NFL Head Coach 09
 

I can't believe they are making another version of this game. The article says they brought over the guy has been doing franchise mode for Madden and a new team from the ground up to improve on last year. Let's hope so:

http://sports.espn.go.com/videogames...ory?id=3265421

EA Sports chose Tony Dungy's home field as the launch pad for NFL Head Coach 09, the new next generation video game shipping this fall. Indianapolis Colts head coach Dungy is on the cover of the new game and was on hand, taking some time out from the NFL Scouting Combine, to give his thoughts on the new game.
"EA Sports talked to us a lot about our jobs and what we do and what are some of the big decisions that we have to make and their timing and how we go about it," explained Dungy, who's not a gamer, but enjoys watching his son play video games. "I think they've made it very realistic and gotten a lot of input from a lot of different coaches. That's what I'm always amazed at, is how realistic these games are."
Whereas gamers playing Madden NFL 08 can focus on the on-field action, the heart of NFL Head Coach 09 is not just the on-field play-calling, but the year-round scouting process that builds up a team over time into a Super Bowl contender. Dungy, who guided his Colts to a Super Bowl win in 2007, believes this new game will find an audience with millions of armchair quarterbacks out there who are obsessed with the NFL.
"I think that's the group that's really going to be affected by this ... the people who play fantasy football and watch all of the NFL shows during the week and want to really zero in on how their team is built and how their team is doing," said Dungy. "They're going to really have fun with this game because they're going to be able to explore the ins and outs and the behind-the-scenes stuff. It's not just watching Ladainian Tomlinson making a great play on Sunday afternoon, but it's figuring out how to get his offensive line in place and how to make sure he has a good back-up in case he gets hurt. It's all of those things."
Dungy has seen the impact of NFL video games first-hand over his years as a head coach and the popularity of the Madden franchise amongst his players.
"I think that's one of the things in the NFL now," said Dungy. "Everybody's going to new facilities that have to have big screen TVs so that guys can play Madden during their lunch hour. I think it's great. We have many more guys hanging around our facility because we have that availability to play these games."
Josh Looman, lead designer of NFL Head Coach 09 at EA Tiburon, said that since the NFL Combine is the start of the new football season and scouting players is a huge part of the new game, the team decided to debut the Xbox 360 game in Indianapolis. The fact that Dungy lives here was another bonus.
Looman, who spent the past five years overseeing the Franchise mode in Madden, leads an entirely new team that was constructed from the ground up with the goal of making NFL Head Coach 09 more accessible and more fun than the original. This new game was built from scratch to take advantage of next gen functionality and to start with a clean slate.
"We focused a lot of attention on the game's navigation, since the original was very difficult to actually get around the world in. The artificial intelligence in this game is much more robust, as well."
The game employs a wizard navigation format (borrowed from the PC world), which makes it very easy to navigate to anywhere in the game from the main screen. The Coach's Clipboard is a 3D utility that can be turned left or right to open up new menu options for any maneuver needed in the game.
"We bring everything you need to do in the game directly to you through this feature," explained Looman. "If you don't want to deal with it, hit the B button and assign it to the assistant coaches or general manager."
Just make sure those coaches, assistant coaches, and your general manager that you hire are good, because based on their own ratings, they'll make good or bad decisions on evaluating talent, making deals and even making calls on the field.
Front and center on the main gameplay screen at all times is your coach's approval rating. This aggregate score comes from fans, coaches, media, players and the owner's ratings on your performance. Unlike the Madden franchise mode, in which a coach can play for 60 years and never get fired despite his record, just like the real cutthroat world of the NFL, one bad season could be enough to get you axed in NFL Head Coach 09.
