It's a good thing we have the vigilante scouring the internet (or our own board) for other people's impressions to cross-post.

Especially when they're not even from the game that is being brought down.

Yeah, that post was about Madden. Glad I didn't buy that game. Can't wait to buy Head Coach.

I'm also glad....I almost caved but just kept thinking it's only two weeks....now it's only one!

I'm so hyped now to buy Head Coach! I can't believe it isn't out yet, or even a demo on the 360! Come on EA!

QFT

It's almost like he enjoys it when he finds something broken about an EA game. He might be my first ever forum member I put on ignore, not because I don't like him.. shoot, he's a fellow Mizzou fan, but I don't want him pointing out stuff that I would never notice or care about and ruin the fun.

dola.. and the waiting for HC is good.. probably be best to wait for the patch before seriously starting a career.

Or it could be that I made a mistake and misunderstood the post. :rolleyes: I deleted it out.

You aren't missing much on the demo. I've played it on the PS3. It's just preparation for a game. You don't get to do a free agent period or any drafting. Those were the main things I was hoping to try out with a demo. But what is in the demo doesn't disuade me at all from buying the game.

You don't understand...it's your incessant need to point out the flaws that others are finding in EA's games that caused you to make that mistake. Do you really think EF27, a long-time board member with a ton of posts, and who clearly enjoys giving his OWN thoughts on games, would post (what you thought was) a huge Head Coach bug in a Madden thread when he's been involved in this thread too?

He hasn't given a single one of his own thoughts on either one of the Madden/HC games you are mentioning any more than I have. He's doing nothing more than I've done, which is post impressions from various sites. Seems perfectly legitimate to me, but evidently you find fault in that.

I deleted the post and admitted my mistake. My apologies if that's not good enough for you.

BTW, thanks for clarifying EF27. It's appreciated.

Not quite correct sir. You play the first game of the season against the Bears too. And, while you can't do the offseason free agency, you can go and see what that is like and be able to see how the trading works. In the one demo game I played, the Bears signed Anthony Wright and started him at QB and signed Shaun Alexander to be the HB.

That was my point. You don't get to do the full-blown free agency period.

its a demo.

LOL. Did I not make that point? I stated that the demo was limited and that the 360 users weren't missing much. I also stated that I liked everything that was in the demo. Am I missing something here?

Well, in your statement, you just said it was prep work. You never said you could play a game. That was my beef.

I scored on this deal.

I just bought a ps3.
So I didn't have any copy of Madden anyway.
(cheaper then the normal version.)

I've been playing this for a week or so, and find that I'm mostly simming the weekly games (unless its the playoffs) and concentrating more on the GM part of the game. I'm enjoying it quite a bit, but playing routine weekly games just takes too long. I also seem to do better when I sim the games, rather than play them.

Damn I want this game. Damn.

I just preordered this today during my lunch break, and the clerk asked, "why don't you buy Madden's Collectors Edition, it has both games?" I told him I thought Madden was too bug ridden, and he said, "I haven't heard about any bugs from a single customer." I told him if I bought that edition, it would only have been to get Head Coach early.

Funny, I was in a Gamestop last week to look for a used version of Head Coach and when he asked why didn't I buy the Collector's Edition, I told him the reasons why I wouldn't, including the Sliders being borken and he seemed shocked that someone wouldn't bow down to Madden the Almighty.

I also have been simming. I don't mind playing out the games, but I find it takes too long as well, at least for me and my available play time. I really wish that you could save in the middle of a game. When I only have maybe an hour or to play each night, taking over an hour to play the game is a bit rough for me.

It is kind of funny because after years of playing FOF and the like, I always wished for a graphical representation of gameday, but now that I have it I kind of prefer simming anyway.

I was asking about used copies of HC09 in EBGames a couple days ago, and the guy said that even if people had traded them in (which they hadn't), he would not have been able to sell them anyways. Apparently they can't sell used copies until after the game is officially released on its own.

To that, I say booooooo.

I asked on madden release day if I could start a list for when they bring HC back and he told me also they couldn't sell them until released. Then he tried to push the CE down my throat, I left the store.

That's why the fuck I wanted to break jbmagic's keyboard. It gets fuckin tiresome.

Finally found a good deal and picked this game up. Found the CE version of Madden on clearance for $48 at Target. I had a $10 gift card, so I picked the game up for $38 and sold my friend the Madden 09 game for $20. So I ended up getting HC for pretty cheap. Hopefully I'll have a chance to play it tonight.

That's his job.

All in all, Madden actually isn't that bad of a game. Not perfect. Franchise screwed up beyond belief. Some stupid quirks they should have fixed years ago. But not bad.

Head Coach is incredibly fun. I'm going to wait until the patch to start a serious career. Until then I've been going through FA, drafts and week one. I'll usually play 3 "week 1 and 2 games" with the roster I built up. They don't know all of the plays, but with the Broncos you open up against the Raiders and play the Chargers in week 2, so you get a good taste of a bad and good team to go against.

I'll start with the on the field game. I raise the HB slider WAY up and the run blocking up about 10 and have very little trouble with the ground game. I traded up and drafted McFadden and in three games against the Raiders he had 24 carries, 125 yards (long of 23), 14 carries 52 yards and 20 carries 140 yards (broke off a 65 yard TD run, 19 carries for 75 yards not counting that). Against the Chargers he had 18 carries for 47 yards, 23 carries for 113 yards and 13 carries for 59 yards.

