EA have done a pretty good job this year with FIFA 2005 but can it do the same when it comes to it's bigger brother Total Club Manager 2005? When it comes to actually playing football on a console can a game that is very closely linked with it's little brother FIFA, command more from a football fan than just playing the game?

It's hard to imagine any football management sim competing against the so-called "godfather" Championship Manager, a game that has been around a lot longer than a few of us and is still going strong. TCM 2004 was the first outing for EA's new football management game. Can TCM 2005 improve on that?

Gameplay:

I've personally spent quite some time playing TCM2004 and tended to ignore the like-for-like LMA Manager series that Codemasters have been developing along side this title; so it'll probably make me quite biased in some way or another but lets not forget that core principals in any football management game.

You control player contracts, staff contracts, whole stadiums, advertising, ticket sales, the lot. Each does the job the same but one game seems to do it in more, let's say "style" than the other. If you've played the 2004 version you'd probably be a little bewildered by the revised navigation of the game. In the 2004 version, you had to skillfully use both left and right triggers and the white and the black button to individually navigate around the game. While this sounds quite messy it is in fact very easy to pick up on after a while. However, in TCM2005 the whole navigation is handled by the "X" button and navigation left and right happens within.

Not that i'll really want to ramble on about what buttons are pushed but EA's choice of changing the way that the 2004 game "felt" into the all new 2005 seem a lot more cumbersome and slow. It's got stat's as well. Lot's of them, in fact more of them than before. EA have revised a way that you can view each and every player, for example it's now even easier to view the entire stats of every player with a simple press of the button whereas in the last version, if you needed to view the status of you're star striker's contract, you'd have to navigate to another area of the game.

If you've played the last version, you might at quite a few points have a sense of de-je-vu. One of TCM's added extra's in the 2004 version was the pre and post match press interviews where you're asked a journalistic style question and were then given several manager style answers to choose from. Each answer has different effects to your own (and other) team's morale. Well the feature returns here in the 2005 version with exactly the same questions and the same multiple choice questions. Nothing new here I guess.

As with the last version, EA's "Football Fusion" option, where you can simply save you're game at the next fixture, pop in FIFA 2005 and load up the last save game from TCM, is still here and still going strong. In a lot of ways, this option can enable you to play every single TCM game via FIFA but the time it actually takes you to save, swap disks, load, play, save, and swap disks once more takes a hell of a lot of time and at the time you'd probably rather play football.

Graphics:

One of the biggest selling points of TCM2005 is the watch able 3D match scenario. Playing the next league opponent now offers you to watch the whole game in real-time. Based on a much new and polished 3D graphics engine, the whole game is watch able in real-time while stats such as percentage of play, and player fitness are all on the same screen.

This is one of the games better talents. Being able to review your entire teams status and watch the game live at the same time is extremely compelling and works very well. So well in fact, you'd be tempted to watch the whole match rather than opt out on the lazy player's option of a "Quick Result".

Is you're center midfielder looking like Stevie Wonder during rush-hour traffic? A glance to the left show's that he's had enough and needs to be replaced straight away. While everything generally revolves around the initial menu system where all options and decisions are based, the game represents itself in a lot more professional manner and the whole graphical look of the game looks more evolved.

Sound:

Well there's not much to say about sounds during the game. The crowd chant your anthem, the commentators during a 3D match start to sound repetitive after a while but do their job extremely well none the least, and time to time you will hear the referee's whistle being blown.

The in-game navigation sound effects however seem to be too "in-your-face" for the casual gamer. When first impressions count, I couldn't help being annoyed by EA's choice of sound affects that happen every time you navigated the game's menu system. It's as if every time you want to check out your youth team's progress via the navigation window, it's as if EA are trying to shout as loud as they can: "You're playing Total Club Manager, and you just pressed a button!"

Longevity:

Here's where this game goes up another gear. While you'll still be impressed by the new 3D match system and dug-out commands you can shout to your players for a long time to come. There's always the challenge of taking command of you're favored lower team club and spending hours upon hours trying to become Premiership champions one day. That's the biggest battle.

Picking a team to manage like Manchester Utd can prove tough in it's own ways. The star players that make the club as it is today may not be round long in the future so it's up to you to pick out better or equal players from the transfer window to either replace said player or either join them on the pitch. Don't forget your youth team as well. If you hired a good enough youth team coach, he'll be able to weed out the next Wayne Rooney from one of your 13 year old strikers. It's up to you to take the gamble whether you want to offer him a contract or not.

With so much decisions and variables like that, you'll be managing your team for some time, quite a long time in fact. You can't just play game after game and hope your team does well, you have to concentrate all of your managerial skills into running every aspect of the club, all the time. You'll find you're self checking every option such as contracts, player health, advertising, transfer market etc constantly between league games. Once you get into the game, doing this will be like a religion.

OK, it's not an entirely new game (something which EA have yet to master). It's hard not to compare this game to the version before it, but if you've never played or heard of Total Club Manager then it's probably best you read our 2004 review here before making your own mind up. It's kind of like buying a "facelift" model car. You get the same engine, the same ride and performance, but the front bumper is slightly different and you get better seats and a 6 disc CD-player. Oh, and fog lights as standard across all the range!

To be honest, it seems EA have listened to the hardcore "footy" gamer and produced what they wanted from this type of game. EA have done a good job with TCM2005. If anyone felt that the last version was "soft" when it came to management sims, will be surprised with the 2005 model. It's more compelling and more involved than the last version and somehow draws you into every aspect of football manger's duties more than the last one did. It's just a shame they didn't throw in a set of car mats for free