''Championship Manager 3'' is a game in the ''

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 of

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 ...

s, the first in the third generation of the series. It was developed by

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 ...

and released exclusively for the PC in the spring of 1999.

Gameplay

''Championship Manager 3'' features new user interface and menu system. It primarily used a vertical menu bar on the left-hand side of the screen, as well as the traditional horizontal menu bars across the top and bottom of the screen. In addition to the new menu system, many more high-resolution background images were added; these were mostly relevant to whatever screen the player was viewing. There were many small changes and improvements to the

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 ...

, including an improved match-engine, customisable training schedules, more cup competitions from around the world, a more in-depth tactics system, realistic reserve and youth squads, and improved player scouting. One major new addition was the ability to play multiplayer games via a

local area network A local area network (LAN) is a computer network that interconnects computers within a limited area such as a residence, campus, or building, and has its network equipment and interconnects locally managed. LANs facilitate the distribution of da ...

(LAN), allowing up to 16 people to compete against each other in the same game world. This option could also be used to play over the internet. The hotseat multiplayer mode was also expanded to allow up to 16 people to play on the same machine. The database of players and staff swelled to over 25,000 for this version, again increasing the depth and realism of the game. Due to the increased player database and the massive amount of processing that the game needed to do, a multi-tasking design was used. This allowed the computer to process data in the background while still allowing the player to do things like browse around the game, search for players, and change tactics, among other things. The number of playable leagues also increased in this instalment to include league systems of fifteen nations were selectable. For the first time, playable leagues outside of Europe were included.

Reception

''Championship Manager 3'' received generally favourable reviews, and was consistently rated above 85%. ''

PC Zone ''PC Zone'', founded in 1993, was the first magazine dedicated to games for IBM-compatible personal computers to be published in the United Kingdom. Earlier PC magazines such as '' PC Leisure'', '' PC Format'' and '' PC Plus'' had covered games b ...

'' gave the game its highest rating (93%), praising the depth of its database and its ease of use, although it was marked down for its slow running speed on older hardware. The game was a hit in the United Kingdom having sold 170,000 copies.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Championship Manager 03 1999 video games Association football management video games Championship Manager Eidos Interactive games Multiplayer and single-player video games Multiplayer hotseat games Video game sequels Video games developed in the United Kingdom Windows games Windows-only games