I don't have much of an issue with the QB's. The passing game seems to be good. (though I REALLY wish you could ORDER your QB to throw it to your number 1 WR. There are times I know Marshall will get one on one coverage and Cutler will still throw it to the TE)

The off season? Sensational. Unbelievably well done. I can't tell you how deep this thing is and all of the things that happen. Now that I know what I'm doing, I can spend 3 to 4 hours on the offseason and the draft, then do it all over again without playing a game. I've played through the offseason with 10 to 12 teams and have had a blast with every one of them.

There are a few minor problems. The Dolphins will give me the 32nd pick for John Lynch everytime. Older players who are rated highly still get you really good picks, even at weaker positions. (I can also get a 2nd for Nalen) You can also get 2nd round picks for great kickers. (Elam, Hanson, Akers)

So if you're the Broncos and want to load up on the '08 draft, trade Lynch, Nalen (sign Faine in the FA period for your center), and Elam. You'll have the 12th pick in the draft, the 32nd, the 42nd and two more second round picks. With those you can move up if you desire, trade down and load up for the '09 draft or load up on a lot of solid players. (in one draft I ended up with McFadden ('09 first round pick, 32nd pick and 3rd rounder to the 10th spot) Clady (my 12th pick) and Phillips (I traded my two highest second rounder to move up and get him)

Of course, if you play that way, be careful of the salary cap implications. It will get rough.

One tip I can give everyone: When trading, never, ever, ever take the first offer. Go back and forth. Let the clock run out on a trade. For instance with Elam, I went through 4 trade negotiations for him and they go better each time. The first time teams were offering 5th round picks or worse for him. I asked fora 3rd. They didn't budge, I exited. By the time I finally dealt him, 1 team was offering a 2nd and 2 other teams were at a 3rd.

Most exciting moments in the game thus far:

1) San Diego at Denver: A handfull of big plays kept me in the game. Down 24 to 23, I have the ball at my 15 with 6 minutes left. I drive up the field and kick a FG. San Diego drives right back up the field and gets to the 22 yard line. It's going to be a 39 yarder to win the game for the Chargers. I call a time out to freeze him. kep plunk. Off the up right. The upstart Broncos upset the Chargers to go 1-1. (yeah, I was crushed by the Raiders the previous week)

2) I want Mendenhall in a draft. The mock draft says he's going 22 or 23. The Lions offer me a great package to move to 15. (they throw in a 2nd round '09 pick) I figure three spots and I'll still get the guy I want. Then it flashes across the screen. . . they picked Mendenhall. Ugh. I actually slumped on the couch. FM is about the only game I've ever done that with.

I've deliberately tried to stay out of this thread, but this post by TroyF and others really has me wavering. I'll probably grab this at some point to support the effort, sounds like they've really made some strides.

demo is up

NFL Head Coach 09 Demo Available Now for Download - Xbox

Maybe I'll give it a whirl and drop my NCAA 08 Campus Legend career. Ended the season with a 117 agility, and at the start of the next season it took care of the overflow and gave me a freakin' 4, sending me from 99 OVR and starter back to 5th string and 80 OVR...

YES YES YES!

Watching Felix Jones rip off a 78 yard TD run in our second preseason game was a thing of beauty.

Cool thing. Matt Flynn, our 6th round pick, was originally slated as the backup to John Beck. He did okay in the first preseason game but was annoying me so much in the second preseason game that I pulled him in favor of Larry Drain, the UDRFA QB out of Illinois State who I found myself liking in the initial stages of scouting, before further scouting revealed him to be... not so good.

So what does Larry do? Goes on a tear, including 2 TD passes to, along with Ronnie Brown, lead us to a 35-31 comeback win over the Jaguars.

Needless to say, Drain's earned himself a shot at the #2 QB spot and I'll be keeping an eye on him as the season goes on. (Currently he's 57 to Flynn's 62 and Beck's 76).

no news on a patch yet? I'm waiting to really get involved with HC until the patch is out....

That's what gives me that FPS Football feeling, ratings I look at first, then it's what you do on the field. I love being able to see that!

I think the standalone comes out 9/9 or something like that.. I would expect the patch, along with a roster update out around that timeframe. Then it's time to really put this game through its paces!

You know what? I really hate that EA just seems to want to release a roster patch every year and claim it is a new game. I really hate that they don't want to patch any of their games after release, and seem content to rest on their laurels and not take any risks. God damn EA sucks.

:D

Yeah I love Cinematic view. :)

Ronnie Brown singlehandedly carries us to a fairly comfortable (for Miami anyway) Week 3 preseason win in the second half. He's going to get the start for the final preseason game, as he's been even with or outperforming Felix Jones.

QB is going to be the big problem. John Beck threw 2 INTs in a quarter and a half, his 3rd pick of the preseason, so he got pulled for Larry Drain, who while making a couple nice plays, looked incredibly outmanned against the first team defense. Matt Flynn was again god-awful, so every chance I got, I had him run, since he's effective at it and I secretly hoped he'd get hurt.

Beck's going to get traded if I can find someone who wants him, I think. Drain is still intriguing the hell out of me and Flynn, well, he'll sit as the 3rd QB.

Our running game is looking really, really good with Brown, Jones and my feeding the ball to Regan Mailemula (sp) a handful or so of times a game (Yes, I'm trying to revive the actual running FB).

Regan drops too many damned passes, though. Our WRs it's been a little bit harder getting a read on, though Alge Crumpler has been an invaluable safety valve at TE and Ted Ginn, of all people, tore shit up in one of the earlier preseason games.

