Live Blog: NFL Head Coach 09

428: It is tough to go over everything about Head Coach or experience it in a short amount of time so I’ll do my best recapping it late tonight. We had a producer presentation and have since been playing. This one is more difficult because it is only single player and we only have 360 builds so there isn’t as much chance to do some digging. Any specific questions on it feel free to drop in the comments. I have some videos for play creating and one of me running through a draft. There is so much though packed into this game its crazy.

431: It was funny when I first pulled up the player ratings, I thought people were going to freak out. Apparently it is a bug in the front end where I was viewing them. Tony Romo has a 78, Peyton Manning an 88, Tom Brady 86, ect. All the player ratings were really low. Don’t go crazy though I was told those weren’t correct and would be fixed. I warned them though that Cowboys fans would riot if those were real. Ratings ultimately will also be somewhat dependent on the system that each is playing in and how well they fit into it.

434: From my time playing so far it seems likely that I’ll spend more time doing tasks outside of the actual managing during games. I’ll probably supersim through the games as I’m not patient enough to go through them and call every single play making adjustments and all that. Games are defaulted to 15 minute quarters with accelerated clocks which turns out realistic results.

438: The draft is really fun to go through as it is very interactive in that you can work on trades, adjust your draft board, guess who each team is going to pick, instant reaction on the choice with a fan poll, ect. All of this with updates from Adam Schefter and Todd McShay throughout.

439: Answering some questions from the comments. The only interaction with Madden is the play creator, and there is no ability to call plays using a headset.

440: The build has some bugs that have been pointed out to the producers, most dealing with display problems in the playbooks.

446: Online play will offer head-to-head only in the form of supersim. This should get the games to go by quickly as you’ll be picking plays but not seeing them materialize on the field. They also consider the created play sharing to be an online feature. The game will have roster updates as well.

448: You can set depth chart, route progression, on specific plays if you’d like. They also give the ability to make any changes you want to the depth chart, so you can put in a WR at QB if you want to.

451: Just asked regarding a possible PAL release. Currently no plans for one, though the PS3 is region free so that would be the only option there.

458: I really like how every area is accessed through the coach clipboard. There is very little having to do with navigation.

502: You can choose to take on a current coach or create your own. The create-a-coach isn’t nearly as detailed as you’ll find in a game like Tiger Woods though.

504: Trying to get up the draft video before I head off to play more, its almost 8 minutes long though (even though I rushed through much of it) so I’m not sure if I’ll be able to get it up now or just late tonight.

508: It is actually somewhat overwhelming the number of things you can do and all that you can have control over. For anyone who loves to analyze every detail of running a team they’re going to love that. Personally I think in a more comfortable setting without the time crunch it’ll be a lot of fun. This really isn’t the ideal situation for getting into this game.

511: I know I’ve had a bunch of questions asked previously for Head Coach, I’ll try to respond to some of them in my full impressions late tonight.

516: Did a few trades and free agent negotiations. The trades during the draft were really cool. You’d select to try and trade up or down, and you’d already have a few teams there who were showing interest. Click on them and you’d see like 15 different possible packages, ranging from really good for you to really good for them. Usually they wanted more than I was willing to give up, but you could make a deal by compromising. The free agents are like a bidding process with the clock running low, some teams will lose interest at certain points and drop out of the negotiation. I also signed my rookies, which was again a list of possible contract options (including incentives in some cases) and you’d offer one and see if the player would accept or counter. Or you can put off negotiations until later.

521: During the draft your gm will make suggestions for the player they want. You can choose to draft that player or choose someone else. This will play into your approval rating though which is based off five different areas. Everything you do in the game will have an effect on that rating. Something the fans may like may not please management.

525: Alright I’m going to head off and play more. I’ll have the video clips up tonight with the full write-up. Also check in tomorrow for the Madden live blog!