I have had the pleasure of playing a lot of football management simulations over the years and consider myself an expert in this particular field. The Football Manager series is by far my favourite, because at this moment it truly is the best football management simulation out there. In the past I have enjoyed the Premier Manager series though, with it's often arcade-like playability. So, here I am reviewing Premier Manager 08 - can it get that all-important European spot to ensure qualification for another instalment? Let's find out.

One thing I like to find within a management simulation is something new and interesting; something that, when you think about what should be in a football management simulation, falls under the heading of "extras". For example, FIFA Manager had players breaking legs after strolling the catwalk the night before. Ultimate Football Manager allowed you to try to cheat the Inland Revenue by hiding certain profits, thus saving tax. It also gave you the chance to manage a big team such as Liverpool in the 4th tier of football, but with the players retaining their stats, so you were giving teams beatings every week. I remember Ian Rush scoring over 100 league goals in one season! One of my long-time favourites is the Player Manager games - I can't remember which edition it was - but at Christmas the music and screen would get all Christmassy. Premier Manager 08 too offers something a little different.

The Championship Manager and Football Manager games are the league leaders when it comes to football managers, but the Premier Manager games offer less simulation and more of an arcade style interface. The box states that it's an "easy pick up play game", which is a fair description. There are only half a dozen or so leagues to choose from, including England, Scotland, Spain, France, Germany and Italy. Some 400 club teams are included, which is very small compared to the Behemoth of football sims that is Sega's Football Manager. The lack of teams presents a problem for the developers though, because some fan favourites would then be unavailable to buy. This is where the game becomes a little too extravagant! I first noticed it when I came up against Middlesbrough; my Man Utd team went 2-0 up, then guess who appeared and scored a trademark free kick for the opposition? David Beckham! You see, Middlesbrough had bought him on a free transfer, as any players that play for a club that's not featured in the game can be recruited in this fashion. So you can buy Beckham, Okocha and so on for free. Another negative point I have towards the transfer system is that some of the buying between clubs is laughable; I mean, if Real Madrid ever sold Iker Casillas to Barcelona or if Liverpool sold Steven Gerrard to Man Utd there would be bloodshed on the streets! But it happens here without anyone batting an eyelid.

The manager screen is very easy to navigate and you're usually no more than two clicks from where you want to be. You can click on the icons for physio, coach, chairman and so on, or use the spacebar to navigate. The graphics here are reasonable enough, with a fair bit of colour. Event alerts and news bulletins appear, which while not original are well presented. The usual media/player interaction is available too, but the way that Premier Manager showcases it makes it feel more friendly and involving.

There are a few interesting improvements from the last edition, such as the leveling up system, which has eight levels. In the past, if you had the money then you could go and buy whatever you wanted, but now, if you're a level four character then the game doesn't let you do anything above level four. You've got to work for it; basically it's a reward system. Every so often, your character levels up due to his experience and a message appears to inform you that you've unlocked a new training centre or something else that's better than what you already have. You can only build certain training and medical centres if your physio and coach have the corresponding level and while you're playing your team members' statistics increase.

One area of the game that makes it different from its rivals is that your staff have well presented and deep personalities. With every character, whether a scout, a player, a trainer or a physio, there's a strong base persona with a range of characteristics consisting of perception, willpower, memory, intelligence and charisma, plus players have others such as shooting, tackling and so on. In practice, this means that, for example, the better the physio is with your players, the quicker they return from injury. However, in my experience my coach kept telling me that my players hated my physio, even though I changed him ten times! One clever emotional tug mechanism is when you sack a member of staff; they actually appear and ask you to reconsider.

The football itself however lacks depth. Standard formations can be changed, with attacking, normal or defensive available as options. You can't customise them though, and when you're playing 4-2-4 and your coach is telling you to be more aggressive, this will frustrate. The players themselves only present one position they can play, so you have no idea how someone will fare if you change the role of a centre midfielder to a defensive position. For example, I had two attacking centre midfielder positions but I wanted play Hargreaves, who is listed as a defensive midfielder. I couldn't tell if that could work or not, so I had to just roll with it (get it? Manchester player, Oasis song, Manchester band? Oh never mind, clearly my humour is wasted on you!)

The actual match play is average; it uses a similar match engine system to Football Manager, with dots for players, although the dots are absolutely huge. You can't skip games, which is a little annoying. Your coach appears every now and again to give you information on how players are doing, but there is a flaw in this, because my entire team were getting 10 out of 10 and my coach kept on appearing to say that Vidic is having a great game, yet Ferdinand wass the reason we were winning. Imagine this for every player and it does grate after a while - but you can turn this off.

You can choose to watch the match itself or take a look at the stats and latest scores. However, this is where the arcade parts go a little stupid - I mean, when do Blackburn ever beat a team 8-4? Yet this happens regularly and there's usually at least one 7-1 win for someone in the league. It is not even beyond comprehension to have two to three players in your team scoring forty or more goals in a season. The amount of times I saw Adriano score five goals in one game was unbelievable. Also I managed to have forty-five shots in one match; I must be a good a trainer! Needless to say, this doesn't help to instill a feeling of realism. The sound in the match sections is good, while the graphics are average but well presented nonetheless.

I have a few more grips too - in other football management games, the option to start the match is available at the match screen, but here you need to go to match options first before starting and stopping the game, which is just a little inefficient for my tastes - I don't know why there isn't just an icon to start the match. There's also no international mode - if you win everything you become England Manager, but then that's basically the end. There doesn't seem to be a player search facility either; you can get your coach to find players and you can go to teams to look at players, but this is time consuming. In Football Manager, every name or club is clickable but here that's not the case. There are a lot of players missing from teams too; take a look at today's Man City team and compare it to the Premier Manager 08 Man City team and you will see what I'm talking about.

Premier Manager 08 is above average gaming that's easy on the eye and even easier on the brain. This game is ideal to have running alongside something else you're working at, because not much effort is needed. It's not going to convert any Football Manager or Championship Manager fans and it doesn't have the stats power or range of either title, but if you like management games then you should enjoy what it has to offer, and it's the ideal game for newcomers to the genre. In football terms, it's got the talent but the work ethic is needed; hopefully some more depth will appear in the next edition.

Reviewed by Christopher McNally for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).