I noticed Renaldo Hill is a terrific run support guy on defense and Asi Ayomole (sp) has been a fantastic all-around guy at MLB, making me glad I traded for him. Rookie Glenn Dorsey recovered a key fumble and I think has made a sack or two. Lance Briggs has made some very nice plays as well.

Surprisingly quiet preseason from Jason Taylor, though and our pass defense is so horrific, every game so far has ended up a pretty high-scoring affair, as our superlative running game challenges the aerial assault of whoever the opposing team.

Matt Ryan actually looked pretty good as the Chiefs backup QB, but I still think he's going to end up a bust. On the other hand, he should be able to win the starting job at some point in the season (though I don't know if the CPU changes starters. Does it?)

Yeah, I'd imagine around the time the standalone game comes out will be when we get it. At least it gives me time to work more on my sliders...

I know I'm coming into this late, and I haven't had time to read the whole thread but... Is this really only available on the Xbox 360 and PS3? WTF is up with that?? Or are there plans to release on other platforms later?

Just 360 and PS3 this year. But EA has stated that they will bring their full lineup of sports titles to the PC next year.

Thanks for the Heads Up! I have been waiting for this demo to hit the 360!

Just played through the demo, and I can't believe I'm saying this, but it actually felt... intense! The way time progresses just totally keeps you on your toes. I had a really good time with the game, it definitely appears to deserve the praise it is getting.

That said, I have one MASSIVE beef that might actually prevent me from buying the game: there is a gigantic "Approval Rating" display in the bottom right corner that hardly ever disappears. If I play that game for as long as I can see myself playing something like that, I'll have a giant starburst approval rating number burned into my plasma within a few weeks. Not cool. When the hell are the people that create video game and TV interfaces going to start taking this into account? Plasma's are a reasonably large portion of the HD market. How hard would it be to keep that in mind? Why the hell do I need a giant starburst displaying my approval number AT ALL TIMES? Just foolishness, and it might cost them a sale (unless someone can calm my fears by saying there is a way to hide it or that it is less prominent in the full version or something).

I believe the game will be out next week, at least that is what they said at Gamestop when I preordered.

A few other tips for those interested:

With rookies, even undrafted ones, you want to hold onto them until you see the potential rating. It may take a couple of weeks, but it will be worth it if you find a guy who has great potential. In one of my games I had a walk on rookie free agent SS end up with an 80 rating and a potential of 87. The first week he was listed at a 63 rating. I toyed with cutting the guy and decided not to do it because I was just fooling around. Don't keep that 72 vet FB and let your 50 rated OLB without his potential unlocked go. You may regret it.

Special teams matter. Get good return guys. Make sure you have a solid kicker who can kick deep. We all know this in the real NFL as well, but in this game you see how critical it can be when you are starting at your 23 vs. your 34. Cribbs is usually cut in my games with the Broncos. I ALWAYS find a roster spot for him and I always am thankful I did after two games. (like last night when I beat the Chargers 34-31 and he had a kickoff return for a TD)

Get a good playbook. If your playbook is weak or average, pick again.

The CPU running game needs help. Bump up the RB ability slider all the way. Bump up the run blocking most of the way. I may even tweak my tackling downward. The CPU running game is one of the only flaws of the game. You can get your running stats up. The problem isn't so much that the CPU won't break off some runs. Or even have a consistent running game at times. It's the amount of runs for losses. LT had 23 carries in the game last night. He lost yardage on 8 of them. In the runs where he had positive yardage he had 15 carries for 68 yards (4.5 average) On the 8 other carries he lost 18 yards. that made his day 23 carries for 50 yards. If they could just find a way to make 6 of those loss carries 1-3 yard runs, the stats wouldn't be so bad. I'm still trying to tweak this and see if it can be fixed.

That said, I still can't find a true gamekiller. If I can't fix the running game, I'll intentionally use a weak defenseive playbook and hire a weak DC as a house rule and go from there. It's not like it's causing me to win every game. (quite the opposite, I'd say in my Raiders/Chargers test games I'm under ,.500 at this point. My fun factor with this game is off the charts. Please, oh please, let a text sim borrow a lot of these ideas someday. I love FOF and the improvements Jim has made over the years. But I have NEVER had as much fun with an offseason and/or draft in any text sim (including FM) as I have in this game.

Does no one else have a plasma TV? I searched on the OS Head Coach forums and found only 1 other guy commenting about the static displays, and no one ever responded to him. Did I get a false impression about how often that approval rating number is on the screen? What about the other pieces of the HUD? Anyone here have HC+Plasma and had any concerns?

I'm sure it's been covered already, but I'm too lazy to scan through 9 pages of this thread, but what does the demo include? Does it allow me to actually play a game of (pre)season football, or is it only off-season moves?

I'm really interested in this game and will probably actually purchase it next week, but I just started a MBA program and I can't let gaming eat into my study time. (Maybe the fact that it is on the X360 is good since I don't usually play on the x360 until after the family has gone to bed for the night. Presumably, I can get my studying done before then!)

They really should have released this game on this Tuesday. The game is done, the majority of people have a long weekend coming up. This is a great week to release games.

I'm about to crack and buy the collector's edition tonight just to get it, because I can't seem to find Tales of Vesperia in stock anywhere around here and I'm not sure I can hold out until Sunday for Mercenaries 2.