"The higher your approval rating, the easier it is to sign free agents and make trades in the game," said Looman. "Your approval rating will change as you progress through the year. In addition to determining whether you keep your job, it will also impact the difficulty level of the game. We based the rating off the ESPN Coaches voting that fans take part in online, so a coach's rating will swing up and down based on decisions on the field and off."
Other ESPN elements are also being implemented in the game. Todd McShay, ESPN football analyst and director of college football scouting for Scouts Inc., will appear throughout the game as a 3D avatar on the bottom left of the screen providing detailed information on players. In addition, a sports ticker will constantly update in-game happenings around the league and every move you make as a head coach will instantly break on ESPN. In addition, Looman said the final game will likely integrate real-time sports scores from ESPN and other content into this virtual world.
The team has added a lot of real-time strategy elements to the sports genre with NFL Head Coach. Just like in Madden NFL 08 or NCAA Football 08, players can simulate to any point in a season. You can also fast forward the day clock at any time to make the action move faster. There are even role-playing game elements like the ability to buy skills and upgrade coaches and GM abilities as you move through the season.
Although the new game allows you to skip over the NFL Scouting Combine and the NFL Draft and jump straight into the preseason, Looman said that championship teams are built through scouting.
"We have every stage of scouting that exists in the NFL," said Looman. "You start out with regular season high level looking at prospects, then you'll go into a Senior All-Star Game, Pro Days and then individual workouts and look at those guys there. Every time you scout a player more, you'll unlock more ratings on him. If you only look at a player in the NFL Combine, his rating will be based on that and won't be an accurate look at his potential. There will be times when you see a guy go from a 90 rating down to a 70 after you've seen him in every stage of scouting. You don't want to draft a guy who's going to be a bust for you and we reward players who go the extra effort to scout players for their teams."
While the NFL Class of 09 will feature every player in this year's draft, future fantasy draft classes in the game will have players that are the second coming of past NFL greats like John Elway, Dan Marino and Barry Sanders. NFL Network broadcaster Adam Schefter will provide detailed descriptions of both the real and fantasy players through stories and anecdotes, like how Boar Jackson got his name from hunting with his father.
"There are so many stories in this game that by the time you get to the NFL Draft you feel like you know these guys," said Looman. "We did things differently than any sports game has done before. We had each team rate the players differently based on the kind of guys they like. So in the game, the Colts like Cover-2 corners and as a result they'll rate a prospect or free agent who's Cover-2 higher than a guy who's better at Man coverage. They'll go after that guy in free agency and give more in a trade for him. The Colts love running backs who can catch the ball."
Although NFL Head Coach 09 is packed with features -- far too many for EA Sports to show all at once, the overhaul of the game has made this 3D world much more vibrant to explore. Gone are the old, boring spreadsheets. This new game has player stats and attributes pop with official college team colors.
"Successful coaches have to have a plan for each position," said Looman. "Look at your current roster, what's available in the Draft and make decisions for position for both first and second-string. There's the ability to look deep into your roster, including the upside of a player, whether he's overpaid or underpaid, the role he plays on the team. Is he indispensable like Peyton Manning? Even a player's character is evaluated. Is he a team player? All of this in-game logic makes the simulation run more realistically than in the past."

