Currently scheduled for release at the end of September, LMA Manager 2007 will be the first entry in Codemasters' football-management series to be released for the PC and the Xbox 360. We were fortunate enough to have a first look of the game during a recent visit to Codemasters' HQ, where executive producer John Jennings and designer Adam Keyte walked us through its new features.

You'll get to manage your chosen team for 20 years.

The PC and Xbox 360 games are being handled by the same development team as the PlayStation 2 original, and the two versions share exactly the same feature set. The necessary tweaks have been made in the control department, although the menu layout and navigation remain the same. The 360 interface boasts larger text and icons, because the abundance of information presented on the PC menus would be unreadable on a standard-definition TV.

The main thrust of the game is a 20-year career as a football manager, taking control of one team at a time and guiding them through the same league, cup, and international club matches that they would face in real life. LMA has a selection of teams from eight countries with up to five leagues per country, and the acquisition of the FIFAPro license means that all team names and players are up-to-date and correct. We were shown the English selection, with all Premiership, Championship, League 1, League 2, and Conference teams available. The game also has a database of teams and players from no fewer than 51 countries, with players from the non-playable nations available for hire. As the game includes the "2007" moniker, all team rosters will be up to date for the new season when it kicks off in August.

Most people will undoubtedly start their career as their favourite team, but if you're a football fan without any allegiances you can opt to create a fantasy football team. Using your budget to mix proven players with rising stars, the challenge here is to create the perfect mix of talent and finally put one of the ultimate pub arguments to bed. On the Xbox 360 you can make this fantasy team available for download, or play it against other user-created teams in one-off friendly matches.

On both the Xbox 360 and PC, one of the primary design choices was to make LMA as accessible as possible for the novice football manager. The "normal" difficulty mode offers assistance at every stage of the game, even going as far as allowing you to delegate responsibility for features such as the financial running of the club. "Expert" mode is more suited to management game veterans, and while they can still defer certain duties, they will receive less opponent information--which one of the Codemasters representatives likened to the "fog of war" mechanic employed in many strategy games.

As in the recently released Pro Evolution Soccer Management, customizing your manager's appearance is intended to give you more attachment to the game. The number of options for facial details and such that are available means that you can choose to create a manager in something resembling your own image, or for comic effect you can go for a stereotypical manager replete with the sheepskin jacket and flat cap. Whatever you decide, your avatar will be seen leading the players out on to the pitch before every match, as well as announcing new player signings on TV and fielding journalists' questions at press conferences.

Different difficulty settings and delegation options let you customize your experience.

Media engagements are by no means the main part of the career mode, but Codemasters has created a separate "Football One" interface with input from British football pundits Gary Lineker and Alan Hansen. The two present a Match of the Day-style programme on each Saturday of the league calendar, presented with highlights of all the major games. Lineker also handles the cup draw, announcing which teams will face each other in tournaments.

Sorting through this wealth of information on the Xbox 360 had the potential to be a real nightmare, but it's elegantly handled via the controller's four shoulder buttons. LMA's interface is elegantly designed, with information related to each category housed on the right of the screen. This means that you can compare two players or teams at the same time, and adjust their formation on the pitch without ever having to leave the same menu. Icons also replace text where possible, and the overall presentation is slicker than we've seen from any other console management game.