Anxious to play it though.

a couple thoughts
 

I have played out 20 complete games at full15 min qtrs so far, so something is right with the game.

Bottom line it is fun to play, the draft is fantastic, the scouting is really well done.

Further bottom line it is riddled with bugs and the workaround list needs its own prima guide.

Passing is WAY too easy. Pretty much every QB for any human control team can throw for 4,000 yards. I had Brady Quinn throw for the second most yards in history and pretty much every post I have seen has their QB throwing for 4,000+ yards. I don't even like to throw the ball preferring an old school run first philosophy, but...

Running is WAY too hard - 2.5 yards a carry is not good.

Fumbles are out of control - 5 a game on average.

Kickers can't make field goals beyond 29 yards and not only do they miss they come up 10 yards short. junior football kickers are better than this.

You can't call plays in 2 minute offense (it runs no huddle and calls the exact same play over and over without any option to audible)

Starting QB's play on the kickoff team which is a minor annoyance until they get hurt and then it becomes a major annoyance. Although no worries your scrup backup will throw for 300 yards a game anyway.

Injury bug, salary bug

The GM portion of the game is a blast to play and very well done. But if the bugs force me to sim games rather than play them out, and there is a 15 year cap - why wouldn't I just play FOF? I really want to love this game, it is so close to being great, but in typical EA fashion they screw up just enough of it to drive you crazy.

To be fair, most of the bugs are on the patch list, but as with all EA things, I will believe it when I see it.

Also I was already forced to scrap one season and start over because of the injury bug and I am afraid that I will need to do it again in order to benefit from the patch.

Yes all games have limitations, and this game is light years ahead of the crap that was the first Head Coach. But the mounting list of issues here is disheartening.

I know we should all know this by now, but seriously what is EA's beta testing policy, let one guys 5 year old play it for 30 minutes and then consider it gold?

Even further bottom line - the fanboyism on the OS boards is off the charts. anything pointing out the obvious errors is shot down with a flood of fanboy nonsense. The guys over there are so ecstatic that the developers actually respond (which is so uncommon with EA) that they overlook the fact that while they have talked about a patch, they have yet to produce anything. I am an admited fanboy on the OOTP forums, but that is because Markus has an almost 10 year track record of listening and addressing bugs. EA has an even longer record of counting their money while making the evil laugh sound.

I know that you can play a game, Colts vs. Bears. I tried the demo and was pretty blown away by all the depth and features. I did realize that watching an entire game is not for me, but I have a lot of respect for the developers with everything they've included.

I took a look at the full game, I don't have a plasma so I never really paid attention (I've got an lcd). The approval rating does stay on the screen during the entire time you're on the coach clipboard area, including on pretty much all the menus (trading, ect). The only thing that I see you could maybe do is pause the game, which turns the approval rating into a pause sign instead but I'm not sure if that'd help or not. I don't see any way to turn it off either.

Even with the approval rating gone though, NFL.com and an EA sports logos are pretty much static on the main screen the entire time also. Pause just greys them out slightly.

And coaching a game, while I haven't tried the demo I don't believe its any different.

Damn, thanks for the info. The more I think about it, I think I'll still get the game, I will just need to be very careful about how much I play it. That might actually be a good thing in the end anyways, hopefully it will keep me from vegging out for hours on end :D

Besides, with NHL 09 coming out the following week, I'll probably be getting a lot of time in on that to break things up.

Still, it would be nice if developers (and TV networks) would take this into account more often. In this day and age, having the image shift locations or fade away for periods of time really shouldn't be that difficult.

I have played out 20 complete games at full15 min qtrs so far, so something is right with the game.

Yup

Bottom line it is fun to play, the draft is fantastic, the scouting is really well done.

Yup

Further bottom line it is riddled with bugs and the workaround list needs its own prima guide.

Meh

Passing is WAY too easy. Pretty much every QB for any human control team can throw for 4,000 yards. I had Brady Quinn throw for the second most yards in history and pretty much every post I have seen has their QB throwing for 4,000+ yards. I don't even like to throw the ball preferring an old school run first philosophy, but...

Passing is too easy and running is too hard. But. . . some of this just has to do with the ratings of certain players. Quinn actually has pretty solid ratings and potential. (Alex Smith does in the game as well)

Running is WAY too hard - 2.5 yards a carry is not good.

All I can say here is that you are doing something wrong if you are talking about your offense. The CPU's running game? I talked about it above. Frustrating to be sure. Bur yours? Run behind your best blockers. Make use of the play action pass. Make sure 7-10 running plays are ones you have mastered. Running the ball just isn't that hard for the human team if you have a good line and you are calling the right plays. (Clevelands line in good. I think a healthy dose of Jamaal trap plays would eaisly get you 3.8 to 4.4 yards per carry. This isn't me being a fan boy, it's me running the ball in the test games and having success.

Fumbles are out of control - 5 a game on average.

No question. It's been widely reported.

Kickers can't make field goals beyond 29 yards and not only do they miss they come up 10 yards short. junior football kickers are better than this.

Adjust the kick power slider. Akers hit a 48 yarder for me last night. I think the accuracy is still a bit off and I may tweak it post patch, but it's not annoying at all once the kick power has been raised.

You can't call plays in 2 minute offense (it runs no huddle and calls the exact same play over and over without any option to audible)

They are changing this after the patch. Why it was ever allowed to go this way pre patch was beyond me. I have another problem with it that most people haven't talked about. Let's say there is 1:10 left in the half and I have the ball at my own 15. I'm just going to try to run the clock out. But it'll start the no huddle and run my running play up the middle causig me to take a time out to stop it. This was messed up badly and I'm glad it will be fixed.

