While the audience for PC-based sports management sims isn’t as huge as the audience for, let’s say, NBA 2K7, the arrival of the latest offering by Wolverine Studios’ Gary Gorski is cause for celebration among fans of this genre of sports game.
For years, Gorski’s games have been the subject of much anticipation; he has revitalized and revived interest in statistically-accurate text-based sports sims with previous releases, and Draft Day Sports: Pro Basketball is a significant refinement over his previous version, Grey Dog Software’s Total Pro Basketball 2005.
What is most impressive is the small company’s ability to respond quickly to reported bugs and glitches with timely patches. In the 10 days or so since the game’s official release, Gorski has released three “public beta” patches as well as one official “v1.1″ patch, and the process is still ongoing.
While some folks may find DDS:PB a bit retro since it’s not a console-style sports game, the depth of DDS:PB is without parallel. Plus, he has a college hoops title, Total College Basketball, that integrates seamlessly with the pro game.
Sadly, sales of Wolverine Studio’s titles is still minuscule compared to that of EA Sports. They count their sales volume in the thousands, not the 100s of thousands.
Help keep independent studios like Wolverine Studios thriving! Hop over there now and try out the three-day trial copy of all his titles, and buy the ones you like. It’s not like they’re gonna be jetting off to Orlando vacations on the modest $25-$35 fees they charge for their games… and the patch-jobs are free!
