Rugby League Team Manager 3

tl;dr: If you like watching rugby league and playing PC games, buy this! There are so many positive things about this game: * It's the only rugby league game on Steam still receiving updates and bugfixes. * It has real team & player names & photos for the NRL and all RFL competitions (Super League, Championship, League One) and so far these have been updated every year. So you can pick George Williams as Wire, Nathan Cleary as Penrith, etc., etc. * It's a reasonable level of difficulty. You can get from League One to the Super League once you have experience, but you can't expect to win the play-offs every year. * This is a professionally produced game with an adequate UI (with a design which is pleasingly similar to Super League branding). * It works well on Linux using Proton (I normally play this way). * There's a 2D match mode for players on lowspec PCs (or just nostalgic for 90s games!). * Northern Hemisphere has promotion & relegation and uses £/€; Southern Hemisphere does not and you can switch to $. Of course, no software is ever perfect and it does have weaknesses: * In 3D match mode, you see visual bugs very roughly once per match. For example, the two halves of the scrum don't line up exactly facing each other, or one player scores a try while all the others are frozen. It's annoying but bearable. * The game uses the Laws of the Game from when it went into Early Access in 2019, so there are no set restarts. * They don't have a licence for NSW/QLD Cup sides, so the team and player names aren't real. You can fix this with editing and Steam Workshop. * There's no video ref (but I'm not sure what the point of this would be in a videogame?!). * The team selection and physio assignment UIs are a little bit clunky which is unfortunate because that's where you spend the most time. * The manual only describes the most basic gameplay, so the game is actually more in-depth than you realize at first. But if you join the Discord server, you can get your questions answered by other players & devs. * The in-game costs of salaries, transfer fees, construction costs, etc. are set in sterling (even if they have a $ sign in front), so they look low if you're used to A$. There are also things that I've seen players moan about which I don't think are real problems. The main one is that players get injured a lot. Well, yes, this is rugby league, players do get injured a lot; last year Hull KR could barely scrape together 17 players IRL! But if you are a competent player who invests in medical staff and player fitness, then it's manageable. Another one is crashes. I can well believe this was an issue back in Early Access, but it's now very stable in my experience. The third one is that the graphics aren't as good as you'd get in an AAA game. But this isn't an AAA game.... And the critical context for this review is that rugby league is sadly not a very popular sport so this always going to be a niche area. This is the only rugby league management game on PC and the only rugby league game still in development, so it's this or nowt. But despite some weak points, I think this is a good game and league fans can be pleased that we have such a good product. If you like rugby league, I think you will enjoy this, and I'd encourage you to buy it at full price in order to support continued development.