Draft Day Sports: Pro Football 2021 Reviews

My head coach won two super bowls in a row. He's under contract but thought he should leave to be an OC for another team to better his career. This game has no realism, I wish there was a real SIM game for football, this has no real trade block, draft analysis, or the ability to sim a franchise in any worthwhile way.

This game has a lot of promise, the depth and detail is exactly what I want from a football manager style game for the NFL, however it must be one of the least user friendly games I've ever attempted to play. The pop-up windows never fit the ratio of my screens and therefore a lot of menu options and information are cut off the screen. The day to day operation could be much cleaner with drop down boxes or drag and drop systems, however i cant talk about the game as it is as not being able to see half the options makes the game unplayable. I reached the point where it was time to cut my roster down to 53 players but couldn't go any further due to the awful user interface

Until there is an OOTP Baseball but for football this scratches the itch. I would recommend you seek out the mods/rosters that put the real overall ratings, player pictures, and logos into the game. It really adds a lot. If you don't you get player names but the overall's are randomized each time you begin a new league. Only by adding a modified roster file can you get "realistic" ratings for your players. Another thing that you should know is that there are a lot of settings and you will likely need to futz with the salary settings to fine tune it to be more realistic. I think they are planning on adding more features like this but make sure you set your minimum contract levels to a reasonable amount or you will be able to sign the years hottest free agents at the end of the process for $300,000 a pop. Ridiculous but could also be fun. I've yet to encounter any major bugs yet, I had one hard crash that was probably my fault for futzing with something while the game was running. If you want something similar to OOTP Baseball, Football Manager, or Head Coach 09 but for American Football or the NFL this is your best bet as of now. The customization options let you decide how to run the league. I think if you wanted to run weird simulations or scenarios and sim for decades to look at pages and pages of stats this is exactly what you want. I haven't messed with historical rosters yet but it's my next step. As of now the career mode is a bit wonky but I'm slowly adjusting it as I go to make it play closer to how I'd like it to. You will need to visit the forums if you want to get a good experience from the game. It relies on the community to make it good but that's fine with me bc it seems like a bunch of people like me are out there that want to do fun GM stuff. This is the best we have rn, with mods ofc.

its a nice game, if i could fix anything about it , i would make it so you could sub players during games

Having played arguably the best sports management sim for many years (Football Manager), i wanted to give American Football a go. I thought the stat based way the game is played could work well, and I had a fairly good understanding of the sport and rules and with all sports games, this makes the better to play. The short answer is I am 1 season in and its a very good game. It nails the stats, rosters, draft and contracts well. Real players are used and helps me research those I don't know (which to be fair is most of them). The game engine works well and provides realistic scores, yardage and occasional gems like returning a punt for TD. You can also edit team names and emblems, which is easy to do. I just do a couple more each time I play and have most of them correct and looking good now, just need to work a bit on my end-zone images. There may well be bugs I come across as I get 100 plus hours in, but nothing has jumped out. Interface is fine, less so graphics but that's not a deal breaker - and the 2d game engine is engagingly well done. It would take some work, but a 3d game engine with stadiums would make it outstanding (as per Football Manager), and more interaction with players and staff. I would recommend this to someone who enjoys a sports sim like Football Manager, and likes the sport and has a decent level of knowledge about it. Ps. Season 1 - Went 12-4 as Green Bay and lost superbowl to Denver 38-35

This game has a lot of potential, but if you're already familiar with OOTP, you'll be disappointed. The UI is not user friendly, it's clunky, the player contracts don't make sense, the overalls don't make sense, there's no consistency, etc.... Don't get me wrong, this is a very cool game, but to ask $35 for a game that feels alphaish? They have a LONG way to go. I'm going to dive in once more, but I will most likely look for a credit. **Yep. Played it for a few more hours and the game is trash, still** My 90 overall QB just threw 48 interceptions. I still cannot believe they ask for $35 to buy this.

By far the closest thing I have found to a Football Manager style game for American Football. Unlike other games that try to create this style, DDSPF 21 has a relatively user friendly UI, more akin to Football manager style games with a large level of depth to the simulation style game-play it provides. Whilst it is still rough and ready in places, it is probably the best effort I have found in this field since NFL Head Coach (albeit without the NFL licence and animations).

Im coming in fairly early with a review here but I feel the game deserves positive feedback and hopefully the customer base that follows. Its a solid NFL sim (i say NFL as you can mod the teams to reflect real life, the rosters are already there). You get to do all you can imagine off the field, whilst also having the option to go play by play as a Coach on the field. Remember its a simulation, so its all about the engine and database behind it and in the main thats solid, with the developers responding to problems on their forums fairly eager to bring new builds and fixes to the game. Ill also add that the Customer Service from the guys at Wolverine has been spot on, its a small time operation but they care and although their products are in a niche market (especially for Europeans) you get good value and a product that can last you the year. Glad to be on board the ride with this one, though I think my wife wont be happy ive found another time sink of a game!

It's so close to being an amazing game, but bugs and glitches, as well as horrible rosters, hold it back. Steam overlay bleeds into the game and forces you to completely restart, which happened 5 or 6 times in a row until I finally just had to go disable Steam overlay whenever I played the game. A lot of stuff you'd think would be on the same tab are needlessly hidden away and hard to find, or just badly implemented forcing you to constantly be going back to the dashboard to navigate around (especially during drafts). --------------------------------------------------------------- The rosters... I know they don't have the NFL licence, but they've still got all the real players in there. That should be a major plus, but the ratings are just absolutely awful that they might as well have had random generated players. 3rd string RB's are superstars, random free agency or backup QB's throw for 4000+ yards, and some starting QB's have absolutely horrid accuracy (Joe Burrow will go something like 12/44 every game). It also doesn't help that there's a random generated FA pool of players that are way insanely OP and will absolutely ruin any semblance of realism. You'll consistently find randomly generated top 10 QB's, RB's, WR's, and OL's in the FA pool to start the game, as well as a plethora of defensive players too. And to make matters worse, they're all insanely young too. You can go sign a randomly generated 22 year old 82 overall OL to a 5 year contract worth nothing, and he'll sign because for some reason he's expecting to be a prospect player and not a legit starting caliber top 15 lineman in the league. You 100% could field an entire team of just FA's and easily make the playoffs with absolute ease. --------------------------------------------------------------- It's so utterly close to being a good game, and I was willing to give it another chance before refunding and was about to give an old Pro Football 2019 roster .json file a try just to see if depth charts were fixed and I could actually have the game be semi-realistic, but then while creating my coach the freaking Steam Overlay opened and bleed through, forcing me to restart the game. I'm sorry but for $35, the game should be so much more. The only real positive is the fact the interface of the game isn't as dreadful as the 2019 version.

Game has potential, but the glitches and interface makes this impossible to enjoy. When I try to create a player or coach, it brings up the steam overlay that doesn't go away. When I try to do the draft and switch between previously drafted players, or computer selected players, you have to go back to the main menu and then go back into the draft to view the information, otherwise it is just blank. You can see all of the rookies and their ratings before you even draft them in the search tool, just filter on rookies. The stats are abbreviated, and it is hard to tell what some of the stats are, unless you are a diehard statistician. The game does not offer any guides or insight into the mechanics, and after doing a few fantasy drafts, it seems like teams keep selecting the exact same players in the exact same order.