FYI, they have been saying that for a while now, and have very little EA Sports games BC.

Bill Cowher talk to Mike and Mike about the game this morning. EA must have paid a few dollars to get ESPN run that infomercial.

ESPN is part of the game.

Has anyone preordered from EA before?
Do they ship it early, so it arrives on the release day?
Or do they wait until release day to ship it?

In the past I've seen that people that pre-order from the site directly are usually the last to receive it. YMMV.

Fair enough, but you'd think with this particular version they'd eventually make it BC since there's no 360 incarnation of it.

You can sim through practices and therefore have the assistant coaches handle it, I'm 99% sure. Of course, they might not be as effective as you would be at running practice. As far as the motivational speeches, they are given during the game, and I think you have to do them or they don't get done.

The guys at GameStop were stunned when I asked to preorder the PC version of this game. It was like they'd never heard of preordering a PC game before. :) Anyway, I don't know whether to expect it on Tuesday or Wednesday, but I'm looking forward to bringing the Broncos to glory! Ron Dayne will have his day!!!

Dola

About backwards compatibility, who's actually responsible for creating the BC software emulator for each game? Is it Microsoft or the game's developer?

My understanding is that Microsoft is and they have to have permission from the developer in order to do it.

My Best Buy ad that came out on Sundays shows this game will be in on Wednesday at 5:00PM.


Usually Fry's has a special on the first week of a game release.

And Best Buy usually has a sale on there EA sports release like a week or 2 after the game comes out.

Hey Joe....where you goin', with that gun in your hand?

I'm disappointed that you can only play 5 minute quarters.

Is no one concern how the sim stats will be like?

Especially if you coach out the games and you want to compare your stats with the sim stats.

Has anyone confirmed that the quarters will be 5 minutes in the final version?

There is so much that concerns me about this game. I have very low expectations of it and I'm amazed that so many people are preordering it.

Hmm, what about MVP College Baseball or Arena Football?

Me too, very disappointed. In fact, if this is true, it's a HUGE game-killer to me. I am still very interested in how this game plays out, but I won't pre-order anymore. I'll wait for some impressions from you guys, and then make my decision.

Gah! Worst interface ever

Where has it been confirmed that you can only play 5 minute quarters? I've scoured websites and haven't seen that confirmed anywhere.

I haven't been able to find it either.

I hope that one of you guys that have pre-ordered confirms this ASAP, so that I can go get it ASAP. :)

I hope to be commenting on this issue tomorrow, assuming my copy arrives at the store ok. Since I'm on vacation, I'm planning on a marathon session with plenty of impressions tomorrow.

I think I'm more concerned with the AI.

No, seriously. It sounds like running the practices yourself is the best idea to get the most out of your players, but I see it as something akin to time management in TCY -- once you figure it out, it's just a routine exercise. Seems to me like as players, we'll probably be able to 'ace' it after a while, while the AI won't, because of 'realism.' So our options will be to A) have the coaches handle it, not get as much as possible out of our team, but not gain an edge on the computer AI, or B) Do it ourselves and get a leg up on the AI for doing the best we can.

OMG Someone has just played it..
 

This does not sound good..

Go here

http://forums.ea.com/mboards/thread....79843&tstart=0

yeahhh...that's making me go "whoa i'm waiting until i can see if the 5 minute quarters work or there's a patch/mod"

too bad EA, almost had me there

Jeebus we are a bunch of whiny biatches. First we have a 100 page thread about a football game that's too customizable, and now we are slamming another game for not being customizable enough. ;)

That being said, I haven't been inspired to write a parody song about NFL Head Coach. (yet :D )

Wow. Completely cheezy.

Someone says that of every single game that has ever been released.

I think expectations are WAY too high. Madden is not realistic statistically and this game is based on the Madden engine. All we can realistically hope for is a fun game that rewards you for your football savy... or something.

I am disappointed in myself too,
It was a moment of weakness.

I read a few pages back,that, there will be no draft busts.
Right there it tells me this game is not meant for us but the madden crowd.

I only read the first page of that thread (I think it's at 10 pages as of when I'm reading it), so maybe someone brought this up later...but that person's complaint is that you can kill a 5 minute quarter in 7 running plays. My question is...how is that different than Madden? Why is that an issue now?

