Games

Mind-blowing NFL simulation returns with the next installment of this popular, detailed football extravaganza. With full licenses from the NFL and its athletes, the game has all 31teams and 1500 players, plus perfect replication of logos and stadiums. The game’s five modes include Exhibition, Playoff, Season, Practice, and Simulation. Exhibition lets you take the field as any current NFL team, All-Star lineup, or Super Bowl team since 1967. All of the modes keep more comprehensive stats than you could ever hope for, and you can set up a Season to include preseason action, hot-cold streaks, and player development. Not only that, you can create players, teams, playbooks (with up 128 offensive plays), and profiles of chosen formations and pass-run ratios. There’s even a historical mode that allows you to tap into classic games of yesteryear, featuring teams that date back to 1967. ESPN’s Mike Patrick and Randy Cross chime in with commentary, and Brett Favre has returned yet again to add his insight. Throw a dozen camera angles into the mix, and you’ve got yourself a football game.

NFL Quarterback Club 2000 is here! Featuring 3rd generation ultra high-rez graphics for incredible NFL realism, over 1,200 new motion captured animations, all-new Pin Point Passing for unprecedented control, new player models with real-life faces, eye black and breathe strips. Choose from 31 team-specific playbooks or create your own. Replay key moments of all 33 Super Bowls with authentic game stats. Total team management - draft, sign, trade, release, create players.

Description of NFL Head Coach 09 EA's football coach simulator heads back to the gridiron in NFL Head Coach 09. With gameplay more akin to European-style "Soccer Manager" games than the Madden NFL franchise from which it spawned, the original NFL Head Coach generally received lukewarm reviews from critics. But after a one-year hiatus -- during which it presumably did a little TV and work spent some quality time with the family -- the franchise returns with a new focus on depth and realism. Once again the coach's livelihood depends on his approval rating, and everything gamers do, from win/loss record, to going for it on fourth down, to choosing whether to yell at the QB after a bad interception, will affect approval rating. Key personnel decisions have been given an added sense of urgency with the new Live Event feature, which puts all trade, free agency, coaching, and contract negotiations up against a running timer. As in real life, the draft is the centerpiece of the NFL offseason, and gamers can prepare by scouting players in college all-star games, at the NFL combine, and during pro-day and individual workouts. Meanwhile, players can get running commentary on the lives and college careers of more than 20,000 unique draft prospects from NFL Network personality Adam Schefter. Other additions intended to increase realism include: Non-drafted free agent rookies, 75-man preseason rosters, trades involving future draft picks, a new wear and tear injury system, and 300 new sideline animations. NFL Head Coach 09's online features allow gamers to upload created plays and download, rate, or view any play available. Two players can also go head-to-head in a quick test of coaching acumen. Offline, gamers can adjust their plays in the middle of a game and save the new formations, or create entire playbooks using the coach clipboard user interface. All created plays can then be exported and used in Madden NFL 09. ~ Christopher Brown, All Game Guide

Taking a detour from its traditional football games, Electronic Art presents its first 3-D NFL strategy game, NFL Head Coach, focusing more on a coaching perspective than a player's perspective. You experience the day to day job as a NFL coach, recruiting big players, meeting with assistant coaches and running practice drills. Become a legend in the coaching industry by creating pro bowl caliber players, winning Super Bowls and mentoring coordinators into great coaches themselves in hopes of earning a spot in the Hall of Legends. You can also use the USB Headset to call plays like a real coach, giving you a much more realistic feel to the game as well. It gives you an idea of how tedious a head coaches job can really be.

This year's edition has many new features that include tournaments, built-in message boards, virtual e-mail, and a voice recognition option. NFL GameDay 2004 also showcases the standards in mode selection. There are preseason, season, general manager, tournament, practice, and franchise management options. The general manager mode functions as the game's franchise mode in which you can take a team through numerous seasons in hopes of winning a Super Bowl, or, building a dynasty. The general manager mode lets you perform actions like trading players, signing free agents, drafting new players, managing playbooks, and viewing statistics to get a glimpse at the top players. Also featured is online play. There are message boards where you talk with other players and also e-mail other players by using your online nickname, and 989 Sports can even give you feedback on the game. The online mode also offers tournaments as well as stat tracking.

Play a full season with your favorite team or try the franchise mode and build a legacy. You can even create teams and players. In general manager mode, when you go into the off-season, several different things happen. First, you'll see a list of players who have retired from your team and the reasons they've left, which are usually related to injuries or diminishing skills. If you lose some key players, then you'll need to make every effort to ensure that those positions are filled by free agents with similar skills or rookies who have solid potential. You're frequently stuck with trying your luck in the draft, where you can select a rookie based on how you finished the season, like in the real NFL draft. GameDay has a feature that gives you a breakdown on the draft and provides you with an overall rating for each rookie. Following the draft, you have to sign your rookies with whatever cap money you've set aside for that purpose. When you're all done, it's time to start the next season.

This edition features lifelike player specific graphics that make players look like their real life counterparts. Also new is commentary by Dick Enberg and Phil Simms. Another feature is total-control passing and running. Total-control passing lets you lead, overthrow, and underthrow your receivers so that you can throw more completions and prevent defenders from intercepting your passes. The play editor has been improved making it easier to make new patterns for your receivers and running backs. The general manager mode has also been changed, mostly to help you with the draft so you can easily see what areas of your team need improvement.