ScoopBrady wrote:Got it last night and popped it in around midnight. Next thing I know it's 3:00 pm
Man, I thought guys played Oblivion for marathon sessions!
I've had this in my hands twice in the past few days, but couldn't pull the trigger. I have concerns about the interface, difficulty level, and the fact that it would probably start gathering dust once NCAA hits in a few weeks. I like the concept though. If you guys are still playing it and recommending it in a month or two it's something I could see picking up during football season. By then I'll probably be sick of NCAA and Madden since they come out so early.
I have the game and I share your concerns. This is a first generation title which means there's a lot of good under the hood but there's also very very rough spots.
One of the rough spots is the Madden game engine. While it's been tweaked for this game -- which means that short passes can be completed, some QBs go bonkers if you put pressure on them and there's a more noticiable difference in player's rating. But then again it's still madden and sometimes the AI goes crazy, as Bill Abner has stated. Ints can get out of hand. And the late game AI for the CPU in some instances doesn't call the right situational plays, like running the ball when it needs to pass.
I won't go over the interface too much and just say, it is not user friendly. It needs to be more streamlined.
For me, the game can be a good time waster but sometimes it feels more like work than a game. Lastly if NCAA or Madden makes strides this year, then I don't see I'll be playing this game much. I really thought it would be the other way around.
It definitely sucks you in. I got it yesterday, and played a lot. Did the pre-draft, draft, and started training camp (although that part crashed -- I think I hit the backspace one time too many and got stuck in a loop in practice).
I took over the Bills and drafted Vince Young, Mercedes Lewis, and Chris Wroten as my top 3 picks, all of whom look to start. I plan to run Willis McGhee 30 times a game and use PA to set up some Young throws or roll outs. Should be entertaining if nothing else.
The interface is crap, without question one of the most poorly designed I've seen. Let's put it this way -- you could slap Madden's on here and it would be better. And yet the game is loads of fun. The training camp stuff is really cool. Figuring out how to motivate players, what to focus on, changing strategies for each play -- I like it. Keep in mind I haven't even played a pre-season game yet. (The one advantage of the interface is it's easy to learn, which helps make it slightly less annoying.)
So far it's pretty cool, and I think will be worth $40 (I bought the PC version). If nothing else I think there's a great foundation here for a fun franchise.
One question -- did anyone see any trades during their draft? I couldn't tell if teams were trading or not.
I haven't figured out any rhyme or reason to the movitivation. Is there a stat that tells what kind of response works for that particular player or something?
I wish there was a way to motivate them by saying good things and not always bad.
JRod wrote:I haven't figured out any rhyme or reason to the movitivation. Is there a stat that tells what kind of response works for that particular player or something?
I wish there was a way to motivate them by saying good things and not always bad.
I haven't figured it out, but I think it's very situational. One of my RBs fumbled the ball twice during drills, and I chewed him out twice and got positives. If I only have two negative options (one aggressive and one passive), and a player does something good, I just don't use motivation and instead use strategy to reinforce what he did.
I can't find this and it's driving me batty. How do I sign a FA during the season? I lost 2 TEs to injury in the final preseason week, one for 9 weeks and another for 12, and I now have 1 TE on the roster. I try to go to the Agent screen but it won't let me contact anyone because it's not the "sign players task." Problem is, there doesn't seem to be a sign player task at all during the year.
Bill_Abner wrote:I can't find this and it's driving me batty. How do I sign a FA during the season? I lost 2 TEs to injury in the final preseason week, one for 9 weeks and another for 12, and I now have 1 TE on the roster. I try to go to the Agent screen but it won't let me contact anyone because it's not the "sign players task." Problem is, there doesn't seem to be a sign player task at all during the year.
Any ideas?
Go to your calendar and swap one of the tasks that you can to sign players. That should work.
I am a patient boy.
I wait, I wait, I wait, I wait.
My time is water down a drain.
It's that time of the night again, where I post a new version of this bad boy.
Here is the latest and greatest (0.3).
Changes:
-Added the difficulty drop-down.
-Added tooltips to the sliders for determining the value.
-Removed the Injuries checkbox.
-Removed the Fatigue checkbox.
The biggest change in this version is the addition of the difficulty drop-down. I already had it linked up in a prior build, but had yet to test it. Was able to test it tonight, and it worked like a charm, the change was reflected in the logs.
As always, this is an ALPHA 3rd party application so back-up your stuff!
Also, any and all feedback/suggestions/requests are welcome here. This application belongs to the community.
Now I'm off to actually get some actual time in with the game for the first time.
BTW, should I create new posts when I release a new version of this to keep people informed?
I just played a 7 minute game with the INT sliders at 0. I had a total of 3 INT's, all were legit in my book. I saw quite a few that would have been picks without the slider setting.
I turned on game logs, but I can't find where it saves the file.
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Well I'm done with the Xbox version, I might pick up the PC version but I'd rather play NCAA.
After last night's game I've had enough of the INTs and rushing stats like 15-200.
There's so much good under the hood that this could be stellar game. But much like when MVP came out the game wasn't balenced right and that ultimately killed the game.
At times the game plays a brilliant form of football. It's great that I can order my QB to throw it high and have some tough on a out pattern to my TE in the endzone. It's a thing of beauty when it's pulled off correctly. Then you get a game where there's 4 picks by the CPU before half and my RB already has 200 yards because he broke TD runs of 75, 65 and 85. The potential is great but this game isn't there yet.
Finally got online with Head Coach tonight. I guess I was a fool for thinking that this game would appeal more to "real" football fans with more of a strategic mindset.
1st game - I win 24-11. The guy went for it on 4th and 12 from his own 18 in the first quarter. Then started the 2nd half off with an onside kick.