Starting QB's play on the kickoff team which is a minor annoyance until they get hurt and then it becomes a major annoyance. Although no worries your scrup backup will throw for 300 yards a game anyway.

I missed this one. I just looked at my stats in three different test careers and no starting QB has a tackle. None has ever been injured either. (shocking thinking about it, but I've yet to have a QB go down)

Injury bug, salary bug

Will be fixed, will be fixed. Both have easy workarounds.

The GM portion of the game is a blast to play and very well done. But if the bugs force me to sim games rather than play them out, and there is a 15 year cap - why wouldn't I just play FOF? I really want to love this game, it is so close to being great, but in typical EA fashion they screw up just enough of it to drive you crazy.

I agree with some of this. But I'll be honest here. If this game only had a sim module and I could only go 15 years. . . I'd still put in 50+ hours with it. The offseason and draft are that fun.

To be fair, most of the bugs are on the patch list, but as with all EA things, I will believe it when I see it.

I dunno. EA is a huge company. All their parts aren't equal. This Head Coach team put out an incredible game and has been responsive. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt until they prove they don't deserve it.

Also I was already forced to scrap one season and start over because of the injury bug and I am afraid that I will need to do it again in order to benefit from the patch.

From the op sports boards, they said save games were not altered and the fixed would be in place for any career, pre or post patch. That could be wrong, but that's what I've read.

Yes all games have limitations, and this game is light years ahead of the crap that was the first Head Coach. But the mounting list of issues here is disheartening.

Disheartening for some I guess. I guess it's a matter of expectations. Mine were somwhere between a sliver of paper and the floor. What I've got has blown me away. Are there problems? No question. Even after the patch, there will be some things I'll be frustrated with. Frustrated enough to put the game down? No way.

I know we should all know this by now, but seriously what is EA's beta testing policy, let one guys 5 year old play it for 30 minutes and then consider it gold?

Even further bottom line - the fanboyism on the OS boards is off the charts. anything pointing out the obvious errors is shot down with a flood of fanboy nonsense. The guys over there are so ecstatic that the developers actually respond (which is so uncommon with EA) that they overlook the fact that while they have talked about a patch, they have yet to produce anything. I am an admited fanboy on the OOTP forums, but that is because Markus has an almost 10 year track record of listening and addressing bugs. EA has an even longer record of counting their money while making the evil laugh sound.

Look, EA just came out with their best football game in years. They went back to the drawing board after the disaster that was NFL Head Coach #1 and created a game that is incredibly FUN. I'll say that word again, because it's important. . . FUN There has yet to be a perfect sports game made. Was Tecmo Bowl perfect or realistic? No, but it sure as hell was fun. How about FM? Does it do a perfect job of managing real world soccer? No, it doesn't. It's the single best text sim of all time and there are parts of it everyone would like to see tweaked or improved upon.

Are the issues you bring up about head coach serious? Yeah, they are. Especially the CPU running game. That's a critical fix that needs to get into place. They also need to extend the career to 30 or 40 years. And the things they said need patched do in fact need fixed. All of that said, the game is a ridiculous amount of fun. Head Coach is now in the top 10 for console games I've ever played. I doubt seriously that I'll put more than 45 minutes (total) into any other video game until NBA2K9 comes out. And even then I'll alternate between the two.

There are bugs and for some people they may be game killing bugs. I perfectly understand that. (I've been complaining about OOTP for years while others enjoy the game) EA may be the devil. . . but they nailed this one.

I just tried the demo out again quickly, during the games the graphics slide around a bit, so perhaps it isn't that big of a problem so long as I don't spend hours on end in the non-game screens.

For anyone interested, here are the sliders I am messing around with:

USER/CPU the same

Offense
QB Acc: 0
Pass Block: 60
WR Catch: 0
RB Ability: 85
Run Block: 90

Defense
Awareness: 50
Knockdown: 100
Interceptions: 100
Break Block: 100
Tackling 75

Special Teams
FG Power: 100
FG Acc: 80
Punt Power: 50
Punt Acc: 100
KO Power: 50

- I have not really paid attention to special teams other than field goals, so I know the punting may be off. For FGs, they hit long ones, but still miss occasionally when in close.

- Break Block at 100 is needed. One of the problems with the passing game is that there is hardly any rush from the front 4 (or 3 depending on your defense). With Pass Block at 50 and Break Block at 50, I noticed that on every pass play, at least 2 of my DL would get thrown to the ground regardless of the team i was using (or playing against).

- Bumping awareness causes play fakes to never work, so I want to avoid increasing it.

- Dropping QB Acc will cause the QB to miss more oftan when they aren't being pressured, and WR Catch will make the receiver drop the pass sometimes even when they are wide open, but they can still make plenty of catches in traffic and when being hit.

- Running is a lot better. I hardly have any fumbles now. I usually get at least 1, but I haven't seen more than 3 in a game (vast majority of the games I have tested at around these settings have had 1 or 2). I have RBs breaking blocks, which I hardly saw at default.

In my last test game, Brian Westbrook broke two ~50 yard runs against the Giants. One was him breaking 2 blocks and got outside. The other one, he went up the middle and just blew by everyone. On the other side of the ball, Jacobs didn't have any long runs (longest was probably about 12 or so yards), but he grinded out a lot of 3-5 yard runs, and had some go for little to no yardage.

