NFL Head Coach

"A great addition to the EA Sports lineup"

Intro- This game basically takes you out of playing the games, to now calling the plays and watching your players execute to perfection(or lack thereof). You do everything a NFL head coach does during the week, and on game day. You can also perform GM duties like signing free agents or trading those unwanted players.

Gameplay-
There is no actual "gameplay" so to speak of. Most of your time is spent in your office or on the practice field preparing for the big game. Every week you meet with your assistant coaches(which you can hand pick if you like) and they will go over different stuff like who should be starting, who to resign and so on. Then you move on to adjusting your roster and running your practices. You follow a schedule that has mostly non changeable tasks but you can adjust your tasks to fit your needs.

During practice your players will run plays to increase not only their ratings, which are based on a range system but also increase their efficiency at the plays you call. If you call a certain play enough times in practice it becomes a "money play" for during the game, which means your players will execute that play to near perfection and receive a ratings boost for that play.

An example of the ratings system: A players range is 67-99, meaning that the best a player will play at is a 99 rating and the worst he will play at is a 67 rating.

Once all your planning is done you go straight to game day. This is where all that hard work in the week pays off. Your assistants will offer play calls which you can choose to listen or call your own plays. Once you call a play you then watch from a far as your players execute the play.

While the game is going on, you can take a step back and talk to your players on the sidelines. You can give strategy tips(Like an example for a QB: "Scramble if you feel pressure) and motivate your players(Ex: You are looking good out there!). There are two types of motivation, aggressive and passive. Whatever type of motivation you give your players will either feed off of it and play better, or reject your advice and play worse. It is a trial and error kind of because some players respond better to aggressive motivation(Play better or you'll be riding the bench!) and others respond better to passive(Just relax and let the game come to you).

The flaws with the gameplay is that not all your strategy tips are followed correctly. For instance, if you tell your QB to scramble if he feels pressure, you would expect him to take off if he's about to be sacked. Instead of this smart thinking the QB waits about 2-3 seconds to throw, but then takes off running even when he can just stand in the pocket.

A major flaw with the off the field gameplay is the fact that the interface and scheduling is a little "different". For example if you want to trade a player and your current task is "office hours" meaning its your free time to adjust rosters and playbooks you have to actually schedule in "trade players" into your scheduling. While this adds to the realism it creates some problems with going about tasks. Once you get the hang of how to schedule and operate it's not as bad but at first its a inconvenience

Graphics- The game uses the Madden game engine so the graphics department is pretty solid.

Sound- Pretty much the worst part of the game. There is virtually no music in the background in your office(an NFL Films type theme plays but it's hardly the music you want to sit around listening to). The only sounds you'll be hearing are your coach making a few phrases here and there and the "sounds of the game". Meaning no announcing during a game and the only audio you'll hear is the players on the field and your coordinators suggesting play calls. True to the coaching experience but it does leave a lot to be desired.

Rent or buy?
You cannot truly experience the game by renting it as the game requires an insane amount of time to perform all the tasks needed to be successful. But if your not sure about forking over the $40 for it then I don't see a problem with renting first. This game is for the people who enjoy the "Owner Mode" part of the franchise over actually playing the games.

Overall rating-7

This is a great foundation for EA Sports to build upon in the next edition of 3D sports sims. The game is very fun and engaging for strategic fans but it may prove a little too time consuming for some. While the learning curve is a bit high, you get used to having to work around your schedule, get the most out of your players and fully grasp all the aspects of the game. There are some trouble spots but overall the game is a must have for those "Franchise Players" out there.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 06/23/06