NFL Head Coach Preview

When I first caught wind of EA Sports' new project based on the experience of being an NFL Head Coach, I was all ears. Recently, the demo has been released and given all of us a chance to try it. Here's my preview.

The game seems to be brimming with features, but isn't designed to be played with a mouse. You'll get more out of it with the keyboard. As far as the play goes, running a team during a game is a pressure-filled situation since you've only got so much time to do things, and the game will continue regardless of what you're doing. While you're pep-talking your running back, the defense may be waiting for a play to be called. For all the pressure, however, the game is very streamlined. The interface is easy to understand and use, and the control - once gotten used to - works well.

The season mode, which was very limited in the demo, was enough to make me want to try it some more. Running draft day was especially interesting, given the time factor - it runs in real time, but can be sped up- is very believable. I really enjoyed this facet of the game.

The in-game presentaion, however, threw me for a loop. My 1.6 Ghz computer with a Radeon X1600 Pro was reduced to a choppy mess while the game was in play. This is a system that plays Oblivion fairly well, so my assumption is that the game is either poorly optimized, or the game is stuck on high graphics settings since the game doesn't offer to let you change them whilst on the field, or even on the main menu. You can only edit them in the career mode, and that doesn't carry over. I hope this is fixed in the final version. So far, however, I can't wait to try the full version of the game. Alphasim out.

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