Total Club Manager 2004

"This game compares to CM4 as Leicester city to Arsenal!"

Total Club Manager 2004 (I'll just say TCM further on) is the main rival of Championship Manager 4 (named CM further on). There aren't much other good soccer managing games, so I'll compare these two in this review. Not on every point, but at the end.

Alright, first of I'll check TCM on its own. Is this a good game, when I'm not talking about CM4. Well, I was quite disappointed.

Let's say this: TCM has a lot of good options. Build a stadium, get sponsors, get players...it's all there. Especially the stadium building has been done very nice. Furthermore, TCM has a good database.

But there is a major flaw in that database. I'm Dutch, so i started with the Dutch league. I selected FC Utrecht, an average team in the Dutch Premier League. I decided to invite some low ranked English teams for friendlies...and i was stunned by how strong they were! Even the Dutch champion PSV receives a lower rating then the Wolverhampton Wanderers or Leicester City!!! Quite unrealistic, if you'll ask me.

Besides, when compared to CM, there is another thing i dislike. The fact that you see the players rating on every position annoys me. At CM, you'll have to find out more for yourself to find the best possible line-up.

Then, TCM has of course it's match engine. It looks nice...but it is not! When playing with this, you can partially control your players. But they just give away the ball! They just cant play well then!

So i decided to stick with the text mode. And there, the matches were played quite well. No big deal there.

A funny thing is that you, the manager, can energise the crowd, shout comments to the referee and your players...all things can influence the match. Very nice done.

Another nice thing is the private life of your manager. Get a wife, buy boats, cars and houses, go to the stock market...very fun to do.

The sound is also very nice done. You can put on your own music since there are few songs on the game itself, and the match sounds are quite nice. Some more music would have been nice, though.

Well, on to the conclusion. TCM is definetely not a bad game. However, the strange data base messes up a lot. Besides, when compared to the king CM, TCM is not good enough. Please do me a favour and buy CM instead of this one, unless you really want to do football fusion and play the matches on that weak game Fifa 2004. TCM is not bad, but if CM is Arsenal, then this is Leicester! (no offense Leicester fans!!!)

Graphics : For a football manager this is quite nice : 8
Sound : Too bad for the lack of original music : 6
Gameplay : Quite OK : 7
Database : Very important for a football manager, and this isnt right! : 5
Options : The usual stuff and some nice extras : 7

Since the database is the most important in a football manager (no good database = no realistic game) this game doesn't get a 7, but a mere 6. I'd give it a 6+ though, since it isn't THAT bad at all.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 06/24/04