FFFL: Brutalball Manager

I randomly found this game, decided to try it out as I love the idea of Blood Bowl but haven't loved the PC versions. I'm also a huge fan of Crush! Deluxe and wish somebody would recreate it. Having a fantasy sport simulation like this is a bit of a dream come true. I've played 3 seasons in 3 days, and I don't see myself slowing down. The game is a bit overwhelming at first, but after a few games I understood enough to feel like I knew what was happening. I fell in love with several of my players. Iluz, the Drow? He is the best Gunner (receiver) the game has ever seen. He'd average 4 touchdowns a game, and was MVP for two seasons. That third season, though? His last before forced retirement? He died. And I was relegated (which is an optional setting). Now I'm on the road to get back to the top league, and I'm going to kill Quintus, the player who killed my beloved Iluz (and was MVP the year Iluz died).

As someone who picked up this game having never played Legend Bowl, it took me awhile to figure out what the ratings meant and how they fit with each other. That being said, I'm having fun so far even if I'm not winning very much yet. I made a lineup change in my interior line that helped me get my first win, so it can be done but you need to figure things out for yourself. Even a short tutorial would have been helpful. I like the three-down style quite a bit but wish there were a way to kick field goals, say for half a point. But as the description says, the game appears to be a labor of love and it shows. Well done.

Insanely awesome free team building simulation. You create your team, there's randomized weekly training to upgrade your team so the progression is entirely luck based. The awesome counter to that is there's literally a cheat button you can tap for each player and they'll get better. Draft an gem in the first round but they're hurt all the time? Just tap that cheat button a few times and they'll quickly become the star you always knew they could be. If you're getting mad with the randomness (which your head coach dictates) then you can always take control and call the plays for your team every step of the way. They encourage mods and have a legit in game mod system to customize your league and adjust almost anything to your liking. There's legit no other free sports game that scratches the itch of running your own team

This is such a refreshing and unique game! Awesome sports management game, somewhat based on American Football, but with some interesting modifications. 3 downs per team. Must get 10 yds for 1st down. If you fail, the game sets the team back 20 yds (unless inside your own 30 yd line). All touchdowns and safeties are 1 point and that’s all the types of scoring. No time limit, just 100 total plays. 8 vs 8 , with same players on offense and defense. Each team has 3 “runners” and they are the QBs. QB rotate every play among the 3 runners, so you need depth to your team. The game engine is so fun to watch games play out, and there are visual cues and words, so you know exactly what happens on the field for every player (juke, pancake block, missed tackle, deflection, stiff arm, truck, tired, etc.). Also, very neat injury system, where an injured player is out the entire game and permanently loses stats slightly. Also, season ending or career ending (death, it’s brutal, haha) injuries. Each player and team (coaches) have personalities, appeal , salary. Simple salary system is easy to navigate. Lots of weekly events that shake up the league. Just lots of unique aspects and little nuggets that you will keep discovering (like blood on field where injury occurred and player that caused injury has blood on uniform). Overall, the management side has some basic UI, but keeps getting improvements. Can’t wait to see this game and future versions evolve! Definitely recommend!!

"FFFL: Brutalball Manager" is a garbage and failed "sports manager" game where you manage a ripoff of Games Workshop's Bloodbowl (oh I hope they sue). It's not free, there's paid P2W DLC. What do you do in the game? Not much... it's just a pointless, garbage spreadsheet simulator. The graphics aren't great... that will understandably be a turn off for a lot of gamers, and it's a big contributor to the failure of the game to attract gamers despite having no up-front cost. Gaming is a primarily visual medium, and if developers want to succeed, they must understand that it's not an area for compromise. You deserve better than compromises. On pricing and value for gamers, this isn't really free as you're expected to pay up $10 USD to unlock content/DLC, the game should not be considered completely unlocked until you empty your wallet for the developer. This is some nasty, predatory pricing and PC gamers don't like it. Even though this is "free", it failed to appeal to the 120 million+ gamers on Steam. SteamDB showed the game peaked at just a dozen or so concurrent players, and now there's basically nobody playing it. Even though it's free. This is a dismal public reception, but it's easy to see why gamers rejected it. Bearing in mind that free games don't add +1 to your game collector count, should you bother adding this to your library and downloading it? Nope. This isn't worth downloading. While this didn't cost me any money up front, I still feel ripped off.

The best "fantasy sports" game out there. Take the fantasy settings of Mutant League Football/Blood Bowl, and add in the best parts of Football Manger/OOTP--and you get FFFL. Even when compared to established sports sims, FFFL does a standout job making your managerial decisions felt in the gameplay. Your call to start the big slow Troll over the light and shifty Halfling will be apparent, and you'll find yourself really rooting for your team as you build the best eight-player football roster you can.