2K MLB Front Office Manager

[RainMaker]

Get released in just over a week.

2K Sports - MLB Front Office Manager (http://www.2ksports.com/games/mlbmanager)

I think baseball is by far the funnest game to play GM/Manager. Been bummed since OOTP went from a more MLB style game to catering to the Space Alien Underhand Toss Leagues. Might pick this up and at least give it a whirl. Bit worried that they won't have many of the big prospects in the game though.

Anyone else picking it up?

[Young Drachma]

Good to know it'll be out in a week. I plan to get it. I can't imagine it'll be worse than anything on our radar. If it's a 2k version of FPS Baseball, I can totally handle that. I'm not asking for a lot. I don't like that it's not unlimited years and I doubt the fact that it's not a complete sandbox sim will make me give up the small market sims, but...I am pleased they're doing it and hope they just improve on it.

I like the sandbox mode of OOTP, just hate the execution in other areas as it tries to do too much.

That said, a good MLB sim with the license and all of the other trappings that our games at this level can't get...is well overdue.

[dervack]

It says on the website Jan 26th

[RainMaker]

My bad, thought it was the 20th.

[JimboJ]

Anyone know what the system requirements are for the PC version?

[CleBrownsfan]

Comes out today but it's not getting the greatest reviews... oh well

[Young Drachma]

I preordered because I'm a glutton for punishment. They said the PC version didn't end up coming today and it'll be in-store tomorrow, so I'll get it then and I'll write a review.

[MizzouRah]

I preordered because I'm a glutton for punishment. They said the PC version didn't end up coming today and it'll be in-store tomorrow, so I'll get it then and I'll write a review.

:lol: DC you kill me!

The game will sell somewhat just because it's the first new baseball game of the year.. probably their whole marketing strategy.

[CraigSca]

If the game was available via download on day one I may have pulled the trigger.

[rowech]

My problem is 2k hasn't put out a regular baseball game that's all that great...how can they crank this out and it be good.

[Young Drachma]

I haven't had a problem with 2K games in the past and given we haven't actually had a text sim that was anything like FPS Baseball well since FPS Baseball or maybe MVP was close in a sense.

So if this even comes close, it'll be fine. They're not gonna be "up to snuff" but the reviews mean nothing, because those guys have no idea how to review text sims.

[FBPro]

I have the PC version ordered, had today off and wouldn't you know it NO GAME.

[lynchjm24]

Here is all you need to know about this game. No one here even dreams it has a 1% chance of being good. Kevin Goldstein mentioned in his chat yesterday that he heard it's 'HORRIBLE'.

I haven't seen one thing that leads me to believe otherwise. I am actually guessing it's worse then we even could imagine. Daivd Winter Bad.

[MJ4H]

Well that would at least be entertaining.

[Mustang]

I tried reading the 2K forums, but basically consisted of one guy who obviously hates texts sims going around and pissing on every thread. So, guess I'll see what FOFC says.

[dervack]

Here is all you need to know about this game. No one here even dreams it has a 1% chance of being good. Kevin Goldstein mentioned in his chat yesterday that he heard it's 'HORRIBLE'.

I haven't seen one thing that leads me to believe otherwise. I am actually guessing it's worse then we even could imagine. Daivd Winter Bad.
I actually hope that it's decent and falls somewhere between Head Coach 1 and Head Coach 2

[Young Drachma]

Who the fuck is Kevin Goldstein?

[MizzouRah]

IGN gave it a 6.6

IGN: MLB Front Office Manager Review (http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/948/948583p1.html)

Seems like the game is decent, but questionable AI (figured that) and the interface is horrible. The game in itself is fun though... go figure.

Posters who have it over at OS, seem to initially like it.. we'll see after a few days..

[lynchjm24]

Who the fuck is Kevin Goldstein?

A baseball writer who likes video games. He isn't any sort of authority on baseball video games, he was just passing along what he had heard.

Dervack, we all hope it's good. I think we just all know that it isn't.

[Young Drachma]

IGN gave it a 6.6

IGN: MLB Front Office Manager Review (http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/948/948583p1.html)

Seems like the game is decent, but questionable AI (figured that) and the interface is horrible. The game in itself is fun though... go figure.

Posters who have it over at OS, seem to initially like it.. we'll see after a few days..

