Football Manager 2006 Review

For years football loving PC owners have built up a close relationship with one UK developer; one formed out of a mutual level of dedication and respect towards a series of videogames that have defined the ultimate experience for many, and answered the ultimate question of any football fanatic - how would you do if you took control of your favourite club.

Fourteen years after Sports Interactive first brought Championship Manager to computers, the UK developer has seen fit to bring its new franchise to the consoles in the shape of Football Manager Handheld for Sony's PSP and Football Manager 2006 for the Xbox 360. Of course it's not the first time that SI have been tempted by the console market, having previously brought Championship Manager 01/02 to the Xbox (not forgetting Championship Manager Quiz on the PSone), however this time around the SI team have seen fit to make sweeping changes to ensure the experience is more suited to a console style from the start.

With 280,000 players and backroom staff members within its hallowed database, along with leagues from 50 different countries, Football Manager 2006 gets the important aspects spot on right from the start - the offshoot however is you're going to need the 360's hard-drive, this is one game that simply wouldn't work without one. Allowing up to 10 multiple leagues to be played simultaneously, Football Manager 2006 doesn't exactly surprise you with its speed on the 360, taking 3-4 minutes to initially set up the game and coming close to a mid-spec PC during the rest of it. Sports Interactive have used the 360's multi-threaded architecture to run up to six matches at once however the game does falter in other areas compared to the PC; ultimately the experience evens itself out and there's plenty of questions in a Championship Manager Quiz style to answer during such pauses, plus you can always stream your MP3's from the computer which is always a bonus.

If you've ever played Football Manager or Championship Manager before it, you'll actually find yourself in a poorer position with the 360 version, to start with at least, compared to complete newcomers. In designing an interface that suits a joypad and one that completely removes the cursor, Football Manager 2006 feels distinctly "alien" at first to the point of leaving you completely baffled, wandering where certain menus are and how to access others. Using the face buttons and a legend at the bottom of the screen to access various menus associated with the one you're currently viewing, two clicks of the wrong button can find you staring at the Portuguese national line-up and questioning how to get back. Perseverance and determination are however traits associated with FM fanatics, both of which will help you to become accustomed with the changes within a few hours and struggling to understand why it was such a problem to begin with. Skipping forwards and back through menus you've already accessed via the shoulder triggers is an absolute godsend, whilst the core of all actions are handled via the 360's bumper buttons. A list of central menus and the crucial Proceed Game action are brought up with the right bumper, whilst the left bumper brings up context sensitive menus associated with the one you're currently viewing. Although it's initially a daunting and frustrating experience, it's evident that SI have toiled away on a system that suits a pad and should ultimately remove the frustrations from the experience - once you've become accustomed to the setup that is.

Further evidence of the changes SI have instilled continue to proliferate the experience; a graphical indication of a player's stats similar to that in Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer series replaces the text heavy pages of the PC; a change that those without HD televisions will welcome, and one that could end up in some shape or form in future versions on the PC.

Despite the many changes there are however certain things that tie Football Manager 2006 to the PC version, one of which is a number of little bugs and gripes destined to be patched in a future upgrade. If you're the type of FM fan who pours over every little detail, you'll quickly find bugs such as sorting coaches by an attribute and watching the list degenerate into an awry mess, or perhaps watching your choice of favourite club determine the actual club you wish to manage - little gripes for sure, but one's that are harder to explain in a console title then a PC game.

Beyond being an accessible, virtually exact conversion of the PC title, Football Manager 2006 on the Xbox 360 also introduces a number of new elements exclusive to the next-gen format. Fans of the 360 Achievements system, SI have filled up the 50 awards available with a plethora of extra challenges, ranging from the straightforward first win or first transfer to the slightly harder challenge of winning the World Cup.

Beyond offering an accurate and fully featured adaptation of a PC game that consumes the lives of football fans up and down the country, Football Manager 2006 steps up a gear on the 360 with full Xbox Live support. Offering 8-Player leagues and 16-Player tournaments, the game is essentially a stripped down version of the main game that allows you to pick a standard team or import your own team from the single-player season. The emphasis is on the competition as the multiplayer mode removes such aspects as player transfers, resulting in an enjoyable detraction from the main mode that we hope will develop with subsequent versions.

With HD penetration still remaining low throughout the UK, it's also worth mentioning that SI have done a good job of ensuring FM2006's many pages of text and numbers still manages to work on the crummiest TV money can buy. Testing on 14" TV's at SI Islington offices, there's little doubt the game benefits from the increased resolution of a HD TV, however only two screens (splitscreen and quick tactics) have had to be forfeited on standard resolution screens as a result of the arduous testing and search for the perfect font that SI undertook.

If you're the owner of an Xbox 360 and starting to find your PC can't quite cope with the demands of Football Manager, then this outing is absolutely essential. Despite the initial confusion, SI have done a fantastic job of bringing the experience accurately to a home console and ensured it makes the most of the format.

It hardly requires noting that unless you're a football fanatic Football Manager 2006 is unlikely to get your juices flowing, and it's probably not enough if you're already running the PC version without any problems.