When even the yearly offer to play an updated version of Football Manager starts to become less appealing, you can't help but feel sorry for the competitors that follow its path.

For the last year or two, Championship Manager has been throwing a fair few innovations in the direction of the football management genre, but has nonetheless been tripped up by its failure to come anywhere near its rival when it comes to stringing a strong and fair match engine together. So while we've had the likes of ProZone analysis built into the game - which makes a return appearance here - it's hardly been the compelling call to switch franchises that Championship Manager needs.

Championship Manager 2008 isn't that rallying call either, although again, it does have factors in its corner. For one, it's a gentler experience for the novice football manager than the market leader, with a lesser learning curve that gets you used to the game comfortably quickly, and a lesser challenge. It's also the best Championship Manager title since Sports Interactive left the name behind in favour of Football Manager.

The core idea remains the same, of course, in that you take charge of the club of your choice and look to lead them to glory. An enormity of clubs from a variety of leagues are featured, and once you've picked your team there's plenty of interaction between the others in the game world. The interface, while not enjoying the clean overhaul that Football Manager 2008 enjoyed, is crisp enough to work, and in little time you're down to the business of running your team.

And this is where some of Championship Manager 2008's improvements become evident. The transfer market, for instance, wasn't too hot in the last edition, and there's clear evidence of improvement now. It feels more realistic and presents you with more options than before, and this is to the game's credit (you can also activate the benefactor option, which will see a healthy amount of cash injected into your club). The ProZone analysis has also been beefed up, and - depending which level of detail you choose - it's fun to take a look at how your players are performing.

The match engine is still as ambitious as before, but still a bit shaky. Contrasted with the tension that Football Manager's really quite sparse match day presentation generates, it's surprising that Championship Manager's more elaborate approach doesn't work as well. But it simply doesn't quite gel and - in spite of efforts to the contrary - you end up feeling a bit remote from it.

Finally, the difficulty level is a long term concern. There's little incentive to tinker and change in Championship Manager once you've found the approach that works for you, and in fact it's best not to. Once you have a formula in place, the game over-rewards repetition of the same approach, sending the difficulty level southwards in the process. It means it's a fine choice for the less demanding player, but committed football managers won't be tested.

It's certainly been a good year for Championship Manager, and there is improvement here over last year's edition. Crucially, though, it's still lagging behind its competition, and doesn't show signs of providing a serious challenge anytime soon. That's a pity, because Championship Manager 2008 is quite a good management game. It's just fighting against an extremely good opponent.

Certainly a step forward for Championship Manager, but there's nothing here that's really going to frighten the Football Manager team.