NBA General Manager 2014

Sports management games appeal to a certain breed of gamer.

Far removed from the frenetic action of pure sports games, these number-crunching simulators often appeal more to fans of strategy games rather than to sports nuts.

In those terms, the NBA-licensed General Manager had the potential be a great number-powered sports sim, but its shots go a bit too wide at times to make it an easy recommendation.

From the outset, NBA General Manager 2014 delivers a faithful representation of the complex job of managing a professional basketball team.

You can make hiring decisions ranging from free agents to head coaches, and you have almost complete control over your team. Better still, you can customise your players through training and "Player Improvement" to increase your team's overall strength on the court.

As your players increase in level and training, so too does your team's overall value increase. When you come up against an opponent, it's a safe bet that the team with the highest value will walk away with the win.

It would have been nice if NBA General Manager 2014 had offered a bit more nuance here and assigned different values to offence and defence. But it doesn't.

Half-court at best

This simplification would have been permissible if it had been NBA General Manager 2014's only fault, but it's one of three major flaws that ultimately bring the game down.

The second is the overall lack of excitement in gameplay and polish in the presentation. While it's to be expected that a sports management sim won't be bursting at the seams with action, we're equally entitled to expect that it will deliver its action and updates through well-translated, grammatically correct sentences.

NBA General Manager 2014 fails in both areas, and the overall flow is dull at the best of times. During games, you'll simply watch as numbers accumulate in front of your team's logo.

There are no highlights, nor any fouls to keep track of. It's just scrolling numbers - even if they do, in fairness, scroll rather efficiently.

Once you get a handle on the basic gameplay, the frequent, shrill ring of your assistant's in-game phone all but disappears and you're left to click around and watch your currency fly out of your reserves.

And this is the last major flaw of NBA General Manager 2014 - its integration of the free-to-play model is relentless as you juggle two premium currencies (cash and coins) while keeping an eye on your team's energy level.

Should your energy level drop too low you won't be able to play games to progress in the league. As you might expect, an energy top-up is available for 25 coins.

At the outset, NBA General Manager 2014 is a decent time-waster that offers a surprisingly deep look at what it takes to run an NBA team.

But its monetisation model makes it ill-suited to long playing sessions, and its shoddy presentation and simplistic gameplay will make your interest evaporate a long time before your team's energy does.