Franchise Hockey Manager 5

I love hockey and I love hockey management games, granted there have been very few hockey management games, but I had high hopes that FHM 5 would be greatly improved since FHM 2. However, I just cannot recommend this game still or really even play it. It's a time sync in the wrong kind of ways. The user interface is the culprit. I spent hours just trying to set up my first team and still never finished. The training interface, the line setup interface, well pretty much everything needs to be more streamlined and easier to use. Even the depth chart has issues, there is just a defense column, you can't have a LD and RD depth chart even. Everything you need to look at to set up everything has too many clicks to make to get to what you need. The info should be displayed on the page for what you are doing. Even putting players into their lines is a bigger job than it needs to be. In short this game has a long way to go to catch up to the Out of the Park series. In OOTP the time sync is in playing, not too much time setting everything up. Even the game resolution screen needs to be improved if you are participating in the game and not just simming, it's very rough UI. So I guess if you don't mind spending a lot of time battling the UI, this is the game for you. I will not be spending much time with the game as it's more of a pain then fun in it's current state. I hate to say this, because I really wanted this game to click and be much more polished at this point. But it's just not and it seems so far from the OOTP development, I'm very disappointed. I guess I will give this a 4/10 for now, I nearly thought of giving it a 3.

After spending 11 hours in two days, here are my thoughts: - Incredibly slow user interface (it feels like the UI shares thread with the logic) - Lists lose their sorted order when you go back a page - AI setup lines misses certain players and makes weird lines - Inconsistent menus (way too many clicks to get to certain pages) - Even when set at the fastest sim settings, the games take forever to simulate - The message system is really buggy and annoying - No native profile headshots, even though the game has the official NHL license - It feels like tactics don't really impact the outcome of games - $35 is a huge waste of money on this low quality product - Can't really find anything good about the game as it stands now Basically, get the latest roster updates for EHM instead, because it's better in every single aspect.

I have put around 500 hours into the FHM seriers on FHM 3 and FHM 4, i have lead teams on these games to NHL season with 70 + wins for 5 straight years so id like to think i know how to play. Let me start by saying like everyone else on here i do think that the UI has improved a lot this year, but the reason im giving this game a negative review is because of what they have taken out. You can now only assign one role to a player on your team, in old games when your players where 5v5 you would assign them an offensive role and a defensive role ex. On offence you could have the player be Screener and while said player was on Defence you could assign him the Backchecking Forward role. Now they have one role and you can set players Backcheacking tendencies to low,med or high.However my BIGGEST problem with the game is the fact you can no longer assign players separate roles for 5v5 ,PK or PP what that means is when you give a player a role EX.Sniper he has to use that role for 5v5 PP and PK if you change the players PK role it also changes his 5v5 and PP role to the same.I think that is a huge mistake as i doubt players are ever asked to play the same way on the PP as they are on the PK.

Not perfect but another huge step towards greatness ;) - Trading engine way better than in FHM4 - you love tinkering around with tactics to an extreme? you´ll love the improved tactics screen - for me the most important thing - Historical mode expanded and rudimentary farm system added :) As i mentioned above - for sure not perfect but an improvement over the last iteration

I spent 20 hours on this game and around 500 on the last game and its honelty a downgrade not rote the price that its at right now. Also its funny how most of the likes that this game has are from people that have nearly 300 hours in a game that came out 2 weeks ago cons -feels a lot slower then past games -cant see which players you have are playing international anymore so the preseason is like a game of clue -maybe this is just me but you dont have the face pictures anymore and when you trade or sign someone they keep the jersey from the past team -you cant see the the defense, offense etc or the stats anymore unless you go to your roaster,click on their name hich sends you to back to the top or have it on the hub heres the problem you cant do that if the player is in the draft or in free agency why cant we just hover over the player name like the last games??? - AI is still dumb i traded shea weber for the 1 overall pick in the draft with Viktor Arvidsson and Mattias Ekholm attached to it -drafting and free agency is a mess you better make should that the player you click on is the right one because it causes you to go back to the top and resets what you were looking for idk if thats a bug but thats jusst stupid -a downgrade from the last game come on guys -the new lay out is confusing -switching to your farm team is a mess pros -has an updated roster they seemed like they wanted to try some new things but it failed you guys had to have played tested it and played number 4 and saw how bad it is compared to it now. If you want to play a game like this get 4 its much better then this landfill

