''Championship Manager 2'' is a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

management

simulation video game Simulation video games are a diverse super-category of video games, generally designed to closely simulate real world activities. A simulation game attempts to copy various activities from real life in the form of a game for various purposes such ...

in the

Sports Interactive Sports Interactive Limited is a British video game developer based in London, best known for the ''Football Manager'' series. Founded by brothers Collyer brothers (game designers), Oliver and Paul Collyer in July 1994, the studio was acquired in ...

's ''

Championship Manager ''Championship Manager'' is a series of football management simulation video games, the first of which was released in 1992. The ''Championship Manager'' brand and game was conceived by brothers Paul and Oliver Collyer. In a scenario typical of ...

'' series. It was released in September 1995 for PC. An

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers produced by Commodore International, Commodore from 1985 until the company's bankruptcy in 1994, with production by others afterward. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16-b ...

version was released in 1997.

New features

''Championship Manager 2'' introduced a far better quality of graphics compared to previous versions. The game included

SVGA Super VGA (SVGA) or Extended VGA is a broad term that covers a wide range of computer display standards that extended IBM's Video Graphics Array, VGA specification. When used as shorthand for a resolution, as VGA and XGA often are, SVGA refers to ...

graphics and

photorealistic Photorealism is a genre of art that encompasses painting, drawing and other graphic media, in which an artist studies a photograph and then attempts to reproduce the image as realistically as possible in another medium. Although the term can b ...

background pictures, but the most notable new feature was the audio commentary engine. In addition to the traditional text-based match commentary, there was optional voice commentary on

CD-ROM A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains computer data storage, data computers can read, but not write or erase. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold b ...

, provided by famous

British football Football is the most popular sport in the United Kingdom. Football is organised on a separate basis in each of the four constituent countries, England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, that make up the United Kingdom (UK), with each having a ...

commentator

Clive Tyldesley Clive Tyldesley (born 21 August 1954) is an English television sports broadcaster. He was ITV's senior football commentator from 1998 until 2020. In that role, he led the ITV commentary team at five World Cups and five European Championships an ...

. The game greatly expanded the number of statistics and tactical possibilities, and made transfers and contract negotiations more realistic, with the Bosman ruling included in future updates. Another milestone was the inclusion of playable Scottish leagues, albeit only in the PC version. For the first time in the series, there was a selection of leagues to choose from at the start of the game. However, it could only be one run at a time.

Gameplay

In terms of the underlying

gameplay Gameplay is the specific way in which players interact with a game. The term applies to both video games and Tabletop game, tabletop games. Gameplay is the connection between the player and the game, the player's overcoming of challenges, and t ...

, not a great deal had been changed since the original ''Championship Manager''. The look and feel had been improved, but was still very much a

text-based In computing, text-based user interfaces (TUI) (alternately terminal user interfaces, to reflect a dependence upon the properties of computer terminals and not just text), is a retronym describing a type of user interface (UI) common as an ear ...

and menu-driven game, and the

user interface In the industrial design field of human–computer interaction, a user interface (UI) is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. The goal of this interaction is to allow effective operation and control of the machine fro ...

was almost identical to previous games, albeit at a much higher resolution.

Versions

Two new versions of ''Championship Manager 2'' were later released allowing users to play leagues from across Europe. One version contained the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

, Belgian, and

Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

leagues, and the other contained

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

, and

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

leagues. Only one league could be run at a time, but was still a big milestone for the series and signalled the intent of Sports Interactive to expand the ''Championship Manager'' universe across the globe. The Amiga port was developed by Sterling Games. The Amiga version did not include all the features of the PC version, such as the Scottish League, international management, and player histories and backgrounds. Furthermore, it could not be installed to a

hard drive A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating hard disk drive platter, pla ...

Reception

The new game brought critical reviews including 49% from ''

PC Gamer ''PC Gamer'' is a magazine and website founded in the United Kingdom in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future plc. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games m ...

'' urging the series to "stop plastering its face with make-up" and "allow itself to be led quietly off to the old people's home, where it will be remembered kindly".

References

External links

Official Championship Manager website
. * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Championship Manager 02 1995 video games Amiga games Domark games Eidos Interactive games Multiplayer hotseat games Video game sequels Windows games Association football management video games Video games developed in the United Kingdom Multiplayer and single-player video games