Premier Manager 2005/2006 (PS2)

Despite this there have been some positives, the tactics of LMA manager and stadium development of earlier incarnations of premier manager being two of the rare highlights. In short though console management sims have never, will never, and simply can never compete in the same league as the behemoth's on the pc with infinate databases and tactical choices made possible by the pc's processing power, memory and hard-drive.

The art of the console sim should be to offer something a bit different which Premier Manager does with the media interaction, player happiness and helpfull pointers which are provided by your staff. The rest of the game is competent but no more than average, the database is ok, the matches play ok, menu... check, ok. All in all respectible, even good for a console version. The tactics though are extremelly limited compared even to pc/amiga sims of long ago with only a handfull of formations and an inability to control individual players movements. All the standard formations are there, 4-4-2, 4-3-3, 5-3-1 but there are no other formations such as 4-3-1-2 or anything slightly off the beaten path which is a little disappointing and means that when you go a goal down there is little you can do to adjust tactics and get back into the game.

The lack of tactical options add a frustrating edge to what is a good game, for example what's the point of scouting the opposition to find out their biggest threat and not be able to assign your toughest player to man-mark him out of the game. Whilst the lack of choice can be put down to the hardware imposed limitations it seems to me that there is even less on offer than LMA manager on the PS1 so sureley an option to set markers, strength of trackling and a few more formations wasn't beyond the realms of possibility.

Gripes aside Premier manager is an enjoyable if not an immersive experience and slightly raises the bar for a consle management sim. Sadly though the bar was not very high to begin with.

A little disappointed though considering this is the playstation 2 and not commodore 64 as the graphics would suggest.

Good points.

 Transfer system is realistic, as in if a player doesn't want to come to you he wont regardless of how many times you offer him a larger contract.
 There is more input from the media regarding how you are doing as a manager and also a chance for players to apologise if the press has misquoted them.
 Money system is spot on players are transferred for what they are really worth. E.g. I had Lyon accepting 8Million for Essien but he turned me down apparently Darlington aren't a big enough club????
 The scores in the games are more realistic, where Chelsea may beat Wigan by 5-0 and draw with Everton 1-1.
 Players have some loyalty to a club so are very unlikely to move twice in a short space of time just because you have offered the asking price for them.
 Coaches have more of an input into the game rather than just letting the time tick away the coaches will pop up and tell you where the team is going wrong or maybes where there are gaps in the opposition.

Bad Points

 Limited management opportunities one of only six countries to manage.
 Unless you are a small club the chairman just keeps throwing money at you to buy players with.
 Transfer money is incorporated into club finances. If you spend 10 million on players your club has no financial reserves. It is possible to spend all your clubs money on transfers and not have any left ground maintenance or wages. But again the chairman just tops the pot up each time.
 Live matches either go really slowly where it takes an hour to get through one week, media stories, transfer updates, the match, after match press, etc etc or it goes super quick where the players are a blur and when a goal is scored the players aren't in a position to realistically score, they may still be attacking the left wing with the ball but you have a goal.
 The graphics in general are slow and weak considering the power of the PS2 I was disappointed; it reminds me of going back to Pro evolution soccer that kind of tacky blocky writing and pixelated characters.

Best in its class currently as the market seems flooded with cricket games. Probably have to look to the PC for a decent football management game.

This game will only be a stop gap between now and when football manager 2006 arrives on the scene.