VG SPORTS NEWSLETTER

MARCH 29, 2006

MaddenTips.com
NFL Head Coach Football Head Coach Features
VG Sports visits EA Tiburon to give you the run down. Interactive 3D
Environments: Experience
the life of a head coach
through multiple detailed,
lifelike environments and
user-friendly controls.
Team Preparation:
Make the correct draft pick
based on what you learn at
the scouting combine and
year-round scouting of key
players. Set your practice
schedule to run drills and full-
squad scrimmages.
Build Coaching
Status: Start your career by
creating a coach and
interviewing for a job.
Increase your legend status
by winning Super Bowls,
producing Pro Bowl players,
and mentoring assistant
coaches.

“NFL Head Coach, the third pillar in our NFL portfolio, was developed
to satiate all those Monday morning quarterbacks and fantasy football
fanatics,” said Dale Jackson, Executive Producer, EA Tiburon. “NFL
Head Coach is an entirely new football experience that every level of
football gamer can play. It provides the strategy that the hardcore fan will
demand, but with very easy-to-use controls and assistance for more cas-
ual fans. Football will no longer be intimidating for the casual user.”

MORE FEATURES
Voice Activate Gameplay: You have the
option to use your headset to call plays, receiving
streaming audio updates from your coordinators and
give your quarterback last second adjustments.
GameDay: Call plays from your gameplan and
see your team execute with precision. Communicate
with your players on the sideline during the game to
change strategy or motivate them to give extra effort.
Gain immediate feedback on how you handle your
players.
Team War Room: Call the shots from your
team’s war room, and watch the excitement of the
draft unfold in real-time on ESPN’s NFL draft set.
View scouting reports as Mel Kiper breaks it down.

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 VG SPORTS NEWSLETTER
MARCH 29, 2006

THE REAL DEAL Control & Manage Your • Reward Sequences w/Steve
Roster Sabol of NFL Films
by Bert Ingley
• You are the GM & Coach • Top 25 Coaches in NFL
Okay, so now you have seen History
the “official” fact sheet from EA • Sign & Release pLayers
Quick Game - Coach Now
Sports, but what about the real • Set Depth Charts
info? Manage Gameplan & • Jump right into a game
This past week I had the Playbooks • Ability to Coach with the Real
opportunity to visit the EA NFL Coaches
• Take your favorite plays into
Tiburon Studio down in Orlando, the game • Can Use Your Career Rosters
Florida for a sneak peak at NFL • Play Editor to create plays • Games use the Madden
Head Coach Football. Set Your Team’s Practice & engine for full 3D graphical
The team at EA brought us in, Preparation Schedule representation.
gave us the 60 minute dog and • Calendar based system follows
pony show and then let us loose the NFL schedule Top 25 All-Time NFL
on some debug kits for 6 hours of
• Decide where to spend the Coaches (Alphabetical)
Head Coach fun. time to improve your team
As this product was still in • Multiple practice drills (team &
Alpha stage, it had its share of G. Allen
1 on 1)
bugs. With that said, there still P. Brown
• Run & Manage Each Practice
was enough content in place and B. Cowher
Handle Player, Asst. Coach &
running to give us a pretty good
Owner Meetings M. Ditka
feel for the final product.
• Build trust to develop unique W. Ewbank
As part of the development relationships. You can build trust R. Flaherty
cycle, 30 of the 32 NFL coaches with players, agents, other GMs,
were brought in for consultation. J. Gibbs
your owner & assistants
The two Bills (Cowboys & S. Gillman
• Motivate players to get the
Patriots) were absent. most from ratings. More trust = B. Grant
The concept behind NFL more effective motivation G. Halas
Head Coach is to become the first Run the Show From the M. Holmgren
3D sports simulator. I’ll quickly Sidelines
go over some of the lengthy J. Johnson
• Call plays with voice
feature list we saw. E. Lambeau
recognition
Create Your Coach & Take T. Landry
• Line of Scrimmage
Over an NFL Team Adjustments M. Levy
• Develop your background • Strategize & Motivate on the V. Lombardi
• Choose your coaching style Fly J. Madden
• Choose your visual appearance. • Coordinator Audio through C. Noll
Scout and Draft Your Players Headset
D. Reeves
• Draft day with insight from • The Game is always going on.
M. Schottenheimer
Mel Kiper If you are talking to your team on
the sidelines, the coordinators call M. Shanahan
• 40 different draft classes were the plays and keep things going. D. Shula
creates with commentary from Mel
Track Your Career Against H. Stram
• Year 1 starts with the current the Greatest Coaches of All Time
draft class for 2006 D. Vermeil
• Visual score card with the Hall
B. Walsh
of Legends

