First look: Championship Manager 4

Eidos and Sports Interactive have today released new information pertaining to Championship Manager 4, the latest installment of their phenomenally successful series of soccer management games. The two companies recently 2895371announced that they've decided to push back the European release of the game until February 2003, but fans currently playing Championship Manager Season: 01/02 are sure to appeased by the fact that a new update patch for the game has today been made available on Sports Interactive's Web site.

"Sports Interactive is delighted to announce information regarding our forthcoming game, Championship Manager 4, and end some of the speculation of what's going to be in it. We're very excited with what will be our best game yet, with loads of features that the fans of the series have been crying out for being added, and lots of old favourites in there as well," said Miles Jacobson, managing director of Sports Interactive. "Championship Manager 4 will be the closest anyone has ever got to replicating the job of a football manager, a job that every football fan out there would love to do."

As has always been the case with the Championship Manager series, CM4 will be almost entirely text-based. The game is the first in the series to incorporate a real-time match engine though, and although it basically just consists of a 2D pitch with circles representing the players, it's a great addition to a series which, after all, has never needed flashy graphics or TV-style presentation to satisfy what is surely one of the most loyal fanbases in gaming.

Other improvements to this season's edition of CM will include options to fully customize a team's training schedule, an enhanced contract negotiation system, a more efficient network game option, and a totally skinable interface. For more information on Championship Manager 4, which Sports Interactive hopes to release in North America in the future, check out our previous coverage of the game.