Maybe the best manager game of all time and SI's favorite child. 10 years of history close with the best way possible.

User Rating: 9.7 | Championship Manager Season 01/02 PC
The Good: Very easy to use, large variety in tactics, more leagues, nice training system, addictive environment, great game engine.

The Bad: Needs more improvement in network game.

Game Characteristics:
- More than 100.000 players and staff.
- 26 active leagues: America, Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Japan, Norway, Portugal, Scotland, Spain, Sweden, Ireland, N. Ireland, Wales, Turkey, Greece, Russia, Poland, Croatia, Finland and Australia.
- Full simulation of rules for EU and Non-EU players.
- Improved game engine and A.I.
- Improved Search system and scouting reports.
- Hidden attributes which you can unlock by scouting players.

Championship Manager 3 is one of the best franchises Sports Interactive ever created from every point of view, specially when it comes to addiction and gameplay. Season '98/'99 was stigmatized from CM3. It's success forced many other companies to try their luck and create some very well-known titles (like LMA Manager, Total Club Manager, Uefa Soccer Manager 2000 and more). During the four seasons that CM3 was ruling the market, this game was breaking every record while managing to pull out the "manager bug" of every soccer fan across the world.

Environment-New Details
CM3's main change comparing to CM2 mostly has to do with graphics. For the first time we have the appearance of drop-down menus which offer a great variety of movements throughout the game. The combination of colours is brilliant. Blue menus with green drop-down menus and all the classic background pictures from players, stadiums etc. are very well connected with the whole environment. An other important change has to do with the number of leagues, as we now have dozens of active leagues (in CM2 '97/'98 we only had 9).

Loading time lasts longer comparing to CM2, mostly because of the game's database having thousands of players from all over the world. Especially when dealing with the starting loading time, you'll need some minutes before you can eventually select team, and fill all manager details (from CM3 you can also choose a password). From this year's version you can also choose the database's size (small or big, comparing to the number of players you want to have and of course to the PC you own) as well as which leagues you will have as active. All other leagues will have the most important players loaded, but their teams will not be active. They will only participate in european competitions and renew their players' details every once a while. In Game Settings you can choose exchange (british pound, euros, dollars etc.) as well as possible Auto Save. From CM3 and on, all Saves can be done to separate files (.sav), which you can simply move to other PCs and continue your game away from home. This also allows you to save in multiple files to avoid file being ruined from various bugs (for your own safety it would be better to download the latest patch from sigames.com).

All game menus are allowing you to give your orders easier and much quicker. Manager's menu allows you to have access to all basic actions, which in CM3 series also include your reserve team and youth team. Reserve teams are included in some particular leagues and allow you to test your reserve players in reserve leagues (giving them time to play) while youth teams are (except for doing the obvious!) giving you some talented players in every start of season. Reserve and youth team can be handled by Assistant Manager so that you can save time and focus to the main team. A new screen called "Board Confidence" gives you the ability to contact with the club's board. This allows you to see board's opinion, request for stadium improvenemt, ask for more money for transfers or wages, suggest youth development or ask for more time (which can save you in many circumstances from being sacked). You can also make FA Complaints for referees or request match postponements.

The most important CM3 series functions, in which you will dedicate most of your time have to do with News reading and Searching Players or Staff. Reading news allows you to filter every news item, watch more news that deal with fans or board while Player & Staff Search gives you the ability to search for players, coaches, scouts and physios with even more filters. The ability to hire and sack staff as well as staff attributes is one of the highlighted features of the game. You can hire an assistant manager, as well as up to 5 coaches, 3 physios and 7 scouters. Furthermore, you can use your shortlist in the same way as player search to add as many players as you want! That is definitely going to help you when important players' contracts will end. You will then stand silently snapping them 6 months earlier (with a free transfer). Besides all this, you can compare two players with each other, go on holiday for a particular period and leave assistant to handle your team, and generally do some more spicy stuff throughout the game.