That's a solid review. I don't think any of us expected a very good AI. Nevermind, there is a fantasy mode. So that's all I needed to know. With that, it should be at least as bad as OOTP and for me, that's fine. At least the baseball logic should be sound.

I think "the game sucks" is a relative term and depends on what people's expectations are.

[MizzouRah]

Yeah, I don't think I could play this on the 360.. HC never grabbed me like I thought it would.

After it's been out for a few days, I might check it out on the pc. Rosters should be so much better on the pc as well.. I know people will be out there making them current much faster than on the console.

[CraigSca]

I wonder how many seasons you can play? So many issues with AI occur only after the real players leave the universe and you're left with the game-created players.

[Philliesfan980]

I don't think I've seen so many people try and look past all of the blemishes of a game to try and talk themselves into playing it.

It just goes to show how starved we are for this type of game on a console.

[MizzouRah]

I don't think I've seen so many people try and look past all of the blemishes of a game to try and talk themselves into playing it.

It just goes to show how starved we are for this type of game on a console.

That's what happens when the first baseball game of the season comes out. We'll see what's being posted after about a week or so.

What stinks is it seems like they did so some things right, but like all sports games, they have to meet a deadline and things do not get fixed before release.

It's too bad, because horrible sales will kill a game like this.

[CraigSca]

(buy a PS3, Todd)<buy a="" ps3,="" todd="">

:)</buy>

[Philliesfan980]

That's what happens when the first baseball game of the season comes out. We'll see what's being posted after about a week or so.

What stinks is it seems like they did so some things right, but like all sports games, they have to meet a deadline and things do not get fixed before release.

It's too bad, because horrible sales will kill a game like this.


You're exactly right. At the end of the day, it seems this will end up being a 5.5-6/10 type game. Playable, but only if you're willing to overlook some key bugs. I also agree with you that this effort might kill off any future efforts, as it apparently did with HC.

[MizzouRah]

(buy a PS3, Todd)<buy a="" ps3,="" todd="">

:)</buy>

I need to get a 120GB HD for my 360 first! :D

[MizzouRah]

You're exactly right. At the end of the day, it seems this will end up being a 5.5-6/10 type game. Playable, but only if you're willing to overlook some key bugs. I also agree with you that this effort might kill off any future efforts, as it apparently did with HC.

It will die out once 2K9 and The Show come out.. BUT the pc version could really go places if the modding community can do some magic.

[Young Drachma]

I don't think I've seen so many people try and look past all of the blemishes of a game to try and talk themselves into playing it.

It just goes to show how starved we are for this type of game on a console.

I'm not playing it on console, I'm playing it on PC.

And I think we all overlook blemishes on games, at least, those of us who play OOTP do.

[Young Drachma]

I wonder how many seasons you can play? So many issues with AI occur only after the real players leave the universe and you're left with the game-created players.

30 years.

There is apparently a 'fantasy' mode that's like the Commish mode that we're all used to, where you can control more than one team, lord over the league and force trades, etc.

I am always curious when people expect AI in games to be human-like. No game is that good and once everyone is fictional, what's "fair" is relative.

[Young Drachma]

It will die out once 2K9 and The Show come out.. BUT the pc version could really go places if the modding community can do some magic.

Given how much they've hacked High Heat over the years and I know the SimCity 4 community has been amazing, it'll be interesting.

But usually, it requires a decent sized audience to make it work.

So we'll see.

[Young Drachma]

Apparently my copy is in. I'm gonna go pick it up, since I got to work early and fire it up on the laptop since I'm working late and see what it looks like. I'm really curious to see.

[Ramzavail]

I'm expecting the worse.

[BigPapi]

I picked this up for the PC as well...Will post impressions later.

[MizzouRah]

Ok PC guys.. lets hear it!

[Young Drachma]

I just picked mine up and I'm installing it now. I won't be able to do much with it until after work, but...I don't want to wait to check it out.

[Young Drachma]

First thing is, it tries to install Steam before you can install the game. Dunno WTF that's about, but if I have to be connected to the web before I install, then I'm gonna have to wait until I leave here. Well that's stupid and the manual mentions nothing about it.

Someone @ OS mentioned you can install without internet, but it needs Steam to install the game, so..maybe I just need to restart.