2nd game - Guy takes the opening kickoff and goes three and out. First play I thow a TD pass to Terry Glenn and the guy quits before I can kick the extra point. I did not get a win for this BTW.
3rd game - Guy takes the Colts and I hit Manning and force a fumble. Three plays later I score with Julius Jones. Next drive, Manning fumbles again and I take over on his 25. First play I hit Witten for a 10 yard gain and he quits. Again, I did not get the win.
4th game - The only real game I've had yet and this guy was still full of cheese. He gets me down 14-0 early, but I score right before the half to cut it to 14-7. Then I get the ball to start the 2nd half and take it to his 10, but he stopped me, so I kicked a field goal to make it 14-10. Keep in mind, this idiot has gone for it on every 4th down he has had no matter where he was on the field. With 3 minutes left, I kick off. He gets the ball up to his 40, but I stuffed him on 1st down. He picks up 6 on 2nd down so now he has 3rd and 5. Clock is down to 2:00. He throws a short pass to Tony Gonzalez, but Terrence Newman makes a great play and knocks it down. Now he has 4th and 5 at his own 45. Less than two minutes to go and I only have 2 timeouts. Yep, he goes for it and I blew up Priest Holmes in the backfield. I move the ball down to his three almost exclusively running the ball and pop it in with 9 seconds remaining and win the game 17-14. If the guy had any football sense at all, he would have beat me.
I think what amazes me about this game is that there are still idiots who think they are playing Madden and then quit as soon as they get behind. I'm even more disappointed that there appears to be no way to talk to your players between plays. It seems that by doing this they have taken the whole strategic element out of the game. I don't have a problem with them taking audibles out, but you should at least be able to talk to your players on offense with having to snap the ball. Sometimes I'd like to tell Julius Jones to bounce the ball outside on the next play, but it doesn't look like I can because while I'm clicking around trying to find him, the offense is running the next play. It's my 35 second clock, shouldn't I be able to decide when to snap the ball? If I'm talking to Bledsoe, he's not going to snap the ball while I am talking to him. I guess they did most of this stuff to keep the online games from slowing down, but it sure cripples the strategic element of the game for me.
I guess I'll just stick to my single player career.
2. EA got it right online by removing the ability to audible and do all the presnap stuff. I don't use this stuff offline at all(even though I might should). I think the coaching part should be a little deeper where you teach your players to do line shifts, audibles and who their first read should be.
bdunn13 wrote:1. Why are you playing random games?
2. EA got it right online by removing the ability to audible and do all the presnap stuff. I don't use this stuff offline at all(even though I might should). I think the coaching part should be a little deeper where you teach your players to do line shifts, audibles and who their first read should be.
Why am I playing random games? For one, I thought if you took the ability to cheese out of people's hands, you could get some decent games from random opponents. EA should have used the same fair play rules that were in Madden...no going for it on 4th down except when it makes sense and no onside kicks unless you're down big at the end of the game.
The other reason I am playing randoms is the most people I have seen online with the game is 5, and 4 of them were playing each other. There is absolutely no one playing this game online. You have to take what you can get.
bdunn13 wrote:2. EA got it right online by removing the ability to audible and do all the presnap stuff. I don't use this stuff offline at all(even though I might should). I think the coaching part should be a little deeper where you teach your players to do line shifts, audibles and who their first read should be.
That would be fantastic.
I am having fun. Got through training camp and am just about to start preseason. The drills are neat and unlike Madden, you really can tell the difference between a superstar and a scrub.
I think JRod's MVP comparison is a good one. There's definitely a lot of goofy stuff that needs to be fixed, but the gaming experience is so different that I'm really hooked. With some of the PC mods coming out, I hope a few of the issues can be resolved.
bdunn13 wrote:You got it for the PC right? How late do you stay up? I could prob cheese with vick around 11 or so tonight.
No, I got it for the Xbox. I wish I had gotten it for the pc since it seems more like a pc game than a console game. The interface seems like it was built for the pc. I may eventually pick it up for the pc if I can trade for a copy or find it used.
Badgun wrote:The interface seems like it was built for the pc.
Wow BG which PC games are you playing bro.
I was just thinking about when you click on your pc on your desk, you get a box with icons in it and an arrow to click with...reminds me of Control Panel.
The more I've played this (and after getting to an actual GAME), the more I think the underlying problem with Head Coach is that it's about being a Head Coach. What I really wanted was Front Office Football with a better gameday interface -- Sim Football, if you will, where I am the god of my football universe. Instead, we got something akin to Superstar Mode in Madden, but with coaching. I enjoy the game overall, mostly because it is different than other titles on the market, but the game focuses on a lot of the wrong elements.
For instance, when I got to an actual game, I was excited to call the plays my team had worked on in practice. But then the OC and DC are calling in different plays. Even worse, they called a lot of the same plays quite a bit. I can override them, but then the trust factor goes down, and if that happens too much, they'll quit. More importantly, as a gamer, I want to call the plays. It was almost as if I wanted to play EA Sports NFL Coordinator, letting the AI head coach tell the RBs they look like they are running in quicksand.
This limitation would be okay if, earlier in the week, my coordinators and I scoped out our gameplan. But instead, in the coach's meeting is for listening to my special teams coach tell me (again) that we should start our punter as our placekicker. Focusing on plays during practice didn't seem to make a difference, either. Which leaves me two choices: be a trust-breaking asshole or a passive bystander.
The player development side of it has kind of sucked me in, to the point where I can see playing 2-3 seasons of this, warts and all, just to see if I can make Vince Young into a great QB. But right now, given the choice between this and a new NCAA or Madden on the 360 (even with a stripped down NCAA), I'd take those two titles.
Man, I thought guys played Oblivion for marathon sessions!
