NFL Head Coach

by Electronic Arts

Product Features

• Experience the life of a head coach through multiple detailed, lifelike environments and user-friendly controls
• Simple conversation system makes decisions where they happen - on the practice field, in your office, meeting room, draft war room, and at the stadium on gameday
• Listen to the scouts to pick out your key players - then set your practice schedule to run drills and full-squad scrimmages to get the most out of them
• Change plays on the field or let your assistant coaches (whom you can hire and fire) do the day-to-day work and concentrate on gameday
• Increase your coaching status by winning Super Bowls, producing Pro Bowl players, and mentoring assistant coaches -- try to become the greatest NFL coach of all time

Product Details

• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B000CSUL36
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches ; 4 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: June 20, 2006
• Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #24,216 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

Platform: Xbox

From the Manufacturer

NFL Head Coach reinvents football gaming by introducing the first 3-D strategy sports game that challenges gamers to build and manage every aspect of a football team from the ground up. A simple conversation system and an engaging 3-D graphical interface allow users to immerse themselves into the life of an NFL Head Coach. As head coach, you develop a team strategy, execute it on and off the field, and try to build a winning organization year after year. Your status as a coaching legend will rise and fall based on all of your actions as you strive to become the greatest head coach of all time. Behind the desk, on the practice field, or while wearing the headset on game days, take the reins of your favorite NFL team and lead it to victory.

Features:

• Interactive 3-D environments: Experience the life of a head coach through multiple detailed, lifelike environments and user-friendly controls. Use the simple conversation system to make decisions where they happen--on the practice field, in your office, meeting room, draft war room, and at the stadium on gameday.
• Team preparation: Make the correct draft pick based on what you learn at the scouting combine and year-round scouting of key players. Set your practice schedule to run drills and full-squad scrimmages to get the most out of your key players. Interactively change plays on the field or just let your assistant coaches, whom you can hire and fire, do the day-to-day dirty work and head straight to gameday.
• Build coaching status: Increase your legend status by winning Super Bowls, producing Pro Bowl players, and mentoring assistant coaches. Move up in the NFL Head Coaches Hall of Legends, passing current and past coaches to become the greatest NFL head coach of all time.
• Voice-activated gameplay: you have the option to use your headset to call plays, receive streaming audio updates from your coordinators, and give your quarterback last-second adjustments.
• Gameday: call plays from your game plan and see your team execute with precision. Interact with your players on the sideline during the game to change strategy or motivate them to give extra effort.
• Learn from ESPN experts: Trey Wingo walks you through the game from the set of ESPN's NFL Live and gives you background information about the coach you create. Mel Kiper, Jr. from the set of the ESPN's NFL Draft provides his one-of-a-kind draft day analysis.

Product Description

NFL Head Coach reinvents football gaming by introducing the first 3D strategy sports game that challenges gamers to build and manage every aspect of a football team from the ground up. A simple conversation system and an engaging 3D graphical interface allow users to immerse themselves into the lives of an NFL Head Coach. As head coach you develop a team strategy execute it on and off the field and try to build a winning organization year after year. Your status as a coaching legend will rise and fall based on all of your actions as you strive to become the greatest head coach of all time. Behind the desk on the practice field or while wearing the headset on game days take the reins of your favorite NFL team and lead it to victory.Format: XBOX Genre: SPORTS/GAMES Rating: RP UPC: 014633151343 Manufacturer No: 15134

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars So buggy it's unacceptable, July 27, 2006

By 

I. Chan "animeaddict" (CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:2.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: NFL Head Coach (Video Game)

I love football and football games. I own many versions of EA football games from Madden and NCAA. EA's games have always been worth playing/buying. They've always had their shortcomings, but mostly the pros outweigh the cons. This time, they really screwed up.

Unlike other reviewers, I don't think the game is boring. It's actually pretty much what I expected. The focus is on being a head coach, not a player, so I think it's normal that getting through the week takes longer than the game itself. Afterall, that is what happens in real life.

The problem that I have with this game is that it's so buggy that I just can't enjoy myself. Some major problems that I've encountered:

1) My OL players get plenty of pancakes every game. Problem is that after the game, the pancakes are registered as sacks and vice versa. So good linemen that I have (like Tarik Glenn of the Colts) drop from a high rating of 99 to 75 by season end because he supposedly gave up 150+ sacks when he actually had 150+ pancakes.

2) My QB (Peyton Manning) started the season with a high rating of 98 and ended with 80, despite the fact that he had a QB rating of 112, broke the TD pass record, and won MVP and best QB awards.

3) My WR (Marvin Harrison) started the season with a high rating of 99 and ended with 81, despite the fact that he led the league in TD catches and rec yards, and won the best WR award.

As you can see, the biggest problems are bugs with the stats sytems. Problem is, if this is a strategy game, then stats are more important than anything else. I put a lot of time/work into a game, and I expect to reap the rewards. Instead, I end up with players whose stats deterioate so badly that it doesn't matter what I do anymore. I went undefeated and won the super bowl in my first year, but I'm left with players who are barely mediocre in rating when they should be pro-bowl caliber. That is just unacceptable. What's the point in playing a coaching simulation game if your players' performance do not have any impact (or worse, reverse impact) on their rating?