Why am I having deja vu?

A deja vu is usually a glitch in the matrix. It happens when they change something.

It's all fluff until the game comes out.

Pretty amusing comments about Gamestop's 'preview' of Head Coach '09............

http://nutweasel.blogspot.com/2008/0...i-heart-u.html

This new game has player stats and attributes pop with official college team colors.

Wow!!!! I'm excited about this now. . .

Are we SURE that Daivd Winters is not involved with this title?

Welcome to the Combine!

All the original Head Coach game needed was for an operation like Gigawatt Studio to come up and dress up the spreadsheets with flashy graphics. Sounds like EA is well on its way!

Is it fully...awwww, never mind.

No PC, Pass...

With the EA bankroll, the beer tents should be customizable.

http://www.easports.com/nflheadcoach09/home.jsp

Looks like not only the beer tent customization made it but also the custom sock stripes as well.

I can't lie. I'm excited for the game. I know I shouldn't be, but it sure does sound good again :(

Yeah, um, I don't think you'll be missing much.

EA Hype, that's all.. Once you actually play the game, you will change your tune.

Yeah, I saw. Thanks.

Why don't they come right out and say, "We couldn't get Mel Kiper?"

Kiper's getting booted out of ESPN, anyway.. so he loses his cachet.

So EA spent millions of dollars for an ESPN license to add Todd McShay to a game no one will play? They should add Sean Salisbury sending pictures of his dick to you cell phone in the game.

They already had an ESPN license and have had it for years. No additional cost to use McShay.

Peter Moore's latest post at his blog says that they know the last version of Head Coach was bad, but this one will be better..............

http://www.itsinthegame.com/

Could it possibly have gotten worse?

LOL

then why the F did they release it! They shouldve recalled it like Sierra did.

How did that work our for Sierra and the series?

Over the last few weeks, the EA marketing machine has been generating a positive buzz (on OS as well as a few other sites) about the game with a variety of video clips on a few different sites. This new injury system is the first one that has me intrigued and thinking about renting the game:

http://www.easports.com/nflheadcoach09/home.jsp

......

did they just say that they are throwing in random off-field injuries "if you're doing good"?

If they did, I missed that and it obviously would temper my bit of enthusiasm that I was starting to develop.

The feature list of the first one had everyone drooling too.
The problem was way they implemented everything.

Yeah, I caught that too....

....

Ok.. just got back to that section. (it's about 2/3rd of the way through)

"a suprise thing.. so if you're doing really well you might get a notification that hey, your player broke a finger barbecuing in the back yard."

DO.

NOT.

WANT.

I am very cautiously anticipating this game.

1. my biggest complaint from the first game was the ludicrous decision to lock the game at 5 min quarters and that has been confirmed fixed. qtr lengths are adjustable. I still think in a football SIM game there shouldn't be any such thing as qtr time. Qtrs=15 min and the clock should accell appropriately to equal an average NFL number of plays. But at least with the adjustable qtrs that can be approximated.

2. my second biggest problem was the torture that was the interface - that has been trashed as well

3. issue #3 was the non realistic sim stats - lets call this one a wait and see.

4. the graphics in the last version were behind the current standard by a couple years. early screens seem to indicate they are up to "next gen" standards

5. the focus of the last game with the "feelings" of the players and staff has been trashed and the guy who came with it appropriately fired, tortured, killed, whatever.

I am disappointed in the departure from the PC, but as much as that ticks me off - I think that is more of an industry thing then a specific title thing and I understand the rationale behind it, even if I don't like it.

Having said all that I am very cautiously anticipating the game, last time I thought it was going to be the game of my dreams and I was very disappointed. EA has proved time and time again their ability to disappoint the hell out of me by coming so close, yet so far so I will

Of course I have already pre-ordered because I like to set money on fire to keep up with my wife.

The interface to the first one destroyed any chance of me even trying to like the game. It was simply awful.

Luckily I didn't buy last year's version even though I was heavily tempted. Because of the demo itself last year (on the PC), I decided not to purchase until I heard better reviews.

However this year, I am so looking forward to this game even though it may turn out being crap again. It is one of those games I had always been looking for if they are able to live up to their feature list and have realistic stats. However I still fear they are going to fall on their face and EA won't even give this game another chance.

If it takes less than 8 hours of gameplay to get to my first actual game, I might look at it again...

http://www.pastapadre.com/2640/nfl-h...port#more-2640

http://www.mymaddenpad.com/?L=ezine.index&id=34


I will admit, I'm getting more interested in this game....

Me too.

No matter how disappointed i was with Madden past year, i'm going to order the Special edition that comes with Madden 09 and head coach 09 for 60€.

Yeah i know it doesn't help to raise EA games quallity to keep buying their garbage, but... sadly there is no other alternative.

Are people calling madden games garbage just becouse all the cool kids on the internet do it? Stupid. And people are calling HC'09 garbage, and the damn game aint even finished yet. Grow the hell up.

Madden 08 was a huge leap from 07, and a great football game. That isnt even debateable.

