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Off Topic Other Sports Management Sims


BleedsBlue
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Well, we've still got a couple of weeks before FMM 2017 drops! I'm a sucker for management/tycoon sims of all varieties, particularly sports titles. I thought I'd share a few with everyone that I've been using to pass the time when I'm in front of the PC or killing some time at home on the weekend.

So as to not advertise any potential competitor to FMM, I'm sticking exclusively to PC/Mac/Linux compatible titles.

Ice Hockey: Franchise Hockey Manager 3 -Out of the Park Productions
From the blokes that brought you the Out of the Park Baseball series, this has to be the definitive hockey management title on the market right now. It feels like it picked up where Sega's Eastside Hockey Manager left off a few years ago. This year's edition managed to land NHL licensing, so that's another plus. 20-odd leagues, complete American and Canadian hockey systems (both major and feeder leagues) and a broad swath of European leagues. Forgive the yank for focusing on the states, it's what I know, and generally, what I play. Click-heavy, but genuine fun, complete with Olympic and World Cup of Hockey events. Good stuff.

Gridiron: Front Office Football  - Solecismic Software
Right, right, wrong football. I know, I know. :) For those interested in genuine gridiron simulation, this is my go-to.  They also make a college-based gridiron simulator - Bowl Bound, though I'm not sure when that's last been updated. Front office Football will give you as much or as little depth as you'd like to engage in. You can play much like FMM and leave most of the play selection and player management to your AI coaches and set a basic strategy and framework of playstyle or you can go whole-hog and control every last bit of action down to play clock management, on field substitutions, playbook creation... you name it, you can do it. It's easily as deep as FM, only without the pretty graphics.
And... surprisingly, that can make a difference. There's no animated pitch, results are text-based, and sometimes the layout of text seems really cramped. If you're able to get past a frankly ugly interface, there's a real gem of a game underneath it all.

Tennis:  Tennis Elbow Manager - Mana Games
Based off Tennis Elbow 2013, TEM plays off the same engine, generating results point-by-point.  Based off the best tennis sim on the market right now (not the prettiest, but certainly most realistic), it feels really close to the real thing. Lacks ATP/WTA licensing, but a readily available collection of community content has provided everything from real players names and stats. The cool thing about this one, though, is the option to not just manage THIS year or 2013's year. Rather, you can start your career at any point from 1990 through the current day. You can raise your pro to try to tackle Djokovic and Nadal, or go back to the 90's and compete with and ageing Lendl, a young Becker at the top of his game, and two young Americans named Agassi and Sampras. The sim is incredibly deep without being overly complex. Lots of strategies seem to work, and the results generated feel as real as can be.
It's been eating a lot of my time of late. Good stuff. Probably my favorite on the list at the current.

Baseball: Baseball Mogul - Sports Mogul Software
This was a tough choice, as I really also enjoy the bright, beautiful, incredibly deep Out of the Park Baseball series as well. But, I've already got one OOTP product on here, and I have a slight preference for it's uglier, streamlined cousin in Baseball Mogul. It's a solid Major League Baseball simulator. You can manage at almost all levels of professional Major League baseball, from single A through MLB. It lacks some of the regional, non-MLB affiliated independent leagues, and that's a shame. Neither does it have any other country's leagues. And that's a real shame - I would love to play the Japanese or Dominican or Cuban leagues. What it does have is an incredibly clean and intuitive layout, and an incredibly customizable game. You can manage as much or as little of your specific organization as you want. When handling your big league club, you can manage the minutiae of your farm system as well, down to prices for concessions. It really earns that Mogul part of the title, but sometimes you just want something mind-crushingly deep. Your mileage may vary, but its worth at least a good looking at.

Do any of you have a favorite sports sim outside of FM/FMM? Please share!

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Thanks, SI guys! When I completely lose any and all free time, I'll know who to blame :)

@Jack Joyce - this news made my morning. I'm going to give it a look as soon as I get out tonight.

@Marc Duffy - Thanks for the suggestion. I've seen some other sims with online components before but none have really held up, and really had the feel of cheap mobile games or fantasy football leagues. I'll certainly give this one a look, thank you!

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