(Sorry, no stats since the game gave me the "dirty disc" error in the 4th....first time I got that whule playing the game)

However, on one of Westbrook's long runs, I had a third defender get close to him when he was around the LOS, but an OL "sucked" him in (blasted suction blocking) from 3 yards away! I think that's something I just have to live with. Lowering the Run Blocking while keeping Break Block at 100 (which I think I need to do) will just make running go back to being too hard. But it was nice to think "Fuckin' Westbrook" a few times while playing. :)


Anyway, those are the sliders I've been messing around with. Offense is a bit over powered still, especially on 3rd downs, but I get a much better game with these than at default. I also have noticed that the human player does a bit better than CPU. Several times I have played as the Jets (me) vs. Patriots and Patriots (me) vs. Jets and the Pats always do better with me coaching them, and the Jets always do better when I run things as well*.

I think the games is on "Rookie" or "Pro". I'm certain that if I keep tweaking the sliders, I'm going to have the CPU side get more help than the Human side. I know it may just be that I'm a better play caller than the CPU, but regardless of why teams do better with me coaching them, the CPU needs a bit of help.


* - I still lost every game in which I played as the Jets vs. the CPU controlled Pats. The only thing is, with these sliders, the games were always close. When i controled the Pats, I won comfortably.

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____________________
OK
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Where is the not OK?

same thing on the roster updates, which I find highly annoying.

TroyF

I will save the board the annoyance of copying and pasting point by point.

I think for the most part we agree.

There are a few things that I would debate.

Running Game
My running game should not be as bad as it is. My talent level is at least average (OL: 90-92-86-84-86, RB:86) and I understand the basics of running the football. I probably understand better than most since I have been coaching real football since 1987, though that ability really doesn't translate here.

Even for a moment if we assume that I am the worst possible playcaller who only runs in obviously situations, chooses not to run behind my best OL and ignores all my mastered plays and only calls my unlearned ones. I should not be seeing 6 yards losses every other play and a season long yards per carry of 2.5. Last years real world worst was 3.1.

I also spend the overwhelming majority of my practice time on improving the run.

Also if I am the worst running play caller in history, then I am the greatest defensive coach in history becasue I am giving up less than 2 yards a carry.

My third point here is I am not the only person having this problem, many others have as well and the sliders are not helping at all.

Passing Game
I still believe the passing game is too good. Many have posted their outrageous stats and while Quinn has good ratings (86) in the game, his ratings and the rest of my offense should not equal 4500 yards passing, which is the second most in NFL history.

The worst part of the run/pass problem to me is I am an old school run the ball, play action pass type of coach and that game plan does not work in this game.

Field Goals

field goals are broken, Josh even said today they found the problem and added it to the patch list. I have my sliders at 100/100 and my kicker and opposition kickers are making 20% of kicks and 30 yard field goals are coming up 10 yards short.


Having said all that - I agree with you most of all that the game is fun to play. I have played about 50 hours of this game since release.


I have high hopes for the patch and if they can fix these few things I will never see any more posts in this thread, becasue all of my free time will be spent playing the game.

last post today I swear.

The one thing I forgot to mention that I think is innovative and off the charts good is the coaching progression.

So much better than anything I have ever seen with individual and improvable skills for all of your coaches. I really love this area of the game and have no complaints whatsoever in this part.

Two interesting notes about the upcoming patch --


This one irritated me to no end during the season due to the fact you'd have to have insane amounts of money free to even begin contract talks. Glad it's being fixed.

And...

This is how the new 2 minute drill works, It sounds like a great fix to the current problem -

Is there online for this game at all? It's just a thought that occurred to me.

Online is crap. It's a play now mode only with no visual representation of plays - think supersim.

Played the demo.....talk about a breath of fresh air compared to the last version. My only real knock from the demo is how slanted things are to passing. Manning goes 19-21 for 241 yards and while I did manage to get some rushing yards (85 of them) they came very begrudgingly. I never got the feeling a RB could really break a 25+ yard run.

I love the game..when I get to play. I have a PS3, and this thing just freezes all the time. You can't save when you want because of the bug..so you end up playing 2-3 hours w/o a save, then all gone. The sound kicks off...and now all of my other games are locking up as well. My PS3 is all of 1 week old and after this game, nothing is working right.

edit: forgot about the draft board. Don't even bother re-stacking it, that will just waste you time. Spend 45 minutes setting up your board and next time you go in, completely different than you set it up as.

I also have a new PS3 which I bought for Head Coach, I don't have Head Coach yet, but it started freezing during games and being unable to load games (locking up) after upgrading to the newest firmware (2.42).

I don't know if this will help with Head Coach, but I switched from using an HDMI cable to using my PS2's component cable. The picture quality isn't as good, but I haven't had a game freeze on the PS3 since making the switch. I am hoping that the next firmware release will allow me to go back to using the HDMI cable without the lock ups.

I broke down and bought the 20th Anniversary version of Madden today. I had a 10% coupon, plus some Rewards Points from Best Buy, so I only paid $60 for the games. I am looking forward to beginning my career in Head Coach!

The PS3 demo for me crashed as well, as soon as I attempted to enter the one game it lets you play. I was, however, able to play the NHL 09 demo afterwards, so I'm hoping there's no Head Coach glitch that kills the PS3 (I'm not sure how it could even do that).

I have had zero problems with Head Coach on the Ps3.

