Customer Reviews

MLB Front Office Manager

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Updated 2/26/09 -

I'm updating this review I think I have given it a bit too high of a score the more I play it the more I am thinking it should be 3 stars. I still think it could be 4 star quality if 2K were to come out with patches to fix the problems it has. If I had a choice between Out Of The Park Baseball or Baseball Mogul on the PC with this game on the console I would much rather play the pc version of OOTP Baseball or Baseball Mogul but this is what we have to work with for the console version I can only hope that 2K will make another one next year that is much better then this years version.

This game does have its flaws but I found it very enjoyable. Really is fun having the arbitration rules and the rule 5 draft implemented into the game. This game starts right after the 2008 World Series. First thing you will do is resign your current players and when you go into the payroll screen it will show you what players you have that are type A & B make sure to offer them arbitration so you will get compensation picks if they sign with another team. January 18th is when you put your amount offer for arbitration eligible players and you will find out if you won or lost your case threw email. After all of these processes are done you can pretty much sim it til spring training and then on to start your career. I really do recommend this game if you love stats and are into the arbitration rules & rule 5 this is definitely the game for you especially for the price of it.

The Good -

-Finally a baseball managing game for the console

-Arbitration Rules & Rule 5 Draft

-A long managing career

The Bad -

-Game menus could of been made better.

-It's hard really to know if you are in the lead in the bidding for a free agent you will get an email saying he got better offers most times he will already sign with another team when you get this email.

-AI can make some very very stupid trades ex: TB David Price for Carl Pavano..... but when a team wants to make a trade with you they look to rip you off as best they can.

-Pitchers ERA's seem very unrealistic I have played a few seasons and notice alot of pitcher's era's 6+ even only starting pitcher I had under 6 was Sabathia. My bullpen is a mess Rivera having a 7+ ERA very very unrealistic. A patch is certainly needed to fix this problem. I also noticed the problem with other teams national league seems to be a bit better but still have alot of pitchers with very high unrealistic era's.

Mixed Bag Good/Bad -

-Online franchise/fantasy league I found to be pretty enjoyable but you really need to have patience for it cause it takes about 2 minutes 30 seconds to 3 minutes for each person to load after you want to move on to the next day.

Clearly MLB Front Office Manager is 2KSports' answer to rival Electronic Arts' NFL Head Coach game (which really is misnamed, as that game is more like NFL General Manager or NFL General Manager + Head Coach combined). Unfortunately, 2KSports' effort is no where near as good or enjoyable as their rivals is.

I love MLB in general, my own favorite team in particular, and playing video games that give me a chance to control my team in more ways is something that I'd really like. Sadly, MLB Front Office Manager delivers such a frustrating and disappointing experience that I can't recommend it for purchase for anyone that doesn't have a ton of patience and isn't a glutton for punishment.

Negotiating with free agents is one of the more frustrating areas as there is no negotiating at all. You make an offer, but then have no feedback as to whether or not the offer is reasonable or not until you get an e-mail saying that the player got better offers and took one of them. Uh, gee, nice to have the experience of really negotiating with the player/agent there, NOT!

There's simply not enough communication going on to tell you what you need to do and/or need to be paying attention to so you'll get a more realistic experience, and that is just what someone would be buying this game for.

Realistically, I'd recommend something like Baseball Mogul instead. For less money you'll get a better experience, though admittedly that game is for PC only and not console systems. On console systems, the current 'best' experience for baseball games is the MLB: The Show series for the Playstation consoles.

Is there anything that IS realistic about this game, other than some of the players names? Free Agent negotiations is a joke, there are none. You make an offer, and then the player either signs with you or someone else. Heck, if I'm offering Teixeira 170 million, and boston offers him 175, I expect Boras to call me back looking for more money. Instead, if you don't pony up enough, you've got no shot at signing them, and you've no idea how much is enough.
I've got a fairly solid pitching staff, all highly rated by the games skill evaluation, and all real-world top performers, but they hardly ever win a game, and almost none of them have ERA's under 7. What's the point of evaluating talent and signing players if they don't play like they're supposed to? This is annoying enough to make the game not worth playing at all.
Then there's the player management issues. If you put a player on the DL, and bring up someone to take his place, when he comes back from the DL, you've got to get rid of someone to make room for him. OK, that's understandable, but there's no room on the AAA roster, because they've filled the vacancy you've created by promoting their player. You shouldn't have to juggle rosters all the way to A ball just to make routine player movements. If I want to send a player back down, it's the AAA team's responsibility to figure out how to make room. I doubt Brian Cashman sits around juggling AAA rosters every time the Yankees call a player up or send one back down.
The game had a lot of potential, sadly it didn't live up to any of it.

For the first Baseball simulation, it's not too bad. Reading some of the other reviews, mainly about the free agent negotiating, they nailed it! It can get pretty frustrating, not knowing when the player you're going after gives you no feedback about the contract offer. Then bam! He signs with another team.

The menus could definitely be done better, and they could immerse you better in the actual league, which would make the game more enjoyable.

Now, I don't know how some people feel about stats, but I know I am huge on the more realistic stats. If you want that, this game will be disappointing. Pujols routinely hits over .400 and I just finished a season where Ryan Braun hit 79 hrs and over 200 rbi's. The .400 thing is what really bugged me. I've only seen Braun go THAT high on the hr and rbi marks. Other players have hit more then they really would, but it was still somewhat reasonable. The averages though are just crazy! I've completed I think 4 seasons and have had probably 5 or 6 players hit over .400. Chipper Jones hits .370 and that's thought to be unreal!

All that said, however, the game can get addicting. I like challenging games, and it's probably just because I didn't quite know how to play the game, but I sucked for my first 3 seasons! My highest win total was probably around 65. Then in my 4th season I won the world series. Haven't played beyond that so can't say that I can keep up the winning.

Overall, the game is probably around a 3, 3.5 but I'll give it the benefit of the doubt since it's the first mlb game like this. I'm looking forward to more games and definitely some improvement.

I was very excited to get this game. I love GM modes in every sports game I get. The opportunity to recreate your team and make the decisions is definately fun. In most baseball games that is what I do since playing 162 games each season is a little much. I probably play 7 or 8 each season and then sim the rest. I thought this game was right up my alley.

Though the concept is great, the game limits the fun. As said by other viewers the menus are tedious and poorly constructed. It is tough to navigate through the game and navigating takes so much time frustration sets in quickly. I think the worst part of this game is that when you are negotiating with Free Agents and making trades or resigning players you have no idea what their overall rating is going to be after you sign them. With the younger players you can look and see what their potential is but if you want to sign Manny Ramirez and he was rated an 85 last season, in this game you will spend 25 million to sign him for one year and now he is rated a 55. There is no indicator that he is going to decrease that much except maybe you should assume he will be lower because he is older? that really bothered me.

Also, when you make trades you really are making them blindly. You have no idea if your idea is even in the other teams ballpark. It often can be a complete waste of time unless you are willing to unload a dynamite star for a prospect. Even then you have no idea. I guess that is the games point of trying to make it realistic but come on how blind will the game make the user?

Also once you get to the end of the year and have to sign 100 minor leaguers one by one and get taken back to the beginning menu every time takes longer than you will ever believe. What is sad is that this game really has potential but I wish I would have waited at least one year to purchase it. I would have much rather bought MLB 2K9 this year and gone with that GM mode. I think that is the better purchase. And if you want to play a game then you still can.

I say stay away from this game but hopefully they make some corrections and make this game better because I really believe it has the potential to be fun. It just isn't there yet