It's funny how the Madden release dates never seem to get fucked up this way, but NCAA and now Head Coach bounce around more than Doug Brien. It's nuts.

This confuses me.
Assuming all the disks are pressed more then a day in advance, what does this gain them?

EA makes we wish I was all encompassing king more then any other thing on earth.

If I were supreme ruler - I would force the talented programmers to create a realistic next gen NFL football sim and I would have the people responsible for delays and stupid decisions like 5 minute quarters put to death in a long painful public display.

oh, yeah and two chicks at the same time...

If people report that they're seeing an average of about 125 plays per game, then the length of the quarters isn't so much of an issue.

If it's a 3 to 1 time ratio and you can fit everything that happens in a 15 minute quarter into 5 minutes, fair enough. But if you're only seeing 50 or 100 plays per game, that changes everything and it's no longer an NFL coaching sim, because you're only playing partial games. It would be like having a baseball sim with 5 inning games.

Yep. That's the million dollar question.

I don't see how you could get a realistic amount of plays on 5 minutes. I can eat up a whole quarter in that time.

The whole key is that the game was designed "apparently" for the average video gamer and it appears that he couldn't give a rat's A about the clock or clock management. I'm going into it with the attitude that the I want to just rattle off plays.

It's very hard for me to swallow that this is for the average video gamer. If that were the case, a number of features would have been way more streamlined to avoid most of the day to day activities.

If they are going to cut down the quarters to a third of an average NFL quarter, then the 2:00 warning should be reduced to about 40 seconds to compensate. I hope that this is the case.

If this is the case and I can still rattle out a number of plays that meet the NFL average, then I will be fine with that.

but like one of the previous posts - how would the "average" video gamer feel about a baseball game that only played 5 innings?

The biggest frustration comes in the fact that IT IS SO FRIKKIN EASY to keep the quarter length adjustable - in fact that is the way it already is on the game they based in on (Madden.) So they actually had to CHANGE it so it wouldn't be adjustable.

Who was the numbnuts that suggest "hey lets force them to play a certain amount of time, instead of letting the player decide"

it is very true that you can't please everyone, but it sure is a hell of a lot easier to not piss off so many people if you give the end user the OPTION to play the game they want to.

DAMN EA is fucking stupid sometimes.

Have you ever actually PLAYED Madden?

Most people play with it at 6 or 7 minute quarters to get it at a realistic # of plays, so this is not that far-fetched to me.

To me this is a lot of squawking about something that just may not be THAT big of a deal.

I reiterate - make the default 5 minutes, make the option to change it something I have to unlock, make it so I have to send EA 14 cans of crushed pineapple to get it adjustable - just make the damn thing adjustable

I don't care if some people like to play 5 minutes, great for them , play 1 minute quraters, 30 second quarters or whatever the hell you want. What I don't understand is the people telling me that I SHOULD like to play 5 minute quarters.

http://www.sportsgamer.blogspot.com/

From Bill Abner.

Biggest fear realized. . . the CPU treats the clock as though it were a 15 minute clock. It starts calling TO's and knees that ball with 1 minute left in the game.

Ugh.

the only way I'm buying this is if it's for the PC and there's a patch already out that fixes this crap.

Yeah, that never gives me realistic plays. It gives me realistic offensive stats, but defensive stats and TOP are always screwy when compared to the simmed games in a league (which are simmed with 15 minute quarters). Madden is an ARCADE game, whereas Head Coach is a (well, supposed to be) a simulation. Playing it without the option of longer quarters for more realism is inexcusable and lazy on the developers part.

And, for me, it's a dealbreaker. I cancelled my pre-order this morning when I found out.

I love it when people assume things are "easy"... Quarter length I imagine effects many things...

*shrug*... this game may be a piece of crap, i wouldn't doubt it.. but to be hanging the fate of this game on quarter length seems quite a bit silly to me, especially knowing it is a first-gen game.

Not cool.

90% of this game is simply Madden with a few things added and a few things taken out.

If quarter length is adjustable in Madden, exactly how would it be "hard" to have it be adjustable here.

quarter length IS a huge issue - would it bother you if the quarter length was set at 5 seconds, 29 hours? Obviously the length of the quarter impacts EVERYTHING in the game from stats to progression - there are few things that are in the game that are so centrally important.

Bill Abner Review

Can' adjust quarter length and the CPU still manages the clock like a 60 minute game? I just canceled my preorder, thanks!

Has anybody confirmed whether the quarter length is frozen in career mode?

The 5 minute thing is a gamekiller for me personally. Like others have said, why even build a running offense at all? Yikes.

I'm not the type to run 15 or even 10 minute quarters, either. Usually 7 or 8.

Thing is, average video game player doesn't care about negotiating with Asst. coaches or scouting players, etc., so while I agree that they don't care, I think EA screwed up, because I don't think average video game player will be buying this game.

Whoever mentioned the thing about 2 completely diff. markets was right, imo.

