CHAMPIONSHIP MANAGER 3
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'ere we go ... 'ere we go ...

By PATRICK ANDREWS

In this era when 3D cards rule the gaming world, just imagine if someone had the temerity to release a sports game without state-of-the-art visual effects. It might be OK for some shareware title released by an up-and-coming programmer, you might think, but hardly a contender in the big leagues.

Welcome then to the Eidos anomaly that is Championship Manager 3, where words and numbers are king, and decisions on graphics revolve around whether to have the background picture changing occasionally or to have the text flashing when a team scores. And the series' army of devoted followers wouldn't have it any other way.

Matches are represented by text descriptions of play and detailed lists of statistics, all accessible without pausing the action. The one frill is an option for sound effects that indicate which team is on the attack. Not a video highlight or mist-covered stadium in sight.

Now that the 3Dfx and TNT video card fans have run screaming from the room, it can be revealed that if you have ever instinctively known that you could do a better job than the manager of your favorite soccer team, CM3 is simply so addictive it should come with a government health warning. This is the heavyweight champion of soccer management simulations, beating off rivals through its sheer depth.

There are 15 leagues across the globe to choose from and in theory you can run them all simultaneously. In practice there is so much serious number-crunching going on - so many stats on players in each game to be updated - that six full leagues is the recommended limit even on a Pentium 400 with 64 mb memory. You can still expect delays while other matches are updated, but anyone short of patience is never going to take the time to delve into CM3's intricacies anyway. At least the program does allow you to work on other parts of your managerial empire while the other matches are being updated.

Hope your hard disk has plenty of room, too, because each saved-game game file can take up to 50mb.

Taking over management of a club gives you control over the first-team squad - and reserves if you wish - and you look after tactics, training, hiring and firing of players and staff, plus scheduling friendlies and pre-season competitions if you wish. But your club's board of directors will intervene if they are unhappy with your decision-making. And if they are forced out of their leather armchairs too often, it's back to the unemployment line for you. On the other hand, perform well and you may just get the chance to look after the affairs of your national team.

The process of signing players provides a good example of the sophisticated programming that has gone into CM3. You can manually search through the database or send scouts out to find players. The scouts can be given basic guidelines - like age, position or nationality - or asked to look for specific attributes - a certain level of pace, work rate, tackling or aggression, to give an example of just a few of the more than 30 ''visible'' areas where each player is graded.

What adds to the challenge of the game are the ''hidden'' statistics covering areas such as injury-proneness and big-match performances. If your highly paid striker, with all his explosive pace, flair and shooting ability, turns into a dud when he runs on to Wembley, chances are you've inherited a big-match choker. On the other hand, your seemingly mediocre goalkeeper may suddenly become impassable in a promotion playoff game. Good scouts, perhaps lured away from rival clubs for ridiculous sums of money, will help you find these diamonds in the rough and hopefully the occasional budding superstar.

When you've found a player you want, you submit an offer to his club. They may reject your overtures because the offer is unacceptable; because they don't want to sell a player to a club within the same division, or because, well, he is simply indispensable. You might just be given a flat rejection with no reason, or the club might want to negotiate.

Once you get the rival club to agree to a transfer, then it's time to deal with the player. After informing him what role you have in mind for him _ first-team regular, part of a squad rotation, hot prospect for the future, for example _ the player's contract expectations will be revealed. Or maybe not. A starter at Juventus isn't going to move to a lower-division English club no matter how much you offer, or sometimes a player won't be happy with a back-up role or a young player won't want the extra pressure of becoming a first-team regular. You can tell the odd fib, of course, but the player who expects to be a first-team regular isn't going to be too happy about a prolonged stretch in the reserves.

Even once you've satisfied the player and rival club, your own board will cancel the whole deal if it feels your offer is unrealistic. So what's wrong with paying $10 million for an unproven striker, anyway?

The incredible attention to detail exists in every other aspect of the game. And the excellent interface makes it easy to switch between each area. It's easy to see why the CM series, even without stunning visual effects, has developed such a strong following.

The internet is packed with fan sites full of downloadable tactics, training schedules and player search filters, plus information on recommended recruits. The official web site, www.cm3.com, also offers regular patches - with new databases as well as the obligatory bug fixes.

There are also third-party game editors available, not that anyone would contemplate cheating, of course. But if you decide that Brighton and Hove Albion just has to play its home games in a covered 120,000-seat stadium, it's amazing how those funds roll in.

ORIGINALITY 80%
SOUND/GRAPHICS 65%
PLAYABILITY 95%
ADDICTION 95%
ENJOYMENT 90%