Fozzie Reviews Games (Currently: DDS: Pro Basketball 20/Battletech

[SirFozzie]

Working on a review

Gary Gorski, over at Wolverine Studios (Home - Wolverine Studios) was nice enough to send me a review copy of their recent Draft Day Sports: Pro Football 2020. I’ll be posting a full review in a couple days , but right now, here’s some quick hits:

I love the 2D Field concept: It’s easy to see when your player misses in coverage, or your Running Back manages to squeeze through the whole and breaks free for a big game.

There are some ways it could be improved (such as having the name of skill players above their representation on the field, or at least their number instead of just their position).

Some text commentary would go a LONG way towards helping you understand the action on the field (short passes, it’s hard to know if it’s complete and instantly tackled, incomplete, etcetera).

One thing I really like about the setup is that there’s a good amount of immersion (for example, there’s a panel of “experts” who will single out one game and give their predictions on it, something you’d see like on a pregame show. Heck, I’d love a pregame graphic with the helmets popping up like they do on the pregame shows in real life.

More to come as I put it through its paces. There are some things I’m not sure about, but I’m going to check them out thoroughly before I report on them.

[SirFozzie]

Further thoughts:

The more I play, the more I want a FM style text bar underneath the 2D field giving commentary.

Gameplay seems pretty decent, some timing issues (the only text sim that I think really handles hurry-up and super-hurry-up offenses and clock management perfectly is Second and Ten). Do have a concern that all plays are listed as tackles, and not people heading out of bounds. Numbers seem right, had a good amount of rotation with the running backs..

[fortheglory]

Looking forward to your full review

[SirFozzie]

next step up is testing out the stat engine:

For this test, I created a custom league: 20 teams, 16 game season. Random players

Minor quibble: I would like to be able to change conference and division names as part of the setup. It's fairly easy to do so post creation, but it took me a bit of time to find the options menu and to use it.

I like the Free Agency recap after each round, even if it IS a bit tortured when it comes to the language:

Free Agency Round 10: Round Up

40 players signed this week.

The biggest name signing this week was Jose Anderson. The C out of Grand Valley State signed a $2,690,000 contract for 2 year(s) with Orange Sailors.

Federal Conference Lightning was the most active division with a total of 12 signings.

Orange Sailors was the most active signing a total of 4 player(s).

The biggest spender was Orange Sailors who signed 4 player(s) for a total of $6,340,000.

[SirFozzie]

Here's an example of the weekly prediction of the game of the week:

Game of the Week: Orange Sailors at Jacksonville Fighting Lions

Our Expert Predictions:

Jeremy Piper : Jacksonville Fighting Lions
I do not think you get very far against their offense. They will put up a lot of points.

Mary Moore : Orange Sailors
For this game, my opinion is that Eloy Metz - DE will be a key figure in this game. Do not sleep on this guy's ability. A single digit win.

Jim Nox : Jacksonville Fighting Lions
This defense is likely to step up this week. The way they win this game will tell a lot about what they are as a team.

Darren Francis : Jacksonville Fighting Lions
With leaders like Dean Grubb - RB and Joshua Carrington - G in the locker room it is easy to see why the Fighting Lions win this game. Replace the batteries in your remote. You do not want to miss this game.

[SirFozzie]

Throw this firmly into the do not like column:

When you press sim week, it does take you to the next week's game. Have no problem with that. I do have a problem with the default being to hide all scores from past weeks unless you specifically press "Show Score" for each one. Just bugs me.

Was looking for the setup to have the CPU handle certain parts of the job for me. Couldn't find it.

Easy enough to sim many seasons, just from the simulate page, press "Simulate Multiple Seasons", it asks how many, and then reminds you that all teams will be CPU-controlled during the sim.

[SirFozzie]

Took about 20 minutes to sim 10 seasons.

test.pdf - Google Drive

The numbers look pretty decent and varied offense and defense wise.

Here are the individual leaders for one season:

test leaders.pdf - Google Drive

I thought 1,000 yard rushers were high, but compared it to the real 2002 season, and it looked about the same.

[LastWhiteSoxFanStanding]

How are the stats looking?

From what I have read , the stats generally turn out ok, but if you take a closer look at the game log, the game sometimes does odd things to get to those stats or just odd AI decisions in general.

Curious to hear your opinion on it.