I thought this came out today, but my pre-order at ebgames isn't in, and it looks like Future Shop is saying Sept 5 now. What gives?

Got my copy from GameCrazy today....not pre-ordered...just walked in and bought it.

I also got a copy today for the PS3. Played for about 3 hours, and I had quite a bit of fun. Love the draft. I played through it twice with two separate teams. I can't wait for the patch to be able to start a career.

I bought the CE edition and haven't played much HC lately 'cause I'm waiting for the patch to really dig in. Any news on the patch yet?

Purchased it yesterday and was the first time in awhile that I've stayed up until 3 AM to play.

Couple questions -

1. Is there any way to view a more detailed player profile on the cut screen or do I need to view the roster and make decisions before getting to this screen?

2. 3 of my goals during training camp were to get players up to speed on the playbook (have 25% familiarity or whatever it is). I must have missed how to do this because I failed at all 3 goals. Seems like the only place I could select something was the playbook on the clipboard.

I'm playing in Career Mode currently in order to learn the subtleties of the game. Once the patch is released, then I will restart a new Career hoping to do better as a Coach with the knowledge I've gained.

During pre-season games, only call plays that are listed as "Unlearned". This will get the players on the field (some of them) familiar with the play. I usually have the playbook goals done by the 3rd pre-season game.

Ahhh.. I just simmed the preseason so, that obviously hurt me.

Yeah, during one of my test careers, I just simmed pre-season and failed those goals. You could probably get away with just playing 2 pre-season games, though.

Looks like my friend at EA is mailing me a copy for the PS3, itll be like $20 plus shipping...hopefully its patched up by then.

Uh....it looks like that Head Coach is available for download on the PS3 today...
http://www.us.playstation.com/ps3/st...NFLHeadCoach09

Finally got my copy of HC 09 from EBGames last night. Apparently I was the only person who pre-ordered the game... I actually kind of felt like a loser.

Anyways, I played it for 45 minutes last night, created my coach (Surly McManmakers) and set his skills up, then went straight to pre-season and started to respond to the various alerts on my clipboard. I downloaded a bunch of plays from the internet because one of my goals was to add 10 new plays, and then was trying to figure out how to 'add' them to get credit when the whole system froze up! I hadn't saved so I lost everything. :(

Then, I rebooted and created the same coach and started all over again. I had the same goals, so I went online to download the plays again but it said I had already downloaded them and that I couldn't get credit for re-downloading the same plays. That frustrated me so I turned it off. I guess I'll have to read some forums on how to avoid freezes and maybe how to reset the downloaded plays so that I can get credit for them in my new game.

crazy that you could DL the whole game, wow

Loving the game. Played the free agency period, the draft, and my first preseason game. (a 31-24 win over the Packers) Fun to see Briggs in a Bengals uniform. Still no pass rush from my team but I feel like I've made some massive strides in bring in a much improved defense. Palmer was very good as was really the whole offense. I'm not seeing why folks think running is so difficult in the game as I had little trouble getting a nice ground game going.

One thing.....I'm not sure how mass subs are working....if I want to put the 2nd team in, what do I have to do? It seems as if I hit sub 2nd team and the 1st team goes back in.

Really want this game but I am holding out until the patch comes out. I also want to use a $20 gift certificate I have at the NFL Shop but the game is strangely not listed there for sale yet. Hell, even the demo for the game prominently displays the nfl.com website. Hopefully they are just taking their sweet time listing the game.

You might also want to read both of these threads on the Operation Sports Forums in case you missed them. I don't know why they never got a sticky. The patch should fix both issues, but until the patch is out the following information can be very useful.

The Injury Bug Workaround
Good News/Bad News - The Injury Bug Workaround - Operation Sports Forums

Salary Bug and Workaround
*** Salary Bug and Workaround *** - Operation Sports Forums

I have been busy at work lately and out of the loop... Anyone know when the ETA for the patch is? Has it gone to certification yet or still in testing?

Thanks for the links, I was aware of the need to save on Friday but didn't realise I should stay out of the play creator. I don't like creating plays so I hadn't tried it yet, so thankfully my current franchise is ok (although I plan to start a new one after I play through a full season anyways, just because I've already made some mistakes from not really knowing how things work).

I did play for a few hours on Saturday night and had a blast. I had one disc-read error, but it was early on and I didn't lose much. I've learned to save every friday now so crashes shouldn't really cost me much in terms of having to replay.

Picked this up yesterday and have advanced through free-agency and the draft. I think I've had more pure "fun" with this than any other management game not called Football Manager.

I picked this up during lunch today, but probably won't get to play until the weekend. Any word on the patch's estimated release date?

Probably about a week and a half.. last I heard it was sent off to MS.

I just won 27-24 playing as the Vikings hosting the Colts in week 2 of a test career in which I am playing out each game. No sim or super-sim.

I started the career in the off-season as the Vikings and one of the goals given to me was to sign an 85+ overall tight end to my team. Since this is a test career while waiting for the patch, I ended up trading my 1st and 2nd round picks in 2009 for the Colts tight end Dallas Clark. This was a terrible trade for me in terms of value, but I was mortgaging the future since I wasn’t planning to play more than one season. Yet, the trade may have made the difference in my week two game against the Colts.

