozen in twice of the seasons, I've tried playing, when it works however, it makes me think of a programmer with a taste for the small details. Still so, I have my own comments to write about the game, but as this is a beta copy (ver. 0.6), things should probably not be taken too seriously (by anyone, but the programmer, perhaps =) The game is small and there's not much to write about, so I not expect this review to be a long one.

This is a game with a fairly small time margin, so it could be great, if the game was expanded and turned into a league game instead. It would be very time-consuming and include much work, but with its attractive design and easy game play, it could prove to be worth it (who said L'Oreal? =) However the game engine should be worked on - and will be, I should add, - if you check its website, you'll notice what to expect of future releases. Many of the goals scored, seems to come from out of nowhere ... I just lost 3-0 against the Czech Republic, and two of the goals where scored just after the other and with the position-marker still around the centre of the pitch. The match itself could be more exciting, especially the 'commentary-text' (the text describing what is happening), but the position-marker is okay. The training, hmmm, can't write much about that, tried some different setting, but can't say there was much to see about my teams performance, so in this small game, it's just there because it should be there. You then have your Team Selection screen and some pre-defined formations (could use some of my own). The actual Team Selection is bliss: Changing players is easy and getting an overview of them is also (fairly) easy, so thumbs up for that. Lastly you have the different Groups tables, where the groups are nicely lined up after each other for easy selection and clicking on the tabs, you view the group table and the next matches. World Cup 2002 is a small, but neatly done game, which is well-designed and presented nicely on screens, that haven't much to ruin the impression. It just needs development.

A couple of bugs (?) (remember this is a beta; Probably they're already corrected): I tap in my name at the beginning of the game, but it's not displayed anywhere. According to the readme.txt file I should become the manager (what else?), but ... I'm not ... thinking about it; Probably for the better anyway =) And the game desperately needs some kind of sound. Arrrgh! I'm shaking! Please, - just regular beeps or some kind of applause when the teams score =) And ... Saudi Arabia just won 4-0 over Portugal (!) (bug? =)

I'll keep on checking the game; you can expect an update, when ver. 1.0 is finished.

Btw. the game is free ... (applause) ...

The following text added because of the 0.7 beta version release:

Ok, I'll update this review as version 0.7 is out: The problem with my name not showing up is corrected now: It even checks if I have typed anything at all, which is more than some of the games reviewed on this site does - but let's not get into any wild conclusions yet. It just proves that the game is progressing as it should and that the developer won't have any loose ends in the game. You can also click on a player to view his profile, I'm not sure if this feature was in the previous release too, but it's in this so this makes no point =) The game engine should have been worked on and you can choose whether you want the game mode to be Realistic (for better or worse) or All Teams Equal. I guess this has a big impact on the game, but I tried both without any wild results, so perhaps not (yet anyway). The training screen has been worked on too, but you don't notice any major player improvement or tired players, etc., - or perhaps you do (?). It's like my team play their best for the first 70 minutes or so and then seems to get tired.
When you setup your team it could be nice to be able to save the team line-up, as I almost always use the same line-up and playing style. You can choose your set piece takers (although I feel this should be done in the Formation tab and not the Statistic tab) and you should choose them after the final line-up, because changing line-up changes the Set Piece taker (bug?) (or programming after a list position instead of player id?). During the game you can choose your teams passing style, but how much this matter in the game I can't tell. The position marker has a life of its own it seems, jumping around the pitch and not always where it should be according to the commentary texts. Some popularity percentages have been added, although their codes haven't been implemented yet ... but what do I know: I haven't even made it through to the final stage (!).
The game engine might need a little work as my last game had 5 goals in 10 minutes. Seems a bit unrealistic to me =) But try the game for yourself - hell! Even us on those modems that crawl the internet, could have downloaded the game by now, so what are you wasting your time for? Download the game ;-)

Homepage: Worldcupmanager.co.uk
Download (beta. 0.7): Wcm2002.zip
Size: 143KB

World Soccer Manager

Ahh, that was much better! Still those rather small windows (and it would be great to have the listbox with the player names sized to include all of the name, just so that Peter Schmeichel doesn’t become “G Pschmeich”), but I guess I could get used to those [the windows] come time. I know I am complaining a lot about the interface, but when you are programming a game – especially a soccer management game where there is a huge amount of information to keep track of – then doing a nice, easy to navigate and user friendly interface is about programming half the game. As a gamer I don’t want to play a game with a crappy UI. I guess not many do ... or (?) – it’s like buying a brand new car with an old engine, but enough about that: World Soccer Manager is a worthy sequel to Major League Soccer Manager. You have the option to manage both a league and a national team at once. Great feature; not new, not improved, seen in quite a few of the games on this page, but nevertheless still a great feature – and WOSOMAN deals with it ok. Another thing where this game is better than it’s predecessor is that the complete schedule is shown in a nice grid, where the data is easy to overview. I don’t add points to these reviews, but if I did the game would get 2 or 3 more out of 10, if all the information were shown like this. No need to tell you, that I like this way of showing it much better than the message boxes the author uses. In this demo you can manage league teams from England and Italy and as far as I can see all international teams are included. The team rosters are ’97 updated – of course some changes have been made, but they seems to be up to date when this demo became available. World Soccer Manager offers a lot information, which also is fairly easy to acquire. It doesn’t need much tactical/managerial skill from the player, and even though there is no graphics shown as the actual game gets underway, Dan Ryazansky has made it so that small message boxes (!) pops up using chosen intervals, displaying the status of the game and you then have the opportunity to substitute your players if you wish. You cannot change tactics underway, but ok, the game’s great and you ought to give it a try.

Homepage: WOSOMAN Homepage
Download: Pick it from here
Size: Depending on your type of download

A BIG thanks to Martin Benkerrou for some of the links!

(c) 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 Daniel Henriksen
email:
dsh@vip.cybercity.dk,
sgh@soccergaming.com
soccergames@oocities.com