I think this game is supposed to appeal to those who want realism more.

In Madden you can change the quarter length to compensate for play style. Five minute quarters are a big warning bell for me.

For starters, it butchers the 2 minute drill. (I made this point above) Beyond that, it's going to be really tough to get the amount of plays correct. And if the computer coaches aren't set to identify the changes, we are going to see them start to use their timeouts in a close game at the BEGINNING of the fourth quarter.

Why they couldn't have had 15 minutes with an accelerated clock or have made it an option is insanity.

Lovely. They just told me that since I bought it from the EA store, I can't use the EA downloader.

Which makes NO fucking sense what so ever when you think about it.

Nay, this game is supposed to appeal to buyers, whoever it may be.

I guess it just depends on how you play. I've always played Madden on 5 min quarters and never had issues with getting off enough plays to be realistic. Of course, I don't wind the clock down, and don't spend a large portion of the clock picking the play since usually I'll know exactly what I want to run. But I understand the concern of others.

It HAS been an issue in Madden and one only partially solved by accel clock.

It drives me crazy that NONE of the game developers can get this straight - make a 15 minute game with accel clock that averages the # of plays that is averaged in the NFL - What is so fucking hard to understand about that???? allow the 10 year old A.D.D. joystick jockeys who only care about TD dances to reduce the time because they are incapable of concentration on one thing for that long, but for the love of god at least have the option to play a realistic amount of plays in there.

(anger and frustration directed at game designers, not the quoted post or anyone else)

that is absurd - every product has a target market. Makers of organic tofu cubes don't spend a lot of time advertising on NASCAR.

This game was made for the target market of people who want a realistic NFL sim - if they try to make this Madden with the added feature that you can't control the players this will be a one trick pony.

The average Madden Joystick Jockey doesn't even understand why this game is being read (I have read their posts on other forums) this game MUST appeal and appease the type of people that buy FOF and OOTP and the like or it will not make it.

Wow, WTF 5 minute quarters?! Well, that just solved my problem of whether to buy this EA "poser" or the real deal FM 2006. FM it is.

i feel like this has to be a huge deal-breaker. personally i know i could spend almost the whole 30 second clock talking to players, selecting a play, etc.

Well, that is very disappointing about the 5 minute quarters. Hopefully, it can be modded to make the time of possession more realistic. I'm still (probably foolishly) looking forward to picking this up tomorrow.

I wonder how many minutes per quarter the sim games going to be?

i'll be holding off to see if the quarter length can be successfully modded or if (for some reason) this isn't as much of a deal breaker for me as it seems to be from initial reports.

I'll be posting stats of my first few games. I'm hoping the guy from Maddennation is right, and that I can still get off a decent number of plays while talking to my guys..

Right now Wal-mart is touting a release of the 22nd, I stopped by a rhino to see if they had it, and they are saying the 23rd, I hope the download version is out before then.

Another new video up on gametrailers.com.
At the end of the video they show the number 1 coach of all time.



Don Schula

I think some of you guys are too anxious for the game. Its hard to back down now after reading about it for so long. Its human nature to feel like that.

Its probably best to wait for first game impressions before buying the game.

Man, Don Shula was robbed!

First game Impressions by Madden Nation

http://maddennation.com/forums/showthread.php?t=58191

dola

Check out this blog.

http://blog.myspace.com/maddennation

I'm glad I didn't preorder

Just to show a different type of person, let me give my take on this game.

I don't care if the quarters are only 5 minutes long.
I don't care what the sim stats for the other games look like.
I don't care if there are draft busts.
I don't care if I "solve" team practices.

I'm not saying this just to seem like a dissenting bad-ass. I just really don't care. For me, if the game is fun and I enjoy coaching my team, I'll be very happy. Of course it would be nice if things were improved, but I have yet to see something that completely turns me off from this game. I'm still very excited about the release of this game. Perhaps my expectations aren't very high, and I accept that this game might end up being a disappointment to me, but I'm still planning to spend a lot of time with NFL Head Coach.

I feel the same way. I don't expect the game to be perfect, because how many games are perfect in their first release? How many versions of FOF did it take before it became the game we were all looking for?

