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Review of GM Hockey Legacy 2012
A somewhat more cartoon-like take on the coolest sport on earth.
November 5th, 2012

It's November, and that means that (most) years, my nights would be filled up by flipping through various hockey games, checking box scores and fiddling around with whatever fantasy line-up I've put together for myself. Of course, the NHL's lockout of the NHLPA and subsequent cancellation of games throughout November have left a hole in my autumn routine. In it's place has been a myriad of games, including a new wave of hockey games perhaps aiming to take advantage of the momentum that hockey had built for itself over the last few years and the lack of availability of hockey for most of the country.

We've already briefly discussed FHM, which will come out within the next few months, but being released to the public soon is a dark horse hockey simulator from French-Canadian developer Jean-Francois Cabana. GM Hockey Legacy is a lighter, more stream lined and fun-oriented text-based simulation engine of hockey for the consumer looking to get their hockey fix. While this game won't stand up to the rigid stability and demands of say Football Manager or Out of the Park, that isn't it's purpose: instead, its built to be a fun, simply and somewhat more cartoon-like take on the coolest sport on earth.

After installing the game (which comes with a separate and somewhat amusing audio file), you're prompted to start a new game or continue with a previous game. The menu overlays are simple and efficient  here, and that is a trend that continues throughout the user experience.

After setting up a new game (in which you can choose your name, attributes, starting point, team and so on), you go through a myriad of pre-season necessities such as a player draft (featuring up-to-date 2012 draftees), signing coaches to any vacancies and other standard fare. Most of these menus require your attention to complete -- and because they are an early necessity, may frustrate some players who wish to click through their rosters and look around before making any franchise-altering decisions. But for the most part, management after the first few screens is very open ended.

After the initial stages of setting up your game are complete, you're presented with a newspaper overlay as your main screen, from which you can read recent developments around the league and manage your team/league from various drop-down charts.

The graphics and drop-down charts are different than most modern sports sims on the market, resembling something more from the turn-of-the-century or straight out of a Super Nintendo. Whether or not this is good or bad will basically depend on your preference. The player 'photos' are cartoon-like images that may-or-may-not resemble the actual player, and the newspaper overlay actually reminds me of the old overlay you'd see in the post game in Ken Griffey Jr. Baseball.

Personally, I like the overlays and graphics because they engross you in a bit of a different world, but people who want Sidney Crosby to look like himself on every screen may have trouble finding the ultra-realism from the vanilla version of the game.

Pierre McGui.. I mean MacLeish shares his update

Where the realism does come into play, however, is the game's stats and simulation engine, which does a fine job of representing hockey as we know it to be. After running through months and months of games, the stats engine holds up pretty well, even when accounting for wacky changes and the whims of a "general manager" who might not know what he's doing.

There is very little 'gameplay' in terms of making decisions in the actual games. You simply select from some pre-game options, including lines, line-up, strategy and so on, and then click through a series of "Continue" prompts as the game stops in between periods and highlights. As long as you're not looking to watch a game like in Football Manager or be able to make multiple in-game decisions like in Out of the Park, the management and simulation experience in GM Hockey Legacy  is strong.

There is an entire list of Team management options, as well as things I've never seen before in a hockey sim. The World Championships and Olympics are represented, you can look through stats from a variety of different screens, the team management and GM options are nicely separated and so on. There's even some option called "BigDeal Ramon corner' under the newspaper which might have something to do with prospects or maybe not -- I'm still not sure.

Overall, GM Hockey Legacy is a game that is going to greatly satisfy some and disappoint others, and the numbers for each side will basically be dependent on how many people are looking for a realistic simulation engine that really works, but may not necessarily be very pretty to look at or flashy in its presentation. If you're looking for something that is kind of a cross over between a text sim and a console game, this is not for you. If you're looking for something that has a lot of different simulation and scenario options and, for what it does, just works, then give this one a try.

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