Rugby League Team Manager 2015

It is with a heavy heart that I give this a thumbs down. You don't know for how many years I badly wanted a game like this and here it is and it's not what I wanted exactly. It's getting there though and I thank you for the effort! Cons -Interface is unappealing and a chore to navigate. -Hard for a new player to get a handle on what they are doing. -Ratings are way off on some players(Adam Reynolds who is South Sydney's number 1 goal kicker and premiership winning halfback is average, when someone like Alex Johnston is instantly World Class on the back of one good season? 2 players in the Souths squad yet to make their first grade debut have more value than Adam Reynolds? If I start a game I may as well sign a new halfback to replace the one I have who is one of the best in the game in real life!) -Some players are missing entirely. I understand someone like Kirisome Auva'a being suspended for almost the entire 2015 season might have been hard to simulate in-game but you'd have been better off having him unrealistically available from the start than not to have him in at all. Pros -It's a Rugby League Management game. -The development team to time to actually make a freaking Rugby League management game and they came as close as they did to getting it right! -One of my initial concerns has been changed from a con into a pro and that is the Australian League system is set up unrealistically. Why is that now a good thing? From a gaming perspective, I have come to realise that I much prefer taking teams and battling for promotion and against relegation than like what a more realistic simulation of the Australian game would be. What would be the point of ever managing North Sydney in the NSW Cup(or any lower grade Australian team) if the NRL team I am the feeder club for keeps taking my good players and all I have to play for at the end of the day is the NSW Cup? With promotion and relegation added in, I can actually get North Sydney to the NRL and battle against the best teams in Australia for a competition trophy that actually means something! I now hope they never fix this! (or if they do, there's 2 modes of the game where you can play either a realistic simulation or the current setup). I understand that some of my examples of cons are rather specific but I've seen similar concerns that people have with their own favourite teams so I think they are valid points. Some things I'd suggest. -Tidy up the interface and just generally make it more user friendly for player of all skill levels. -Work on the ratings of players. If your development team is small, get some volunteers like FM do. If I had the tech knowhow I'd be more than willing to volunteer for rating for some players. -Have more happen at the start of the game to draw a player in. I remember playing International Cricket Captain and you'd go through budget phases and signing players to contracts and setting up training for the next few weeks and so on. As things are, it's a thumbs down but if you're undecided and reading my review and you can get it really cheap, you love Rugby League and don't mind tinkering with some ratings at the start, it'd be a thumbs up. Edit: I notice someone marked my review as 'unhelpful' How in the hell was my review unfair? I wasn't needlessly critical, I tried to be constructive with my review and gave suggestions as to what I thought could improve and you'll notice that despite giving it a thumbs down I thank the developers for their efforts and even advise undecided people that this game might currently be a thumbs down from me but it might not necessarily be for you! You're a jerk random thumbs down person! Edit:-I notice 3 people now have given a thumbs down to my review. Is it because It says 3.5 hours played? Ever thought that because of crappy internet connections in regional Australia that maybe I play steam games offline? Especially ones that don't have any need to be online like this game. Edit:-It's now up to 5 people marking it unhelpful? *Tears remaining hair out, dresses in black and writes bad poetry in a graveyard*

pretty ordinary, no way this is worth $40USD. feel pretty ripped off honestly. the developers havent done their homework on the NRL what so ever. apparently Luke Robinson (Huddersfield Giants) is a better half back than Adam Reynolds (South Sydney) John Sutton is listed as the Rabbitohs best goal kicker even though he is only 7/15 lifetime 58%. seems like a massive super league bias when i look through the ratings of players. they dont understand how the NRL Feeder teams work. the NSW cup teams seem to work as their own entity with their own players. none are associated with the parent NRL teams as they have their own reserve squads and junior teams.

Managed to get the Tigers to win a few games. 10/10 - fantasy better than reality.

i love sports management games and rugby league was one ive been waiting for ages. At first when i opened up the game i wasn't sure what to expect, and after playing a season and a half I realise it was an alright purchase. i mean was it worth 40$USD maybe not, but you will be spending hours on end trying to get the right set up and the right team. i do wish that buy players was a little bit more different, the look of the game feels a little bit 'cheap'. cant move teams beside controlling rep teams, cant make your own manager have to take control of the current manager, they are just some of the little annoying things i had with the game. things i do like about the game the tactics aspect was interesting, controlling everything to do with the team from alliance squad to u21s to the main team, bring players up from each squad, to finance aspect. it is a nice game and do hope next year they do make it better and tweak with some of the issues. 6.5/10

