We take a look at a basketball manager created in Barcelona, in Early Access since 2018, and with recently updated templates.
Although now it is more than recommended to take a look thanks to its latest update, International Basketball Manager has been on the market since autumn 2018, in Early Access state specifically. With weight licenses such as those of the Euroleague and Eurocup -summing now the Turkish league-, the U-Play game of Barcelona has not stopped growing until now, in which it can boast of even having its large base of data of players and teams updated, since until now it had the templates of the 17-18 season. In this way, we can already enjoy some of the most important signings in Europe last summer, such as that of Mike James by CSKA Moscow, that of Milos Teodosic by the revived Virtus Bologna of Aleksandar Djordjevic, and of course, the most everyone's media, that of Niko Mirotic by FC Barcelona. Without a doubt, this is the definitive support that this solvent basketball manager needed, who also, incidentally, has some work ahead to improve and become the definitive dispatch simulator.
Legitimate successor of PC Basket
As usual in the genre, the interface that we find in International Basketball Manager is really intuitive, and it is expected that the moment its final version is released, it has suffered between few and no changes. It is not complex to move from one menu to another, and in a matter of seconds be preparing the individual workouts of the template to set the prices of the tickets. The biggest of IBM's problems is not here, and in fact, we glimpse the same menus as when we first played it shortly after its original release in October 2018.
Nor are licenses one of the sections to improve, since, as we said, the Euroleague and Eurocup licenses, most of the most popular teams are fully present in all their aspects, but those that are not officially they are not difficult to distinguish, with all the players in the most important leagues. And this happens not only with those of Germany, Greece, Italy, France or, of course, the Endesa League -and LEB Gold-, but even with those of the NBA. Do you want to hit the ball and bring you a signing of the best league in the world? You can, of course, scratching your wallet, because not even the modest teams in our league let their stars out so easily.
At the time of signing we have multiple options, which go from making the relevant offer to the team that has our target player in ownership, to obviously making the offer to the player. Here it is necessary to establish both the clause and the duration of the contract, its annual salary and different premiums for titles or freedom in case of an NBA offer. The search engine is tremendously effective and if we look for a specific profile, we will soon find it based on different parameters: position, rating, age … The next star of the future is on the radar of our scouting expert … if this is good enough.
And from the bench? The preparation of the match during the week can be as thorough as we want, managing the minutes of each player in each position, and the rotations, in each specific room, even the extension. Obviously it is also possible to choose for whom to play that day, who will be our reference player – in the end it will almost always be the same, of course – the tendency to attack – play more for indoor or outdoor -, individual training to improve the technique of each one, etc. But we missed more options during the game, or rather more influence at the tactical level.
In each encounter we have two simulation options: only text or badges, for a slightly more attractive visualization, and which is also accompanied by a description on each play. We can completely simulate the match by seeing only the result if we are in a hurry or confidence in our team, but for greater control it is advisable to enjoy them in a calm way and seeing how it develops, being clear in what way we can make decisions so that the match reaches a good port. If we do not ask for dead time, the options are limited to making substitutions or defining how and who will play the next possession, but when we are in full time these options multiply, being able to define the pace of possessions, change the approach of the attack, pass from an individual defense to a zone 1-3-1… However, we are not clear about how these decisions influence the game, and we lack more specifications in the attack systems: play pick & roll, inside ball, exit a block for a shot or even cleared, to say a few simple examples and not very difficult to implement.
Broadly speaking, International Basketball Manager has enough virtues to, even being in early access on Steam, be able to seduce fans of the sport of the basket. However, from the coach's point of view, we miss more complex options at the tactical level, and that there are, they are implemented more effectively. The U-Play game has been in this state for more than a year, so we hope that at the time of its final release, the news will go beyond its licenses.
International Basketball Manager is now available on Steam, in Early Access, at the price of 9'99 euros.
