Game Focus writes: "Ever dream of winning the World Series as the manager of the Chicago Cubs? Then 2K Sports has something for you: MLB Front Office Manager, their first effort in the baseball management genre. Baseball fans have been experiencing this kind of game for a while now, especially on PC with titles like Out of the Park Baseball and Baseball Mogul (my all-time favourite) but no one has ever attempted to release this kind of game on the consoles. Sure MLB Front Office Manager is also available for the PC but we wanted to focus on the console version since Baseball is the first sport to gets its own management tool on a home console since NFL Head Coach. Is 2K going into the right direction?"
Pros
+ Good presentation during gameplay
+ Full control of your franchise destiny thanks to deep management options
+ The game forces you to work hard in order to have success
+ Online leagues up to 30 players
Cons
- Bulky and clunky interface
- Weird, really weird artificial intelligence
WorthPlaying writes: "MLB Front Office Manager is 2K Sports' effort in bringing the magic of the Football Manager series to an American audience via the Major League Baseball license. The audience is more limited, as it can be argued that there are several "big" sports in the U.S., and although baseball is America's pastime, its fan base has waned in recent years. However, due to licensing issues, the MLB is the best that 2K Sports can get. It also doesn't help that the title manages to be far too clunky and poorly developed to be a worthy game."
MLB Front Office Manager is a great idea that is beautiful to look at…and that's the problem. Very few games are actually hurt by having great graphics, but this is one of them. The focus of management sims is always going to be the stats, and so much of the screen is taken up with prettiness in FOM that it adversely impacts what you can show stats-wise. If you can keep all the numbers that us statheads want and STILL make the game pretty, then great. Otherwise it's all about balance, and 2kSports sadly got the balance wrong.
GameZone writes: "With continued growth in the online sector, developers are becoming increasingly interested in this new form of distribution. Shooters and RPGs may be the typical games developed in this area, but MLB Dugout Heroes is here to show us that great online baseball can be done.
"MLB Dugout Heroes is the first fully licensed and online-based PC baseball game in North America," said Jonathan Stypula, Community Manager. "You're able to draft your favorite players from any MLB era, level up, complete missions, compete in tournaments, and purchase new uniforms, bats, pitches, and more! We [had] a short Closed Beta Test [on] Friday, March 13, from 3pm-6pm. We'll be following that up with our Open Beta launch on Thursday, March 19!'"
