-
For those that enjoyed the
dynasty mode in Madden, this is the game designed for you
- Digs deeper than previous franchise-type modes with more
involvement into drafting and player development
-
Who thought a game about
being an NFL head coach would be so tedious?
- Needs more choices when it comes to interaction with your
players, especially during games when you’re either motivating
or strategizing
- Ridiculous amount of “coach-speak” loading screens
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NFL
Head Coach
Score:
6.5 / 10
Every
big sports fan has these thoughts at least once in their life of
rooting for their favorite team: What would it be like if I was the
head coach? How hard could it be to run a team?
Well, Electronic Arts has the game to answer those questions with its new
NFL Head Coach, the first real football “coaching” simulation. EA’s
Madden series has one of the best franchise modes around for any sports
title. But EA delved deeper into the world of coaching, not just running a
franchise, with NFL Head Coach. Every little detail and job function that
a National Football League head coach does in their running of a
franchise, you’ll have to perform in NFL Head Coach. From going through
training camp drills, to drafting players, to offering contracts and
dealing with player agents with the salary cap in mind, to reviewing game
tape, to coaching on game day, whatever a NFL head coach does, you’ll do
in NFL Head Coach.
But after playing the game, the answers to the two thoughts above are: A
lot of work; and really hard – and sometimes too tedious to ever want to
actually take on the job of a NFL head coach if you ever had the
once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
While a great concept, NFL Head Coach doesn’t execute with a winning
design and implementation to develop a fun-while-playing coaching
simulation. Too much
dealing
with the behind-the-scenes minutiae and boring undertakings to get
to the good stuff of drafting, building a team and simply coaching
your squad during games. You can skip activities you don’t want to
do, of course, and that alleviates some of the less-than-fun moments
of NFL Head Coach. But even the good stuff isn’t as good as
it could be, with a problematic lack of choices that takes away from
what was,
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in its conceptual form, a somewhat intriguing idea for a
game. If this game is the indication of what being an NFL head coach
is all about, No NFL fan, after playing NFL Head Coach, will have
that same desire to take over their favorite franchise ever again.
NFL Head Coach isn’t an awful game, but certainly doesn’t have
the necessary pieces to be considered a championship-caliber gaming
experience, either. Too many of the coaching activities drag on too
long if you initiate them, but sometimes that’s the only way to
improve your team. Using practice for individual players can
increase the quality of their play for upcoming games, and for
rookies, that’s usually a necessary area of development.
To get those rookies, you’ll go through a generally good draft
process (and yes, the annoying Mel Kiper Jr., Mr. Know-it-All of the
draft, is part of NFL Head Coach, even offering commentary about
each of your draft selections), with the ability to scout beforehand
at the college scouting combine so you know the skills and abilities
of players you may want to draft. Unfortunately, unlike a real NFL
pro scouting department, you can only scout a handful of players,
leading to latter-round indecisiveness on whom to select. And making
the choosing more stressful, you are actually on the clock, having a
set period of time to make your pick, another touch of NFL realism
to the whole drafting affair. The first year’s draft was actually
a lot of fun because you have the real players that were in the 2006
draft class to pick from, so you know who’s good and who’s not
to a certain extent.
Once the draft is over, you have to sign those players, after
already going through a free agency period that allows you to sign
your own players and players from other teams. Signing your drafted
players and filling your roster is not the most enjoyable task,
because you’ll only have a certain block of time each day allotted
to signing them, and that usually only allows you to sign three at a
time instead of trying to sign all of them at once or delving deeper
into contractual and salary cap-related issues.
You’ll also be getting a constant barrage of emails from the owner,
other coaches on your team, and other coaches from other teams trying
to make a trade, which usually are ridiculous. They expect you to give
up your better players for their own players of lesser talent. Never
did I get a trade offer that, if it was made in the real NFL, was fair
for both sides. These trade offers were the kind that would cause a
real NFL general manager and head coach to lose their jobs for
incompetence if they accepted them.
One of the most bothersome features of NFL Head Coach is the constant
loading between each task. The load screens take the form of
“coach-isms” from famous coaches, along the lines of Vince
Lombardi’s famous “Winning’s not everything. It’s the only
thing.” There’s just too many load screens – each and every time
you switch to a new task! After a while, you’re sure to start
dropping these “coach-isms” into regular, everyday conversation
without even meaning to or realizing it.
But if you’re into the whole immersion of football coaching more
advanced from even what Madden offers, then you’ll put up with the
load screens and mundane tasks, just to get to the “any given
Sunday” game days, where you’ll roam the sidelines and coach your
team after a week of preparation. This is another interesting aspect
of NFL Head Coach, because you don’t control the action on the field
once you select a play. You can call audibles, and shift players
around, but once the ball is snapped, the game’s out of your hands,
so to speak, and what happens on each play has nothing to do with your
football videogame-playing skills, and everything to do with what play
you chose. Your assistant coaches will make suggestions for plays, but
for the most part, you’re better relying on your own instincts to
pick successful plays.
As far as the “coaching” aspect during games, you can either
motivate or strategize with your players, and depending on how they
react, can have either a positive or negative influence or both
individuals or groups of gridiron giants. What’s disappointing is
the lack of motivational choices.
From
a selection menu, you’re given one of each type of motivation: positive
or
negative, along with strategy choices. You can select just one player to
interact with, or a group of players (all the linebackers, all the defensive
backs, whatever group of players on either side of the ball you want).
But you can only choose one critical or positive motivation, and there’s no
way of knowing how players will react. Bizarrely, even when you hurl positive
motivation their way, many players will react negatively (you’ll see how
they react when either a plus or minus sign appears over their head, a la The
Sims). There are just two selections, never a choice that could have different
results than just the duo given. There’s a bit more choice when
strategizing, but not by much. As you are motivating or strategizing, by the
way, the game continues to go on without your interaction, a nice and
realistic touch.
Visually, NFL Head Coach uses the decent Madden engine, which won’t blow
your socks off, but certainly is acceptable. If you’re so inclined, there is
the opportunity to take your coaching online on Xbox Live, too.
The idea behind NFL Head Coach was an interesting one. But too many little
flaws and deficiencies shelve the game on the nearly-unable-to-perform list,
at least at the performance level it set out to reach. With ridiculous
“coach-ism” load times each and every switch of tasks, too many
uninteresting coaching tasks to begin with, and a surprisingly massive lack of
interactive aspects in regard to coach-player relations during actual games,
NFL Head Coach gets benched by its unimpressive execution. There’s only one
thing left to say, and there’s no way better to say it than one of NFL Head
Coach’s “coach-ism” load screens would: Better luck next year.
