I am a full-time university student who also works full time, and understandably, I have a lot of papers to write; yet I find myself drawn to Franchise Hockey Manager 6. Time after time, I’ll play this instead of going to school or writing my papers. Overall it is a wonderful game, and simply the sheer scale of the game is insane. It simulates pretty much all the leagues around the world, and players, making it a simply breathtaking game.FHM 6 has the look and feel of the successful OOTP Baseball series.
The Good
Rivalries and Job Security
A new feature in FHM 6 is the rivalry system. Now rivalry games count for more; what I mean by this is that the players seem to perform a touch better than they would normally. This also ties into the new job security system. This system makes having the fans support more important, obviously winning these rivalry games has a significance to the fans, and if you lose enough games or trade away enough popular players you’ll find yourself out of a job pretty quick.
Needs Work
Contract System
Now while this is my favorite game to play, it’s not perfect. The contract system is problematic at the very least. For example, some players who are coming over from Russia and haven’t played in the NHL yet, they would require an entry level contract. In the game, however, these players wont sign for less than one million dollars. Normally this would not be a problem, however, it is a problem because you can’t offer more than the maximum for an entry level which is $925k. This means the user cannot sign these players, and then the AI will sign them instead.
Cleaning Things Up
More optimization would be welcomed in FHM6. Sometimes when a player gets called up from the minors the player keeps the minor teams jersey even if they are playing in an NHL game. The suspension system is exaggerated as there seems to be a new one every week. This can at least be adjusted in the game’s settings.FHM 6 has its pros and cons, and it depends on how you play the game whether it’s worth upgrading from FHM 5.
My Wishlist
One can image that there will be a FHM 7. I would like the ability to set some of the preseason games, or even the Heritage Classic games. Another feature I would like is the ability to get a coach’s and a trainer’s report in more of an expanded format, I want something more than “this player is almost comfortable.” This feature was wonderful and very helpful in the Eastside Hockey Manager series. Another feature I hope for would be an expansion of the contract system as the one that’s in the game right now is buggy and needs work. I would love to be able to set contract structures like in Eastside Hockey Manager, for example setting bonuses. Another feature I would enjoy would be a button in the menu that sends a qualifying offer to a potential RFA.
Conclusion
I still love this game even though it is not perfect. My advice for readers is if you’re thinking about buying this game, I would wait until it goes on sale. FHM 6 seems more of an update to FHM 5 unless you play the game for the historical challenge part which seems to have gotten a lot of attention from the FHM team.