[Shkspr]

It's really...REALLY not a good game.

First, minor leaguers are not in. Maybe they're fictionalized; I don't know. But don't take a poor team expecting to promote your studs from the minors; they're not there.

The list setup is wonky. I could only sort free agent lists by overall value, which is graduated in 5 point, 20-80 scale. I could filter for a particular position, but that's about it. I can't see how to sort on individual tools, nor can I seem to sort on potential. So if you want to sign any of those 6 year minor league free agents, get used to your Y button.

I tried trading a bit, but pretty much everyone tradable on my team has no trade clauses, neatly making the trading block function obsolete.

The roster functionality is poor. You've got to scroll through six levels of league to get a feel for everyone on your roster, and of course minor leaguers all show up at their overall skill level of 20. Their potential, again, must be individually checked on their player card. This makes trying to create a path of advancement through the minors problematic. The lact of a clear roster list function means you'll have to scroll two screens between your starting catcher and your backup just to see who you want to play, let alone having to check to see if the kid a level below is ready.

I simmed one day and lack the willpower to go on anymore. Thank god I only rented. But the roster functions are so counter-intuitive that I am not interested in the accuracy of the engine or the AI. I just want to go play another game. ANY other game.

[Icy]

I'm reading the impressions thread at OPS and it doesn't look so good, but will wait for more impressions here.

I'm afraid if i buy it will be untouched after the first time, exactly like Head Coach that i only popped once into my PS3. We are looking for a text sim with console graphics, and those games end being nice graphics with nothing behind them.

[Young Drachma]

For PC folks, make sure you install Steam. There is no way around it and if you botch the install by trying to have it avoid installing that, it'll make the whole install a lot more annoying that it might have to be otherwise.

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=9828-SFLZ-9289

[CraigSca]

It's really...REALLY not a good game.

First, minor leaguers are not in. Maybe they're fictionalized; I don't know. But don't take a poor team expecting to promote your studs from the minors; they're not there.

The list setup is wonky. I could only sort free agent lists by overall value, which is graduated in 5 point, 20-80 scale. I could filter for a particular position, but that's about it. I can't see how to sort on individual tools, nor can I seem to sort on potential. So if you want to sign any of those 6 year minor league free agents, get used to your Y button.

I tried trading a bit, but pretty much everyone tradable on my team has no trade clauses, neatly making the trading block function obsolete.

The roster functionality is poor. You've got to scroll through six levels of league to get a feel for everyone on your roster, and of course minor leaguers all show up at their overall skill level of 20. Their potential, again, must be individually checked on their player card. This makes trying to create a path of advancement through the minors problematic. The lact of a clear roster list function means you'll have to scroll two screens between your starting catcher and your backup just to see who you want to play, let alone having to check to see if the kid a level below is ready.

I simmed one day and lack the willpower to go on anymore. Thank god I only rented. But the roster functions are so counter-intuitive that I am not interested in the accuracy of the engine or the AI. I just want to go play another game. ANY other game.

Yikes! Well, that's money saved.

[Young Drachma]

Installing so far is a PITA. Steam wouldn't install, apparently it's a common problem that I could google. Now downloading Steam from the web to the machine, to hopefully install the game.

[Young Drachma]

Apparently Mogul got endorsed this year:

http://cdn.steampowered.com/v/gfx/apps/12400/header.jpg?t=1233169324

[lynchjm24]

It's really...REALLY not a good game.

First, minor leaguers are not in. Maybe they're fictionalized; I don't know. But don't take a poor team expecting to promote your studs from the minors; they're not there.

The list setup is wonky. I could only sort free agent lists by overall value, which is graduated in 5 point, 20-80 scale. I could filter for a particular position, but that's about it. I can't see how to sort on individual tools, nor can I seem to sort on potential. So if you want to sign any of those 6 year minor league free agents, get used to your Y button.

I tried trading a bit, but pretty much everyone tradable on my team has no trade clauses, neatly making the trading block function obsolete.

The roster functionality is poor. You've got to scroll through six levels of league to get a feel for everyone on your roster, and of course minor leaguers all show up at their overall skill level of 20. Their potential, again, must be individually checked on their player card. This makes trying to create a path of advancement through the minors problematic. The lact of a clear roster list function means you'll have to scroll two screens between your starting catcher and your backup just to see who you want to play, let alone having to check to see if the kid a level below is ready.

