EA's NFL Head Coach

[nafselon]

For all the gamers on the board.

Anyone thinking about picking this one up? I'm sure it'll be a $50 buy but it looks in-depth as hell and I've been waiting for a thorough football coaching sim that keep up with "Baseball Mogul".

http://www.easports.com/nflheadcoach/home.jsp

 

[Inky_Wretch]

I'm interested, but will rent it first.

Is it true that if you have a SOCOM headset, you can actually call plays through it?

 

[top_dog]

In years past, EA's Madden games always seem to curse the player on the cover of the game with a season-ending injury.

On the cover of the inaugural NFL Head Coach? Bill Cowher.

 

[Orange Hat Bobcat]

Read through the two-page ad for this one and have to say I'm pretty interested. If and when I update my system (still plod along with an SNES and a lot of old games, believe it or not), I'll have to give this one a look.

With my skills, though, all my assistants would leave during Week 9 and I'd be canned by the first week of December.

 

[Herbert Anchovy]

Saw this in a magazine a few weeks ago and was also intrigued. But is it just coaching and managing? You don't get to play? I just think that would wear off for a while.

 

[Mystery_Meat]

I'm more interested in NCAA 2007, which may be the last game I buy for the Xbox. Either I elevate to the 360 or I bid a sad farewell to video gaming.

 

[Orange Hat Bobcat]

Saw this in a magazine a few weeks ago and was also intrigued. But is it just coaching and managing? You don't get to play? I just think that would wear off for a while.

I think you play, but it's a small percentage of each week's buildup (something like 10 percent, I think). So, yeah, the games are still there ... probably.

 

[Lion_Woods]

Why make this a seperate game? EA could've just added this feature to Madden and saved lots of folks $50.

 

[Madhavok]

Why make this a seperate game? EA could've just added this feature to Madden and saved lots of folks $50.

Are you serious?
EA is noTORIous for doing stuff like this.
EA has the NFL rights, it can pretty much do whatever it wants. This company, like every other company, cares about making money first. To do that, having this EA Coach will do exactly that.

Electronic Arts has some silly (IMO) practices when it comes to its sports games, especially Madden. Little add ons for each new game with little or no graphical advances: 2005 to 2006. IMO, ESPN's NFL2K6 blew Madden out of the water.

Example: For Madden 2006 for the 360, EA TOOK OUT parts of the game you could play in the regular Xbox version! So now in 2007, they'll add all of the stuff it took out in 2006 to make the game more appealing.

 

[nafselon]

Saw this in a magazine a few weeks ago and was also intrigued. But is it just coaching and managing? You don't get to play? I just think that would wear off for a while.

I don't think you get to play in terms of running with the control pad but you call each play and communicate with the coaches in between or suggest changes to your coordinators (who you have given playcalling duty too, etc.).

 

[Dynasty99]

I think they should have just added a more basic version of this feature in the new madden to hype it up before actually releasing a game based on it. That'll save a lot of money for everyone cause if people didnt really like it, then EA could just take a different approach.

I'll probably end up renting it.

 

[Columbo]

I think they should have just added a more basic version of this feature in the new madden to hype it up before actually releasing a game based on it. That'll save a lot of money for everyone cause if people didnt really like it, then EA could just take a different approach.

I'll probably end up renting it.

They're not in business to save people money.....

 

[Dynasty99]

I think they should have just added a more basic version of this feature in the new madden to hype it up before actually releasing a game based on it. That'll save a lot of money for everyone cause if people didnt really like it, then EA could just take a different approach.

I'll probably end up renting it.

They're not in business to save people money.....

Of course not. But they could make a lot more money on this idea if they put it in a madden and then people got a taste and were like "damn that ****s good, I want some more." But it still could be a good game.

 

[proudpittsburgher]

In years past, EA's Madden games always seem to curse the player on the cover of the game with a season-ending injury.

On the cover of the inaugural NFL Head Coach? Bill Cowher.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Hustle]

First off, I doubt this game will be $50. At least for PS2, games haven't been that high since the announcement of PS3. And they'll continue to be lower, because game sales are lagging as everyone waits for the next-gen to hit the market.

As for the game itself, I'm pretty stoked about it. If you can do the stuff they say you can do - particularly with the gameplanning aspects - then this is the game for me. I'd rather do all that than the actual playing of the game. I've bought Madden once in the last five years and played it occasionally for two weeks before getting rid of it. (Though, strangely, I love NCAA.)

My dream is that five days I sit down to play this game and am immediately able to fire Marty Mornhinweg.

 

[Chuck~Taylor]

In years past, EA's Madden games always seem to curse the player on the cover of the game with a season-ending injury.

On the cover of the inaugural NFL Head Coach? Bill Cowher.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And the Madden spirits have already begun by taking out Ben Roethlisberger.

 

[Mystery_Meat]

Problem is, people are already going to shell out $50 for the Xbox/PS2/GC versions and $60 for the Xbox 360 version already. If you integrate this Head Coach game into Madden, you're either going to have to essentially give it away if you don't change what your charge, or risk losing people if you defy the gaming market and charge like $70 and $80. The $49 price point for name new releases has been established for a good while now, and the $59 price point is likely going to be the standard for new next-gen releases. Nobody goes up on it unless they pack in their own controller (they tried with Madden and Halo 2, and maybe a few other games, to do a "collector's edition" that had some extras and retailed for $10 more, but that didn't work).

Also: I don't think EA "chose" to downgrade their 360 games in an effort to boost them for the 2007 series; the first year of a series on a new system is usually fairly spartan compared to current-gen offerings because they're still getting the hang of programming on a new machine. I don't think EA wants to produce sub-par versions of their games if there's any chance someone like 2K Sports can take the early lead on a new system by offering a better product (you laugh, but this is essentially what happened when 989 Sports made a serious run at EA's football dominance with GameDay/GameBreaker; in particular the early versions for the PS1 played much more fluidly than the Madden/NCAA counterpart, but they didn't keep improving, then they got pwn3d by everyone after ****ting out the dreck they did on the PS2, and now Sony doesn't produce sports games).

 

[Madhavok]

Great Post M_M.
Sega, Take Two, and Visual Concepts along with ESPN had a great game in NFL2K5. One that I'll proudly say was better than Madden's version for the year. It was faster, more realistic in regards to running and passing, and the graphics were awesome. I even had Madden and kept going back to ESPN's game.
Sure EA as all of these mini games but for one, I don't care how much to charge for food, tickets. It just seemed EA spent too much time on non-football items like that instead of pumping up the graphics.
2006 is a little bit better I must add. I like the big truck stick for the offense, the passing cone can be tedious at times but after a month I have it down pretty good. Considering I spent two years with JP Losman and his needle, playing with Tom Brady or Peyton Manning was a walk in the park.

 

[HoopsMcCann]

$40 on amazon -- http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000CSUL2M/102-5300538-3821741

 

[kokane_muthashed]

I'll probably pass. Maybe rent it. If it was $30, I would think about buying it. Actually, what I'm hoping for is when Madden comes out, they drop the price on HC or offer a deal for the two games together like Best Buy does from time to time.