No one has called '09 garbage, just stated that our expectations are tempered by the fact that '08 was a drink coaster. That being said if the game is good, almost everyone on this board will buy it. If it's bad we will continue to flog EA for it.

Me too, I've been reading articles and one thing that I like is that 15 minute quarters with accelerated clock is the default. That makes me hopeful that they actually have the game giving at least close to realistic stats at that length as opposed to last year where it was designed to be run on 5 minute quarters.

Actually, Madden 08 was not a great football game. It had broken franchise where you got multiple backs with over 2000 yards. All defensive players had interceptions doubled. There was horrible franchise AI in which teams took QB's in the 1st round despite having 90 plus rated young QB's on their roster. There were a ton of problems with Madden's franchise and that is part of the game. The gameplay was a step up from 07, I'll give you that.

All of that said, I'm getting excited about Madden 09, too. The gameplay videos that Ian has put up on OS look good. The previews have been good. However, I'm still waiting to see some franchise screen shots including stats, before I get too excited about that game.

Are you serious? are you talking about the next gen versions that had the same doubled int numbers bug for two versions (07 and 08) in a row? About the next gen 08 version that had no presentation at all, no commentators besides the horrible radio guy, where every interception was returned for TD, where the AI QB's threw int after int, where the top running backs fumbled again and again, where the AI Qb's never threw deep, where the linebackers jumped from nowhere to catch the ball, where the CB's had eyes on their back so they could turn to pick the ball before the WR's, the same next gen madden that had way less features than the old gen versions?

Where was the huge leap with 07 in next gen? Maybe only in your game DVD? because clearly not in anybody's else game. Madden08 was only fun to play friendly games vs a friend and not caring at all about realism. At least NCAA08 was playable somewhat and had way better presentation that madden that imho was garbage in next gen systems. The best version of 08 was Madden PSP that used old gen engine and at least didn't have any bug.

I read that as well EF. I would like nothing better than both Madden 09 and HC 09 to be excellent games.

Damn, Icy with the beatdown of the century. GET HIM

The first head coach was so bad that I didn't even get to the part where the games sucked because I gave up before the preseason games.

I'd grow the hell up, but I can't becouse my opinion is definitely debateable

And personally, I haven't enjoyed Madden for over 10 years and haven't purchased it since the Genesis.

but boy was it good on the genesis, revolutionary. I spent so much time playing it my thumbs would hurt.

Yes it was Flasch... yes it was.....

Me too. I'm actually more interested in this one than Madden/NCAA combined. They seem to have taken a different approach developing this game, and that could be a positive. Obviously, they're selling it very well with all these nice videos (pastapadre has some new ones, btw) but I still have some doubts.

I mean, I'm reading that this game is "packed with features", you have "control over everything". Will all this stuff work?

I'm sure all of the stuff won't work well but I'm just hopeful that it will work well enough for my wife to complain.

Despite my earlier ramblings, i do recognize that not everyone liked next-gen madden 08 as much as i did, it's all subjective. But im just tired of people calling 09 garbage wihtout playing it, thats all.

Also, it's pretty funny how a lot of people are calling last year's head coach carbage. There was no head coach last year. Doesnt work too well if you are trying to post believable opinions.

Considering there's been only one, ever, I dont think people will have a hard time figuring out which coaster we're talking about. However in case you do here is an image for reference where you're catching Bill answering a reporter's question about the quality of the game...

Humm...I wonder if they have coders who watch and understand American football.

The extra year does make me believe there is hope.

Did this "OS merge" already happen?

http://consolesports.net/content/view/326/51/

More promise.... ?? or Hype??

I do like the idea of scheme-specific ratings...if it is done well. The fact that this made it into the game design gives some hope of actual sports-management fans being involved in the process.

Well, that talked very little about how they streamlined the offseason, and hinted that I'd still have to sit there and practice plays until my team gets perfect with them. Lots of focus on in-game coaching, which was the only part I enjoyed in the whole game.

