... Disappointed 
Regular readers probably know that I love Major League Baseball. I cheer for my favorite team as they try to win, cry some internal tears when they lose heartbreaking games, and curse them mightily when they fail to show effort or enthusiasm.
In addition to supporting my favorite team by going to games at their ballpark and watching games on my TV, I also greatly enjoy playing a good MLB video game where I get to play as my favorite team and players.
One of the things that I have found missing in recent MLB video game renditions is a relative lack of ability to really control the team you are playing. It is easy enough to play in arcade or simulation mode where you control the players and/or manage the team as they play a game, but you typically don't get much control of the whole organization. You don't normally get to really do the job of the general manager, or of the owner of the team and it takes a way from the fantasy aspect that many might wish to enjoy.
For the 2009 season this problem really shouldn't be a problem as the holder of the license for doing MLB video games, 2KSports, has come out with a new game: MLB Front Office Manager.
Front of package for MLB Front Office Manager - artwork/image from Amazon.com Before I continue talking about MLB Front Office Manager, let me bring up a game that I played years ago: Baseball Mogul. I last played that game nearly 10 years ago, but I found it enjoyable as a way to simulate controlling the team of my choice. Given my experience with that game, and also with games such as the somewhat mis-named NFL Head Coach by 2KSports' rival Electronic Arts, I have at least a few possible measuring sticks to use when evaluating MLB Front Office Manager.
Thankfully the copy of MLB Front Office Manager that I've been playing is a rental that I got from Gamefly. I say thankfully because I had originally considered just blindly buying the game. It wasn't going to be that expensive (approx. $40 retail), and again, I love baseball and baseball video games, so it would seem like it would be a perfect purchase for me. Unfortunately that wasn't to be the case.
A few months before the game was released I saw a review in a magazine that fairly well trashed the game and suggested that only a masochist would want to try the game. Not one to be so easily discouraged, I remained interested in the game and assumed that the magazine was working with a pre-release version of the game that would hopefully see improvement before it was finally released to the market.
Perhaps the game was improved, but if it was, it couldn't have been by much. What I'm left thinking as I try to play the game is that it's just a lesson in frustration and one that has me wanting to just run and buy the latest version of Baseball Mogul, whose roughly $20 price is a bargain compared to the relative pile of dung that would be called MLB Front Office Manager.
What is frustrating me so much? Where to start, where to start, where to start? I'll give just one example, as there are really too many to point at. I started a new career as a general manager of my favorite team and proceeded to try to sign a few choice free-agents to my team. Unfortunately there's no apparent rhyme or reason as to what will or won't convince a player to sign a contract with my team. I'm shown what seems to be the contract offer that a player wants, I accept the player's demands and/or even offer more than what the player asked for, and yet the player signs with another team. Um, ok, that makes sense to me as my team probably sucks and no one wants to play there, right? Except, well, there's absolutely no give and take. No communication from the player's agent, no e-mail notices, nothing that gives you a chance to really negotiate and experience what the GM of a team would.
There are similar frustrations in trying to make trades with other teams, mostly with there not being any simple method of making any sort of counter offer, and no readily apparent method of offering a deal that involves cash, draft picks, or anything other than players. Never mind that the computer controlled teams (all of the other teams when you are playing in one particular mode) will make stupid trade offers, accept incredibly stupid trade offers at times, or do other things that make no sense at all.
In the end, MLB Front Office Manager struggles to reach what could even be described as a passable first effort. It doesn't come close to competing against NFL Head Coach, and most definitely doesn't come close to competing against Baseball Mogul.
Personally the rental copy that I have is going to get played for just a few more days and then fairly quickly get sent back to Gamefly. The only reason for that is so that I can -- hopefully -- pick up a few Achievements and the gamer points for those and then never have to think about the game (and what could have been) again.
