MLB Front Office Manager
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MLB Front Office Manager
Who said being an MLB manager was easy?
Ever dream of winning the World Series as the manager of the Chicago Cubs? Then 2K Sports has something for you: MLB Front Office Manager, their first effort in the baseball management genre. Baseball fans have been experiencing this kind of game for a while now, especially on PC with titles like Out of the Park Baseball and Baseball Mogul (my all-time favourite) but no one has ever attempted to release this kind of game on the consoles. Sure MLB Front Office Manager is also available for the PC but we wanted to focus on the console version since Baseball is the first sport to gets its own management tool on a home console since NFL Head Coach. Is 2K going into the right direction? Here’s our review.
Gameplay
After creating a general manager, every move or decision taken will affect your overall GM rating, represented by eight disciplines that range from scouting and player development to contract negotiations. Depending on how you perform in different situations, your skill will either increase or decrease. By increasing your skill, the odds of winning free agency bids and convincing top players to join your organization will increase and the morale of your actual team players will increase as well. When game time comes, you may opt to manage the full game, which is the whole point of the game, or let the CPU handle it for you. You can give specific instructions to your team like intentionally walking the opponent, changing pitchers, re-arranging the defensive stance of your infielders and outfielders or stealing bases. The game not only features the classic game management menus during gameplay but also a full 3D representation of the action, which is quite nice and impressive. Most of all, the game lets you work on every aspect of your franchise: control your franchise budget to hire free agents, give contracts to your players by investing in an international scouting system, trade players, cut players, and check on prospects to name a few.
We can definitely see and feel the effort put forth by 2K and Blue Castle Games to deliver this kind of experience to console players. Sadly, the game suffers because of the weighty and awkward menu navigation. Everything has its own menu. I would understand if it was a DOS program or a pen-paper thing like back in the day but when you’re doing this kind of game for consoles, you need multitasking menus. It makes everything very difficult to follow…but not impossible.
For example, you will receive a trade offer from a team and you will be asked to accept, reject, think about it or view the details of the deal. If you happen to accept it, then you will be asked to go to the Pending Transaction menu and claim your recent acquisition because the game won’t do it for you. If you decide to think about it, the offer will stay in your e-mail box but you will not get a reminder, leaving you with no way to know if the CPU general manager changed his mind or if he’s willing to see a counter-offer. However, he will let you know a couple of days later that he rejects it (again…no counter-offer) which means that you have to go to the trade screen, re-select players from a long chart and re-submit another offer. You can also put players in your trading block for other A.I controlled managers to make offers but you will never know if they’re interested or not unless you’re proceeding to a total fire sale. Also, if there are players on the trading block, the game does not let you know beyond a few short e-mails that say “This player is not happy with his team” or “This GM might be open to trade this guy”. There’s also no way to tell if a team has players in their trading block. You have to check the appropriate screen every day and this becomes tedious.
Trade offers for your good players in exchange for minor leaguers or simply bad MLB players will constantly make their way to your e-mail box but you will never lock-in a trade that involves a good player against another; not only does the A.I controlled GM want to screw you but he’s also picky, uncooperative and incredibly tough to work with. It’s not a bad thing though, which I will explain later. In addition, the biggest problem of the actual sport (salary caps) comes alive in the game; A.I general managers will give outrageous contracts to high-profile players. It will leave you with no chance to win a free agency bid, especially when your budget doesn’t allow you to match these outrageous bids. One example I can give is rather simple: aging Chipper Jones became a free agent and was asking for a gargantuan contract (somewhere between 25M$ per year for 5 years). Of course, I was looking for a designated hitter but I could not afford him. So I said to myself that if no offer would be made to him (since he’s old and commands a heavy contract), he would ask for less money in a few weeks. Next thing I know, another team gave him what he wanted the next day! It would have been fun if the game had considered different factors (age, stats, etc…) but then again, who does it in the real Major League?
While the whole complexity of being a MLB general manager can become tiresome, some players will find a real challenge underneath all this mumbo-jumbo. Even if the CPU GM’s are always trying to give you their crappy players, you can become that same GM if you happen to build a powerhouse thanks to your drafts, minor league development and international recruitment. Sure if you play with the Yankees, you will find no challenge at all since the team has an exorbitant salary cap, making it easy for you to bid and acquire free agents. But if you pick a team like the Rays or the Pirates, you might find the game challenging, fun and enjoyable because you can become that great GM, the one that holds all the cards thanks to your brains and not your wallet. That is of course if you can bypass the problems the game has. But like I said earlier, the game is not impossible to play, it’s just tough at times and that’s all.
Graphics & Sounds
MLB Front Manager won’t shine in the graphics or audio department since you will be dealing with a lot of scrolling menus, charts and stat sheets. It does feature some gameplay action but it’s fairly limited. You will see your pitchers throw, batters hit, outfielders run and jump for some defensives plays but everything remains simplistic. It’s a simulator. So don’t expect to see high end graphics here. I would have loved to have a bigger Billy Beane presence though…but not in the holographic way a la Madden 09, that was scary.
Conclusion
2K and Blue Castle Games are definitely on the right path but I think they could have spent a few more months or so to finish the game before releasing it; though, with Spring training camps on the way and the upcoming release of MLB 2K9 it’s understandable as to why the publisher decided to release MLB Front Office Manager right away. MLB Front Office is a title worth picking up by any baseball stats fans, even with its technical flaws whether you want to play it on consoles or your PC. If you can get past the technical nuisances of the game, you will find a really interesting and enjoyable management simulation, one that actually tests your wits. MLB Front Office Manager 2010 can and will be successful if they can make the appropriate changes to it. The best way to deliver a great game is to start somewhere…and 2K knows it.
Pros
+ Good presentation during gameplay
+ Full control of your franchise destiny thanks to deep management options
+ The game forces you to work hard in order to have success
+ Online leagues up to 30 players
Cons
- Bulky and clunky interface
- Weird, really weird artificial intelligence
Final Verdict
Here's a small guide to help you understand our evaluation of games.
PRESENTATION GRADE
Can be from the game's box to the contents of the booklet, and even the game introduction. (Intro, menus, options, etc)
GRAPHIC GRADE
Up to what point the graphics have been worked on my the developper. The design type, the effort used for textures and environments, as well as animations and framerate.
AUDIO GRADE
Is the soundtrack a good match to the game's style, he ambient sounds keeping with the gameplay and the sound effects clear and convincing?
GAMEPLAY GRADE
Placement of the controls and the inferface that the player with be using during the game.
REPLAY VALUE GRADE
The most important factor in the evaluation of a game. It identifies the lifespan of the game and the fun of coming back again and again.
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