I'll update this as I go. At this point I am very glad that I not only got this on sale but paid for it with money from marketplace sales and not my own money.

The people responsible for making this game should change careers because they have no clue on not only making a football game but no clue on making a fun and usable game.

So far, I can't even stomach getting through the draft. It is like they sat down and took the time to figure out how to make it as unplayable as possible.

**Update - 10/10/14**

After starting a new league with the new patch and playing the 2 preseason games, I still feel that this game falls extremely short of the mark. Contrary to the patch notes, there is still no initial draft. Kick/punt return yardage is still incorrect. The game still doesn't feel like football, but more importantly, it's simply not fun. Getting through 2 preseason games felt like a chore (I might add that I've played through many, many seasons in FOF7 and PFS and loved every second of it).

On the plus side, the new 3D camera angles are nice, but not nearly enough to make this game playable. Overall, I didn't really see anything changed in the patch to keep me interested.

I really wanted to like this, but due to the fact that this game is still extremely tedious and non-immersive, my (non)recommendation has not changed.

Currently 1.5 / 10

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am a huge fan of both sport management games and football and there hasn't been a good football management/coaching game made in some time. Needless to say, I was very excited when I heard that this franchise was being revived... Unfortunately I have been very disappointed so far. So far I've only played 2 preseason games and these are a few of the issues I've found:

*No initial draft - You're given a team to start with and have no control over who's on it.
*No 4th down conversions as far as I can tell. There is a category for it in the game recap screen but every time I've had a 4th and short the AI decided to punt automatically.
*No 2 point conversions... Very frustrating.
*No onside kicks... Again, this is a necessity if you're trailing late in a game. None to be found here.
*Quarterbacks like to throw to receivers who are well covered even if another is wide open.
*On the flipside, defensive backs have a tendancy to either stay a few yards away from the receiver they're supposed to cover or just not cover him at all. This is probably my biggest annoyance at the moment.
*No forward progress - If the ball carrier picks up yardage and then gets pushed back, the ball is spotted where the play ended.
*Incorrect yardage for kick/punt returns - On several occasions I've seen a kick returner tackled before he gets to the 20 yet is still awarded a return of ~35 yards.
*Blitzing doesn't seem to be effective in the slightest. I'll have to do some more experimentation on that, though.
*You are limited to 16 plays from your playbook on each play meaning that sometimes the play that you really want to call may not be available.
*There are all sorts of grammatical errors and typos.
*The only penalties I've encountered thus far are offensive offside and illegal contact.
*No play clock.
*No audibles.
*3D view is simply useless. The 2D overhead is much better for diagnosing what's going on on the field.
*There appears to be no multiplayer whatsoever, not even local.

These are just the issues I've noticed right off the bat. I haven't even really messed with the managerial side of things yet. As it stands, this game feels like a very early alpha and in its current state I couldn't recommend it to anybody. Hopefully it will improve with time, but for now I'd advise you to stay away.

Very disappointing at the moment. Not what fans of American Football Management were looking for.

There are a myriad of faults including but not limited to:

*Poor 3D Engine
*Lack of customization options (Those that are there are irrelevant beyond your own team)
*Strange CTD's
*Incorrect rules of the game (4 Yard penalties for Offside infractions)
*Windowed game within a fullscreen (Lots of wasted screen real estate)
*Poorly thought out attribute colours
*Poorly explained game mechanics in the FAQ menu
*No settings menu
*Long loading times when simming fixtures

I'd avoid if i were you. At least until the developers address the concerns that others have raised.

I will come back and edit this review if the game improves, since I'm writing this on the first day of release. First of all, kudos to any developer and publisher who attempts to create an American football manager game - We are starving for such a game!!!!!!!!!! Sadly, the first impression of Front Page Sports Football is not good. Keep mind I'm writing this after only 10 minutes of gameplay. It's a "first impression" review.

