Fumbles on sacks and completed passes will be more treacherous in Strat-O-Matic Pro Football 2012. Returns will be longer if the defense recovers in those situations, conforming to statistical analysis.

 

The offense catches a break elsewhere this year: An optional rule prevents injuries to quarterbacks. This covers leagues that already have usage restrictions and it works well with the existing option to use actual NFL starting QBs.

 

Since more than one-third of NFL teams did not lose their starting quarterbacks to injury in 2011, the QB-injury rule also adds realism to replays.

 

Since Strat-O-Matic’s football rule book has expanded to add play variety in recent years, the new computer version is making it easier to find the rules: A PDF document is included and a computer-screen shortcut is available from the Start Program Group.

 

Other improvements in the new upgrade will include easier look-ups for each team’s special teams – if you purchase the Card Image option. Like the cards in the board game, the Windows game will put all the kicking and return specialists in one location of the Team Notebook.

 

And now you can resize the Manage League Rosters dialog. Lengthen it to see many more free agents. Widen it to see more stats categories.

 

Coaches will be able to dwell more on their exhilarating wins and exasperating losses with a variety of new post-game features. Game stories that mention key plays and players will accompany every game and a new report will combine the stories with line scores. Box scores are improved to note the time at the end of plays. And the Takeaway/Giveaway Report now has a Plus/Minus column.

 

Also noteworthy:

More amazingly, Bobberts has corrected data for hundreds of players in 38 seasons. These range from minor typos in names and stat lines to inconsistencies (in such things as blocking ratings for multi-position players), to misplaced card results, to incorrect calculations in both the Elementary and Advanced versions of the game.