Honest Review of 11

[Thunder175]

Inspired by the 4 Nation Playoff the other night I made an impulse purchase against my better judgement and purchased the this years versions of FHM. I really want to like FHM 11... I've bought several versions over the years going back to the first and seeing the progression from FHM 1 to now has been frustrating beyond belief. I know the dev team is small and trying their best, but we are now 10 years on from the first version and I think we need to take a real look at where we are.


A decade on and we are still missing so many features that OOTP users take for granted. The devs have spent a lot of time on the NHL experience of course which is to be expected for a licensed product, so those wanting to play the current real-world starting in 2024 will be in for a better experience.


However my main area of criticism is target at any type of custom leagues and overall customization to craft your own hockey world. We are still way behind where OOTP was even 10+ years ago, meaning anyone interested in that play style will STILL be disappointed. Here we are in version 11 in the year 2024/25 and a prime example is that there is still not built in GUI to set a teams logos or jerseys... you have to copy-paste and rename files in the operating system rather than in the game. Setting the colors of the GUI to match a teams logo is tedious and a serious time sink. Honestly that alone is what made me blow thru the standard refund period of two hours on Steam when I tried to request a refund. I've also had several CTD's when using custom leagues, and one case where upon a reload the database must have gotten corrupted since the league and team tabs were totally bugged. Just things like this and numerous other quality of life and customization features the devs have apparently de-prioritized really make FHM 11 another miss for me.


My play style is a fictional or semi-fictional universe with fictional players. What I want which is basically OOTP 25 with all its features, GUI, and customization options but set in the hockey world in lieu of baseball. To me thats where the fun is, being able to organize and craft your own history. Maybe I'm in the small minority of the user base in this regard. Overall I know its a different code base but FHM is in some serious need of code porting in common areas and some dev time from the OOTP side of the company to get it up to the standard of excellence the company is known for.

[Savoie45]

As I said on your Steam review, the biggest mistake people make is expecting FHM to be just like OOTP.

[Thunder175]

I would agree to an extent that expecting FHM to be too much like OOTP can be a source of consternation. However some of the issues I feel are long term issues with the title. I reread my Steam review I wrote for FHM 7 and its virtually verbatim. There has been only marginal improvements in most areas of customization and the GUI. The most damning to me is the lack of a GUI to load a new team logo, amongst numerous other quality of life issues. The good news is that compared to earlier versions I can at least set up a custom realistic world compared to earlier versions. So we're making progress at least albeit at a slow pace.

Again, its really only for a certain segment of the user base I'm guessing. I have no metrics so I can only speak for myself and what I prefer to do which even in 11 is limited or extremely difficult and tedious on the user. Those only wishing to emulate the current year NHL will have a much better experience, and it seems to do it well enough. Overall the comparison with OOTP for me only goes to the presentation, user interface, and overall level of customization features which is part of the marketing of the product. So overall I'm just disappointed at the state of the franchise and hoping we can get some additional labor hours from the OOTP team to bring FHM up to its standard.

[Zeke K]

Overall the comparison with OOTP for me only goes to the presentation, user interface, and overall level of customization features

And it is in these exact areas that you are comparing apples to oranges as far as developmental squads go and is thereby at least innacurate and most likely completely unfair. There's like three devs here. Comparing their squad to OOTP is like comparing an indie wreslting game to the WWE 2k series. Of course they have more ability to give more polish and 'sizzle' to their games.

You yourself say that game does it's job of being a hockey simulation well, but then you trash it for not "looking better" since your last playing it. Maybe you simply didn't make the most informed purchase for what you were seeking. Just saying that you say "honest" I say "misinformed".

[JMKraus]

Originally Posted by Savoie45

As I said on your Steam review, the biggest mistake people make is expecting FHM to be just like OOTP.

Still, FHM is not on par with OOTP 11

[Savoie45]

Originally Posted by JMKraus

Still, FHM is not on par with OOTP 11

Sure, but it doesn't get the support in terms of resources, and it sells considerably less, which is likely the reason. Unfortunately, this is and has been the case with the majority of hockey games. Every other major sports game will sell far better and will get major upgrades long before any NHL video game.

[redtiger7]

But surely the devs can borrow some ideas from their baseball brethern

[Savoie45]

Originally Posted by redtiger7

But surely the devs can borrow some ideas from their baseball brethern

They already do, but people will still want the game to essentially be the hockey version of OOTP and that's simply unrealistic and I'm sure not what the FHM team wants. They want to implement their own ideas and vision for the game, not copy and paste what another franchise is and has done.

[Colorado]

Not much of a review, you've only cited customisation options as being an issue.

I'm also frustrated with lack of real progress in game and I feel so fed up off making posts and comments about them, I just can't bothered anymore, but there's more pressing problems before customisation.