Franchise Hockey Manager 5

I really ummed and arghed about whether I could reccomend this game or not despite enjoying large parts of it. Ultimately I would reccomend it but there are some issues that need addressing, some quite urgently. As somebody who loves Sports Sim/Management game and a huge ice hockey fan I was so excited by this game. I've played EHM for quite a while now but after growing frustrated with that I wanted to try this. At first all seemed good, it looks much cleaner and more inviting than EHM and the proper licensing rights to the NHL is great. As somebody who likes to tinker with things the Commissioner mode is a nice touch too, although I do wish there were more options to edit teams etc. I also enjoy the feeling that the North American League's in particular are just slightly more complete. The financial side of this feels better than other similar games, especially the addition of local TV Market deals although I noticed the contract negotiations with players coming off their rookie deals doesn't seem even close to realistic at times (I managed to sign McAvoy to a 4 year deal at $1.4million cap hit). Contract negotiations other than this seemed fairly normal other than the tendency of overpaying stars (although most games do this and I dont think this is a weakness of FHM at all). But quite quickly I discovered the first problem. The game is unstable and clunky. Whilst I'm fortunate that I've not had many crashes yet the game freezes for 5-10 seconds every time you click the drop down menu or any options in it making it incredibly difficult to navigate around the game. This isn't helped by the fact that sometimes things just arent where you expect them to be. Navigating to clubs outside of your league is a real pain and international sides is even more difficult. This is still the biggest problem I have with the game but I do have a number of other more minor problems. Firstly to me, the trading system feels slightly innacurate with teams often making unrealistic moves. The strangest thing I've come across is the League wide over valuation of mid round draft picks. For some reason in my first save Tampa inexplicably traded the majority of their players with any marketable value for 3rd, 4th and 5th round picks including Kucherov for 2 3rd rounders at the end of the 1st season. By the time season started they had accumulated 3 2nd round picks, 8 3rd rounders, 3 4th rounders & 5 5th rounders across the 2020/21 drafts. They did win the cup and were facing cap problems which may explain this slightly but it seemed odd the extremes of this and the favouring of mid round picks over prospects. Some of the trades were just ridiculous (Kucherov for example). Secondly, while I think the tactic system is a great idea and I enjoy being able to mess around with player roles, it just doesn't feel easy to use. I find it difficult and counter-intuitive to set lines and dress or undress players, same sadly with the training screen. I'm sure once I get more used to this it will start to make sense but for now its just an unnecessarily difficult part of the game. Finally, This touches on what was briefly mentioned before but the interface is just weird. Its awkward to find free agents, the trade block (Not to mention the frustrating method of trading itself), and the calender is limited in what it tells you. There is more I could write but I don't want to feel like I'm knit picking. Ultimately I am enjoying this game and there is a huge amount of potential but there is a lot about it I find frustrating. The unstable nature of it is really limiting my enjoyment too, particularly over longer gaming sessions. I really hope this series does continue though as there is a lot about this to like. Before buying the next one though, I will wait to see if the stability issues are sorted.

The best Hockey manager. + real players and teams + easy + fun - better to buy in October, but it´s too expensive in those days 7,5/10

I want to love it but not being able to grow my stats and develop as a GM is big bug that is taking far too log to resolve for a hockey manager game. Please focus on basic functionality.

I just found it very bare compared to other similar games like EHM. Although the historical dates of the NHL being included is very nice.

Terrible unplayable game. Can not be played without crashing. Do not purchase!!!

the dumbest humans on earth made th8is game. F them and F this trash sim. ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ♥♥♥♥♥♥

bad game , lazy development, no actions between games.. im huge NHL fan but this is not experience you want nor you would expect from nhl flly licensed game. visual is like from 90s , you dont get any feedback what youre doing wrong , tactics module seems broken bc whatever you set , the game feels like randomly generating result. UI looks terrible , no media, no talking to your players , nothing ..

It was fun when I played with a problem I discovered after uninstalling I'l lput at the end.. However, real life sports in the U.S. and some other countries have become focused on playing politics rather than entertaining us (sports is part of the entertainment industry). I stopped attending or watching pro and college sports several years ago. Thanks to disgusting players and commissioners in sports I will no longer purchase any sports games that are based on real players or teams. Nothing that gives income to spoiled and disgustingly behaved overpaid sports. If you uninstall then look at all the file locations. After uninstalling games I normally have little, if anything, left in the files from that game. This game (as well as OOTP for those who play that) left a ton of files on my computer. I was amazed the space it took and deleted every directory of them I found by hand. Be sure to check yours. I don't remember which game but one of them (this or OOTP) left several years of versions I had purchased with hundreds of gigs. Be sure to check your files!

This game could be good if it wasnt buggy, the ai wasnt DAF, if the AI didn't purposefully screw you over in challenges ( or maybe its a coincedence that every 4th year into the oilers challenge the coach suddenly only plays the back up.) and if the contract coding wasnt completely and totally f'ed (rookie players start the game with 1 year on their contract and demand 6-9 mill contracts at 19 years old). and don't bother buying FHM6 none of these problems were solved because the only difference between 5 and 6 is the roster.

Very clunky, lots of crashes, VERY poor interface which lags on every button press. Takes forever to do what should be simple tasks. Not worth the money