LMA Manager 2001: the PlayStation’s best-selling football management game comes home.

Codemasters’ acclaimed football management game has been in training and is preparing to become the new season’s star player. As the sequel to last year’s number one best seller, LMA Manager 2001 kicks off in November and promises to be “the best football management game ever devised”.

Now as other game designers play catch up to the record-breaking 250,000-selling cup holder, Codemasters’ LMA team has innovated and is busy finishing LMA Manager 2001.

As last year, LMA Manager 2001 will score by being the first football management to accurately detail all the new 00/01 season’s player data and statistics. However, the game itself is much more than just an annual update of information. 

Taking wannabe-Keegans beyond the English-only clubs of the original game, LMA Manager 2001 allows you to manage a club in either the Scottish or the English professional leagues and the competitions include the leagues, domestic cups and both European cups.

With hundreds of clubs across 32 countries, over 300 stadiums across Europe and 8000+ authentic players, complete with home, away and goalkeeper strips, LMA Manager 2001’s team tactics, training and match AI have been completely re-designed providing the most realistic and controllable football management simulation to date.

With a new clean contemporary look for the statistic screens, the new visual style extends to the action screens presented in the style of an interactive TV channel, making the game instantly accessible and enthralling. Screen navigation is as easy as ever: LMA Manager 2001 retains the popular Shoulder Icon Navigation System™, ensuring no management screen is more than two button-presses away.

The acclaimed realistic 3D match action has been enhanced to provide an even more dynamic recreation of a match in progress. In the original, players had the opportunity to make substitutions at any time, now LMA Manager 2001 delivers much more control and options without seeming any more complicated. 

Management aficionados can utilise a new feature that enables them to interact in real-time with the match in play using 'Dugout Tactics'. This uses the controller shoulder buttons to make instant temporary changes to your team tactics and is just like a manager shouting new instructions from the sidelines or dugout.

This, and the ability to view accurate and detailed highlights, gives the user a level of match control and feedback that was not even achieved in the original game.

Team tactics are an important part of LMA Manager 2001 and players can control a variety of team tactics including: the formation, how deep or how pressing a defence to play, how much of team focus is on defence or attack, whether the passing style leans more towards long or short ball, how patient or direct teams are when attacking, how the ball is distributed from central to wing play and of course the counter-attack style. 

Managers also have more control over their players’ training regimes than in the original game where gamers could only train players in their individual skills. For LMA Manager 2001 managers can balance the training schedule between skills, fitness, teamwork and rest. 

Each player’s skills can be honed by assigning them to training exercises such as five-a-side, box work, one-on-one, and crossing. Furthermore, if a manager drastically changes their team tactics, their team will not perform at their best immediately. A new style of team training will be required in order to practice the new tactics. For newcomers, training can always be assigned to the team’s head coach who will sort it out. 

A favourite feature of the original was the Challenges and they’re back in LMA Manager 2001. For example, one of the new challenges, called Fantasy Team, pitches the player at the beginning of the season with a fixed sum of money to purchase a squad from any of the European players in the game. During the season the transfer market is not available yet you have just one season to win the Premiership. 

LMA Manager 2001 is packed with detail and options and the development team is confident they’re creating a game way beyond even the biggest management fan’s expectations. LMA Manager 2001 is scheduled to launch exclusively on PlayStation™ on November 17.

ENDS

NOTES

A PlayStation 2™ edition of LMA Manager 2001 is being developed and scheduled for release for Easter 2001. For more information, see the “PlayStation 2™ to get Music and LMA Manager 2001, Codemasters’ genre-dominant gaming brands” news release.

UK PRESS INFORMATION

Richard Eddy or Ben Le Rougetel
Rocket Media - London
Tel:	0207 437 6100 
Fax: 	0207 437 6200
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PRESS WEB SITE

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CODEMASTERS WEB SITE

•	www.codemasters.com

| Notes to Editors:
Established in 1986, Codemasters is a leading developer and publisher of best-selling interactive entertainment products for a global audience on current and future gaming platforms and channels. This has been quite a year for Codemasters. The company is the winner of Queen’s Award For Enterprise in the Innovation category and was featured in the Sunday Times’ Fast Track taking the number two position for the highest annual profit growth at 118.97%. Furthermore, the Central Region’s Entrepreneur of The Year 2000 awards saw David Darling, Founder and Chief Executive of Codemasters, scoop both the “Overall Entrepreneur of the Year” and “Young Entrepreneur Of The Year” awards. Codemasters’ genre-leading brands include Colin McRae Rally, Touring Cars, Micro Machines/Maniacs, and LMA Manager. With an annual turnover in excess of $100 million, the company is headquartered in Southam, Warwickshire, UK where it employs over 400 staff, and maintains European operations in Germany, France, Spain, Benelux and plans to set up operations in Scandinavia. The company entered the US publishing market in 1999 and has an online gaming US-based development facility in Oakhurst, CA. More information about the company and its products is available online at www.codemasters.com.