Championship Manager 00/01 - PC Games

This time round you can have up to 26 leagues running at one time (depending on the specs of your PC/Mac) and the wealth of tactics and options on offer are enough to test any budding Arsene Wengers or Alex Fergusons.

True, the gameplay hasn't changed much, but it's the wealth and depth of stats on offer that brings back Champ Manager fans season after season. The other secret to its continuing appeal is it offers the chance to steer your beloved Third Division no-hopers to League and Cup glory, something that most Premiership-fixated arcade football games overlook.

There are some new demands on your managerial competence: as well as the usual training, transfer market and staffing issues you now have to deal with the media, and the psychological well-being of your players is now as important as their physical health. As before the actual match is played out in text format, which sounds dull, but quickly becomes alarmingly compulsive.

Championship Manager is probably not for the casual gamer as it is impossible to just dip into, but for those footy fans who KNOW they can run a football team better than 99 percent of professional managers, it is a must. Just don't expect much of a social life over the next few months. --Michael Bartley