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''Premier Manager 2000'' is a soccer management simulation game, for
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. It was released only in
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in 2000 and was developed by Infogrames Sheffield House and published by
Infogrames Atari SA (formerly Infogrames Entertainment SA) is a French video game holding company headquartered in Paris. Its subsidiaries include Atari Interactive#Infogrames subsidiary, Atari Interactive and Atari, Inc. (1993–present), Atari, Inc. It ...
. It is part of the ''Premier Manager'' series.


Gameplay

''Premier Manager 2000'' is a football management simulation game that puts the player in charge of a team of their choice from the top four English divisions (
Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...
to the third division, as it was known at the time) or the top two Italian, German, French and Spanish leagues. The player must manage the team's tactics, formations and training. The player must also manage the financial side of running a football club including choosing the team sponsors, upgrading or building new stadia and undertaking wage negotiations with players. The game features brief pre-rendered 3D animations which trigger during certain in-game events such as players retiring or the construction of new stadia. Match highlights are presented in full 3D, with commentary provided by
Barry Davies Barry George Davies MBE (born 24 October 1937) is an English retired sports commentator and television presenter. He covered a wide range of sports in a long career, primarily for the BBC. Although best known for his football commentary, Dav ...
. Alternatively, players can choose to watch a simple text commentary describing the action. The game supports use of the PlayStation Mouse and up to four players using the
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accessory.


Development

Following the acquisition of
Gremlin Interactive Gremlin Graphics Software Limited, later Gremlin Interactive Limited and ultimately Infogrames Studios Limited was a British software house based in Sheffield, working mostly in the home computer market. Like many software houses established in ...
by Infogrames in 1999, development of the series shifted in-house to Infogrames Sheffield House from
Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), an ...
-based company Dinamic Multimedia, who had developed the ''Premier Manager'' series since its '''97'' release. The 3D highlights provided in-game utilise Gremlin's '' Actua Soccer 3''
engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power ...
.


Reception

The title received mixed reviews, with critics praising its simple user interface and 'pick up and play' gameplay, but with others arguing that the gameplay was little changed from the previous game in the series ('' Premier Manager: Ninety Nine)'' and pointing to the relative strength of competitors on the console such as '' LMA Manager''. '' CVGs Maura Sutton wrote that the game "rapidly dissolves into a tedious mixture of text and repetitive churning through various screens" and criticised the "clunky and awkward" control system, awarding a score of just 2/5. ''Total Station'''s Lee Barrass praised the game's "friendly interface and a wealth of statistics that would keep even the hardest of
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happy", but argued that "for sheer gameplay...you may have to look elsewhere in an overcrowded market" of football management games on the console. Writing in ''Extreme PlayStation'' magazine Kendall Lacey gave a score of 85%, describing it as an "interesting and fulfilling challenge" for players who were willing to "put in some serious hours" and wrestle with the full depth of the game's options. '' Official PlayStation Magazine'' gave the game a score of 6/10, commenting that "despite its face-lift ompared to ''Premier Manager: Ninety Nine''it remains old skool" and "not smart enough to tackle ''LMA Manage''r". However, the same magazine would later place the title at number 24 in its list of the "Best Sports Games Ever" on the PlayStation console.


References

{{reflist 2000 video games Europe-exclusive video games PlayStation (console) games Association football management video games Video games developed in the United Kingdom Infogrames games