Full of bugs, need to be mostly fixed to give a respectable gameplay. The interface is average, I see the potential but it's just not there yet. Not worth your money for the moment it's not as fluent as EHM for example. However main developper seems to be very active in steam / forums / etc. and I'm pretty sure this review could eventually change in a positive way. I Sure hope it was just a very early release and that the game will keep getting better !

Better than the two previous version and more importantly, the game doesn't crash consistently. The new layout is an upgrade from FHM4/3. I've always enjoyed the core concept of the game but have some recommendations for future improvements. - please add a filter option to better find trainers and assistant coaches. Pain in the ass looking for a trainer with a skill of 18+ - not sure if its my game but the playoff stats always show zero on the team stats screen - players will immediately drop 1/2-1 star after a trade, being picked up on free agency or being moved between the AHL/NHL. - include a hot button on the right side to easily get to your AHL/ECHL team. The previous versions used to have your minor league stats/records on the parent home page. After each day sims, the default screen should be a "GM" view of the entire organization. I have to click on 3-4 buttons to see my AHL teams stats/line combinations. Doesn't make managing each team very easy. - there is currently a glitch where I offer a contact to a free agent for the base amount for 2-3 years @ 600k/700k. The CPU will reject the offer and make me counter-offer for a higher contract. The problem lies where the game doesn't allow me to increase my offer past 925k. The button for meet demand doesnt increase the 925k and simply ruins the negotiation process. I have plenty of cap space and roster space. It's happened a couple times so I have to increase the initial offer past 1M. - like other reviews have stated, there should be two sets of roles and roles shouldn't spill over into speciality teams. How can a legitimate 1C "playmaker" be a playmaker on the PK? That should be changed to a backchecking/two-way - add descriptions to the tactics. drop downs offer the name. I've added criticism and feedback in hopes to continue making this game great. The devs are always active on the forums and here on steam. Thank you for making another year. Was looking forward to it after seeing the improvements on OOTP.

A big step forward if compared with FHM4. In particular, the new UI is much better, even if some won't like the brightness. I frankly have no problems with white backgrounds. And the new tactics system is great. Don't expect much huge news, the core of the game has been worked a lot so the game is now more stable, more realistic, more solid. There are more options for those who like custom games, but frankly, I'm not interested in that game mode so I haven't scrutinized it much. You can now play online as you can do with OOTP, but once again, I prefer solo gaming anyways. The only thing that I think the 5th iteration is a bit behind is gaming in the European leagues. The improvements in the core of the game have of course their impact in the European leagues as well (in particular, a better in-game screen, new tactics, better visualization and so on), but rules, customs, finances and similar things are pretty similar to FHM4. The ones who liked FHM4 will find FHM5 even better, while new players can be easily hooked especially if they want to play in the NHL and having an expansion draft or similar things. The devs are very supportive and you can expect a number of patches to address bugs and hopefully improve the European part and introduce new small, but useful function. If you are a hockey sims fan, this is a must buy.

I really love the game since Im a hockey fanatic. The details within the game as far as player type, stats, players character and more are really great additions and creates more morale decisions when trading or cutting a player. The KHL player rights situation is kinda confusing atm as I havent figured out if I have to wait for their KHL contracts to be up or not. Now the reason why I wouldn't recommend the game is because of the offseason simulations. During the season it's not bad simulating day to day, but when the playoffs end the game takes forever simulating to either the draft or even a week for that matter. It literally took me a day to simulate past Year 1 offseason due to it being unresponsive and the occasion crashing. The game never crashed for me during the season but that offseason simulation annoys me and slows my gameplay. The only reason why I keep playing is because I love what they added to this game, but I know a lot of people that wont stick it out for that reason. If they change the offseason simulation then I'll change my review.

the most addicting hockey game ive played since nhl 94 love it....