I don't know how EA can ship this game. I work for a major software company and if we shipped anything this buggy, we'd all be fired. Personally, I think the product manager, dev manager, and QA manager for this product should be held responsible. It's bad enough that I wasted $40 on this game, it's worse when I spend 50+ hours of my time getting through the first season just to find out how buggy this game really is.

Bottom line: EA has lost my trust with this game.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars All work and no play, September 8, 2007

By 

T. Pasio (Valencia, Ca) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:3.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: NFL Head Coach (Video Game)

I love franchise modes. I'm the sports geek that actually likes to pour over the Madden rosters before a game to plan my attack before taking the field. Drafting, trading, signing free agents...Bring it on!!
In this game, The interviewing coaches, adjusting my roster was fun, but at the same time, you can only make 3 changes to your playbook at a time. You are scheduled an interview with one assistant coach, but if you're not sure you want to hire him, and your next interview goes badly, there is no way to call them back for a hire.
I used the Rams. Finally playing a game, quarters are only 5 minutes long. Marc Bulger, (one of the better QB's in the league) threw 9 passes, 4 were picked...I was playing the Browns. The next game He was picked 3 times in 8 passes, and that was the end of that.
All that work, and the statistical players performances were completely random.
"Gameplay" is a joke, and no matter how much you train, player ratings fall, and guys like Peyton Manning get picked like a pop warner qb against my Rams corners, (for those who don't know, the Rams are weak at defensive back).
Extremely dissapointing, and a real time waster. What a shame, it really could have been great!

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This is NOT for diehard Madden fans!!!, July 5, 2006

By 

NovaNardis "Nova" (USA) - See all my reviews

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: NFL Head Coach (Video Game)

This game is like SimCity but with a football team. Some of the comments on here do not do the game justice. Off the bat, let me say not you don't actually 'play' football. However, for me that makes the game more enjoyable because I am at a level in Madden where I own All-Pro, but All-Madden is just WAY too difficult.

Let me run through the pros and cons as I seem em:

Pros
1) Offseason
Take the offseason of the Madden Games (my favorite part), and put it on HGH. The way they set up the draft is phenomenal, and is so much easier to manuever around than Madden's, at least for me. True, the offseason is quite long, and a little off-putting at first, but there is a lot you can skip through simulation. It took me a few tries to get the hang of it though.

2) Sideline Chats
You can 100% control strategy with your players, telling your QB to scramble earlier in his reads or drop deep, always look for the short pass first, etc. And the same is true for the rest of your positions. Lineman, make your move inside, stuff like that. Also, the concept of motivation (you can say different things to your players while they are offfield) is intersting, where you can inspire your players for a temporary ratings boost (on fire) or a temporary slump (iced).

3) The Owners
It is easy to get on the team of your choice, but whatever team you pick you will get about 5 yearly goals. Currently mine are to draft a marquee HB, be in the Top 8 for Rushing, Total Yards, and Rush Defense, and Top 10 for something else. And, if you can't complete those goals you may get fired, which gives you something to strive for. That was something I found lacking in Madden, where you just played an openended franchise for no apparent end other than the SuperBowl. I need my games more defined scenario wise.

4) New Ratings System
One of the best developments in the game, I think, is the chucking of 'ratings' and the implementation of 'ranges'. Say you have Donovan McNabb. Instead of being a 90 rating, he'll have a 78-94 range, say. So, with practice, he'll be a 94. But out of shape he'd be a 78. This also makes your players prone to slumps, making the game much more interesting and realistic, and really bringing into play endurance.

Cons

1) Glitchy
I'm not sure if it's my system or not, but the game will sometimes freeze, like while running a practice you will lose a selection screen and become stuck. Or the game will take a while to be read. Also, in the game I wanted to talk to my DL about strategy, and the screen went bonkers (I have NO idea what happened) and while the game went on in the background I could do nothing but restart. even unplugging my controller did nothing.

2) Tedious
It is the same thing OVER and OVER with a monsterous amount of practices before games. Not really monsterous, but enough to make friends leave the room if they wanted to check out the game. However, this is also goal oriented, and the games are faster paced than in Madden so it doesn't seem as bad.


For the sake of brevity, which I think I killed a while ago, I will stop there. There are more pros and cons, but I think the former totally outweigh the latter. This isn't a replacement for Madden, but it is a good complementary franchise for those of us more prone to simulation style games. I enjoy it a lot, though only in small doses.

ALSO, as to another comment I read on here about changing clothes. Many of the tasks you encounter (typically four a day) are unlocked, meaning you can swap them out. This is VERY important in practices for maintaining different focuses. The computer will set you up with guidlines, but ultimatly you can switch out of them. I never changed my clothes so far. ;) You will have about 2 'Office Hours' a day, where you can change depth charts and whatnot, and then 2 'Open' slots where you can swap in and out different tasks. So no the game doesn't make you change your clothes over and over again.

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