Well, here you have it! The first review of an EA Sports product for a couple of years. It might seem strange that a site as this hasn't reviewed EA stuff that long, but let me just tell you why. Some time before the release of Fifa 2002 I asked nicely (really!) (I'm a nice guy!) for some review code from their office in England. They politely asked me to take contact the Danish office (well, ok, - it's pretty obvious why), which I did and unfortunately ended up with this marketing coordinator - an arrogant b*st*rd - who mailed me that I should call him (which I did) and asked me to provide some information on SGH (which I did) ... and he never got back to me. I tried mailing him again (he could have forgotten me) but he never replied to my mails. How do you run a business like that? At least he could told me that they were not interested in supplying review code - that would have been too bad, but that's how it goes - instead of just ... well, doing nothing. So I decided that if that was how EA was like, I wouldn't spend my time on their products. Not good! EAs titles are some of the most brilliant and professional available today, and I must admit that I had my hopes up for this release, but I - truly - didn't think I was going to a copy ... but I did ... and damn I'm glad. They are some nice folks after all =) Well, now you know why - and you may think I'm overreacting here, but I just got so irritated over his behaviour that I did what I did. Perhaps the jokes on me, but so be it.

The first thing I noticed (I like these small new DVD-cases) was the manual. I remember having written in some review years back, that EAs manuals really wasn't manuals at all, but more some quick info on the controls, epilepsy warning, rest 5 minutes every hour (you shouldn't publish games like these, then =) etc. Not much information on the game itself or strategy considerations. This is different, in fact, I think this is one of the best and with out doubt one of the most useful I've ever read. The top 3 must be this one, Total Football Management and Director of Football. And going through the 71 (!) pages, you'll quickly notice how complicated the game engine is and how complex the game is ... - or is that can be? The game can actually be hard and very complex if the pro player chooses so, but can also be played at a (fairly) easy level if the novice manager chooses to conduct the work to others, but more of that in a second.

It's designed in typical EA style and is very similar to the FA Premier League Football Manager series, so if you've played the other games, you'll quickly find your way around Total Club Management (TCM from now on) ... and even if you haven't, you probably will as well. I write this focusing mostly on the UI, but that's not all; There's a load of helpful options you can tick on more or less every screen, which helps even the novice player to do the tasks he's missing - and saves you the trouble to go look for the same on another screen. Very well done. They are very useful and give you the choice to make decisions and delegate jobs instantly - without going through several screens. Work of a genius. It's exactly what I have been missing in a lot of other games. The menu is nice, - although it irritated me a bit in the beginning, - but it's really only a minor thing and that you don't have to push a button to open it helps a lot - so it works fine - and makes the game play flow. In other words; I'd rather have a menu like this and get rid of a huge amount of buttons.
So what I wanted to write was that the UI works great and looks nice ... and that I think it is very well balanced. It has really nice graphics without flooding your screen with images and fancy stuff. No lookie-at-me-I-know-how-to-use-this-graphics-proggie. This means a lot.

But one of the truly great things about this game is that it has all these functions, - options, possibilities, but you are not necesarily required to use them, thus making it fun for everyone. Do it yourself or delegate the job to someone else. I also like the idea of the better the trainer, scout, and manager you hire, the better results you get. Quite obvious, really. Reminds me of the legendary Premier Manager 3 and I guess I'm writing it because in TCM the results are obvious. You feel you're making a difference. You see it in your players' stats and on the pitch ... even in the 3D match.
Almost everything you do in the game has some kind of effect on your players or fan popularity. In game complexity, flexibility and player engagement it is very much comparable to Director of Football. You also have (well, if you don't delegate it, of course) merchandise sales and stadium development to think about. Even the merchandise screen is optimised, so you can acquire all goods sold last week with the click of a button. Stadium developments also have an impact on your players and fans. For example you can't just keep hiring trainers if your club facilities haven't reached a special level. Just to make you understand that the game is tied well together. The better buildings results in faster development, both youth and pro, shorter injury periods and a higher fitness. Besides a great manual, you get popup-help if you hover your mouse over something. You never feel like giving up - although it's hard enough to make all the things work together, even on the amateur level.
It's without doubt a very flexible game, you can use the editor to more or less design your own leagues, you can customize the point system, you can add images and listen to your favourite MP3 albums while you play, print posters (!) and of course it also includes a bunch of rankings and statistics. It's even funny spending an entire evening optimising your configuration, your team ... and it's really quite overwhelming. All very professional and seemingly thought-through. And there no solution to each game. It all depends on your current situation and tactics. You're on your own ... but when you (I) can get Cocu on a free transfer and on a fair salary - it helps a lot =)

You don't get bored playing TCM, because there's always something to improve: Designing your tactics (I usually fancy a one-tactic-for-all-games - but that doesn't work here, because there's too many aspects to think about; Fatigue, teamwork, morale just to mention a few) giving individual orders and so choosing how your players should play the ball (not that they always do ... bastards. =) Training is another big part of TCM and a hard one too. If you want to get the most of your players it's required that you design the training yourself, but you can also plan long-term training and forget about training for the rest of the year, but that's not optimal. You can also select pre-defined training weeks and optimise them yourself. Training is one of the hardest and most influential parts of managing a team, so I suggest you read Rockpsl76 tutorial here on the TCM forum. Mentioning the forum I can write that the site shows a very high degree of commitment from EA and the development team.

In-game match is nice. True 3D matches aren't my first priority - in fact, I'd rather do without them. The average 3D match is poorly done and only succeeds in ruining the game instead, - but (!) when it's done as nicely as this it's a bliss. It's exactly like Fifa 2002 and it's as exciting and fun as watching the game on TV. You can shout orders to your players and if you're lucky they'll hear you. I usually tap the 'D' - shoot button - all the time and perhaps this proves how exciting it is? I like it. Perhaps they should work some more on calculating the amount of spectators. I play the Danish league and the local team here is having a hard time just getting 4000 together for each match. I remember my very first game was a training match against a lower team and the stadium was sold out ... hmmm ... great for the atmosphere but if they want to do it as real as possible, there's a minor problem here and perhaps not; I've noticed that my stadium isn't top class, so perhaps it's just the smallest one available? A fatigue-bar like in Fifa 2002, would come in handy for choosing subs during the game (nevermind this, it's there, of course it is ... I just had it turned off ... doh!) . Another thing is that it would be nice to be able to conduct half-time pep-ups in 3D matches. I really like these talks and would like to utilize them in these matches as well. The text-mode match is also nice. I usually find these boring, but the amount of information displayed and the way you influence the play makes the text-mode just as interesting as the 3D one. At times, you get to be interviewed before or after a match and if you choose the correct answer the morale of your player rises (or drops if you haven't thought about your reply) or you can get lucky and increase your popularity with your fans. The questions change all the time, so there's no correct answer. I find that the more you promise and the more aggressive you answer - the better … and of course you always have to support your team and believe they win every game.

A big applause here to the Germans! Two of the best products available today are internationalizations of German games. Director of Football is the international version of Kicker and Total Club Manager is the international version of Fussballmanager 2002.

Finally I have to apologise that this review have been so long underway, but TCM is so addictive that it has paused my life for a couple of weeks. If I should decide to give the games points, it would get 9 of 10 ... and basically just because 10 would be unreachable =)
Applause now for EA who lays a giant brick in the road towards gaming utopia ... when it comes to football - EAs inevitable :-D

Buy, buy, buy (no, I don't get paid to write this =)