Have you guys read the Live Events Blog on EA Sports' site? Again, it seems they've at least TRIED to take a different approach to things. Check out the Staff Hiring part in particular.

One of the developers of Head Coach is on OS answering any questions submitted by users:

http://www.operationsports.com/forum...session-5.html


A few of the positives so far:

- Full expanded pre-season rosters, with real cut down dates and limited scouting of street FA's that will expand the longer you keep a guy on the roster. The more time a guy is with a team, the more you will see about them.

- Again stating that game has been tuned to give realistic stats with accelerated clock and 15 minute quarters. Averages about 125-135 plays per game. It takes about 45 minutes to an hour.

- The CPU will download the most popular user created plays and will test them out. If they are successful for that team's personel, it will be incorporated into their playbook (that sounds very cool if it works.)

- Different coaches will run different schemes and take them to teams. An option spread college coach will look to recruit a fast QB and bring a variant to the NFL.

- The ability to set a gameplan for the team to practice, and then just sim it without losing player ratings. There is no need to watch practices, unless you want to see how certain plays work.

The big negative:

Only 15 years to a career. The developer said they want to give users 100 things to do over a season and keep it at 15 years, rather than fewer things at 30 years.

I personally want abbreviated sims. It would be great if they had a sim that only showed the big plays, much like Football Manager does. If the sims are going to be an hour, I might as well play Madden.


Sim people love open-ended games. This sounds like a way to restrict how quickly users can sim through the game, which is never a good idea.

So the player I draft number 1 in the first draft will play for me the length of his career and then, when I get to the draft in year 11 I wont give a flying F because the game is going to end right around the corner so in essence you have a 7-10 year career playable. pissshaw.

Even though I'd want to play out every game, the producer says in another answer that a "fixed" supersim is in the game. So it sounds like that is available if you want to use it.


I agree. I think this is a huge design flaw of the game. Just like Flasch said, why should I care about guys I draft in the 11th plus year if I know I'm never going to see the end of their career.

Very confused by this statement. Wouldn't you still be doing those same 100 things regardless of the length of the career? I am trying to figure out how length of career ties in with all the tasks.

The only thing I could thing of is if somehow more options are opened up after each year, but that doesn't quite make sense either. So I guess I won't be planning to be the next Bill Parcells.

Agreed. Seems like an odd response. Only factor I can think of is the number of players they created and the variety of ways they have to test them. In another response, they say they have over 21,000 created rookies though and that would seem to support more than enough to support a 30 year career.

I'm trying to find a way to buy into this game, but it's awfully hard. The 15-year limit is weird, but maybe we just need to remember that it's a coaching sim, not a GM sim.

I asked the developer in the Q&A thread to clarify his post about 100 features in a 15 year span and here is his reply which is disappointing but makes some sense:


It takes more development time to add a feature and have it work correctly over a 30 year career instead of a 15 year career.

That usually means you spend twice the time implementing one feature and end up not being able to get other features in.

My guess is because this is on a console, and they only have so much memory they can work with. Definitely saves me from being interested in buying it.

Translation: "That would require much more QA testing and work by our development team to created a fully featured game. That's simply not an option."

"...because unlike what you've heard deadlines will still be more important than quality"

I just cant believe it. Im totally beside myself as I thought I was 99% sure I was going to buy this game but with the cap at 15 years it is in essence a 10 year career and not worth the $65 it would take to buy on the PS3. Assholes!

Drooling.. now, will it all work?

Honestly.. this game isn't for you then. When FPS Football was around, the joy was watching each play, each player.. to evaluate your team from game to game, season to season. I do agree that 15 years sucks, but by the time I get to my 15th year, I will have moved on to some other game.

At least they took an extra year to "hopefully" make this a fun, semi-realistic, challenging game.

I'm a glutton for punishment, so for me.. I'll probably skip NCAA Football and get the Madden Collector's edition this year.

I'll see once Madden and HC gets closer to being released.

I would love to see an endless career with a pc version.

