Franchise Hockey Manager 4

I was a big fan of FHM 2 and didn't had chance to play any hockey sim since then. So when FHM4 got out, I was excited....and then when I played it, found out that it was very similar to FHM2 than anything else. Granted, the engine is better, the simulation have been improved but the interface could have been revised for a more 2017 look. The number of new features are too slim. I love the fact that you could have a 6 team league but why can't you have NHL players? Is that license related? But the main reason I cannot recommend this game is the processing speed. I have a state of the art Alienware R4 laptop than can run any games at the highest resolution.... but it take sometimes 30 seconds to sim a day! I know it simulate all the leagues and that I can remove them to accelerate the simulation but with my laptop, I should be able to play the game full features without waiting like that because at 15 to 30 seconds per day, that is two hours of waiting time per season!! Unacceptable!

Best hockey simulator available right now, with about 500 hours in EHM (including versions prior to SI) Franchise Hockey Manager 4 had me won over in less than five. Much more immersive and broader in scope. Since Sports Interactive has given EHM a lackluster effort this will be my go to game from now. Pros for me: - More immersive with player development and moods during the season. - Intuitive choice of tactics and player roles that makes sense with the abstraction that game engines are. - The sandbox of being able to start in any year since 1905 and forward. I guess some hockey fans would grit their teeth seing Yzerman going to Pittsburgh and Lemieux to Hartford in their game they started in 1973 though. :) I kind of enjoy it. Cons: - One of the few critiques I agree with that negative reviews have taken up are the crashes. It's not that bad though, I get an odd crash every 2 hours maybe. But with the autosave every month, and you can manually save at any time you feel you've had a good streak of games or fortune, you won't lose much time at all. Still too bad it's not fixed yet. - Some concepts and related UI seems weird and underdeveloped and I hope they look into that, specifically training and player development. - Some sort of tutorial or tooltips, it's easy to miss critical stuff, like that PP and PK have their own tactics to chose; maybe warnings for some league specific rules just to educate the player before he makes a mistake (like, I dunno, waivers, injury roster, offer sheets, etc). - All values of players, especially since the game ranges from 1905 to 2017, may not be accurate (or you may not agree if you're a hardcore hockey fan), but then which game is... I'm fine with it and you can edit values within the game if you wish to. - AI may be a bit bad with trades or strategy (Detroit had to get a goalie on an offer sheet (1st and 3rd pick) the same year they drafted Yzerman in real life, just because they didn't keep a goalie or two in their farm team). Looking forward to FHM 5, I do hope they take this kind of yearly release seriously and really offer a proper upgrade and constant development. FHM 4 is a great game at any rate.

good game! Could have more for the visuall presnetation to make it more appealing. I found my game crashes all the time after about an hour game play :( so I dont know if I would reccommend this game to anyone just because I can't get hooked on a game that crashes every so often! If I was told how to fix it then I would probably give this game a thumbs up!

Not sure how this series is on its 4th iteration and it's still so bad. I have a lot of respect for the OOTPD team, and OOTP is easily one of the best games I have played EVER; this is far from it however. Really just not a fun game in any way; bad UI, bad AI, etc. Really no significant improvements to the actual important gameplay elements have been made on this game since fhm2, which was also a bad game. If you liked the last FHM games I'm sure you'll like, and I bought it on release to support NHL GM games on PC, but I just can't recommend it for any reason other than that. I really think the simulation engine is so bad its gamebreaking.

I love hockey and always wanted to lead a franchise to glory. So, like many, I did read the reviews and thought, how bad could this be? Well….. This game is very difficult to learn if you're new like I am. Many reviewers talked about playing previous versions, so they potentially had an idea as to how it worked. There are no instructions on how to do anything. No tutorial to explain the office, trading, deadlines, signing players, etc. It took me two days to feel comfortable enough to play. Now, perhaps it's just me? Maybe not? As a result of this lack of training, my team is bad. I do believe in time, I'll figure it out and master the game. Would I recommend it? For the average gamer... no. For some one who's patient and likes a challenge... maybe.

Meh. I was curious about the game since OOTP's baseball game is the best I've ever played. I didn't expect anything equal, but I wanted more. There's nothing to really control the action in-game, nor any explanation of many factors a non-expert would know--international rights, draft/contract rights timing, etc. The interface just isn't great--especially for trying to do trades. Nothing's intuitive.

An excellent game. Deeper than the Marianas Trench, and fairly rasonably priced. The game can be extremely confusing in the begining, and the reputation system can take a very long time to learn, but the overall experience is engaging and rewarding. My only real peice of advice is don't go into this game believing that you can simply take over any team and win any trophy immediately. You can't, you are going to have to learn the mechanics and AI first. Give it some time tand develop your skills, and the game pays dividends. I would also be prepared to read the online manual as well, this isn't EA, you will need the help. This game is an endlessly replayable alternative to the EA NHL farnchise, at a lower cost, and with much more in the way of options, and control over the team that you chose to run. For example you get to hire individual scouts, to control the depth and bredth of your scouting operations, hire the training and medical staff, decide on the draft picks (though the League Nord American de Hockey draft mechanic appears to be broken, and forces me to draft a gaolie in the first three rounds, like an NHL expansion draft), and control the develpment of players through your training focus. If the level of detail, and you can decide everything, from the lineups, to the type of player that a player should be (power forward, or peripheral shooter?) you can decide everything, and can even exercise some level of control over the minors affiliates of your team. Or, if that is to much micromanaging for you, the AI is intelligent enough to make lineup, and other decisions for you without harming the teams performance, and forcing you to go in and fix its mistakes. Despite the crashes, whitch yes, do happen occasionally, I would definately recomend this product, and the parent developers other management sim, OOTP 19 to anybody.

bad game!...I am into hockey hardcore and was looking at a new nhl sim game as nhl 18 makes me want to cry cause its so bad, this game may seem cool but its a piece of ♥♥♥♥, it doesnt help you at all when starting out and leaves you out to dry. STAY AWAY

Refunded this game. It's 2018 and there is no way to play single matchups. I can only play seasons. Granted, the season play is exhuastive and comprehensive. But if Devs have put that much time into season play and can't offer single game, one-off, exhibition style match ups, then they don't deserve to have my money. Refunded.

There are a lot of things to like in this game, but the shortcomings are too obvious when comparing against say Eastside Hockey Manager. Especially a lot of the game views are not too well designed, which makes them quite confusing to use.