Eidos unveils ChampMan 2006

Eidos' Championship Manager will return in spring 2006 on PC, the publisher announced this week, building on its efforts earlier this year with CM5.

Called Championship Manager 2006, it's in development at Beautiful Game Studios, and Eidos has announced a raft of new features.

First of all there's the Gameplan 3d match engine, allowing you to watch games unfold like they do on TV, except with slightly more tactical input than simply cursing Sven's name every time he makes a substitution.

There's also a Highlight Filter so that if you prefer you can simply select the moments you'd like to watch.

Behind the scenes, you'll be able to scout for players outside the country you're managing in thanks to a Simulate World option, and also study your opposition's current form.

Managers can also monitor the moods and form of every player individually, and talk to them to try and gain their trust and improve their performance - although broken promises will lead to mishaps, Eidos warns.

Another way to build up players will be to make use of the fitness regimes devised by Charlton Athletic's first team coach Mervyn Day.

Finally, there's talk of an option that allows you to seek out a Club Benefactor for a substantial cash injection, but, if you go for this, you'll need to be a lot more successful a lot more quickly to remain in his favour.

We'll have more on CM 2006 closer to its release.