It's definitely an "Early Access" version with lots of work to be done. It needs about 6 months of work in my opinion before it's a 4 out of 5 star game. Currently, I give it 1 out of 5 stars. My first impression is that there's no obvious way to edit player names or team names other than your own team name. Many of the player names are odd and unusual names. I'm not hearing any sound. The simulated game is displayed in a tiny small window and has no camera angles to choose, it quickly goes to the next play without giving the ability to rewind or re-watch the play, nor any control of the camera for that matter. It definitely needs the ability to replay the play, the flow is too fast. You can pause the play, however, but you can't go to previous play or skip to the next play. With no sound and no camera controls it doesn't give a good first impression. It's zoomed so far out that I can't really see anything, are my linemen doing any good? My receivers on the far side of the field, can barely see them at all. My cornerback is setup backwards pointing his butt towards the receiver before the snap. I do like the training schedule to improve your team players. I don't like that it starts me out on Day #4 after the draft. I would prefer to begin on Day #1 starting with the draft. There seems to be a lot of players suspended for illegal drugs. I will lose interest in this very quickly in its current state.

I still have the Front page football 98. One reason that I loved that game was that you can customize players and ratings and everything in between. Thats what this game needs, is the ability to customize your players. Whats the point of creating a custom league if you can't change the players names and ratings. I only played game for a few minutes because my pc kept freezing up. Game needs more updates. when I finally got to the game (match) that I was to play. it froze. I am one who would like you to stick to the old game with much improved graphics. If it aint broke. I will continue to try to play game because I am a fan but opening for some updates real soon. want to recommend game very badly, but I don't think that it would be fare with the way the game stands today. update it fast, please!!! PS Game not freezing because I have a old computer I actually have a very good computer should have any problems.

I really want to like this game and I hope it gets fixed but as it stands now it is unplayable. My teams games aren't actually played or simulated. It just says 'Planned' and is never played. The pre-season and first week every game played, the second week my game was the only one this way. The second week about 6 other games had the same problem and week three 4 other games were not played. So some teams have now played 4 games and I've only played one.

Inability to play aside, this game needs work. It seems like a soccer fans version of a football sim. The free agent market has enough high quality rookies to build a team around (as best I can tell) including available red circle players who are suposed to be the best players in the game. Quality rookies are almost never available as free agents in the NFL, as they would all be drafted. There might be a few that slip through the draft, but it usually isn't easy to see who they might be until a clever team takes a flyer on them. There are certainly no NFL starter caliber QBs as rookie free agents. There were three very good to star type rookies just waiting to be signed in this game. And in general an available rookie star or more at each position in the free agent market. It's much more like the soccer transfer market.

The 3D view looks nice but isn't very useful, you are stuck at about a first row of the stands view with no ability to adjust the view. Since it is 3D why can't you change the view? Isn't the the point of 3D? Anyway it is almost impossible to tell what linemen or anyone on the other side of the field is doing in this view.

Playcalling is just a big list, it should be broken down by formation and play type.

The whole thing feels unwieldy with a lot of information overload and no real way to feel like you know what is going on.

I was super excited when i saw this coming was coming, now I wish I had wanted to read reviews.

- No explanation
- Poor user interface
- no sound? at least not for me.
- game stopped simulating for me afte a couple weeks.
- FAQs are in general not useful
- and the list goes on.

I really hope this gets more work, the original was so well done that this is just nothing be disappointing at this point.

I will change my review if the game is improved.

So far, I can't recommend this. It has a clunky, hard to use UI, seems a bit cheap, and, worst of all, has wonky player, team, and league information. It's difficult to tell who is or isn't good, there are very limited options in terms of managing the team and contracts, etc.... I've only played a little bit so far, because hopefully mods and such will improve things in the short term and Cyanide works out clunky bugs in the long term. I desperately want a good football management sim, but this isn't one right now.

This thing's so bad that I really don't know where to start. Forget the glaring technical problems (fixed size UI in 2014... are you serious?), the football side of it is just plain bizarre.

Go for it on fourth down? Nope. Have zone coverage schemes where the dbacks and linebackers actually attempt to cover receivers? Nope. Kicking options besides belting it straight down the middle? Nope. Have access to your whole playbook? Nope. Okay, so the latter has an element of realism to it, but not when you're facing third and long and most of the plays offered are runs. Take starters out the game once the result looks nailed on? Nope. Audibles? Not unless you count the player swearing at the game. Visible play clock whilst calling plays? Nah... that'd be far to sensible. Have play action plays somehow described as such? Nope. Okay, again, that might be somehow realistic, but draws are denoted as such, so why not the opposite? Forward progress? Nope. Challenge flags? Nope. Fumbles? Well, there's a stat for them, but clearly the players all have outstanding ball protection skills because I'm yet to see one in 4-5 matches.

