Pro Basketball Manager 2016

[b]tl;dr -> I wasn't sure how in-depth the gameplay would be. I let the AI play for the first quarter (USA {me} vs. Venezuela), I took over, and I won by 5 points. 11/10 most stressful basketball memory ever.[/b] I received a review copy of this game and was excited to try it because I love in-depth sports management games. I was surprised and a bit overwhelmed by how extensive and deep Pro Basketball Manager 2016 turned out to be, but was also still very pleased with my gameplay experience. My best friend (basketball buff) helped me understand many of the mechanics, and we played through a very stressful game against Venezuela and nearly lost (with our USA dream team, mind you). If you like intricate sports (specifically basketball) management, then you must give this title a try. Be advised, there is a horde of content within, and it can be easy to get lost in it if you are not patient. The aesthetics are good – even though much of the game is text- and data-based (many graphs), the layout is very clean and easy to navigate through (and trust me, there are many screens you’ll be looking at). During games, you can watch in 2D or 3D mode – 2D offering a more tactical look and 3D giving you a nice change from the heavy text. I was impressed with the variety of great music in the game’s library – I actually thought it was my own music playing. There is a mixture of chill tracks and more upbeat, exciting ones too. You will be forging your own legacy (hopefully), so the game is very open to differing playthroughs. When you start, you may pick any available team in the world, and can pick up a second one as well (although the artificial intelligence (AI) will coach your secondary team for you if you wish to focus on your main – I strongly suggest that you concentrate on one team at a time). You’ll be using the mouse to navigate through the game, so the controls are simple, however, the amount of different elements to understand and consider are enormous. There are tooltips always available, and the game can be quite overwhelming if you have no experience with management games – especially sports-based ones. You can have your assistant coaches select things for you if you ever need help – for example, starting line-ups, positioning, allocated play time, et cetera. The learning curve is moderate to extreme depending on your experience with management games, and the most difficult element is probably balancing all your responsibilities. The AI will play decently if you choose to simulate games, but if you want the best (and most stressful) experience, then you will want to play every game – or at least every critical game for your team(s). Gameplay consists of you managing every possible aspect of your team(s) – you begin by creating avatar then move on to selecting a team in the world to represent. My best friend and I found it nice (and hilarious) that the player roster is very close to real-life (ex: Kobe “Bryent” and LeBron “Jamas”). Even head coaches had similar names to their real-life counterparts. I selected Los Angeles and assembled my national (USA) dream team, also picking up a Brazilian secondary amateur team. Next, you will be planning player budget and scouting – in order to do things like recruit and rehabilitate, you will need to invest in better staff (sports therapists, trainers, etc). You can even select how much seat tickets in your local arena will cost, as well as concession and memorabilia prices. Training is very in-depth and you will be selecting how much time in a day (as well as before and day-of matches) to spend on team/individual practice. Furthermore, you can personalize training for each player, having one individual focus on 3-pointers and another focus on defensive play. Your training regime will directly impact your performance during games, and you will probably find yourself switching up your strategy often – until you become more comfortable with the gameplay. During game days, you can simulate your own, but I recommend you play through an entire session at least once for the full experience. There is text-only play-by-play commentary, and you can offer general strategies in-match. If you want to go deeper, you can even manipulate defensive/offensive strategies live – and doing this will give you the best performance. That being said, my best friend and I nearly lost against Venezuela because we simply watched the AI for the first quarter. If you want to play zone man-to-man, you can do so; if you want to suddenly isolate while on offence, that’s an option too. Double-teaming your highest-scoring opponent may work, and you can expect the AI to do the same to you. You’ll also have to be aware of substitutions, as your players’ morale and fatigue will fluctuate. During intermissions, you can give motivational feedback to your team, and their morale will be affected depending on your choice (ex: “we are only losing by a few points,” when it’s the last quarter and your team has been working hard may have mixed reception on individual morale). If you choose to play at least some of your games, you will be able to play Pro Basketball Manager 2016 for the rest of your life (or at least until the next installment comes out). Trust me, nothing beats live coaching, and your stress levels will reach a new high. Overall, the game is amazing in terms of depth, albeit a bit overwhelming at times. If you enjoy the intricacy of managing and coaching your own basketball team, then you must definitely give this title a try. I recommend! Cheers, DJSF [url=http://steamcommunity.com/groups/djsfsroguereviews]@DJSF's Rogue Reviews[/url] [url=http://theroguereviews.com/]My Website[/url]

TLDR; I love basketball and manager games, this one is so bad that I'd rather keep playing football/soccer managers or really do anything else than deal with this rather Early access product. I really want to like this game. I really do. So much that I ignored the "mixed" reviews. I love sports management simulations and would love to have a good basketball one. This one isn't it, sadly. It seems rushed and half done, more like an early access title. It is: - crashes constantly (~ 1 crash per hour for me, hope you saved!) - absolutely lacking documentation, the "manual" is a joke, couldn't even find what skills influence exactly what - riddled with bugs (for example you can hire the same scout twice, he will show up twice, salary deducted twice, but he can only ever be on one mission) - lots of unpolishedness that with tiem drives you crazy (select sorting, go to player page, go back, sorting gone :( ) - missing features (or things I can't find in the game or the manual) - hey you are scouting this player, oh you realized after an update he is not for you - there is NO WAY (that I can find) to abort scouting that player so hey continue wasting resources on them - Game gets ridicoulosly slow at times, e.g. if I played a game, simulated till end and afterwards want to simulate the schedule. At one time it just stopped after minutes. An no I haven't selected too many leagues, restart and reload the game and everything happens in seconds again (some sort of leak I guess) That are just a few of the things. You can also find a "<BR>" text in a fairly prominent text (HTML for line break, seems to have not been correctly converted). This hints to the amount of quality assurance this apparently went through. Stay away.

