The Good, the bad, and the ugly

[tmac2k3]

Overall, I have to say that this is the best football game that I've ever played and/or owned. At the same time, it has a countless amount of flaws. Online play in particular is a bit ugly. The random playbooks, and the way they deliberately cripple the user's options is insane. You can't outcoach your opponent by giving your players strategy and doing pre-snap reads. You're limited to just picking plays, which takes some of the fun away. The bright side of all of this is that with so much room for improvement, this game can really become great. The questions is, will EA give up due to low sales and an apparent lack of demand?

It would be a shame if they do. Let's hope NFL head coach 2 shows up on 360 next year.

[bcruise]

Quote: Originally Posted by tmac2k3

Overall, I have to say that this is the best football game that I've ever played and/or owned. At the same time, it has a countless amount of flaws. Online play in particular is a bit ugly. The random playbooks, and the way they deliberately cripple the user's options is insane. You can't outcoach your opponent by giving your players strategy and doing pre-snap reads. You're limited to just picking plays, which takes some of the fun away. The bright side of all of this is that with so much room for improvement, this game can really become great. The questions is, will EA give up due to low sales and an apparent lack of demand? It would be a shame if they do. Let's hope NFL head coach 2 shows up on 360 next year.

I agree with most of this post, however it is possible to give your players strategy adjustments online. It's in the talk menu, right beneath motivation. You just can't do it for the players on the field, you have to talk to them while they're on the sideline. And you'd better believe that they'll have a big effect on how the game plays out. At most you'll miss out on a few plays while you make your adjustments - the CPU will call the play and snap the ball automatically while you're talking.

No pre-snap options - especially audibles - is a downer, but EA kind of painted themselves into a corner with the clunky interface. If they left the pre-snap options the same as offline, winning would simply be a matter of audibling and snapping the ball before your opponent can navigate the menu to counter you. If this turns into a series, I hope they adopt a new interface next year.