Just don't buy this. Please, don't. I'd love a decent NFL head coach + O/D co-ordinator + the interesting bits of GM sim, but this really isn't it. Even slightly. At all.

Not as good as FPS 98 at all.

Needs
Abilities to build uniforms the way you want to, color wheel, fonts, stripes, helmets, facemasks, socks.
Abilities to build your own roster or modify a current roster
Abilities to modify all the teams in league (Logo, Fields, Uniforms, Coachs ect)
Abilities to set league size and leage rules
Abilities to select pre set league rules/sizes (ie CFL, AFL, NFL, NCAA, Highschool)

These were the quickest things I was extremely disappointed with.


Oh, also the first and foremost thing the game needs to not lock up and crash every time you try to advance a week.

Another review talks about all the missing rules and other things that are messed up. I can even get to that poin in the game. Read the other reviews as well!

This thing is terrible. There's a lot of potential for a solid front office football manager game... but this is not it. unless this steaming pile gets a MAJOR overhaul I highly reccomend you do not purchase this game. 90% of the game UI.. and the UX is terrible, laggy, unresponsive, broken and just not even placeholder alpha quality, in many places. The other 10% (if that) is in the 3d gameplay view... TERRIBLE. Why bother trying to do this if you can't even sort of accomplish it. I MUCH prefer just watching the top down circles than the sorry excuse for a 3d backend. Again, FAILED HARD.

This Game is flat horrible!!!!!!

Edit: I've coached football most of my adult life and I can assure you this is more arcade than sim.

In a nut shell: It's unfinished, uninspiring, unfootball, unprofessional, uninteresting, unwatchable, unplayable, unfun.

Has absolutely nothing to do with the Serra FPS football franchise of old! They used that name to lure suckers like me into giving them money. I mean it is nothing like it at all!!

Anyone who has ever read my post on anything know that I'm a very postitive guy and try to encourage developers snd stsy as professional as I can.

SO BELEIVE ME WHEN I TELL YOU THIS IS THE WORST GAME OF 2014.

They should be sued for using the "Front Page Sports Football" title!

Forgive my unprofessionalism here........IT SUCKS!

So many basic things wrong here, both from an AI perspective and a basic gameplay perspective. Echo the comment about draftable free agents being too strong... why even have a draft? No ability to stop the clock outside of using timeouts. No "half the distance to the goal line" penalties. no ability to adjust your teams pace by not running time off the 35 second clock. It looks good but so much of what's happening doesn't make sense (also too easy to pick up yards with a decent running back.) Game could use a pause button too, unless I missed it.

Normally, I enjoy playing sports text sims on the PC, but I'm having issues liking this game as it is right now. If this game was in early access, I wouldn't be writing this review. Before I decide to post an essay-like ramble about why I can't stand this game as it is, I'll keep it short: Until they fix the general interface of the game, along with a few other things others have mentioned, keep your money. It's far from deserving of it's price.

This was an absolutely abysmal experience. The game crashes, repeatedly. It's impossible to tell where you are in the schedule. The help files are rather unhelpful. Just all-around bad.

I usually wait to review a game until I've played it at least to it's designed completion, whatever that may entail, but with this game it is so offensively unreadable that you shouldn't buy it. It is the most unusable game of this type I have ever played and I've played a lot of games of this type. This game shouldn't be on Steam, it's as simple as that. Don't buy this.

For all the money Steam brings in, can you please hire 1 person to test submitted games ?
This thing is utter PooDoo.

This game is a piece of garbage.

No sound .

Stops simulating controleed teams and others after a few weeks.

Just plain bad.

DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY!

This is a very, very bad game. It does not resemble American football in the slightest. It doesn't even use the correct terminology. Loading times are awful, and it's now got stuck several times processing over long periods of time.

This is certainly a waste of money!!!! Definately not worth $15!!! I wish i could get a refund but now I am stuck with it but take this as a real warning...Do not...I repeat...DO NOT buy this game!!! Piece of garbage!!!!!!