EA's NFL Head Coach

matthewk · Post by **matthewk** » Thu Jun 29, 2006 12:01 pm

Brando, I don't think you're seeing the big picture. Why should EA let you play a football god? That's just one game. This way we can have NFL GM next year, followed by NFL Offensive Coordinator and NFL Cheeleader

I'm glad I waited this one out. It sounds interesting, but not $40 interesting. More like a game I'll pick up for $10-$15 on Ebay around the holidays.

Brando70 · Post by **Brando70** » Thu Jun 29, 2006 2:41 pm

It is a great idea, don't get me wrong. But whereas I first thought it was like MVP -- fine tune the gameplay and you'll have an awesome game -- I think the problems run deeper here. Some parts of the game just need to be completely redone.

Still, it is a very addicting game. I am looking forward to playing tonight.

Bill_Abner · Post by **Bill_Abner** » Thu Jun 29, 2006 2:51 pm

Brando70 wrote:It is a great idea, don't get me wrong. But whereas I first thought it was like MVP -- fine tune the gameplay and you'll have an awesome game -- I think the problems run deeper here. Some parts of the game just need to be completely redone.

One of which would appear to be the FAs in the off season. I played year 1 and there aren't any new FAs in the off season. The only FA I see is the guy I failed to resign -- everyone else was in the pool the previous year. The CPU signed, literally, all of its players for every team. Impressive GMs.

Leebo33 · Post by **Leebo33** » Thu Jun 29, 2006 3:44 pm

matthewk wrote:I'm glad I waited this one out. It sounds interesting, but not $40 interesting. More like a game I'll pick up for $10-$15 on Ebay around the holidays.

My thoughts exactly. I'm really glad I waited, especially since my PC won't run the game and I'd have to play on PS2.

Danimal · Post by **Danimal** » Thu Jun 29, 2006 4:21 pm

I think I've pretty much hit my limit, but picking up Titan Quest has finally put the nail inthe coffin for me. While there is great potential here, I highly doubt this game will ever reach it.

I just can't stomach another week of office hours, hunting for stats and then having to view it player by player. Even thought the on field gameplay has some issue, the coaching aspect and the camera views are exactly what I want. the rest of it however is just tedious crap that is easily mistaken as depth your first time through.

While I think HC proves the point that we just want a football game where we coach and see the action. I can't ever see this title going in that direction and I don't see a little indie company having the budget to produce the level of graphic detail we see here for on field action.

I knew this would happen, I just didn't know i would be this disappointed.

Bill_Abner · Post by **Bill_Abner** » Thu Jun 29, 2006 4:43 pm

Danimal wrote:I think I've pretty much hit my limit, but picking up Titan Quest has finally put the nail inthe coffin for me. While there is great potential here, I highly doubt this game will ever reach it.

I just can't stomach another week of office hours, hunting for stats and then having to view it player by player. Even thought the on field gameplay has some issue, the coaching aspect and the camera views are exactly what I want. the rest of it however is just tedious crap that is easily mistaken as depth your first time through.

While I think HC proves the point that we just want a football game where we coach and see the action. I can't ever see this title going in that direction and I don't see a little indie company having the budget to produce the level of graphic detail we see here for on field action.

I knew this would happen, I just didn't know i would be this disappointed.

Yeah, I agree, to a point. After I played through the first season, I went through the off season in year 2 and it was a chore to get through it all. It's like an MMO grind without the payoff of cool loot.

That said, I don't think the game is that far off from being a keeper.

If EA would:

-Fix the INTs
-Allow for varying clock times or work in a fast clock
-Make it so players enter free agency...ugh
-Totally redo and re-evaluate the interface and the idea of limiting what you can do during each task
-Have CPU GMs draft at least a LITTLE bit for need. This draft AI is just piss poor.
-Tweak the stat engine (DTs getting 17 sacks is just loopy)

There are other things but if they did this, and I understand that they want to make it for the consoles too so I get the whole "console GUI", but if they did this for HC 2007, I'd personally play the hell out of it. But yeah, as is, it's just a big grind.

Danimal · Post by **Danimal** » Thu Jun 29, 2006 6:00 pm

I just don't see EA doing much to improve this. In my vision, if they want to keep the weekly stuff thats fine. But I would want the following setup so I didn't have to do the reptative stuff everyday.

Regualr Day Calendar

Office Hours 1 session a Day: Here you can do anything you want, as much as you want. Call agents, check emails, desing plays, depth charts. the Owner wants a meeting on Monday fine, it is part of Mondays Office Hours. You get an email that says the owner wants to meet. You can elect to meet and go through the animated crap, or you can just play it out right on the text email screen. Same thing for Staff Meetings, Scotuign Meetings. I just want the option of not having to go through the animated stuff since it doesn't add anything.

Also I want a real interface where i can view reports. man I'd settle for the madden Depth chart screen or roster breakdown etc.

Practice: Leave it as is but also add some flexibility for people who don't want to run every damm play. Why can't I just say Monday, Run LB vs RB drills. Have the !st string run 60% of the reps and use these plays.

Anyway that is just some of my thoughts right now.

Brando70 · Post by **Brando70** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 9:37 am

I played a couple preseason games last night, losing my first one to the Panthers on a last second FG, and winning the other against the Bengals 17-10. Willis McGhee broke two long runs for TDs (which were things of beauty) and Terrence McGee picked Carson Palmer off twice.

Which brings me to today's Word: motivation. The system in Head Coach really makes no sense. I thought I had gotten in a groove. I had noticed that when someone did something really dumb/bad -- getting pancaked, throwing a terrible pick, getting beat by their man -- the aggressive response generated a positive impact most of the time.

After both McGhee's runs and McGee's picks, I gave them the passive "positive" feedback -- great job out there, you're running great, and so on. I got a negative sign all four times. What am I supposed to do, yell at them? I could see if someone screws up and the passive approach is seen as a sign of weakness, but praising someone after a great play should not give you a negative.

One interesting thing is that I haven't seen many picks in these two games with the default settings (and playing with 6 minute quarters). I threw three in the first game (1 by each QB, not surprising with V. Young and the Bills QBs), and Palmer's two picks (both in the second half) were the only other ones I saw.

I have never had as much of a love/hate with a game before. I definitely got caught up in the second game in particular, working the players, overriding coaches at key times, watching Young have a pretty decent game. There is fun to be had.