I simmed one day and lack the willpower to go on anymore. Thank god I only rented. But the roster functions are so counter-intuitive that I am not interested in the accuracy of the engine or the AI. I just want to go play another game. ANY other game.

Typically these games look good at first and suck as the flaws become known. This one is a disaster from the word go and will probably set the genre back instead of advancing it.

Exactly what anyone being honest with themselves expected.

[Young Drachma]

If you're not connected to the internet, the game WILL NOT install, because it tries to install Steam and then connect to the web, before it'll do anything. Just an FYI for those who buy it on PC. Save yourself a few hours of hassle (or in my case, discovering a trojan, having to restart your entire machine before you get to do that..)

[Young Drachma]

So far:

- Menu response time is non-existant. It's like you're typing and it doesn't always know what you just did.

- It's obviously a straight port to PC.

- The menus are jarring, but I got used to them quickly. I think the real problem was that it's quite different from a text sim, in that, it's not a text sim in the traditional sense.

- The only way to play this, is in fantasy mode. The career mode is 30 years, fantasy mode is unlimited. In fantasy mode, you can edit players contracts and everything and the names of non-MLB players. You can make trades and control more than one team, too.

I haven't gotten further into it beyond that. I can't see ever playing a game like this on console and I don't think it'll set the genre back, because independent publishers will keep making text sims and big box companies will continue to throw bones at us that won't be what we want because making an OOTP clone will never make them rich.

This could've been better executed for sure. It's not fast, in the OOTP vein, but nothing really is.

So I dunno, my initial impressions are that it's probably more trouble than it's worth, but unlike say, that stupid geo-political sim I bought last week that isn't really even playable or give me much of an incentive to go back in and mess with it, this one will give me something to do when I'm itching to actually see my players, but don't want to mash buttons and that's all I wanted. But I suspect I'm in the minority there and that my expectations for it weren't really all that high.

[darkenigma510]

If you're not connected to the internet, the game WILL NOT install, because it tries to install Steam and then connect to the web, before it'll do anything. Just an FYI for those who buy it on PC. Save yourself a few hours of hassle (or in my case, discovering a trojan, having to restart your entire machine before you get to do that..)

What I don't understand is why I can't buy this game on Steam if it requires Steam!

[Young Drachma]

PastaPadre has more thoughts, with some screenies and I agree with most of us thoughts:

Further Impressions of MLB FOM | pastapadre.com (http://www.pastapadre.com/5985/further-impressions-of-mlb-fom)

[BigPapi]

As noted by others- incredibly cumbersome- and oddly unresponsive menu system. So annoying to click on the same thing three and four times to move through the menus. Still, this looks like it could have been something with a little more effort.

I went messing around in the file directories to see if I could find the rosters. (This might be more enjoyable with up-to-date rosters and real minor league prospects.) It appears they are in .big format- not .csv or something simple as I had hoped. Not sure anyone will care enough to even mess with anu of this....Guess we'll see.

This whole thing looks like something 2K is working on to glue together with the MLB2KX series sometime soon- and they just decided to see if it could hold it's own.

[Young Drachma]

.big is just a file extension that's full of INI files or something. I googled it and other games use it and have hacked it for their purposes by modders and so, there is at least a possibility they'll have something.

You can also load rosters pretty effortlessly, so it does make it possible at least in PC land to load someone else's rosters into the game before you start a fantasy career.

I played some more last night, but the sim speed is a lot slower than I'm accustomed to, so I couldn't really invest much more time with it because it just wasn't moving all that fast.

I suspect a patch might address at least some of the warts, that is, if the OOTP fan boys posting over at the 2K forums aren't irritating them too much yet.

[dfisher]

I may be missing it, but I haven't figured out how to trade prospects for a major league player. I'm trying to trade Adam Eaton for anything. I put him in the trade box and push R2 (PS3) to change the level for the opposing team. Eaton then disappears and it changes the level of my team as well.

[EagleFan]

I may be missing it, but I haven't figured out how to trade prospects for a major league player. I'm trying to trade Adam Eaton for anything. I put him in the trade box and push R2 (PS3) to change the level for the opposing team. Eaton then disappears and it changes the level of my team as well.

