Well I went and bought the game that confirms I'm totally crazy, MLB Front Office Manager, a baseball video game that you don't even get to play baseball, and I have to say I like it, but I don't love it by any means. In truth, I've been trying to avoid buying it but for forty bucks I figured it was worth a shot and I'm glad I did.
If you're expecting a lot of action and excitement this game is really not for you because its completely a niche game for people like me who love the thought of running a baseball team. As the general manager you have comprehensive control of pretty much aspect of your organization, signing players, making trades, setting rosters and most importantly scouting. I haven't gotten too far in the game so I haven't had a chance to tinker around with it too much but its clear that this is one of the highlights of the game. You must decide how to allocate funds for scouting all over the world and following prospects all the way through the ranks. In this section alone I could see many hours being spent trying to find the next big star all over the world.
The setup of the game is primarily menu-based and at times these can be confusing. The main screen has a lot going on as far as what needs to be done for the day, emails and whatnot and it can be overwhelming. I know personally it took me a long time just to figure out what the hell everything does in the game so you end up spending a lot of time just poking around trying to figure out what does what. But the most frustrating part of the game I found is how the game doesn't really tell you if you're doing something wrong. Say for instance you want to advance to the next day because you proposed a trade to another team or to advance to the next step, well sometimes it just won't go to the next day and you're just kind of stuck. They give you no clues as to why it won't advance to the next day so you end up combing over all the menus to try to figure out what the hell is going wrong. Sometimes your rosters are not filled or the pitching rotations are incomplete, but they never give you any indication why they won't let you do it.
Despite this somewhat unhelpful setup, the game is very comprehensive and engaging if this is your cup of tea. You get to do everything you ever wanted to do with your team trade this guy move that guy, but its not easy. Indeed, there are many factors you need to consider when making moves, whether that be money, no trade clauses, player morale, happiness of the owner, so if you plan on running through this game haphazardly you're not going to do very well.
Overall, I enjoyed this game and plan on playing more but it is ultimately not entirely satisfying. While I love putting thogether the team and developing talent, I do all of those things because I want to go play with that team and wipe the floor with everyone! To just put the team together and see the lineup but not be able to actually play as that team kind of sucks, but that's what you accept when you buy the game, that's why its only forty dollars instead of the standard 60 for a PS3 or XBOX 360 game. For what it is its a very well thought of game, very comprensive and engaging, but when MLB The Show comes out next month I can' t say I see myself playing it a whole lot.
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