I will buy it regardless of the reviews, mainly because I have been waiting years for this type of game to come out (since the FPS days). If we don't support this version, there may not be another version.

I agree with this, particularly the last paragraph.

I don't expect the game to be perfect, I have yet to find one that is.

But 2 things really bother me about the clock:

1. first and foremost - this is typical EA - why give the user options when we can lock everything down - why should they care if I want to play 1 minute quarters or 7 hour quarters. I saw another post about not being able to change uniform numbers - why EA why, what is your obsession with control - so many little details in EA games are locked and limited when they should be open - If I want to change my backup WR to shoe# 4,789 that is uusally an option - but if I want to change his number so he doesn't have the same number as a hall of famer with a retired number, nope sorry.:mad:
'

2. 15 min accel clock was included and worked in the 1984 XOR NFL Challenge game - you have obvious brilliant programmers, why can't they sort out this simple and vital detail when they have been making football games for 15 years and this was working over 20 year ago.

does any of this mean I am not going to buy this game, HELL NO! I might buy it ten times so the sales go up, I will buy it the first second I get my hands on it - but damn EA why do you always come so close - but ALWAYS do something that F***s it all up?

you can't play out a full sixty minute game, but you can dress your players up like barbie dolls. Not exactly what I was hoping for.

It would seem to me that 5 minute quarters kills any chance at a good sim. You can essentially knock the legs out from any offensive team by running the ball -- and you don't even have to be good at it. While this is acceptable in joystick Madden mostly because I reach across the room and punch the other player if he tries to kill time like this, how do you avoid this in a multiplayer sim? Or am I going to hear there is not a multiplayer sim? But hey, picking your coach's clothing, now there's something to spend time on. Dumb.

I already see this as a watered down sim that will not satisfy the joystick guys or the realism sports sim player. I don't believe there is an in-between market.

I did see the first commercial on ESPN however with Jeff Fisher, and it was pretty funny.

While I'm a little disappointed in the clock issue, it is an EA game. I think maybe some folks were expecting a little too much on the realism side here. I will never play an EA game looking for the most realistic, deep stats and simulations. I have text sims for that. I can look past most EA issues as long as the gameplay is relatively fun and somewhat within the bounds of reality. I haven't enjoyed the latest Madden or NCAA releases, but its not because I felt the sim engine was off. I'm going to give this a chance for sure, but never had any preconceived notions that we would be getting FOF-like stats.

*Raises hand*

I think there are several "in-between" guys in this thread.

As for the old "don't expect deep stats, perfect stats, etc." from EA. I don't. I just expect close. I just can't see any way this game will be close at this point. 5 minute quarters are going to kill any feel of realism, and most likely screw up the stats. I had been expecting a bug that EA never fixes (s.o.p. for EA), but to just out of the box make such a moronic design decision? I guess that shouldn't surprise me either.

The thing is, considering the power of today's PCs and consoles, having the best of both worlds (fun gameplay AND realistic stats) is not outside the realm of possibility. Why can't we expect both? I really don't think it's too much to ask.

Agreed. This is one of those decisions that is just baffling to me. 15 minute quarters, accelerated clock. It's simple. It allows you the time to talk to your guys and get plays off. It also allows for realistic stats.

They just made a sim where realism is the key and took out clock management out of the equation. I just don't understand it.

I am finding it hard to want this game now. I want it, but I feel like every time I play I'll be bothered by this. I'll just want to see what you guys think before I take the plunge.

I don't understand why 5 mins quarters only.

Usually long drives takeup 4 mins plus.

There going to be quarters where the other team won't have possession at all.


The other questions is if sims only games stats is based on 15 mins quarters, then the games we coach out wont match when it comes to stats.

The NFl averages 120 plays for both team combine in a game. I don't see us reaching that with 5 mins quarters too.

This game is really going to suck. If it doesn't have a solid game engine that can produce reasonable stats, how is this different than playing Madden and only calling the plays?

What is new here? The fact that you can click on a player and give him a motivational speech? Please.

I just want a fun game too. Realism would be nice. I used to just sim out Madden back in the day(maybe play 1-2 games a year), cause it was fun. I think I'll have a good time with this.