Try lowering your asking price to a case of beer. Not the good stuff either, try piss water like Coors Light. ;)

[lighthousekeeper]

Try lowering your asking price to a case of beer. Not the good stuff either, try piss water like Coors Light. ;)

yeah seriously. FOM may have acutally got it right in this case.

[dfisher]

I was trying to trade him for the worst possible minor leaguer but couldn't figure out how to do it. I ended up trading him and Matt Stairs for Rocco Baldelli, so it looks like the game didn't get that right.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Geez, you know a game is bad when the final feedback comment from Bill Abner is basically, 'hey, but The Show comes out soon!'..........

The Nut and the Feisty Weasel: MLB Front Officer Manager (http://nutweasel.blogspot.com/2009/01/mlb-front-officer-manager.html)

[AgustusM]

the game is just too close to my ideal of game, I have to try it for myself.

I tried for about a week to rent it, but none of the 4 rental stores I tried had it so today I finally caved and just bought it.

Now I am always pining for the return of sports games to the PC, but after reading about the need to load steam and how controller centric the game is I decided to just get the 360 version. (not to mention they had the 360 and I would have to have ordered and waited another week for the PC version)

My initial impression after just a short time with it is mostly lukewarm. The interface is brutally bad. I don't know who is designing these things and in what meeting a group sat around and says to themselves: "you know what would be good is a 5 button combo just to see a players potential, and another 4 buttons to filter by position, when a single trigger like all the other sports games would suffice." Plus I fail to understand why these console driven games always require you to scroll to see pertinent statistics. who would ever want to see AVG, HR and RBI on the same screen.

OOTP may have some warts, but v1 was better than this game in ease of use. The current OOTP version blow this out of the water.

Now the good news, the in game experience shows a lot of promise. The cut to the chase pitch by pitch is fantastic (check out PastaPadres site he has some video)

the picture in picture take a little getting use to, but the in game interface is easy enough. I did find it bizarre that there was no option to change my lineup before the game. If their theory is you are the GM and not the manager and thus wouldn't have control over that, then why would i be able to steal, bunt, change pitchers, etc.

the graphics are good, if not quite up to 2nd gen par. I do really like the classic far press box view.

overall I believe I will enjoy playing some games out and I had enough of an interesting off-season (signing Manny Ramirez and Jeff Kent to the Giants) that I will probably make it through a season. If I was going to play a career, OOTP is a much better option.

[DaddyTorgo]

the game is just too close to my ideal of game, I have to try it for myself.

I tried for about a week to rent it, but none of the 4 rental stores I tried had it so today I finally caved and just bought it.

Now I am always pining for the return of sports games to the PC, but after reading about the need to load steam and how controller centric the game is I decided to just get the 360 version. (not to mention they had the 360 and I would have to have ordered and waited another week for the PC version)

My initial impression after just a short time with it is mostly lukewarm. The interface is brutally bad. I don't know who is designing these things and in what meeting a group sat around and says to themselves: "you know what would be good is a 5 button combo just to see a players potential, and another 4 buttons to filter by position, when a single trigger like all the other sports games would suffice." Plus I fail to understand why these console driven games always require you to scroll to see pertinent statistics. who would ever want to see AVG, HR and RBI on the same screen.

OOTP may have some warts, but v1 was better than this game in ease of use. The current OOTP version blow this out of the water.

Now the good news, the in game experience shows a lot of promise. The cut to the chase pitch by pitch is fantastic (check out PastaPadres site he has some video)

the picture in picture take a little getting use to, but the in game interface is easy enough. I did find it bizarre that there was no option to change my lineup before the game. If their theory is you are the GM and not the manager and thus wouldn't have control over that, then why would i be able to steal, bunt, change pitchers, etc.

the graphics are good, if not quite up to 2nd gen par. I do really like the classic far press box view.

overall I believe I will enjoy playing some games out and I had enough of an interesting off-season (signing Manny Ramirez and Jeff Kent to the Giants) that I will probably make it through a season. If I was going to play a career, OOTP is a much better option.

i guess it's your money - hopefully you won't regret spending it

[Philliesfan980]

the game is just too close to my ideal of game, I have to try it for myself.

I tried for about a week to rent it, but none of the 4 rental stores I tried had it so today I finally caved and just bought it.

