Once the season gets underway you control your team from a view of your
team’s stadium, headquarters, and various supporting buildings. Clicking on a
building allows you to manage that aspect of your team for the current week. For
example, clicking on the practice field allows you to set the practice schedule
and the time spent watching film, while clicking on the stadium will take you to
gameday and let you see the result of all of your hard work on the gridiron.
Games are played on a screen that includes a graphical representation of the
current drive, the current stats for the game, a play-calling interface, and a
play-by-play window. You can simply simulate your games in the background and
never even see this screen, but where’s the fun in doing that? During a game you
can take the part of the owner or GM and simply watch the game play out through
the text play-by-play. If you want to be more hands-on and actually coach your
team as well, then you can set the game to pause between each play to give you
the chance to call the next play. Each play has a mini-graphic chalkboard that
uses the time honored X’s and O’s to diagram the play and let you know what you
are calling.
The game's simulation engine is pretty good when it comes to game scores, but
the player stats are inflated. One would think that inflated stats would lead to
inflated scores, but that is not the case here for some reason. For example,
there are several running backs a season who crack the 2,000 rushing yard mark.
Let the simulation run for several seasons and you'll have a whole host of hall
of famers on your hands. But then again, this isn't the NFL. TPF is without an
NFL or NFLPA license, so the teams and players are fictional. With teams like
the Seattle Seagulls though, there's not much question which league the game is
unofficially simulating. If you are the patient type you can change all of the
team and player names to make your own NFL.
In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated:
80%. A serious simulation for serious football and rotisserie fans.
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