Front Page Sports Football Returning - Can this be true?

[BanzaiCat]

Cyanide Studios, which has brought you engrossing sports titles like Pro Cycling Manager!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Front_Page_Sports_Football

The title lingered for nine years before Cyanide came up with it. Probably wasn't hard (or expensive) to procure the rights to the name. Too bad they didn't look at the other games in the series and understand their North American (you know, most American football followers, not to mention you Highlanders out there, lol) customers' perceptions.

Football management sim players are NOT hard to please, so why the hell is it so hard for these companies to come up with something we like?

[BanzaiCat]

          

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/pressreleases/226948/Front_Page_Sports_Football_Management_Sim_Available_Now_forPC.php

October 2, 2014 – Launching today on Steam, from the sports sim experts at Cyanide Studio (Pro Cycling Manager 2014, Blood Bowl), Front Page Sports Football is the long-awaited revival of the fan-favorite football management series.

Don't think I'd call attention to Blood Bowl, personally...

"The Front Page Sports Football series set the bar for sports sims," said Regis Robin, Lead Game Designer.

"Sets the bar?" Where? Down at Gus-hurdle level? ;)  I sure hope you're meaning the ones from the 90s...

Seems like this game kind of dropped the bar on the ground and then buried it in a hole.

"We wanted to capture what made the original so amazing, but we also didn't want this to be a remake or an upgrade.

Wait...wait...you didn't want it to be a "remake or an upgrade"?!?!?

Uhh...what would exactly this be, then, considering it's named after a successful football franchise from 15+ years ago? If it's not a remake nor an upgrade, it's basically not anything, right?

Welp...I think they totally missed the point. Anyone that played FPS and knows the game (admittedly I only played the 1995 version, but I loved the game). A remake is exactly what a LOT of people would have loved.

We wanted to start fresh. It's easy for a sim to get too bogged down in spreadsheets of stats, or to focus on gimmicks over depth.

Uhhh...well, most football sim gamers WANT the spreadsheets of stats, thank you very much. That's where the depth comes from. As for gimmicks...I guess sound wasn't one of those "gimmicks," eh?

Front Page Sports Football was made to be accessible to newcomers,

Congratulations, you might have just ruined American football for newcomers. Though admittedly if you fix some of these issues, you might have a pretty awesome game on hand.

but it also contains layers of strategy encompassing entire seasons down to single player attributes for diehard fans."

Yeah, okay, individual stats...well gee whiz, that's new! It's not like football games haven't been doing that since the original Techmo Bowl, eh?

Recruit, train, and coach your players to compete against 32 other teams in Pro League on your way to the bowl.

'The Bowl?'

over 2,300 plays

To be fair, Madden '92 had 55 offensive and 72 defensive plays. In Madden 25, you can create a playbook with 400. If that 2,300 plays is not including 100 different ways to punt and 200 ways to kick a field goal, color me relatively impressed.

[bbmike]

So you can't upload custom team logos.

Never mind that! You can upload custom team logos but only when you first create your team.

[edit] Something else that bothers me- you can only have one league at a time in the game? I hope I can at least find where it's saved so I can start new ones.  ???

[JudgeDredd]

I haven't been back. The lack of immersion is the polar opposite to Elite:Dangerous. Not that I would expect that level of immersion...but no sound is just dire. It makes watching the games playout one of the poorest experiences I've had in gaming. Which leaves you pretty much just simulation the games...and that means a year passing rather quickly (the total opposite of OOTP)

Also, the small graphics windows is a bother. The rest of the screen is filled with a blurred image of a football field(??) and actually after a while just makes me feel like I should put my glasses on!

I'm also quite concerned at the speed. After only one game (which by the way as bbmike mentioned takes quite some time to simulate) moving between the various screens for information is diabolically slow. I hope it doesn't get worse - but I wouldn't bank on it.

Not impressed. It was only £11 - so it's no real loss - but I'm very disappointed. I desperately wanted a good football management sim - and unless there's some super fast development going on, this isn't it.

