There's only about a week left before pitchers and catchers report for the 2009 Major League Baseball season. To help keep fans busy until opening day, or until an actual baseball game comes out in March, 2K Sports released "MLB Front Office Manager" last month.
Aside from player personnel, you also have to decide what type of general manager you want to be. Are you a lawyer, a former player, a former manager? Each one of these categories boosts your general manager rating in certain categories. Much like an RPG, your G.M. can then level up in different areas depending on the success of the team, individual performances, signings, winning streaks etc.
You can also pick the type of clothes your G.M. wears. Doesn't mean anything. Just another choice.
On the field, the gameplay is minimal. You serve as the manager, deciding if pitchers should pitch to a batter or if batters should lay down a bunt. You don't have any control over the actual game itself though, which brings me to the most important aspect of "MLB Front Office Manager."
It's not fun.
WorthPlaying writes: "MLB Front Office Manager is 2K Sports' effort in bringing the magic of the Football Manager series to an American audience via the Major League Baseball license. The audience is more limited, as it can be argued that there are several "big" sports in the U.S., and although baseball is America's pastime, its fan base has waned in recent years. However, due to licensing issues, the MLB is the best that 2K Sports can get. It also doesn't help that the title manages to be far too clunky and poorly developed to be a worthy game."
MLB Front Office Manager is a great idea that is beautiful to look at…and that's the problem. Very few games are actually hurt by having great graphics, but this is one of them. The focus of management sims is always going to be the stats, and so much of the screen is taken up with prettiness in FOM that it adversely impacts what you can show stats-wise. If you can keep all the numbers that us statheads want and STILL make the game pretty, then great. Otherwise it's all about balance, and 2kSports sadly got the balance wrong.
GameZone writes: "With continued growth in the online sector, developers are becoming increasingly interested in this new form of distribution. Shooters and RPGs may be the typical games developed in this area, but MLB Dugout Heroes is here to show us that great online baseball can be done.
"MLB Dugout Heroes is the first fully licensed and online-based PC baseball game in North America," said Jonathan Stypula, Community Manager. "You're able to draft your favorite players from any MLB era, level up, complete missions, compete in tournaments, and purchase new uniforms, bats, pitches, and more! We [had] a short Closed Beta Test [on] Friday, March 13, from 3pm-6pm. We'll be following that up with our Open Beta launch on Thursday, March 19!'"