National teams are now officially at your disposal (in CM2 you had to write each National Mananger's name in order to handle a national team). You now have full simulation of national managers' activities. You call call players to the National Team, National B Team or Under-23 team. Each national competition has all appropriate rules, from the qualifying phase to the final, while larger database allows you to even join a harder challenge (like being Manager of Trinidad & Tobago and deal with real players).

Team and players' profile
Player attributes (about 30) do not vary that much from CM3. Most differences have to do with Shooting, that is diverted to Long Shots and Finishing as well as Heading, which also has to do with Jumping. An other important characteristic is Crossing, while Work Rate deals with player's mood to work in training. Of course, all these attributes are hanging on each player's current and potential ability, statistics that are hidden and usually show the potential of each player.

Each player's profile contains 5 cards. First card shows you the attributes, while other cards show contract & value details, status, morale, history etc. Staff profiles have attributes such as Coaching Goalkeepers, Coaching Outfield Players, Judging Player Ability, Judging Player Potential etc. Each Staff's Mental attributes and potential ability are always important. That's why coaches are always improving their skills as well!

Actions menu in each player's profile allows you to Scout a player to see his attributes, ask for coaches or physios to give you opinion for particular players of your squad, ban your players, give them leave of absence to return home and later adjust more easily to his new club etc.

Transfers have now more options, allowing you to approach every player in the world ( “Not available for transfer” option is now gone) and make your offer. You can give money in one offer, using monthly installments (6 to 24 months), pay by appearances or even exchanging players. Your squad limit is now 50 players, which means that you can not sign more players unless you sack someone using free transfer and paying the appropriate amount of money. Fortunately, when dealing with staff you can easily terminate a contract whenever you want, except when dealing with player/coaches which (for your mischance) are still active. Contract status allows you to tell a player whether he is important for the team or not. This also is a good persuasion to sign a top class player that would (in other cases) rethink to join your club. Contracts now have clauses (Goal & Assist Bonuses, Minimum Fee or Relegation Fee Clauses etc.) arranged by you and often asked by the player.

Tactics
Tactics sessions gives you more options than ever. You can now choose from the most common formations with all players' orders fixed from default. Team Instructions allow you to fully control your team, as now you can not only choose Mentality, Tackling and Passing, but also order your team to Press, choose off-side trap etc. Player Instructions allow you to give orders for Long Shots, Through Balls, Forward Runs, Holding Up Ball, Running with ball as well as mentality in set pieces.

Training
First time we saw training was in CM3 and every aspect of this training system is retained simple in all CM3 versions. Good coaches are very important so that you can take the best improvement possible from your players' potential. Coaches menu allows you to set area of duties which your coaches will have to follow, depending on their stats (some coaches are training keepers very well, others have good tactical knowledges etc.) You can also assign General Training, Skill Training, Fitness Training, Tactical Training or even manager to change one of your player's position

Match Display
The classic text method is back with some minor improvements here. More stats are now available (reports for completed passes, shots on target, tackles, corners, fouls, throw-ins etc.) and allow you to have a better view of your team's performance. Luckily, game engine has been vastly improved. Many unrealistic mistakes have been fixed (like goals in the same minute or unrealistic possesion) while tactical changes now play a more important role in match progress. Player attributes also play a more important role, so you should always have a scout scouting your next opposition to check all the possible advantages and disadvantages. CM3's match engine is one of the best we've ever seen in a manager game.

Multi-player
In multi-player game you can play with up to 16 players through Internet or Network. Unfortunately, this area needs to be hugely improved. First of all, every player has to login so that the game can be loaded. Also, the "Continue" button has to be pressed by every manager in order for the game to continue! (which takes lots of time)

Conclusion.
If you want to be forgotten by your friends, if you're looking for a reason to divorce or quit your job and generally if you want a game which can keep you for years and years to come, then Championship Manager '01/'02 is exactly what you need! Doctors suggest it and it's by far the best manager game we've ever seen!