I went 2-2 in the preseason and got destroyed by the Cowboys 56-14 in the very last preseason game. My owner said he wanted to make the playoffs, I promised him a season of misery with the Vikings ending up under .500. He wasn’t very happy. I managed to win my first game at Green Bay against a team that had Daunte Culpepper in at QB. I guess in this universe the Packers gave him enough money and a chance to compete for the starting spot, so he didn’t retire. I got a two touchdown lead in the first half by exploiting their secondary on almost every down, and barely held on for the win, but that’s another story.

The story I would like to tell is about a monster game in which the Colts put up 568 yards of total offense in a losing effort against my 296 yards of total offense. Peyton Manning destroyed my secondary. Destroyed. He went 24 for 37 for 428 yards and 3 touchdowns with 1 interception for a QB rating of 120.0. I saw him connect with Reggie Wayne and Marvin Harrison deep down the middle of the field time and time again. According to one of the stats tracked by the game, Manning only threw into coverage 10% of the time and he never threw into double coverage. His receivers were almost always open.

Then there was RB Joseph Addai, who gained 144 yards on 20 attempts (7.2 average). Addai had 8 broken tackles and gained 97 of those yards after contact. The Colts had one series late in the third quarter with my team up 20-17 where they gave Addai the ball 6 plays in a row and he just carried my defenders on his back while he marched his team down the field. However, the 7th time in a row was not so lucky for the Colts, because this time while he was stood up, someone on my defense stripped him of the ball.

And that is what won this game, turnovers. With the last key turnover being early in the fourth quarter with the score still 20-17. The gameplan I practiced before this match-up focused heavily against the pass, and I had one boost to a zone pass defense play left, which I used. The result, SS Darren Sharper picked off a redzone pass in the endzone to one of the Colts tight ends and returned it 103 yards for the winning touchdown. If Dallas Clark had been there, he would have been just another uncovered receiver catching a touchdown pass from Manning. Clark also ended up catching a key 3rd and 10 pass for me for a first down that let the clock run out for the victory.

Fun game. Now onto week 3.

Played my first OT game in Head Coach. Week 4 my Vikings (3-0) at the Titans (3-0). After 4 quarters, the score was 24-24 with the highlight being Vince Young rushing for just over 100 yards against me. Young would end up winning player of the week in the AFC.

I win the coin toss and elected to receive. After getting the kickoff, I am steadily moving down the field by feeding the ball to Adrian Peterson with an occasional short pass to a receiver. I get to midfield and call a short pass play on 1st down. I watch the two safeties drop back into zone coverage just before the snap, and think that I have a good chance of gaining some more yards. However, QB Tarvaris Jackson suddenly decides to take off running, after only a second or two in the pocket. He is running to the weak side of the field that is empty of defenders except for a now hard charging free safety that is the only defender in front of him. Jackson is holding the ball in one hand heading for the sideline near the first down marker when he suddenly decides to put two hands on the ball and stay in bounds. Of course the safety hits him and causes a fumble, which the Titans recover. Young then moves them into field goal range and they kick the game winner.

Edit: Yeah, I am itching to start a dynasty thread once the patch is out.

With current slider sets, are passing and rushing yards still off?

I don't feel they are. I just think there are some people who might not understand how to best play the game. I'm playing with the Bengals and put up 450 yards offense including 165 on the ground in my last game.

Puddle Pirate. Best name ever.

For some reason, I imagine a "Puddle Pirate" pissing on people, though.

Puddle Pirate sounds like a guy that's into sloppy seconds to me.

Head Coach's developers posted a thread on OS today called Great news and some not so good news:

The great news is that the 360 patch for Head Coach will release tomorrow at 5AM!!! I was going to try it tonight for the first time, but with the news that the patch will be out tomorrow, I'm going to wait for that and have my first look be a hopefully serious career.


The bad news is that the PS3 version of the patch is having technical problems and its release date is to be determined.

Being lazy - is the patch features out any where?

Copied from OS:

Note: Below are the patch details from the Lead Designer of NFL Head Coach 09, Josh Looman.


I got the Ok to officially say that we are doing a patch. I've wanted to say that for a week, but we had to make sure of a few things first.

Here's an update on our progress with the patch:

• We have fixed the Play Creator/Injury Bug.
• We have added the ability to call plays during the 2 minute drill. You guys better thank Bekins for this. Normally, this would have been a feature that would have taken forever to get in, but the kid killed himself to put it in there to help everyone out.
• We have added Favre's stats back in the game.
• We fixed a bug you guys didn't know about that allows me to change team philosophies in the roster update. Woo-Hoo! This lets me get the teams where I think they should be and correct some ratings issues that way.
• We fixed the contract bug (where scrub players would ask for a ton of money when re-signing).
• We fixed the Draft Day trading bug (where you could force every team to trade their pick by asking them to trade and then backing out)
• We fixed the ability to change a QB to WR and change him back to QB again.
• We fixed the bug where teams would not kick a FG at the end of the half.
• We are investigating a fix to make fumbles better. Staymates found out that a fatigued player would be getting larger penalties than expected to their attributes, including their carry rating. We are greatly reducing this so that fumbles should happen less. This is going to need some more testing since a lot of different factors influence fumble chances.
• We are also investigating a fix for CPU teams subbing out fatigued players quicker in-game so that backups get some carries. Our thresholds for subbing a guy out were too low, so we are raising those. This also needs mucho testing.
• We are fixing any crashes we can reproduce including the issues found on PS3.
• We are also fixing an issue with RFAs that was noticed.

In future posts, it sounded like the fatigue issue that was affecting RB's worked out well in testing.

FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!