Recent reviews by Isterband

Fantastically ambitious vision, and flawlessly implemented so far. Got into it for the upcoming tycoon aspects, but stayed for the torque curves.

Best hockey simulator available right now, with about 500 hours in EHM (including versions prior to SI) Franchise Hockey Manager 4 had me won over in less than five. Much more immersive and broader in scope. Since Sports Interactive has given EHM a lackluster effort this will be my go to game from now.

Pros for me:
- More immersive with player development and moods during the season.
- Intuitive choice of tactics and player roles that makes sense with the abstraction that game engines are.
- The sandbox of being able to start in any year since 1905 and forward. I guess some hockey fans would grit their teeth seing Yzerman going to Pittsburgh and Lemieux to Hartford in their game they started in 1973 though. :) I kind of enjoy it.

Cons:
- One of the few critiques I agree with that negative reviews have taken up are the crashes. It's not that bad though, I get an odd crash every 2 hours maybe. But with the autosave every month, and you can manually save at any time you feel you've had a good streak of games or fortune, you won't lose much time at all. Still too bad it's not fixed yet.
- Some concepts and related UI seems weird and underdeveloped and I hope they look into that, specifically training and player development.
- Some sort of tutorial or tooltips, it's easy to miss critical stuff, like that PP and PK have their own tactics to chose; maybe warnings for some league specific rules just to educate the player before he makes a mistake (like, I dunno, waivers, injury roster, offer sheets, etc).
- All values of players, especially since the game ranges from 1905 to 2017, may not be accurate (or you may not agree if you're a hardcore hockey fan), but then which game is... I'm fine with it and you can edit values within the game if you wish to.
- AI may be a bit bad with trades or strategy (Detroit had to get a goalie on an offer sheet (1st and 3rd pick) the same year they drafted Yzerman in real life, just because they didn't keep a goalie or two in their farm team).

Looking forward to FHM 5, I do hope they take this kind of yearly release seriously and really offer a proper upgrade and constant development. FHM 4 is a great game at any rate.

Extremely broken at the moment (two DLCs in), with no working AI, stupid game mechanics, non-working air- or naval war.

Not much meat, and the air war updates are fortunately free.

Paywall patch that doesn't patch much.

SpaceChem + Railroad Tycoon + Dune for grown-ups. Worth full price IMO, a steal if it's on sale.

Some review said it was like Dwarf Fortress + Minecraft + Terraria.

It is maybe Dwarf Fortress for toddlers, Minecraft with a clearer goal and less building, Terraria because of side-scrolling 2D?

I adore it though and would recommend it at full pricepoint if you like any of the above mentioned games, especially DF (it's a really simplified DF with Terraria graphics and a clear gameplay goal).

If these combat mechanics were used for a Syndicate or Jagged Alliance game (in spirit) it would rock even more. Very good as it is.

Very good feeling to it, can apparently be played with keyboard but I would advice a gamepad. Pick up on a Steam sale.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jrwmrs_u-sA

Reminds me of Pinball Dreams and those games, but now... somewhat improved. Not sure yet if I'll buy extra tables, but the free table is well worth trying out.