Franchise Hockey Manager 5 - Review

I love simulation games and am a huge NHL fan, go Pens! So when I got this curator offer from FHM5 I was more then excited. I started out as a GM + Coach in a small OHL league. At the start of the game it ask if you want to including all the hockey leagues in the world in your simulation. It warns for best results to keep them all, but that will slow you down during simulation.  I did not think twice about this and just kept them all.

My career started out with 3 contract offers from minor league teams. I looked at my options and chose the one I though I would fit best into. I looked over my line and made a few adjustments but not much. I wanted to see what my new team could do. I hit the simulate until next week option and waited...a really long time for 1 week to simulate. Like 30 seconds. Typing that it doesn't seem long but waiting in the game it seemed like an eternity. I finally make it out of Preseason and with only a few minor injuries and start my season with a win. Sadly the game actually starts taking longer to simulate when the season officially begins though and it starts to wear me down quickly.

Typically long loading times are not game breakers for me, but the fact that most weeks you are waiting longer to simulate then actually play the game is a bit much. I know I could be doing other things to help improve my team the proper way, but sometimes I just want to make little changes and see how that first season goes.

With all that said I enjoyed what the game allows you do, it's got a lot of complexity and I am sure will give many hours of game to some hardcore fans, I am just not that hardcore and the simulation times are going to keep it that way.