Draft Day Sports: College Basketball 2023 Reviews

On the surface I like the game. Easy to download real teams, conferences, and coaches via mod pack, game has some depth in terms of world-building, and it's quite a customizable experience in general. In-game experience is okay. A lot of options, but the UI is clunky and it's hard to tell if any of your changes actually effect the outcome. I've definitely found more success in games I actually coached vs simulating through though. The problem for me is once you get into the depth of the game. The scouting is completely lacking in terms of current players on both your team and the opposing teams. I find myself spending half the season just trying to figure out which players I should actually have in the lineup. When tinkering with strategies to simulate through games I still have yet to find the right mix that actually improves the team play. I also find recruiting to be quite monotonous, but seems like it is on the right track. Overall I would give this game a 5/10, and would recommend if it were on sale for those that are hardcore CBB fans. It can be fun, but there are a lot of flaws that make it hard to play some times. There is so much potential in the game, but it would benefit from a much more OOTP style scouting system and UI.

I've played over 60 hours, so I would probably have to recommend it. But it's not perfect. This is easily the best college game I've played from this studio. I mostly sim the games, so the display issues noted by other reviews are generally out-of-sight for me. Recruiting is difficult but mostly achievable. I think some tooltips and a "scheme fit" metric (perhaps via player archetypes?) would be greatly appreciated, as right now the player is left to bridge the gap between player skills and single-paragraph scheme descriptions.

Worth if you need a quick 10 hour click sim. I really wish i was good at this sim, I don t totally understand it so i personally don't enjoy it. I also feel that this game is only good with mods. I REALLY HATE THE TEXTING/PHONE INTERACTIONS!!!

Finished my first season and really enjoyed the game. Learned a lot along the way, and the more I play, the more depth I find. Looking forward to adjusting my practice and game approach based on the team I have for year 2, and going deeper into recruiting to get the kind of players I want.

Very good simulator, game does take a while to understand. Especially the game planning which with 0ver 500 hours I still don't fully understand.

I REALLY want to recommend this game because I think that at its core, and when looking at its guts this game once again delivers. My problem is with the "in game" portion of the game. The new "2D" is more of a poor attempt at a "3D" view. Every shot is a line drive, and at speeds that make the game not feel like it drags on and on, the ball becomes hard to follow, often appearing transparent on the players. The new view is a great feature to have and to offer for those who want to see it but it feels incomplete. The old 2D "chalkboard" view should still be available. If that was available, or if it got added back into the game as part of a patch, I would 100% recommend this game but as of right now, I just feel myself waiting for the in-game portion of the game to be over. Its not fun, its not engaging, and it doesn't add anything to the product.

I am huge fan of most sportsmanagement games for over 30 years. Normally I can get the grasp by playing, but there's so little explanation and intuitive playing that I still feel lost after 11 hours of playing and on the verge of giving up. So only buy this if you're willing to read the full handbook and don't mind an insurmountable learningcurve! OR maybe im just not that smart.......

Download the mod for accurate teams/logos/leagues/etc, very easy to do and the info is on the DDSCB forums. The game is a bit pricey for what it is, it's truly a spreadsheet game. I love the high-level roster building and management, so this is perfect for me. But if you're really interested in managing each game, you can definitely still do that but not sure if that aspect of the game is great. Best aspect of this game is that there is some actual difficulty in building a powerhouse. Recruiting is not a cakewalk if you have your coach ratings not maxed out! One major improvement I'd like to see is the transfer portal. Right now, you're given a huge list of players and their counting stats, nothing else. No idea who was a former top recruit, no ranking of top transfers available, and if you want to scout players you probably won't land them because they will commit that same week. Hoping this can be addressed in an update or mod. If you're a fan of OOTP or other sports management games, definitely give it a try, especially if you've been missing the college sports genre!

This game makes little sense. Tired of players that started the whole season, in their preferred position, transferring because..... they want more opportunities to play in their preferred position. Tired of players transferring because 1 more is brought in at their position, bringing grand total to 3. Tired of players transferring because of bad relations with the Head Coach. I guess 100% is bad in this game. Basically, the whole transfer system is flawed to where it is frustrating. I figured the draft process would have been fixed by now. Nope. Have a top 3 player in the game, never gets drafted if at a smaller school. Assistant coaches have minimal growth, even when young. Head coaches at higher-tier programs don't get fired until after 6+ mediocre seasons. Basically, not a very good simulation. Last version I buy.

After Playing A lot of the 2022 version I had high hopes for the 2023 version but those hopes quickly faded as the game for the most part is the same. The addition of more preseason tourneys is nice but outside of that none of the other changes really matter too much. The NXT Recruting ranks do not really bring anything new to the game, the new in game display is way to slow to really be used often, the addition of budget allocation is nice but it does not really change the game in any real noticeable way. So are there changes from he 2022 version? Yes, but none of the changes really enhance the game or make it feel very different at all. The most annoying thing to me is that the strategy has remained the exact same as it was last year. Its still incredibly basic and you can't really control if your team does good or not, it feels like it's completely luck. If your coach has 100 in all stats that team can still be horrible regardless of how good the coach is. In this game a "Well Coached Team" just cannot exist as the best teams are the ones with the most 5 stars and that is how it is every single year in the game. On top of all of that there are a few bugs that just make the game a lot harder to enjoy. For instance, recently I got fired from one school so I went and signed with another one but the game never registered me as signing with the other school so I cannot control recruiting, lineups. strategy, literally anything even though I am the coach and have all the setting on manual. Overall I really wanted to like this game but after over 40 hours of playing it I have come to the conclusion that it is basically the same as 2022 and all the changes seem rather unimportant. This game just is not as fun or engaging as it could be so I would not recommend it to anyone looking for a fun entertaining college basketball game