NFL Head Coach
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This article is about the video game title. For the profession, see head coach.
| NFL Head Coach | |
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| Developer(s) | EA Tiburon |
| Publisher(s) | EA Sports |
| Engine | Madden 2006 Engine |
| Platform(s) | PlayStation 2 Xbox Windows |
| Release date | June 20, 2006 (PS2, Windows, Xbox) |
| Genre(s) | Sports |
| Mode(s) | Single player, Multiplayer online |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Everyone (E) |
| Input methods | PC: Keyboard, Mouse, Game Controller (Optional) |
NFL Head Coach is an American football video game which was first sold on June 20, 2006. Touted by publisher EA Sports as the first true 3D sports strategy game, it featured then-active Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Bill Cowher on the cover.
The concept behind the game puts the player in the position of a head coach for an NFL franchise. The player will make roster moves, create playbooks, and hire and fire assistant coaches. Success is measured by wins, playoff success, how well the player does in the NFL draft and the careers of assistants.
The game begins the week after Super Bowl XL. The coach that the player is about to take control of was formerly the offensive/defensive coordinator for the Super Bowl Champion Pittsburgh Steelers and is now ready to move up to take the reins of an entire team. First, the player selects a team and then proceeds to the job interview. Depending on how well the interview goes, the player will get up to 5 offers from 5 teams. The player selects a team and then signs a contract with them. In addition to being the head coach, the player is also the general manager of the team. On the first day, the player will meet the team owner. Aside from meeting the team owner, the player also meets the other coaches with whom he will work.
On February 26, 2008, EA Sports announced the sequel to NFL Head Coach, to be released in the Summer of 2008 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, entitled NFL Head Coach 09.
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[edit] Exploits
- The user is allowed to make three phone calls to other teams during a "Trade Players" task. But if "this conversation is going nowhere", the user can get around the limit by hitting the back button to back out of the call, rather than selecting "never mind" and completing the call. Backspacing out doesn't burn a call, so the user can talk to an unlimited number of teams this way.
- The user can stockpile high draft picks by signing the top free agents just to trade them. The signings have no effect on the user's salary cap.
- If the quarterback throws an interception in practice he will drop to 0% (the bottom of his range). His rating can be rebuilt by putting in the third string defense and calling bad defensive plays (such as blitzing the whole defense) to guarantee touchdown passes.
[edit] Criticism
- Shortly after NFL Head Coach hit the shelves, gamers noticed many faults to the gameplay. Much of it resides in the AI, as it is very similar, if not exactly the same as, the AI used in the Madden games. The classic punt return problem (the user is not provided with any blocking from his own team against the punting team's players, which leads to having to signal a fair catch or risking a fumble) is still present among these issues. The quarterback does not seem to understand the concept of screen passes and often takes a sack, throws deep to one of the other options, or scrambles, but rarely throws to the receiver he is supposed to. Other prevalent glitches that upset fans are the freeze ups that occur in practices. However, the freeze-ups can be solved by unplugging and plugging back in the controller, although you are still forced to revert to your office and your players get no credit for the practice. Also, quarterbacks are by far the most suspectible to loss of attribute points after mistakes. A quarterback can be at full points all week in practice, but an interception or fumble will automatically put him back at the lowest of points.
- Another issue is the player's jerseys. If a player is standing close to the head coach on the sidelines, the name on the back of his jersey will be blank. Also, jersey numbers are assigned by the CPU, not the human player, whenever a roster move is made, with poor results such as retired numbers being assigned or in the case of the Steelers, unofficially retired numbers. On the PC version, if you leave the game paused for too long, the player's helmets will turn completely black.
- When interviewing a coach, you are not able to gear the questions to that coaching opening.
- The long load time and repetitive animations make the game compare unfavorably to games of similar concept on personal computers, which are largely text-based and therefore have very low processing overhead.
- X-Play criticized the game as "as a game on doing absolutely nothing" and "nothing comes from playing this game".
- Players's progression and regression are often extremely fast and unexpected. Many times a player will gain or lose an overall attribute every week. This leads to having rookie players becoming all stars in their first year. Also, an all-pro player will take a sudden and steep drop with their attributes the second they are "over the hill".
- On all platforms except PC, the quarter length was locked at 5 minutes, and on PC, you could only change it externally.
- Extended Load Times between almost every task.
- There are no pictures of players.
- The roster limit of 55 players is hard-coded, so even during the off season a team can't have more than 55 players. This takes away from the game's realism, as actual NFL teams open training camp with more than 80 players and make cuts throughout the preseason.
- Quarterbacks sometimes regress to 0% during off days, even if they were playing at the top of their range at the end of practice the previous day.
- Assistant coaches sometimes give nonsensical advice, such as starting the punter at place kicker. Failing to take this advice causes the head coach to lose "trust" points with the special teams coordinator.
- No drills to progress the ratings of punters and kickers are included.
- Sometimes when the play selection window is up during practice or game day, if a player walks behind it, it scrolls to a completely different play group, sometimes causing players to select incorrect plays.
- The user is expected to fill a minimum number of players at each position during the free agent period. The problem with this is that the user will only have a couple of spots left for the draft. Leaving mandatory spots open causes loss of trust with the owner; filling spots forces the player to waste draft picks or release players.
- Players are constantly injured during simulation, and rarely at all during games.
- Most of the trades offered by other teams are illogical, and most good trades that the player offers the CPU are not accepted.
- The stat for pancakes and sacks allowed is reversed. So Pro Bowl linemen like Larry Allen who have about 100 pancakes have it recorded as 100 sacks allowed, and thus their rating drops.
- Players sometimes have mood swings and rather odd reactions to motivation. If you congragulate a running back who ran for an 80 yard touchdown sometimes he gets upset.
- The scouting director has no sense of good and bad draft picks. He gives unreasonable suggestions.
[edit] Inaccuracies
- The initial player draft was faulty and unbelievable; A.J. Hawk was usually the first pick, with Reggie Bush and Vince Young as mid-first round picks, and Ernie Sims being a fifth or sixth round pick.
- Jerome Bettis is on the Pittsburgh Steelers roster, despite the fact that Bettis retired during the post game celebration after Super Bowl XL, the time at which the game begins. Other, then-retired players such as Wayne Chrebet are also in the game.
- In the game quarterback Kellen Clemens, a white player with short hair, is black with dreadlocks, much like then Pittsburgh Steelers back-up quarterback Omar Jacobs.
- LSU linebacker Cameron Vaughn's name is reversed in the game; he appears as Vaughn Cameron.
- Former Olympic skier and part of the draft class Jeremy Bloom's height is 6'9", a full foot taller than in reality.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
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