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 VG SPORTS NEWSLETTER
MARCH 29, 2006

PLAYER ATTRIBUTES
I was poking through the player attribute Press, Play Recognition, Coverage Man,
options for the game and saw a couple of interesting Coverage Zone for Defenders.
things. First off, the player attributes are listed as a Depending on how these ratings play out, I think
range of values. they could be awesome additions to the game. For
This gives you an idea of a player’s potential by example, I wanted to run a Cover 2 defensive
setting a top and bottom limit. The actual value at scheme. I was able to pick up and incredible find at
any given time is dependent on a number of factors Corner because I focused on his Zone coverage
including how rested the player is as well as how ability. He had a lower overall because of his man
motivated he is. skills, but will make a great piece in the Cover 2
Injuries or too strenuous a training program can puzzle & he was cheap!
cause a player’s values to drop. If you give him a
motivation speech, they can go up or down
according to what you have said, and the level of
trust that you have developed with that player.
I also saw a couple of new attributes in the game.
I am hopeful that these will make their way into
Madden, but as the event was all about Head Coach
Football, I did not bug the team about this. We’ll
have plenty of time for Madden Questions at a later
date.
Here’s some of the new attributes I saw besides
the standard SPD, STR, AWR, etc.
Accuracy Short, Accuracy Medium, Accuracy
Long, PA Pass, Throw on Run for QBs.
Route Accuracy, Route Cuts, Press Avoidance for
Receivers.

PHILOSOPHIES
As part of the coaching interview
process, you have the opportunity
to answer questions about your
philosophy. This will help to set
up your coaching path and is a
part of developing a system that
your owner will be pleased with.
For the coach I set up, the Own-
er’s preferred system was the same
as my core philosophy. I’m not
sure if the game sets it up this way,
or if it was just coincidence. Pos-
sibilities include: spread, vertical,
singleback, run n shoot, balanced
and west coast. On defense you
have: 4-3, 3-4, 46, 3-4v2 (hybrid,
think Pats) & Cover 2. At this
point I’m not too sure how your
philosophy actual affects the game
play.

PRACTICE DRILLS
Managing your practices is a critical part of this game. You have the opportunity to practice
different personnel groups (1st team, 2nd team, etc) and give them in-practice motivation.
Drills include: offense vs. defense, inside drill, pass skeleton, special teams, 1-on-1 WR vs.
CB, 1-on-1 OL vs DL & 1-on-1 RB vs LB.

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 VG SPORTS NEWSLETTER
PERIODS
As we stated before, the
season is broken up using an actual the game. You have to either sub
NFL Calendar. Each week you
will have certain task to perform
and time slots laid out to do them the field.
in.
You will have Management &
Staff Meetings. You will get with
your Scouts and give them
assignments to scout the players
on other teams as well as members Below I’ve listed the strategy
of the incoming Draft class.
You will have sections set
forth to re-sign restricted free
agents, interview coaches, adjust
your Depth chart, check email and
more.
The season is broken up into
the following periods:
• Hire Coaches
• Re-Sign Players
• RFA - restricted FA signings
• UFA - unrestricted FA
signings
• Draft
• Training Camp
• Pre-season
• Regular Season
• Post Season
• Repeat for up to 30 seasons
IN-GAME STRATEGY
Franchise Mode players are
going to eat this game up for
obvious reasons. But what about
the guys that like to get right into
the nuts and bolts of the gameplay.
You have a ton of options in
this game for setting strategies for
your players. Remember, you can
only talk to your players when
they are not on the field with the
exception of the QB.
MARCH 29, 2006
So, you can’t talk to your
Running Back if he is currently in
for him or wait until a Quarter
break or when the Defense hits
Strategies can be given to
players for the next play, next
drive or entire game. Of course,
you can always change a strategy
up if it is not working for you.
options that I saw on this build of
the game. It may change up.
QB Strategies:
Deep Ball - focus on the deep
ball, or focus on the shorter routes
Location - work the sidelines or
work the middle
Pocket - step up in the pocket or
take a deep drop
Run - stay in the pocket, or
scramble when needed
Pump - pump fake to hold the
safeties or forget about the pump fake
Force the Ball - protect the ball,
force if needed
Release - fire it off quickly or let
the play develop.
Air It Out - use touch or use your
arm strength
Height - throw it high, keep it
low
Receivers - focus on your #1
receiver or spread the ball around
1st Down - throw it past the
marker or use the whole field
Offensive Line Strats
Step In/Out - force the defender
outside or push the defender inside
Push - engage the defender or let
the defender come to you
Cut Block - cut the defender to
the ground or stay high and slow
down the rush
WR/TE Strategies
Release - keep the DB on your
inside arm or gain inside position off
the line
Fake - create space with your
agility or use your speed to get open
Jump - cut off the route and go up
for it or don’t break your routes off
HB/FB Strategies
Hole - run between the tackles or
look to bounce the run outside
Power - stay low and run with
power or use your moves to gain extra
yards
Patience - let the o-line open a
hole for you or power your way
through the line
Linebacker Strategies
Big Hit - force turnovers with the
big hit or don’t let anyone get by
Pick the Ball - jump the route for
the INT or bat the ball down
Pass/Run - defend the pass or
focus on the run
DB Strategies
Big Hit - force turnovers with the
big hit or don’t let anyone get by
Defend - stay to the inside of the
WR or stay to his outside
Jam - force the WR to the inside
or force the WR to the outside
Pick the Ball - jump the route for
the INT or bat the ball down
Press - give the WR cushion or
slow him down at the line
Pass/Run - defend the pass or
focus on the run.
Defensive Line Strategies
Big Hit - force turnovers with the
big hit or don’t let anyone get by
Inside/Outside - make your move
to the inside or hit the outside lanes
Pass/Run - defend the pass or
focus on the run
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 VG SPORTS NEWSLETTER

