NFL Head Coach
I probably haven't played a true football (or any sport for that matter) game since Tecmo Bowl. Well, that's actually a half-truth, I played NFL Blitz back when that was all the rage, but then that's not a "true" football game. This means that the juggernaut that is EA Sports' football titles has completely passed me by; I've not played a lick of them. I've seen them here and there, and know the features and basic idea of each title and that's about it. I'm not a big fan of football, nor do I actually know a lot about the rules of the game, so how would an inept boob such as I enjoy
EA's upcoming NFL: Head Coach?
NFL: Head Coach casts players as the (surprise, surprise) head coach of a football team of their choosing from the NFL. Don't like the way your favorite team is being run into the ground due to poor coaching or inept coordination? Fire this puppy up, put yourself in the hot-seat, and see if you can call the games any better and lead your team to victory. Sounds fun! The demo had three major modes ready to play: Career Draft, Gameday, and Practice.
Using impeccable deductive reasoning to decide which feature to play first, I chose Career Draft because it was at the top of the menu. Being a fan of simulation games, this was the feature that appealed most to me, and subsequently, the feature that let me down the most. The player is ushered into an office room where they are supposed to pick players from the official NFL draft. Players are also given the option to contact other NFL coaches on the phone to start trade negations for either players or draft picks. This is accomplished through a menu system that is a bit clunky. Button response is a little slow and menu construction was large and unattractive and difficult to maneuver sometimes. All small stuff, no problem. The one thing I couldn't wrap my head around was how boring it all seemed.
As I stated, I don't know much about football, real or virtual, and thus I was completely lost while trying to maneuver the draft due to a lack of a tutorial. Even the animated assistants in the office would slouch in the chairs and shift uncomfortably, mimicking my own boredom. From my perspective, there was a low degree of simulation involved. Most of the gameplay in this demo required knowledge of real-world football rules, and the demo failed to educate layman like me. If you know the rules, and enjoy following the actual NFL Draft (I know my father and brother do), I think you'll be in hog-heaven.
Well, enough of that, what's next on the menu listing here? Gameday? Awesome. In Gameday, it's time to set your team loose upon the field to wreak unholy destruction. Since this is NFL: Head Coach, all the player is required to do is pick the play for that down, and then watch the action unfold. Yup, just watch. The animation is great, the figures move fluidly, and the graphics are nice and bold, but I'm watching a game instead of playing? Yeah, and I think it works. It doesn't work for the demos because you're playing a pre-selected team that you have not run through any drills and have no emotional attachment to, but in the full version of the game, you'll have trained your team to be killers, and I can imagine many a player's eyes welling up with tears of joy as his team dominates all comers.
Practice mode involves running your pre-selected team through drills. The more you do it, the better you get. This was the extent of what the demo allowed for this section. Well, you could also give motivational speeches that lead to either pluses or minuses appearing over your player's heads indicating if they liked you, or if you would find your tires slashed in the parking lot after practice. I got a lot of minuses.
For players with a strong knowledge of football rules,
NFL: Head Coach
has a lot of potential. You are given a lot of freedom to trade or pick which players you want with your team and I think people can have a lot of fun with it. If you're not so knowledgeable about football and its myriad rules, I hope there's a nice tutorial available because otherwise there'll be a steep learning curve to climb before the fun begins.
-Doctordoom99