[SirFozzie]

legend.pdf - Google Drive

Here's the passing leader 10 seasons in. The 1999 draft was a initial draft, so he went #13 overall in that initial draft.

edit: One weird thing. A QB with pancake blocks? Danger Will Robinson! *laughs*

[SirFozzie]

I was hoping that I could print the player ratngs like I did the stats, but no joy there. Hopefully an option going forward.

[SirFozzie]

One thing I do like, if you look at the analysis tab, it breaks down their passing attempts short/medium/long and left/center/right:

Dropbox - Screenshot 2019-11-20 03.32.40.png - Simplify your life

[Toddzilla]

Not for nothing, but Gary is one of the genuinely great human beings around.

[SirFozzie]

agreed

[SirFozzie]

Further thoughts on DDS: Pro Football, ahead of the formal review (which I will post this weekend probably)

This is a solid mid-range game. The 2D allows the game to have a pretty good niche, as you can better visualize key battles, like when your Running Back busts through the line, you can tell that the lineman did a good job get out in front.

The improvements I would like (forgive me if I've missed something)

A) Further improvements of the 2D engine and commentary. The 2D engine base is good, which actually makes the flaws (regarding time running off, penalties plays showing a bit weirdly sometimes) more glaring, but this is definitely something that can be evolved.

B) Improving the in-game experience. Breaking down stats by category in game instead of a list of players unsorted would be so useful. They have done so much to give the outside-the-game experience flavor, a similar pass on improving in-game commentary would be great. Maybe something similar to what the draft experience is like, provide a play by play guy who gives the breakdown "There's the handoff to White. Up the middle, and gets five yards." and then another character to handle the Color commentary role "You can see on the replay that the guard, Thomas was able to seal off his man and provided the space for the first down. Well done!"

C) Improve the UI/friendliness for folks who just want to do certain parts. For example, I'm interested mostly in coaching games, signing and trading players. I'm not big on scouting players, I'd be willing to accept the computer's view on who I should scout and what the results are. A screen on the options page to let the CPU handle certain parts of the job for you would be great.

D) I LOVE LOVE LOVE how easy it is to simulate multiple seasons to give your game history. Add an option as part of league creation to sim a number of years to the initial creation (as well as rename divisions and conferences before actually starting the game).

In short: I think they've done the REVOLUTIONARY work for the franchise. It's now time to do EVOLUTIONARY work. Make what they have better. The game has a very different feel then FOF, lean into it and improve what they have, and they'll have a true-FOF threat.

[Marmel]

I have been playing around with the demo. I like it but so far don't love it. I'm really on the fence about a purchase here. Is this the official release or is it in a paid beta?

Really loved the customization for league size and the stats look pretty decent so far. There is just so much that is not very intuitive.

I might bite if there is a sale down the line.

[Gary Gorski]

Originally Posted by Toddzilla

Not for nothing, but Gary is one of the genuinely great human beings around.

Wow, that means more to me than anything ever written about any of my games. I appreciate that comment - it really has made my day

[Gary Gorski]

Originally Posted by Marmel

I have been playing around with the demo. I like it but so far don't love it. I'm really on the fence about a purchase here. Is this the official release or is it in a paid beta?

Really loved the customization for league size and the stats look pretty decent so far. There is just so much that is not very intuitive.

I might bite if there is a sale down the line.

The game has been officially launched for some time now so its not a paid beta - I'd appreciate your feedback on what is not intuitive though. The game is going to get a makeover next year so feedback here is important. If you have followed the PB20 dev at all you will see we have a brand new platform we are using and the results are stunning (watch our videos on youtube or try the demo and see)

As for a sale...we always do a Black Friday sale - keep your eyes open next week

[SirFozzie]

Review up: Fozzie Reviews: Draft Day Sports Pro Football 2020

[SirFozzie]

So, these are the games I'm thinking about reviewing next (both on the website and here)

Draft Day Sports: Pro Basketball 20
Battletech
Fantasy General II

[SirFozzie]

So, with DDS PF20 complete, and the holidays past us, I'm going to review two games next, starting with the recently-released Draft Day Sports Pro Basketball 20 and Battletech Complete edition. It will be difficult for me to not fanboy over Battletech Complete (being a fan of the series for 20+ years).. but I will persevere. Somehow

[SirFozzie]

Also, Phoenix Point releases today (x-com virtual successor). Throw that in the queue with FM20, following up with MPQ, and Paranoia in two weeks.

I really am going to have to clone myself to play all the games