Alternatives while waiting.

[firewol]

I love playing football manager (soccer sim) and have been playing for over a decade. Lately though, I prefer football than soccer and I've been trying to get a similar experience in a good sim game. I have been tracking this forum for 2 years and want to start on something. I see there are currently three options:
-Draft Day Sports: Pro Football 2018
-Action! PC Football
-Second and Ten

Which one do you recommend to purchase? I have been playing Pro Strategy Football on my phone and have fun with it but it is very limited. I want to be able to draft, play calls, I like watching the result of the play in some kind of animation but I can do without that if the best game doesn't do that. (I played football manager when it was text only). I also want to be able to delegate some of the stuff. Like defensive playcalling I don't want to set up every single player on the field. Or maybe I'm not interested in signing each coach needed for a team.

Best Regards!

[Robmeister89]

You forgot Front Office Football 8...

Depends on what you're looking for.. If you want the ability to customize, PF18 or FOF8 is your best bet.

My league operates using PF18, it's a solid game with active developers. However, they're a small team (just 3) and they are slow at getting new features in and bug fixes posted.

Having said that, I'm really liking forward to seeing what the OOTP developers put out and possibly moving my league over to their game.

[drksd4848]

The only one I can speak to is ActionPC Football - which is a sprawling complicated mess. Imagine "Windows Me" as a football game. Yeah, that.

[gbmoore121]

For the dds football games, they give you 2 seasons on the demo. I’d give it a look.

[Krillo]

FoF8 Its the only game that's at least average in every area and is realistic. DDF: Pro has completely unrealistic economics so that sucks if you like GM play.

[Robmeister89]

Originally Posted by Krillo

FoF8 Its the only game that's at least average in every area and is realistic. DDF: Pro has completely unrealistic economics so that sucks if you like GM play.

Agreed. DDSPF18 is great if you're looking to play in an online game. If you want a better single player game then go for FOF8.

DDSPF18 has a a two-season demo, though, so you can check it out.

[jwhite]

Check out Deeproute.com.. 32 player franchise lots of fun active community

[Gambo]

Second and Ten Football is a good alternative. It’s text based similar to ActionPC / APBAbut has historical out the box and is pretty customizeable.

[notque]

Terribly sorry to hear about the loss of the OOTP Football Developer.

I run http://www.deeproute.com and am happy to try and help people get on board. We have a discord you can join as well, and we can discuss any improvements you'd like made to the game.

As a single developer myself, I always fear what would happen if I were to pass away. It's such a shock to hear about someone so passionate about his project, and have it happen to him. His family, and his world are just torn apart. God. I don't know really what to say.

[T-Bone]

Originally Posted by drksd4848

The only one I can speak to is ActionPC Football - which is a sprawling complicated mess. Imagine "Windows Me" as a football game. Yeah, that.

I was not a fan of this either.....

[MizzouRah]

FOF 8 is my favorite NFL sim and has been for many, many years.

If you can get past the UI (I've played for so many years, doesn't bother me much) it's a really deep and realistic simulation of the NFL.

Now that Jim has joined Markus, I can only imagine how great it's going to be.

[bagman67]

Action PC games are a complete joke. Stratomatic is the king of all sims.

[dave1927p]

I still play FOF 8 too. I agree it's a very deep entertaining game if you get past the grind of the GUI.

[adaher]

Originally Posted by bagman67

Action PC games are a complete joke. Stratomatic is the king of all sims.

I wouldn't call Action PC a joke, as a sim it's pretty amazing. Where it falls short is, well, it's just not fun. The playcalling is technical and the animation is too fast and you can't tell what's happening.

After a few months of wrestling with it, I got Strat-O-Matic and that's pretty awesome. The playcalling is understandable, you can make it as simple or as complex as you want, and the animation is easy to decipher.

What all games need though, is an easy way to sim a game and watch it. Both Strat and Action PC have that ability, but you have to jump through a few hoops to make it happen. Hopefully the OOTP version will make it just as easy as they do in the baseball game.