Now I am always pining for the return of sports games to the PC, but after reading about the need to load steam and how controller centric the game is I decided to just get the 360 version. (not to mention they had the 360 and I would have to have ordered and waited another week for the PC version)

My initial impression after just a short time with it is mostly lukewarm. The interface is brutally bad. I don't know who is designing these things and in what meeting a group sat around and says to themselves: "you know what would be good is a 5 button combo just to see a players potential, and another 4 buttons to filter by position, when a single trigger like all the other sports games would suffice." Plus I fail to understand why these console driven games always require you to scroll to see pertinent statistics. who would ever want to see AVG, HR and RBI on the same screen.

OOTP may have some warts, but v1 was better than this game in ease of use. The current OOTP version blow this out of the water.

Now the good news, the in game experience shows a lot of promise. The cut to the chase pitch by pitch is fantastic (check out PastaPadres site he has some video)

the picture in picture take a little getting use to, but the in game interface is easy enough. I did find it bizarre that there was no option to change my lineup before the game. If their theory is you are the GM and not the manager and thus wouldn't have control over that, then why would i be able to steal, bunt, change pitchers, etc.

the graphics are good, if not quite up to 2nd gen par. I do really like the classic far press box view.

overall I believe I will enjoy playing some games out and I had enough of an interesting off-season (signing Manny Ramirez and Jeff Kent to the Giants) that I will probably make it through a season. If I was going to play a career, OOTP is a much better option.

Thanks for your impressions. I'm interested in hearing if this game can be salvaged on any level. Even if it means it's a one season manage only, game, I think it might be worth the $20 (or less used) when the price eventually comes down.

I realize the GM stuff is terribly broken, but how is the in-game experience?

[Young Drachma]

The thing is, I think it's the opposite. The in-game experience is pretty bad IMHO, short of the visuals and the GM stuff actually works pretty well or at least, accurate in terms of the timing and such alike. It's too slow a simulator for me (OOTP has me drunk on speed) and the menu issues and such are too much to overcome.

These folks don't know how to make a text-sim, because they don't play them. So they skip out the details of things we'd be able to tell them and instead they stick to what they know.

Billy Beane probably told them how to be a GM, simple enough, I mean, Markus is German and he pretty much has a game that Billy Beane would probably find more accurate.

I think their ambitions were there, they just didn't have the execution because it's too far from their turf. I think I'd only play this to have a baseball game to mess around with on the PC, since I never buy them. Otherwise, it's basically a waste.

[Mota]

For a game that revolves around statistics and other non-action types of things, they really make it hard to access information about your players.

Trying to get my 40 Man roster in place. There's no way to sort. In any way at all. You also have NO views that show you player talent or stats, so basically you have to open up the individual pages of each player and see what their talent ratings are, then hope you remember as you promote / demote.

There's also only one path to each screen. No big deal? It is though. You're going through the rosters working on your pitching staff, then you realize you should negotiate your star player's contract. Instead of just clicking on the player and clicking "negotiate" or something like that, you have to back out of the screen, enter the payroll screen, find the player again and go in that way.

[Philliesfan980]

The thing is, I think it's the opposite. The in-game experience is pretty bad IMHO, short of the visuals and the GM stuff actually works pretty well or at least, accurate in terms of the timing and such alike. It's too slow a simulator for me (OOTP has me drunk on speed) and the menu issues and such are too much to overcome.

These folks don't know how to make a text-sim, because they don't play them. So they skip out the details of things we'd be able to tell them and instead they stick to what they know.

Billy Beane probably told them how to be a GM, simple enough, I mean, Markus is German and he pretty much has a game that Billy Beane would probably find more accurate.

I think their ambitions were there, they just didn't have the execution because it's too far from their turf. I think I'd only play this to have a baseball game to mess around with on the PC, since I never buy them. Otherwise, it's basically a waste.

Just to be clear, when I say "in game experience" what I'm talking about is the 9 inning game aspect of it. Do managers act realistically. Good pinch hitting, relief pitcher usage, etc.

[AgustusM]

I have only played out three games so it is a little too early to tell how realistic the opp AI is. At least initially nothing was completely out of whack.

It is really amazing how little progress the industry has made considering other software growth. this game is no better and in many ways worse than Tony LaRussa Baseball of the mid 90's.