For the record I jumped in right away just because. It was only £11 and I wasn't really fussed if that was thrown away or not - but I am disappointed it is nowhere near what it could've been.

Colour me very disappointed in this one at present.

Maybe the OOTP team will come up with the goods in their one.

[bbmike]

Just posted on the Steam forum:

"Yep, you can change team names and player info and a bunch of other stuff by editing the FootUsWorldStatic.db file. Download Mozilla Firefox. Download the SQLite Add-On. You can then use SQLite to open up the file and edit it.

I recommend saving a backup of the original file. Also, edit files with caution because I do not know if it'll cause the game to crash or not."

[Swatter]

I am afraid my worst fears have come to pass. When you have a football game that can make it through the QA process with a false start equaling 4 yards, something is fatally wrong without digging any deeper.

[BanzaiCat]

Just posted on the Steam forum:

"Yep, you can change team names and player info and a bunch of other stuff by editing the FootUsWorldStatic.db file. Download Mozilla Firefox. Download the SQLite Add-On. You can then use SQLite to open up the file and edit it.

I recommend saving a backup of the original file. Also, edit files with caution because I do not know if it'll cause the game to crash or not."

That's just so, so sad that you'd have to change system files to do something that the game should allow you to do in the first place.

[Hot lead and dirty talk!]

I would be happy with a current version of XOR- NFL Challenge. I think many would be satisfied enough with the  X/O graphics if it had current rosters and a larger play selection.

Why has it been so hard to produce a better football sim than ones made 20yrs ago?

[KyzBP]

I'd like to thank all of you who took the plunge and bought this.  You saved many of us from making that mistake.  I'm disappointed beyond words as I look behind me at the 2 copies of FPS Football Pro 97 (one unopened) and a FPS Football Pro 98 on my bookcase.  I so hoped I'd be able to retire those old warhorses.

[bbmike]

Just posted on the Steam forum:

"Yep, you can change team names and player info and a bunch of other stuff by editing the FootUsWorldStatic.db file. Download Mozilla Firefox. Download the SQLite Add-On. You can then use SQLite to open up the file and edit it.

I recommend saving a backup of the original file. Also, edit files with caution because I do not know if it'll cause the game to crash or not."

That's just so, so sad that you'd have to change system files to do something that the game should allow you to do in the first place.

And don't forget you can only have ONE league at a time!  :o

[JudgeDredd]

I would be happy with a current version of XOR- NFL Challenge. I think many would be satisfied enough with the  X/O graphics if it had current rosters and a larger play selection.

Why has it been so hard to produce a better football sim than ones made 20yrs ago?

This is exactly what I was referring to in another thread around here - that new games (based on a previous one or otherwise) seem to be released as a shadow of their former iteration. Like the new developers on the block have had NO CLUE what was in the previous titles that made them so popular.

I never played the old FPS Football - but it seems this developer did exactly that. Dropped a load of stuff and gave a shell of a game. It's shallow and empty of life. I don't know how much time they invested in the 3D part - and ordinarily I would be a fan of such parts, but I'd have definitely forgone that for a better overall experience

[Grim.Reaper]

Oh my....speechless....thought it certainly would be rough, but I have only played for a little while and it seems bad......thank goodness only $15, but geesh even for that cheap price I expected a little more.  Really seems like a money grab for sure.  Not going to blame anyone but myself since the signs were there.

Back to hoping the future OOTP game finally fills this niche...

[BanzaiCat]

Hmmm. From a review on Steam:

*You are limited to 16 plays from your playbook on each play meaning that sometimes the play that you really want to call may not be available.

So much for that "2,300 plays" that developer quoted in their press release. What kind of idiocy is this?

[Steelgrave]

Back to hoping the future OOTP game finally fills this niche...

I just took a look at the OOTP site and read up on the football game. Although it's a year off, all my hopes and dreams for a decent American football game now rest in the bosom of the OOTP designers.

[Capn Darwin]

Dos box and a copy of FPS 95 or 96 and life is good. 

I'll steer clear of this train wreck.  O0