MARCH 29, 2006

PRE-SNAP OPTIONS 1st Down menu might be Razor 2.

You have a number of pre-
snap options at your disposal for
each play. On Offense you have:
WR Progression - choose the
order in which the QB checks
down
Slide Protection - call right,
left, pinch, spread
So you would say “Razor 2 Go”
into your headset. You can of
course call any play at any time,
but the situational groupings are
helpful. Here are the offensive
groupings we saw while at EA:
Razor - 1st down
Gold - 2nd and short
Madden Nation Mixtape
The popular Madden Nation Mix-
tape is now available for just $6.99
only at CDbaby.com . Featuring
exclusive Madden tracks by artists
such as B Real, Minus P, & D Lo,
this CD is perfect for not only fans

Audible - call a different play Yellow - 2nd and medium or Hiphop music, but fans of

QB Strategy - make the Fire - 2nd and long Madden as well.

strategy calls for your QB listed on Alert - time management A retail copy of the Madden Na-
page 4. White - special teams tion Mixtape is available at the
Formation Shift - shift to a Echo - 2 minute drill
new formation following online stores:
Brown - 2 point plays
Motion - send players in http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/mad
motion Twist - 3rd and short
dennation
On Defense you have: Lion - 3rd and medium

Audible - call a new play Thunder - 3rd and long

Coverage Adjustment - loose, Red - Goal Line

bump, normal, face up, safeties in Green - 4th and Go For
RESOURCES
box The Defensive groupings are
VG Sports Forums:
Line Shift - left, right, pinch, as follows: http://www.maddentips.com/forums
spread Blue - base defense
LB Shift - left, right, pinch, Virtual Playbook:
Thunder - dime/quarter http://www.maddentips.com
spread defense
PLAYCALLING Red - goal line defense Virtual Filmroom:
http://www.maddenfilmroom.com
At this time, you can bring 50 White - special teams
plays from your library into the Kobra’s Guide to the Vikings Play-
Yellow - nickel defense
game. It is beneficial to work on book:
these plays in practice so that your http://www.maddentips.com/vikings
team will be most effective when All and all, I think that this Philly Ron’s Guide to the Titans
running them. game has really good potential. It Playbook:
Play calling is are similar to will be fun to see it all come http://www.maddentips.com/titans
the way NFL coaches use their call together. There are some definite
Big B’s Guide to the Compression 201:
sheets. If you have purchased one tweaks that it needs to be ready
http://www.maddentips.com/compress
of our Virtual Playbooks, you will for prime time, but that is to be ion201
have a pretty good idea how this is expected when the game is still in
looks. Alpha stage. VG Sports Guide to the Oakland
For certain it is a much more Playbook:
To call plays, you choose the http://www.maddentips.com/oakland
section and then the play. You can unique twist on the standard
use your headset to call out the spreadsheet style simulation. I Madden Bootcamp:
name of the section and the play can’t wait until June to get my http://www.maddensecrets.com
number. So the HB Toss from the hands on it!

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