I have played past releases of this game and they were terrible for NBA fan and more suited to Euro comp. But this is a huge step in right direction. It is not the most stable game and has a habit of crashing. And is not perfect, would like more options to set overall team strategies, instruct players to avoid fouls (ai seems to adjust this even when you're coaching), no way to guage interest in trades or put players on the block, and player tactics does not allow you to save them. But it is clear that the team behind this a serious about making this a good product and even if it is a few years down the track I will continue to support because it is the only good basketball management game out and year on year it gets better.

As an avid fan of manager games and having sunk several hundreds of hours into FM, I was excited to see this game released. I skipped the 2015 edition of this game and hoped that 2016 would be a better game. So far, this game has not met my expecations. The game is clunky, UI is messy, and the 3D engine is quite disastrous. Everything runs a couple seconds late, the animations are bad at best, and the game does not come with the right tools for you to make on the fly decisions as a "basketball manager." That isn't to say this game does not have potential. The foundation has been laid for what could be a great game, but the devs will need to expand upon it to optimze the game performance and reduce the crashes. If they can do that, I would have happy to change my review to a recommend, but at this point, I simply cannot recommend this to anyone, even if you are a fan of simulation series/basketball.

Entertaining and deep simulation with a few quirks in a short time playing. Biggest issue so far is adjusting to odd English translations for game actions. "The referees take (player x)" is a common penalty call, for instance. Other than that localization issue, the gameplay is clearly deep, with both pro and college teams, male and female, and the ability to manage do what degree you choose. There's the ability to design your own plays, run specific ones, or just say "Hey, PG, shoot a 3 this time." However, just like coaches have to deal with, the players won't always react how you want. There's morale, injuries, and all of the typical details you'd expect in such a sim. Only a bit into it so far (with one come-from-behind 16 point turn around by Michigan State over Kansas), but it's there's quite a bit here to get into. Time will tell how it stands up. Now, I present to you the end of my review and the beginning of my personal musical's hit number, "Bork!" *curtain rises* Bork! Mmmm bork bork bork! Mmmmm bork! BORK BORK bork bork BORK BORK mmmmm BORK! *curtain lowers to thunderous applause*

Pro Basketball Manager 2016 is really a good evolution in the serie. Really good looking if I compare it to the previous episodes. The charts are nice, the faces of the players, and this dynamic world map too ! The game also brings us some fresh new features, such as an evolved training and scout system, some nice ways to manage your team, your contracts, your structures, and of course your matches. The player base is also much more complete. I can feel that the team put a lot of efforts and dedication to make the game even better, and I wish people will enjoy it as much as I do. Great job, Umix and Cyanide !

I have to agree the bad reviews might have been written too fast. The game is a very good basketball management game. It's a finished product and is updated frequently by the Devs. The Devs are also very active on the main game forum, taking suggestions and helping people out with issues - nice to see! The price is great for what you get, and the option to buy the US only version which excludes all leagues minus the NBA + NCAA is GREAT! This means if you only want to play NBA buy the US Edition for half the price. The game has a lot of potential. Yes some of the UI needs fixing as finding some options takes a few clicks but it's all being noted down on their forum follwing player feedback. If you are looking for a good and very in depth basketball sim then don't be worried to purchase this game.

As someone who loves basketball i gotta say this game is awful there are no positives and some in excusable cons. Im 100% sure that the NBA is the most used league and its impossible to play in it. 1. there is no way to see your record or the standings around the league 2. this is the worst part of the game when you coach in the NBA there is no free agency at all or there is no list of free agents and all the big name players resign with there original team so you have to build your team throught the draft and thats it

Très bonne simulation malgré les noms pas tout à fait corrects. Pouvoir jouer avec mon équipe de Nationale 2 est vraiment une super surprise ! Vivement recommandé

For anyone enjoys fantasy sports like I do, this is the perfect game for you along with all the other sport management games. This one is specifically for basketball, and that's all it needs to be. Everything about this game is to fulfill the needs of a sports nerd. Control every little aspect of your team and make the perfect team to win big or slip by underneath realizing your own mistakes. Keep in mind that I'm also a little weird. I like rubbing my face on every minute detail there possible could be about management. This game lets you control your players, training, and even stuff at the venue like ticket prices and drinks. To me, that's really neato. If you're a fan of these type of games; then, jump straight on it and involve yourself into hours of number crunching fun.