I just got the automated call from Gamestop that my copy will be ready to pick up tomorrow morning. I'm still looking forward to it.

Ooooh. Is he saying what I think he is saying?

Likewise.

Well, I just found my game killer....not that I was impressed with the demo in the least bit to begin with.

Agreed. I didn't care for the interface at all, and there was far too many money plays in the short demo.

Man, if they have the right amount of plays in a 5 minute game, it seems like all they would have to do is add the accelerated clock and the game could easily play realistically over 15 minutes. In the demo you could run maybe 5-6 plays in a minute, no reason that there couldn't be 20-30 seconds between snaps, where you'd still get around 30 plays a quarter.

Concur....

Yes, and with 2 minutes left in a half, the computer goes into a hurry-up offense, the human goes into a hurry-up offense and there are 4-5 TDs scored. Nice model to use.

I play Madden with 12 min quarters and an accelerated clock. I use slider settings I found at maddennation, and I get realistic results. My team averages about 20 points a game. I just coach and don't control it however, but with the way the cpu plays it's certainly realistic enough to keep me happy.

I guess we don't need to worry about fatigue with 5 mins quarters.

You won't have to sub much.

yeah, but do you get to chose what color socks your head coach wears during practice? You're missing out on the important things in football by focusing on all that playcalling mumbo jumbo.

Taken from EA forums:

Hey gang.

All indications that I can see over here at EA are that this product is going to be available for download at 12:00 AM (midnight) on 6/23/06. That's roughly 5:00PM California time on Thursday. This could change though. I can add that we are busting tail over here trying to get it out in the best state possible. Also, there looks like there will be a Day 1 patch for the retail version. The downloader version will not need this patch that really only comes into play with multiplayer online.

We'll keep you posted and please accept my apologies about the delay!

http://forums.ea.com/mboards/thread....threadID=80236

I just found this so I don't know what is included in the patch but I'm gonna see if I can find out.

http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/...&postcount=892

It sounds like the patch will probably just be some MP issues. However, the quick patch gives me hope that they might address other issues (such as the Quarter Length and if there are too many interceptions) in a future patch.

I doubt it. The quarter length isn't a bug, it's a "feature". And EA aren't exactly known for releasing patches to fix issues like this.

Don't worry, I'm sure 1 or 2 of them will be fixed in next year's version - along with the addition of a few more.

that's E.A.'s MO...do this to ensure that people keep on buying. always release a game with at least one stupid feature/feature that doesn't work right that you can subsequently fix in order to get people to buy the next gen.

::blink:: So was I the only guinea pig to pick it up for the console today?

Not sure I can give too many impressions because...I haven't played a game yet. Haven't even hit the combine for 2006. Of course, I only played for three HOURS.

So far, I like the idea of setting up coaching interviews and being able to ask candidates questions about their philosophies. I've participated in a couple staff meetings and noticed that a major component of the game is going to be building a cohesive staff. you earn trust with each coach based on whether you agree with their recommendations or not, so I can see that part of developing a winning team is going to be knowing when to give up control. If you hire a guy who likes to go five wide on the offense and make him run a lot of two-TE sets, your receiving corps isn't going to play up to their potential because your receivers coach isn't buying into the power running offense.

The staff handling extends to the scoring system for career mode. In addition to championships, playoff wins, and regular season record, one of the catagories your coach is judged over the ages on is his ability to develop coaches. If your coordinator is hired away to take the reins of another team, his accomplishments earn you reflected glory. That's a pretty cool idea that you haven't really seen in other sims.

The biggest problem so far is that I haven't played a game yet...in fact, at the three hour mark, I haven't even begun signing free agents yet. I know that a huge part of this is exploring the menus and learning the interface, but at this rate, the actual 2006 season will be in the books by the time I get to the season opener.

I read impressions on another board where a guy spent 6 hours before he got to the 1st pre-season game. He said he enjoyed the offseason activities though, so that is good.

Dangit man! LOL, the first season you skim through so I can decide if I want to buy! J/K Thanks for the brief review. I am affraid that I will be putting it off for a few days to see what you big $$$ guys think. I am curious about this 5 min thing? Is it official or just on the demo. Sorry, I haven't read all the way up yet. Thanks again for the review!

The options screen consists of pretty much choosing how loud you want the music, what angle you want to watch games at, and what unis you want the team to wear. As little as I've gotten to play so far, I don't see any sliders or gameplay options.

Ouch, that sucks. Man, I really want this game but? FM2006 should hold me over until after the world cup. Then maybe I will try out bowl bound. Who knows. I really need a new FOF though. I will probably break down and buy Head Coach anyways. Thanks again for the posts!

Just got home from the store with the game. Early impressions to follow in a few hours. :)

Godspeed...

I just found it sitting in my local Gamestop, and against my better judgment, I bought it. And the guide. :|

Great.

I expect a more objective report from you then what I see on maddennation.

I got the game yesterday. Decent, but the 5:00 is a real game killer.

Getting realistic results?