So, with Football Manager already ruling the roost on PC and Sony PSP, it's now making a bid for Xbox 360 domination. Being a huge fan of the PC version (almost verging on an obsession) and less enamoured by the more recent and painfully basic PSP offering, would Football Manager on the 360 really impress me enough to think about ditching the PC and playing it on my bedside telly?

Before I'd even started, I made the mistake of not reading the front of the box properly; it specifies that a hard drive is required to play the game, and seeing as Microsoft screwed me on Day One, I only had a core system with none of the frills. To this day, I still find it reprehensible that Microsoft released a core system in the first place. They claimed it was to make the console more affordable for people who couldn't afford the full whammy and then they go and release very few deluxe systems and flood the market with the core ones, so people like me have to fork out an extra £100 to £200 to try and bump up their core systems to the real deal. To put it simply, Microsoft need to get their house in order, as this kind of behaviour is only going to turn people off buying into their Xbox brand. [I have to say, I'm with Ross on this one - I'm all for them getting a jump on front runner Sony, but all the problems caused to developers who have to create games without relying on the presence of a hard drive really is a bad move. Still, as the saying goes, all publicity is good publicity… Ed].

Anyway, the rant would end here but there's more. I say that I didn't check the front of the box, but I did check the back and noticed a note that only 60MB is required for a save game for Football Manager on the 360. So I nipped down to GAME and bought myself one of the memory cards, which purportedly holds up to 64MB of data. So I'm thinking, awesome, I'll be managing Aberdeen to the title in no time, only to find that when I boot up the system it tells me that my new, fully formatted memory card can only hold up to 51MB of date. I called a friend and he'd had the same problem, so I ask Microsoft, where has this 13MB of data gone from my memory card and why oh why do they sell a 64MB card that only holds 51MB? Again, Microsoft, sort yourselves out, because you can be sure that Sony are taking notes; big, huge copious notes that will ensure they don't screw up as many times as you have. [As much as I love Microsoft for bringing us Xbox and now Xbox 360, I have to admit that he's right, folks. Ed].

Now I can safely say, rant over. Football Manager was in my 360 disk drive, so I turned it on. Instantly, even on my HDTV, the opening menu screen looked woefully short of even the PSP version. The font size is overly huge and the menu isn't helped by poor controls, as you find yourself trying to start a new game and then being popped back to the options screen because you've pressed the wrong button. Once you do finally get through, there's a rather nasty surprise in that you can only play four leagues at one time, whereas on the PC version you can select as many damn leagues as you like. Even when you're selecting the leagues, it's still possible to lose yourself in the rabbit warren of sub-menus that keep confusing things in the game.

Rather than providing you with a cursor to move around the game, Sports Interactive have decided to map common commands onto each section of the joypad. So, when you want to continue the game, instead of pressing the A button, which you would expect, for some reason you have to click in the right thumbstick. Whether you want to scroll through your team or choose your match tactics, there's just no level on consistency in the controls, which makes playing the game extremely infuriating and could potentially put people off within thirty minutes of booting it up. Despite being a huge fan of the franchise, I found myself totally exasperated and shocked that Sports Interactive could release something so appalling to play. I guess the best way to explain is to illustrate how screwed up it is. If you're viewing a screen in a game, clicking the left trigger takes you back to the previous page you were viewing, right trigger takes you forward to the one you may have clicked away from, or clicking the two bumper buttons brings up a variety of intricate sub-menus that herald the onslaught of even more screens and random little sub-menus. In short, it's a complete and utter shambles.

Add to this the fact that all the face buttons don't do one job but are completely context sensitive and you've got even more on your plate. For example, if you're viewing an individual player's profile, the B button shows you their national squad page, whereas if you're viewing your whole squad it takes you to the players' wages screen. The problem is that this isn't something that's very intuitive, meaning that you can play the game for several hours without even knowing how to access most of the screens, resulting in you getting nothing out of them. There is an in-game help system that provides plenty of info, but trying to use it with the directional pad is a similarly fiddly endeavour and makes you think, if you were going to make it this hard to navigate the 360 version, you could have at least bothered to include an extensive game tutorial! We can only hope that Microsoft will once and for all release a mouse for the 360 so that next year's Football Manager can be a whole lot better.

Once you've worked out the control issues, which will take some time, you'll find that the game is almost as good as the PC original. It's definitely as fast as the PC version and has all the options you would expect of a Football Manager title, from buying new players to picking your intricate team tactics on match day. There is, however, a strange tendency for the odd delay to come along and you could find yourself staring into space until the Xbox stops processing - although these instances occur pretty infrequently. One of the huge differences between this and the PC version is the presentation. On the Xbox 360, the menu screens look oversized and very clunky, retaining none of the polish of the PC version. Even on HDTV the 360 doesn't recognise that there's a larger TV screen on offer, so the fonts look even larger and more ridiculous. Granted, the game was probably designed to be played on even the worst and smallest TVs, but it would be good to be rewarded for playing it on something a bit more special. As with the PC version, there's also very limited sound besides the odd cheer when you view your team playing; this game has never been about sound though so it's not an issue.

Probably the best thing about playing this game on the 360 is the huge ream of Achievements the game offers. There are tons of ways to score your Achievement points, ranging from winning a match and getting a clean sheet to even more special feats like buying a £30m player or winning the European Cup. If you complete them all you can expect to gain the maximum 1000 Achievement points, which will help to make you stand way out in front of your Xbox Live Friends and competitors. Speaking of Xbox Live, the game offers different modes of play, such as basic league and cup competitions that can be played by up to 16 players. Playing exactly the same as single player matches, the huge benefit is that you can hurl abuse at your opposite number via the headphones as the match ensues! It can be very frustrating if you get stuck playing someone who's a stickler for tactics however, as they can pause the action at any time they like to make tactic changes to their team. A little bit of abuse tends to speed them up!

On the whole, I had a reasonable time with Football Manager 2006 for the Xbox 360, which is sadly let down by the woeful game interface and the miserable presentation of the game. What has to be admired however is that the game really does try to stick as close to the PC version as possible and, for the most part, it does succeed. Pretty much everything you can do on the PC version you can do on the 360, provided you can find the relevant menu screen! This will truly be a great game once Microsoft release a mouse for the Xbox 360, but until that time, if you do have a PC, play Football Manager on that instead. All in all this is a huge step forward for console management simulations, hampered only by the limitations of a console controller.

Reviewed by Ross Alexander for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).