Total Club Manager 2003

Total Club Manager 2003 is EA's third shot at a football managing game series, following both FIFA Soccer Manager (1997) and F.A. Premier League Manager (1998-2000). TCM 2003 features 43 leagues with over 40.000 players and a powerful editor.

The game offers the player the ability to choose between a "fixed" or a "real" career. In the "fixed" mode the player is stuck with a team, and will not be dismissed no matter how bad things might go, but in the "real" mode the player risks a sack if results, either financial or on the league table, go bad. It is also possible to choose an initial contract from three lower division teams, and start building the career from the bottom. In addition to the difficulty levels (which affects the aggressiveness of the transfer market, effects of game fatigue and playing level of opponents), players can also set an initial cash injection and delegate roles (such as marketing, tickets, contacts or even squad related options such as team selection, tactics and changes during the matches) to assistants, allowing the game to be played from a trainer point of view to manager or accountant.

Instead of relying in "spreadsheet statistics", the game uses rates players in key aspects (passing, shooting, heading, etc) in a simple scale, that combined with character traits (leadership, fairness, consistency, etc) output a single value. This value is then modified according to form, morale and match practice to output a single value (Actual Playing Level) that displays how good a player is at a certain position. Some players earn certain titles and become key players for being exceptionally good (or bad) in certain attributes: the nickname "Diego" is earned by someone with exceptional ball control, while a player with poor values on both crossing and dribbling earns "Blind Bat".

As well as the classic text mode (which later had an editor for commentary strings, inherited from the German release), It can use the FIFA 2001 engine to simulate games. The text mode is the most extensive part, as it reacts on how the player selects to behave (and occasionally has the option to delay the game or take part in other antics that might earn a sending off).