I would love to give this game a recommend, unfortunately due to the pricetag, I can't justify it. I am a hardcore Rugby League fan, and as such I enjoy the game - it's fun to take my favourite Rugby League team (and indeed my local NCL team) and try to gain success, however there are some key issues with the game which need raising, and in my opinion make it unworthy of the full £30 (GPB) price tag: 1. The interface is clunky, the colour scheme depends on what team you're playing with, and as a Castleford Tiger manager the bright orange is just offensive. The navigation around screens is difficult, requiring a player to enter and exit multiple screens to do simple things - instead of simply selecting a player and being given menus to deal with them (for example, contracts, physio, doctor, etc.) one has to navigate to different pages for each action one wants to take. This at present is the largest failing of the game in my opinion, and one which I hope is worked on significantly in future. 2. There are inaccuracies in the game which could be easily rectified with some simple research - for example the number of representative games is not reflected by real life (although I do enjoy being able to coach Yorkshire in the War of the Roses series), whilst some players cannnot be picked for the correct representative teams (The Burgess brothers, all Yorkshire born and bred, are only eligible for Lancashire in my game) - Whilst this can be fixed with the editor, I feel it should not fall on the player to input simple correct information into the system. 3. The game, whilst fun, is still one in it's infancy in terms of features and depth - whilst this would not normally be a criticism, it is the main reason I am not giving the game a recommend - the full £30 price tag is not justified by a game lacking in depth as this does. A more reasonable £10-15 would have changed this from a no-recommend to a recommend. Examples of the lack of depth include player contracts/transfers, the relationship between player and manager (the "morale" system simply seems to be a case of giving players down on morale some game time), game mechanics that allow for a little more in-game strategy and tactics (perhaps creating ones own attacking moves?). So, tl;dr: 1. Interface is clunky and hard to manage, and downright offensive to look at if playing with certain teams. 2. Many mistakes in the database. 3. Game is not deep enough in content to justify the price tag. If you are a hardcore Rugby League fan with £30 to spare then it may be worth getting the game to sate your desire for an RL management game, furthermore I do hope that the developers go on to produce further, more polished versions of the game. This game is not a bad effort, and I honestly wish I was given options other than simply "Yes" or "No" on the recommend front (a "Depends" would be nice).

rubbish

I have previously played RLM2013 and RLM2011, which were freeware. The game is not hugely removed from RLM2013, save for a 3D match engine, some "feats" (special once a match boosts awarded to your team when your player skill counts are better than your opponents) and up to date data base incorporating the new "Super 8" "Middle 8's" and "Lower 8's" league play off structure. Overall I enjoy playing this game. It is the only decent RL managment sim and if you like RL I would recommend you bought it. Don't worry about "value" - a fairer price in my view would be about £20, but I will happily pay a tenner to the top man who has invested time in making an RL game (Union seems to rule, and I am really not interested in club Union). For constructive feedback, I do think it could be improved with a little more polish. Team names could include background and font colours in tandem with team colours (rarher than just black and white/grey), team logos are not present for international and rep games (if offical RFL/NRL backing held, why on earth not?). These are easy and cheap wins I think. Better presentation on the 3D engine would be helpful too - though FIFA Football quality is obviously not expected would be good to see something at least as good as FM2014. There's also too many dodgy named Albanians and Nigerians etc created (I know RL has some global reach but never seen an Albanian RL and my London Broncos team now has an international calibre Albanian..really?! Still a worthy game and worth it if you like RL.

The game crashes constantly and is therefore pretty much impossible to play. Very disappointing as it has potential to be good.

Really fun and addictive rugby league management game. Not exactly cutting edge but it achieves what it sets out to do. I'm going to assume people reading this review have some sort of understanding of the sport. Pros: - The match engine does a very good job of simulating how attacking sets would work. Early in the set your forwards create a 'platform' by how well they get up the field, The better your 'platform' the more successful your back moves will be. This is a simple and easy to understand method of simulating attacking sets. - Has a good level of tactical control, allowing you to choose what plays to use in which sets and control how much freedom your playmakers can have when attacking. You can choose to let your team play a very simple structure with your playmakers having very little say, or incorporate more complex moves with your playmakers having more freedom. - The team calls give you a stronger control of the game i.e. one such is Engineroom Overdrive, which for a set or so, once per game, makes your forwards much more potent and create a much better platform. - Staff management and training is also fun, allowing you to retrain players to different positions. - The transfer market is fun, if not overpowered, other teams do not partake in mid-season transfers between themselves, only from players you have personally transfer listed in your own side. Ignoring the transfer market and only signing players whose contracts come to an end is a much more challenging and rewarding experience, this also forces you to cap manage. - In game A.I. is pretty good, each team has unique attacking and defensive structures. Cons: - A little buggy, major one is when a scrum happens with your starting hooker off, the ball gets constantly passed to them. - Players attributes do not change from season to season, defeats the purpose of signing young players. Player developement is also strange, the games forces the few players that can increase in calibre to stay in your academy (reserves) until they reach their max calibre, even if they are good enough to be in your first team. - The player 'calibre' system is strange, occasions occur that despite two players having similar attributes, the player that is 'professional' calibre will still be much stronger than the 'semi-pro' one. - Attributes are more centered to positions than players, resulting in, for example, James Roberts having a speed of 63/100 because he's a centre, despite being arguably the fasted guy in Rugby league. I understand that this may be required to make the match engine work though. A really good start to what can hopefully be a strong long term franchise, really fun and I'm still not bored of it. If you love rugby league you'll adore this game.

Must buy for all Rugby League fans!!! Graphics are dated and some players dont have the right stats but overall its a fun way to live out your dream as a rugby league coach