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I guess one's appraisal of any game comes down to personal preference. I can be quite picky, but when I consider what I had as a kid ... table-top board games, a few player cards and a pair of dice ... to keep any amount of stats took time and many erasers and pencils (remember, this was long before computers and spreadsheets LOL). Things can always be better ... EHM ... OOTP ... even CM (which I've played and it rocks ... this coming from a Canadian who know little about soccer, err, shall I say football). EHM and OOTP and CM and TPF all fill a void and do it extremely well, but that is not saying they've reached the top of their game (pardon the pun).
I think EHM is a good game ... considering the options out there, you could even say it is one of the best hockey sims. It is far from being where it will be by the time SI is finished. And as for PPH, I must admit never having played Faceoff hockey, but just as SI is reputable for its CM game, .400 is equally reputable for its OOTP game and that will bode well for PPH.
HMHA, your comment about OOTP ... the financial management aspect of the game ... and the absence of some subtle nuances, can you expand? I'm curious, just because I like to hear what others think the game can and should have. I've heard more and more about the need to enhance the financial aspects of OOTP, but then I've always considered OOTP more a stats game than a front-office-to-the-field baseball simulator. But as text-based sims goes, for my tastes, OOTP is the pinnacle of baseball games.
And regarding game development by programmers from countries that seemingly know little of the game, I don't think that is as relevant today as it once might have been. Computers and the internet changed all that. EHM:FE has been recruiting researchers for a while now ... and from what I've heard, they are from countries where hockey is known ... well known. And you gotta keep in mind, given the market base for many of these games and in the interest of keeping price within a range, developers have limitations when it comes to R&D.
Good read, guys!
StorminZ
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