I think it'll be a moot point. If I'm playing every game it'll take me a long time to go through 15 years.

Anyway, I think it's beside the point..what are the chances anyone will want to play it more than 15 seasons? Frankly if that ends up being an issue to me, that means I'll be pretty damn happy with the game.

That is a very good point. I can't believe I'm considering it, but I'm thinking about getting the collector's edition of Madden to get Head Coach cheaper.

That makes two of us. :o

Plus.. you'll get HC sooner.

Madden 09 Collector's Edition ships 8/12
Head Coach 09 ships 9/3

You guys are going to be disappointed.

It's like telling a buddy "I don't think stickin' it to her is a good idea" and they come back with a big sore on their lip.

True. I said the same thing last year and it did no good.

(Not that I was going way out on a limb or anything).

Or two years ago or whatever.


(I don't want Epi_69 to come kick my ass because Head Coach wasn't released last year.)

I didn't say I was pre-ordering or anything. :p

god forbid

http://www.easports.com/nflheadcoach09/news.jsp

New video and a new blog post.

I'm sure it's all hype and what not, but seriously hope this game is all they are making it out to seem...

Head Coach Producers are answering question on OS and while there are things I wish that made it into the game that didn't, I think this sounds like a nice feature and makes me think that these guys "get it" in their pursuit of realism:


Yes - you can check out the box score of any game, regular season or post-season, at any point during the season.

What is really cool about the game this year to me, is that if you get eliminated from the playoffs as soon as your week 17 game is over, you immediately start going thru the Staff Evaluations/Staff Hiring/Firing phase of the offseason.

Teams who are still in the playoffs do NOT go thru this yet. If they are still in playoffs, no staff evaluations occur. So what this means for you the gamer, do you risk waiting around for a Jim Caldwell type of guy with the Colts, who are in the playoffs, will he leave this year for a better opportunity on my team as a Offensive Coordinator, or do I just play it safe and go after a college fantasy coach or someone from another team who got fired.

The thing is with a guy like Jim Caldwell, it is somewhat a random chance that he will leave vs. stay with Colts. When I say random, I don't mean we are flipping a coin based on nothing. I mean that the chance for coaches to leave in general is a % chance type of deal, so the experience always feels fresh. Yes, there might be a 90% chance of Caldwell leaving if he has a certain personality type or if he is unhappy with the head coach. but very rarely do we make things like this happen 100% of the time.

Sorry to sidetrack here, just wanted to make sure you guys knew about this nice little feature we got in.

Thanks for posting that EF.. pretty cool feature.

IGN Hands On:

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/881/881706p1.html

X360 Videos:

http://xbox360.ign.com/dor/objects/1...061108_04.html



There is nothing I want more in my gaming life than this game to be good... really good. The biggest issue I see is the AI.. it has to be good or else the game will be worthless.

I thought the play editor thing would be boring, but after watching the video.. that even looks fun to mess with. The interface really looks well done and I really like the FA bidding process as well as the draft layout.

Yep.. they've drawn me in...............:cry:

Full game - MIA vs NE: http://link.brightcove.com/services/...cpid1612722418

This might have some good potential.

I've just about made it through the first half of the video, and that looks much better than the first version.

Yes it does.. MUCH better.

Is there a demo? I put the word "demo" into the search function of the forum and it told me to be less restrictive :)

Not yet. Not sure if there will eventually be one or not. The retail game won't be out until August or September.

Thanks, Ef. I'll keep an eye out for it. FOF demands too much of my limited understanding of the gridiron game but this sounds right up my street.

I want to see the preseason before I commit. I spent so damn much time clicking to get through the preseason that I only ever made it to a real game once.

Reviews are going to mean everything for this game. Anybody who bought the first one is going to hold off until word starts rolling in.

Another video starts out slow but at 1:40 shows more features.

http://www.operationsports.com/videoview.php?id=17

I love the guy's fake professional voice he employs. Sort of a poor man's Jim Rome. I wanted him to call someone Chris Everett.