Franchise Hockey Manager 3 Available Now, Officially Licensed By The NHL

[Steve_OS]

Franchise Hockey Manager 3, officially licensed by the NHL, is available today for $39.99 on PC and Mac. Fans can purchase the game on the official site, Steam (10% off until November 7) and other online retailers.

Check out some of the features below.

• Officially licensed by the NHL®! Teams will have their real logos, insignias, and uniforms along with the Stanley Cup® Championship and post-season awards!
• New Career Mode: Path to glory: A streamlined and more approachable way to play, with improved game and information flow as well as news from around the world that impacts your experience.
• Generate your GM/Coach, assign your skills as you wish, start low and work your way up - or take the helm of your favorite team and take it to the Stanley Cup® Championship!
• New Role-Based Tactical System: Allows the coach to choose from a variety of pre-set tactics to build their team's "system" and then assign players specific roles that fit into that system.
• Rebuilt Injury System - Injuries are now generated directly from in-game events and correspond to specific activities - fights will break noses more than they will sprain ankles. Players are now rated for durability in different parts of their bodies, and serious injuries in one place can leave them more vulnerable to more injuries of the same type later in their career.
• Updated Development Process - Player development has received some significant changes, introducing more variability and making player evaluation much more uncertain.
• Updated Interface - The well-received FHM 2 interface has been refined even further to make playing the game easier than ever.
• Steamworks Support - Adding mods like logo or jersey packs is now easier than ever.
• Achievements - Your in-game accomplishments can earn you 50 different achievements that work in both the Steam and non-Steam versions of the game. If you play through Steam, you get a Steam achievement that matches the in-game one.
• And Much More:
  • Star ratings have been rescaled so there's much more diversity within leagues
  • More logical penalty calling
  • A new game rating system that adds offensive and defensive game scores
  • Leagues now have a functioning central scouting organization that you can use to guide your own scouting and drafting
  • A more detailed coaching model
  • Improved AI throughout the game, for example trade AI, roster AI, in-game AI, contract AI and so on, resulting in a more challenging game play.

[JsMcbain]

I have a question I always asked myself about this game and ootp baseball... As they offer historical seasons (back to 1931 in this game), is it possible to begin a ''career'' let's say in 1983 and have all the real draft classes every year until present? That would kinda be awesome. And if it works like that, is there an option for player development (player develops randomly from draft point vs. player develops as he did in the nhl)?

I hope my question makes sense

[LiveFastCyYoung]

I can't speak for FHM but for OOTP, you can do both of those things. I'd imagine it's the same in FHM but I haven't played and do not know for sure.

[KnightAttack]

Re: Franchise Hockey Manager 3 Available Now, Officially Licensed By The NHL

I have a question I always asked myself about this game and ootp baseball... As they offer historical seasons (back to 1931 in this game), is it possible to begin a ''career'' let's say in 1983 and have all the real draft classes every year until present? That would kinda be awesome. And if it works like that, is there an option for player development (player develops randomly from draft point vs. player develops as he did in the nhl)?

I hope my question makes sense

Yes to both.

Historical Mode will feature all real draft classes right up to present. You can also either have the game recalculate stats at the end of every year (to have players generate as they normally would) or you can turn on the FHM Development Engine, so maybe that guys career who ended because of injuries actually plays another 10 years (for instance).

The one major difference between OOTP Historical and FHM Historical is FHM does not have minor league teams. Instead it uses a Reserve List that acts like a Minor League system even though games are not being played.

(This is for a variety of reasons, but the major one is Minor League Hockey was a mess up until about the last 7 or so years with teams split squading players, multi-league setups, and a variety of other things).