How could it be fun, if you only might get two possessions for the entire game?

It can happen if you have two long drive and the cpu team has 2 long drives thats at least 5 mins plus.

You're comparing apples and oranges. In general, I'm sure they're not going to use the whole play clock.

I agree - the only chance this game has is to be "better" then Madden in areas of realism - the "talk to players" aspect is the aspect I least care about, the most likely to turn into Terrell davis type phone calls and the one I am going to have to do instead of want to do. GM and in game play calling and clock management is what would make this game great.

Now that's just silly. jb it seems like you're going out of your way to find faults with games without experience in the matter.

digital download = good

not knowing when they are going to make it available = bad

Its been stated the quarters will be 5 mins long. Those are the facts and Its not like I am the only one disappointed about it.

I just saying you and the cpu team might have long drives. And if that happens you won't have many possessions.

I guess we will find out soon when more people get the game. And we read more first game impressions on it.

I hope I am wrong and the game is great.

Maybe I am one of those inbetween guys. I haven't played the game yet, but in theory, the 5 minute quarters don't bug me. I am glad that I don't care quite as much as others about realism (that is not a dig- I really am glad because maybe I will really enjoy this game). I kind of like that the games might be quick too. I don't have nearly as much time to play games as I used to, and admittedly I am not some great playcaller or game planner so I really don't go particulary crazy over that in the game. I just try to call the right plays, have fun, and try to win. I also don't mind if the stats aren't fully realistic to real life, I just figure that hey, in my little sim world here, those are the stats.

I hate to say it, but I don't know that this game was meant for the hardcore sim crowd. I know a lot of you would like it to be and I understand your frustration. I really think this game was meant for Madden guys who have a bigger of interest in the franchise mode. If they made it a hardcore sim, then it probably wouldn't be worth the money they put into it (poor sales probably as the hardcore sim crowd probably isn't huge.) Again, I know why a lot of you are upset, but at the same time I think EA had to try to balance between hardcore simmers and Madden junkies. But at the same time hopefully that means great sales, and them making new versions that hopefully fix a lot of issues and also maybe even lead to similar series for different sports.

I say it's silly because have you played Madden? In 5 minute quarters you and the computer don't have 1 drive each half even if you grind it out every play.

It's one thing to be disappointed in the 5 minute quarters. It's another to suggest that the game designers were so incompetent as to create a game that approaches neither realistic nor fun.

Yeah, looks like they f'd up the whole "99% download" till release date thing. I'm sure the link will come up soon, hopefully.

Maximum Custo....aw, fuck it.

Not to pick on anybody in particular here, but jbmagic touched on something that I thought about saying earlier.

All the first impressions in the world won't change the fact that the quarters are 5 minutes long. That kills the game for a lot of people, and there's no way around it (at least not without mods). Having looked over the features and such, a lot of people have made up their minds about this game. I'm having a hard time imagining anything that would get them to change their minds.

Really, what could we possibly say to make people think, "Oh, now I don't care that the quarters are only 5 minutes long!"? Anything? Anything at all?

EA must be feeling the pressure from Maximum Football.

5 min quarters? Figures...........

Eh, oh well. I preordered not because I'm looking for some super realistic sim, I just ordered because I'm looking for something to screw around with an have fun with. 5 minute quarters isn't going to kill it for me because it doesn't kill it for me playing Madden so, hey.. house rule for me. Don't drain the clock with running 5 running plays... (Of course, if the CPU is taking advantage of this, that is a different story but, I didn't detect the CPU taking advantage of it in Madden so..)

Of course, I can completely understand why some people would be completely turned off to the game.

no doubt

Cool
 

I went by my local Gamestop Sunday to pick up FIFA 2006 World Cup for my PC (Not a bad game)… Anyway I was talking to them and I said hey you guys still getting in head coach on the 20th.. They said yea and they pulled out this big box with these cool looking button up black short sleeve shirts with the EA logo and they had NFL Head Coach on them… They said they were for people that Pre ordered.. I had never heard of or seen this shirt pre order special.. Anyway I told the guy I had pre order on-line from Gamestop and he said after I get the game bring in my receipt and if they have any left he will give me one…. They really did look pretty sweet…

At this point I am worried the shirt might be better then the game..

