Alex Ferguson's Player Manager 2001 review

Football is a funny game, you either love it or you hate it and therefore football management games are aimed at a select few. Those who wish to experience the joys of taking their favourite team to the very top (unless they play in other country), where they belong of course, will love management games. Alex Ferguson's Player Manager 2001 was originally titled Player Manager 2001 until 3DO splashed out on a big name endorsement and who better than the sour faced Scotsman? The game continues a series that started with Player Manager, one of the first football management games for the playstation but unfortunately one of the worst as well. So, does the latest version mark a dramatic improvement or the usual big name, no substance style of gaming that dominates the sporting genre?As I am the master football manager of the Gamestyle team it was best that I take a look at Anco's latest thanks to 3DO. I can recall spending a great deal of the with the initial playstation offering and despite its faults, of which there were many, I enjoyed the management game even though it was poor. The game offers you the chance to be a player manager or just a manager of any English team from the Conference upwards. As a fan of the Scotland's finest (Raith Rovers) I have to ask myself why the Scottish teams were not included in this option? The teams are already there as you can buy players from the Scottish game and the lack of such an option limits the games appeal over the border and hands the advantage to LMA. Still, perhaps the developer knows that as the first and only football management game on the PS2 to date, competition isn't a factor yet.Everything from the English game is included here; cups, European events and dodgy referees are all part of the package. As all the proper names are included and the rosters are bang up to date, it does give the game a realistic feel. I cannot say the same for the kit's as one week your team will be playing in red, the following week in green - very confusing and very unnecessary. The game options are all nice and standard but lack atmosphere. You have three options to view a match when managing your team and only one offers crowd noise but unfortunately this is the worst one for managing! Selecting watch will present you with the most boring football game of your life, badly animated players, complete with the same movement running as if they and the ball were stuck in mud. Each player is rated on a variety of statistics from 1-100 but watching them play, it's hard to notice any difference. Watch in amazement as your keep freezes for no reason allowing the opposition to score easily or your players run through goal nets as if they weren't there. The least said about the player manager option the better; frankly a poor attempt to combine ISS/FIFA with an in-depth management option fails badly. The game in its database offers over 850 teams and 10,000 players therefore the depth and opportunities in the transfer market are enormous. Unlike other management games the ratings of the players and therefore prices are purely fantasy. I know for a fact that Championship Manager make a point of contacting fans of every team to make sure that their statistics and data is up to date. If it was the developer's intention to provide laughs, then they have succeeded. The nature of transfers is pretty straightforward compared to other management games as they offer little competition or negotiation. The interface used to find players is badly designed, as you are limited to trawling through menus, scanning the listings looking for those ex-Rovers players. You have a whole range of options regarding training, staff and finance but nothing original to offer Alex Ferguson's Player Manager an identity of its own. Sir Alex will give you your rating at the end of the season, such as 90%; I couldn't have done it better myself. That was a glorious season and you deserve enormous credit for all the hard work you've put into it. Beat you anytime mate.Alex Ferguson's Player Manager continues the style set by its predecessor and uses menus with a pointed arrow as cursor. For some this is the best way and it certainly is on the PC but with the analogue sticks available, surely these could have been used? The presentation of the game is fairly bland and frankly cheap, it ignores the modern look of Codemasters LMA series and instead offers nothing new. Menus after menus with no music, nice visuals or movement will test the hardcore management fans to the limit. Lots of pauses for the loading to take place will not help matters either. One of the fundamental problems with the game is that it offers little challenge to any respectable football management fan. In my first season I managed to win the Premiership and led the way from the first game of the season right till the very end. When you consider that I did not even need to change my tactics once, this underlines the lack of decent AI and that the depth is purely superficial. Unless I'm that good, which I am of course, but it is no challenge and for 39.99 you expect one.Overall Alex Ferguson's Player Manager is a huge disappointment and apart from the necessary changes it's exactly the same as the playstation version, complete with problems. It is the best football management game on the PS2 simply because it is the only one. I can only suggest that you do yourself a favour and buy the last instalment of LMA instead and use the backwards compatibility of your machine.