I have been playing sports simulations since the late 80s and basically buy all the newest versions of all the top sports sims out there year by year. I was excited when OOTPB announced they would be making FHM innitially, however i quickly dumped the first game. When #2 came out i simply ignored it, but decided to spend my hard earned $ on the 3rd edition. Personally i think this was a huge mistake, i have already deleted the game.
For one, this is a poor mans version of OOTPB, which is by far a more furnished and finished product in every single sense of the word. Considering FHM has the backing of OOTPB, i am shocked how the layout is so poorly setup. The colors and layout are painful to look at times. Just looking at this game is irritating, clearly not enough time was spent on the design.
The thing i hate most about this game in comparisson to OOTPB is their lack of editing and modding. If in that game you can basically edit everything, here you are very limited. In fact, you cannot even start a game without being forced to pick the NHL (i know that would be most peoples first option, but still). You cannot fiddle around with the teams and for some weird reason the game admin has decided to focus on a mode called Path To Glory which is basically even more limited to what you can edit and is slower paced, you cannot sim into the future like most sims allow you to do, which means a season takes a lot longer.
On top of all that, the game has crashed on me 3-4 times and i barely have played the game. Possibly i am a little spoilt after playing OOTPB and Football Manager every year, but i am dissapointed that this game has not progressed a lot more since it’s first induction. The only thing going for this game at the moment is that it’s only real competitor is a hockey game which is basically running on an engine which is over 10 years old and even then, it is a pretty even competitor.
Unless you are crazy about Hockey and love sports sims, i would refrain to buying this and buy a proper sports sim such as the 2 i mentioned above.