The problem though is that it appears that the games that are simmed will generate more plays per game than when you play your games out. So you'll have AI controlled RBs that get 500 carries per season, where your top guy can only get to 400 due to you having to play 5 minute quarters limiting the # of plays you can run. So your stats will not be able to be compared to the rest of the league.


But I really don't understand how the core gameplay is any different from Madden's minus the player-control. Can't you pretty much do everything in Madden that you can do in Head Coach? The only thing I noticed was the fact that you can give your players pep-talks. Without a solid kick-ass stats engine, this game doesn't add anything to what you can already get in Madden. (Unless I'm missing something, which is possible)...

If I was a "Madden" guy - I would look at this game as Madden but I can't control the players, what is the point in that - I CAN DO THAT NOW!

I think EA looked at the numbers that FM, OOTP and the like have been doing - they remember the former competition they had in FB Pro and they are trying to maximize their exclusive NFL license.

But if they really are going with "hey its Madden, you just don't get to move your players but you DO get to tell them "buck up little camper!" then this is going to me a miserable failure.

Damn, my gamestop, after telling me yesterday that they would have it today, are now telling me they will have it tomorrow.

dola, they also said they are sold out of the first shipment on preorders.

I agree with your first paragraph. That is the thing that worries me the most about 5 minute quarters, that I won't be able to get the stats that the rest of the league has, even if I coach great. Then again, RAC did get 50 plays off supposedly in his first game.

As far as the 2nd paragraph, I think the core gameplay looks similar, but from the demo, it appears the coach only mode in madden plays VASTLY inferior to this. The QB's in the demo appear to react much more realistically with their reads, their scrambles, and running plays actually seem to work.

Dola -

I'm really hoping some inteliigent fan of the game, will be able to mod the PC version to make the quarters either customizable or at least 10 minutes long. If they could somehow make it 15 minutes with accelerated clock, I would hail them as one of the greatest modders ever.

Maybe I need to play it and see the game, but I don't see how you can do all of the things that are going to be a part of the game and get realistic stats with 5 minute quarters.

Could it be that I am thinking that motiviating your players will play a bigger role than it should?

In playing the demo, those 1 minute quarters went by pretty quickly, granted I'm still not used to the game, but sheesh!

After telling me on Saturday that I'd be able to pick it up today, my gamestop is now saying that their shipment "likely" won't arrive until tomorrow morning. :(

Tecmo Super Bowl had 5 minute quarters and was the best football game of all time. As long as we can coach up our players to run zig zags for an average of 15.8 ypc the game will play fine.

yeah, speaking of which, we need tecmo 2007 to come out.

From "EA Cadillac" on the official EA forums:


Then later:


Wouldn't it be a kick in the pants to find out that Digital River is involved with this somehow?

Dola

Also, this dude apparently can't tell time if he thinks midnight is 5pm California time. Well, maybe EA is now running their operation out of Iceland, but I don't know.

If the servers are running at using 12:00 AM GMT then, it would be 5:00 PM I think.. (or 4..)

edit: Actually.. must be since the game will be avail at midnight Friday and Thursday afternoon in California.

Yep, it would be 4pm California time, so the dude is still out of his tree. :)

Funny that that was the statement that stuck out most for me too... "uhhh... if you can't get this right"... ;)

I called the GameStop at which I preordered the game, and the guy told me that it'd be in on Friday. I told him that I preordered, and then he said that they may have it tomorrow. This release isn't quite at NCAA Football 06 levels, but it's still kinda messed up. Most companies can give you a release date. EA Sports gives you a release week and lets you fend for yourself.

Ack, that's seriously alarming.

The 5 minute quarters thing does suck a little bit, because it means to get semi-realistic stats for your starters you'll have to turn fatigue off and never put your backups in. (This is what I do in all my NCAA and Madden games actually, because I can't be bothered with longer games).

Ugh! Just called my Gamestop and they provided another confirmation. They said EA delayed the shipping another day and they should have it tomorrow.

I am beyond pissed right now. Today's the only day I have off this week and I specifically pre-ordered so I could get it today. :mad:

Fucking EA.