Positive words on Madden- Bill Abner

[faytes]

Bill has done an excellent job in reporting about Head Coach, so anything he says about Madden I do believe, guy seems to be someone that tells it like it is. He has a blog about Head Coach. I was interested before but now it seems unreal, check it out in the head coach forum. Either way CE seems great. And if you don't want head coach sell it on ebay right away and someone will give you atleast 40 bucks if not more cause they're getting it 3 weeks earlier.

[Bill_Abner]

Quote: Originally Posted by Flamehead

Bill, Have you tried the idea yet of starting a game with the controllers both set to user, and then after loading the matchup, switching one of the controllers to cpu to see if the cpu plays different? I suspect that won't really change anything, but I thought I'd ask anyway. Not sure if "starting" it head-to-head subsequently impacts the cpu...

I totally forgot about that, thanks for reminding me.

[xylocaine]

Great news indeed, I'm almost an exclusive online FB player.

Bill please give us more details on madden head to head.
Can anyone tell me if you can view replays of your favorite plays at the end of the game from the box score? I'd love to be able to review the game after game ends and game has been recorded.

Keep posting Bill!

[Mossfan8480]

Bill has posted another early impression of Madden after starting one game of his Franchise. There may be light at the end of the tunnel after all.



Props to Bill for not being consistent for consistent's sake. This should remind everyone that we must never form conclusions cause change is inevitable.

http://nutweasel.blogspot.com/

[Matt Diesel]

Quote: Originally Posted by neuroticomic

i dont know, i am digging the madden 09 deal so far. Light years ahead of last year. I watched a full game of Cowboys Giants in Head coach and the crowd was abysmal. took me right out of it. giants run a kickoff 35-40 yards at home and the crowd does nothing? no stadium announcer? limited player chatter place sounds liek a morgue. combine minutea with low end graphics and horrible sound and u have a recipe for a boring afternoon at the tv. unless u like spending 44 3/4 hours planning 2 weeks of your offseason. i'll stick to madden 09

Someone could turn it around and give a list of what is not in madden but is in head coach:

- poor ai team management
- cannot make your own plays
- shallow draft day scouting
- static player ratings regardless of what system they are in
-the play by play announcer
-cheesy repetitive player chatter
- epilepsy inducing camera flashes
-yada yada yada

point is, to each their own but each game has their strong and weak points that are exacerbated by what each individual likes and dislikes in their game.

[Shock6822]

I registered just to thank you for your blogs Bill...at first I was hesitant on buying Madden now (I've bought it the last 3 years), but your most recent blog post sounds MUCH more promising with realism, since I'm a huge stickler on realistic stats...I'd rather have an 8-8 Madden season with realistic stats than a 16-0 one with 7- passing TDs.

"The next game I'll run all Man, mess with the Shed slider and see how it looks. I really, really wish EA had kept the CPU sliders in, but that Dallas game was pretty darn entertaining. And that sorta is the point to all of this, after all. "


Looking forward to how that goes, because if you're able to find a good balance for user and cpu realistic stats, I'll be getting the game for sure. Thanks again for the blog bud

[thudias]

Quote: Originally Posted by mddst34

Someone could turn it around and give a list of what is not in madden but is in head coach: - poor ai team management - cannot make your own plays - shallow draft day scouting - static player ratings regardless of what system they are in -the play by play announcer -cheesy repetitive player chatter - epilepsy inducing camera flashes -yada yada yada point is, to each their own but each game has their strong and weak points that are exacerbated by what each individual likes and dislikes in their game.

HERE YA go!!

• Team ratings preferences: teams will draft according to individual preferred ratings (e.g., the Oakland Raiders will prefer speed players)
• Coach preferences: head coaches will favor free agents they worked with before
• Free agent signing: the game will abandon the Madden method of free agent signing, and will utilize an eBay-styled auction system, and a live timer. Also RFA will run on the same system.
• Improved player contract AI: players will be more aggressive and demanding during negotiations
• Improved NFL Combine/Pro Day: players ratings change more realistically following their Senior Bowl, NFL Combine and Pro Day activity respectively
• Improved menu system, in the form of a coach's clipboard^[4]
• Expanded Rosters now allow for 75 players in the offseason with weekly cuts in the preseason until the rosters are down to 53 at the beginning of the season.
• The GM of each team will invite unknown players to training camp, just like in real life, where the head coach will have to hold practice to find out which ones are worth keeping and which ones to cut.
• Physical punishment builds up throughout a season and can lead to various injuries. (If a player continuously gets hit hard in the same spot of the body, eventually he'll suffer a severe injury)
• Players can now come out of retirement as well as players from smaller leagues joining the league.
• Players can now leave for "personal reasons."
• The coaches you hire will affect the style you play, and the more famous they are, the more control they will demand from you (such as Mike Martz or Bill Parcells) in order to have them coach under you. You can now also hire college coaches that will add their own style to your playbook, such as bringing the option into the NFL.
• You can sub players at any time to any position
• Make plays and export them to Madden 09 or make them mid-game to stop a spread offense or blitz
• Teams now track the future of the position in order to keep you informed as to how to upgrade a positions through showing you who is coming up in the draft as well as who will be a free agent.^[6]

Other notable features include:^[7]

• Improved draft day trading, including the ability to trade draft picks as well as future picks
• Improved trade AI, including computer-computer trades
• Trade timer, forcing a trade to be completed in a limited set of time

[Mossfan8480]

There is no need to have an argument in this thread about which game is better, Head Coach 09 or Madden 09. The argument is trivial.

Why must we continue to divide and separate.

Can't we all just appreciate that some may be conditioned to prefer the Head Coach game and others Madden; as well as the few who are able to enjoy both games.

*By the way, Bill just posted more impressions after another game. More good news. http://nutweasel.blogspot.com/