NFL Head Coach

There are myriads of football games out on the market. They range from simulation, arcade, and everything else in between. One thing that is common with all of those games is that you control almost every aspect of the game, from the plays to actually carrying out the play. The one game type that has been missing is for people who love strategy and football, but do not want to actually run the plays themselves. Yes I am talking about coaching. Well, EA Sports has heard your cries and has created a new football game for you entitled NFL Head Coach. Read on to find out more about this game.

To be honest, I am not a fan of the coaching aspect of football games. When I get a football game my least favorite aspect of it is making sure that everything is running in tip-top shape. What I want to get down to is the “nitty-gritty” of the actual football game, which for me is being on the football field and actually “playing” the football game. Then you have other people, for example my brother, who really enjoys taking a “hands-on” approach to every aspect of a football game. Even though I personally find less enjoyment out of the coaching aspects of the game, I was wondering how much fun can be had out of a football game that is all about coaching a football team. Even though this game still has a few issues that need to be ironed out, I was pleasantly surprised with the results.

Here is a run down of how the game works: When you first start the game you will have to personalize your coach, such as give it a name, age, voice, and many other characteristics. Then when you are ready you will have to go interview for various NFL teams, and hope that you pass to get to coach your favorite team. After you finish with your interview you will get various offers and you will have to find out which suits your tastes best.

Once you accept an offer you will go into the off-season and it is here where you will start to build your roster up, by scouting at the colleges, drafting, and signing free agents. Then you will go into your training camp where you will put your team through grueling tests to get them ready for the fight of their lives to get their precious Super Bowl rings, and the honor of becoming the champions. Unlike other games where you have control of the players, this time you will have to rely on your wits and outsmart the other coaches in order to win each game. Are you up to this challenge? Hopefully you are as your position as coach of the team depends on it.

If I had to come up with a statement that defines this game I would say: “Madden franchise mode on steroids.” There are so many more options and depth in this game in comparison to franchise mode of the Madden games it is really unbelievable. As a coach, you will quickly find out that you will live by a weekly schedule, and you will have to find time to do everything that is necessary to take a not-so-good team and create a Super Bowl-winning franchise. In order to do this you will have to get to know everyone on your team, such as your offensive and defensive coordinators, special teams, position coaches, and everyone else in between. As you can tell there are a lot of aspects in this game to get if you’re to have your own Super Bowl winning team.

One thing that you will have to do a lot of is go into practice mode, which will train your team to become better at various tasks. You will need to practice offense and defense as it will help boost the player’s attributes for those plays that make them become better at those specific plays. It is a good thing to do here because you can get your “money-maker” play that you know will never fail you in those tense moments. One bad thing about practice mode is that while it does increase your players' development it can also cause injuries to your key players. which is not good.

The graphics to this game are good, but they are not great by any means. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Just like real-time strategy games have not always had the best graphics around (well until recently) this game doesn’t need the super-realistic graphics of the Madden or NCAA games because you are focusing more on the plays and making sure you win through your strategy than trying to see the players faces and sweat while they are playing. While there is definitely room for improvement it is not a vital thing here.

The audio for this game isn’t too grand either and sounds very familiar. In fact I was comparing it to the last Madden Football game and it appears that a lot of the same audio has been taken directly from it. This is not a bad thing by any means as I liked most of the music from last year’s game, but if you are not a fan of some of the audio from that game, then you will be disappointed here. It is a shame that the developers didn’t create their own unique music and new audio for the game, but we can always hope for that in the next edition. The voice overs in this game get the job done but it is nothing that you haven’t heard in the past and nothing groundbreaking either.

NFL Head Coach is rated for Everyone.

The system requirements are as follows:
Windows XP or 2000
1.2 GHz or greater processor
256 MB of RAM
8X or faster CD/DVD drive
2.0 GB of disk space
64 MB Video Card
Direct X 8.1

Gameplay: 6.8
There are two things that kill this game and that is the fact that the interface is not as smooth as it should be, and that there are a LOT of tedious things that have to be done in this game that get old quick.

Graphics: 7.2
Fans of Madden games will be able to instantly tell that NFL Head Coach uses the same engine as its cousin. The thing about this game is that many other football games look a lot better than this one, but the thing about it is that this game is not all about pretty graphics either.

Sound: 7.9
The sound is ripped straight from Madden games in the past, which is not a bad thing in any sense.

Difficulty: Medium
With the game’s extreme depth it will take a while to get adjusted to it, especially when you load the game for the very first time. Once you get the hang of things you will be calling plays and (hopefully) winning games like the pros.

Concept: 8.0
You have to give it to EA for making the most of their NFL license. I would have never expected a game that revolves just around the coaching aspect of football, yet here I am playing NFL Coach.

Multiplayer: 6.8
In comparison to the single-player game, this mode is really not very deep. While you can play ranked and unranked games online the options are not as deep as the single-player experience.

Overall: 7.0
For NFL Head Coach’s first entry into the gaming world, I think that it is a decent product that has a few adjustments that need to be made. I am sure that the next revisions of this game will definitely become a really great product that people will be waiting in line for every year like Madden and the NCAA football series.