[Mickeyb37]

I quite like Pro Strategy Football. You can get it on Steam

[Tunnelrunner]

I'm downloading Football Mogul 18 as I type this. Haven't played it before but I did enjoy Baseball Mogul 18 so I'm hoping for similar quality.

Past strategy football games I've enjoyed: Front Page Sports Football Pro 96 and if you want to go back to the Stone Ages, Super Bowl Sunday for the Commodore 64. (which is still playable thanks to the magic of the VICE Emulator)

[drksd4848]

Originally Posted by Tunnelrunner

I'm downloading Football Mogul 18 as I type this. Haven't played it before but I did enjoy Baseball Mogul 18 so I'm hoping for similar quality.

Past strategy football games I've enjoyed: Front Page Sports Football Pro 96 and if you want to go back to the Stone Ages, Super Bowl Sunday for the Commodore 64. (which is still playable thanks to the magic of the VICE Emulator)

It was Pure Stats football for me on the C64! I came within one play of taking the '86 Pats to the Superbowl. I lost in the last seconds after a Hail Mary catch by Steve Largen. The Seahawks won by 3

I also played another stats football game for the C64. I forget the name, but remember that if you played the '84 49ers and threw a long pass to Dwight Clark, you scored every time!

[Tunnelrunner]

Re: Football Mogul 18. You can probably just skip it. It's got some fun factor to it but it's got a ton of problems.
-The scouting and research that went into each player is pretty lazy. Ex: the 40 yard dash times are all wrong. Willie Gault's 40 time is listed as 4.45. If they didn't have time to research all the 40s, then they shouldn't have listed them at all. Also, Hall of Famer Darrell Green's scouting report stated that he "wasn't much of a football player" or something to that effect! It's insane. It really makes me appreciate how much effort, time, and research the OOTP team puts into each and every single player to ensure historical accuracy. I really take OOTP for granted sometimes.
-The game simulations are...questionable. My 1990 Raiders are playing the Broncos. We're up 28-24 with under 4 minutes left. Bo Jackson fumbles and Dennis Smith returns the fumble 83 yards for a TD. Okay. Somehow, we answer them and score a TD and take a 35-31 lead with under a minute left. Denver gets the ball and we're in a Dime defense. Denver scores on a 72 YARD SCREEN PASS to Bobby Humphrey. They win the game 38-35. I almost threw my laptop out the window.
-In summary, avoid Football Mogul 18 at all costs. You're better off playing FOF 8 or even the older Front Page Sports Football Pro games (96 is my personal favorite).

[Tunnelrunner]

Originally Posted by drksd4848

It was Pure Stats football for me on the C64! I came within one play of taking the '86 Pats to the Superbowl. I lost in the last seconds after a Hail Mary catch by Steve Largen. The Seahawks won by 3

I also played another stats football game for the C64. I forget the name, but remember that if you played the '84 49ers and threw a long pass to Dwight Clark, you scored every time!

I've never heard of Pure Stats Football for the C64 but I'm going to look into it after work.

The game where the Montana to Clark connection worked almost every time - did it have primitive simulated graphics after you chose formation, plays, etc? If so, it was most likely Super Bowl Sunday. They didn't have the 85 Bears so the 84 Niners were my team of choice. I just happened to play this game a couple of weeks ago and I was amazed at how fun it still is.

[drksd4848]

Originally Posted by Tunnelrunner

I've never heard of Pure Stats Football for the C64 but I'm going to look into it after work.

The game where the Montana to Clark connection worked almost every time - did it have primitive simulated graphics after you chose formation, plays, etc? If so, it was most likely Super Bowl Sunday. They didn't have the 85 Bears so the 84 Niners were my team of choice. I just happened to play this game a couple of weeks ago and I was amazed at how fun it still is.

I think it was called SubLogic Football. Pure-Stat and SL football were very similar, but I think PureStat had a little more depth. You had to do a little more to win than throw it to Dwight Clark.