In Europe, one of the most popular soccer titles is the Manager series. The series basically takes you out of the actual game of soccer, and instead puts you into the management role. You have to handle everything from signing new players, to holding meetings with you staff. Now, Electronic Arts is going to test that formula in the US when the company releases NFL Head Coach for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC.

Head Coach will feature three modes of play: Career Mode, Coach Now and Online. Coach Now is pretty basic, the game picks a random team and starts you off in a game. Online is also what you would imagine, head online to challenge other coaches to a game of football. However, Career Mode is where the real bread and butter of NFL Head Coach can be found.

In Career Mode, you'll start things off by creating a coach. Players will need to choose if the coach will handle the offensive or defensive side of the ball, as well as how the coach looks and what clothes your coach will be wearing on and off the field. Your coach will be coming off of a Super Bowl win. The game also includes 30 of the 32 real NFL coaches, with Bill Parcels and Bill Belichick missing due to licensing reasons.

Once you've selected the team you wish to coach for, you'll have to interview with that team to get the job. You'll answer questions which will earn you points that will go toward your various coaching stats. Once you're on board, you'll have the option of handling everything yourself, from weekly meetings with your coaching staff (where you can fire people of you wish), to coaching through entire games. However, if you're not into all of the micromanagement, you can also choose to skip anything and have the computer simulate the outcome. If you don't feel like talking to your coaching staff one week, sim the meeting and get right to the next task.

As an NFL coach you'll need to maintain trust with your assistance coach, player agents and the General Manager of the team. You'll need to make suggestions during conversations with these people that will help guide the team toward a Super Bowl. You'll need to set two keys to victory (running, kicking, etc.), which will also be your goals for the week.

If you were wondering what EA is using the ESPN license for, look no further. NFL Head Coach features a full ESPN integration. This includes everything from a ticker to pre- and post-game shows. Mel Kiper will even handle draft comments like usual, and the first year of the draft will mimic the real life draft for this year.

Speaking of the draft, if you want to make good draft choices and create a better team, you'll need to send scouts out. You'll have to manage everything from deciding which players to visit to deciding who you should not worry about. The more you scout a player, the more interested they'll be in your team and the higher their ratings will be if you eventually draft them. Of course, like anything else in NFL Head Coach, you can skip this whole process and have it simulated for you.

When you get to an actual game, you'll be watching things from the sidelines, just like a real NFL coach. In fact, the only part of the offense you'll handle is snapping the ball. You can talk to the quarterback and call audibles, but everything else will be automated. Remember, this isn't Madden you're playing, so getting playing through the game will not be featured.

Throughout the game you'll need to talk to the players on the sidelines and boost their confidence and trust. You can speak to one player at a time or select groups of players to speak with, or every player who's not currently in the game. You'll have a selection of things you can say to each player, either positive or negative. You'll need to learn the player and learn what to say to boost their trust and confidence and make them perform better in the game. If you say the wrong thing, their player rating will go down and they will perform poorly.

There's quite a lot featured in NFL Head Coach, and it will be interesting to see how the game performs when it releases later this month. While graphics are not the primary focus in a game like this, all three versions of the title use the Madden graphics engine. Electronic Arts is the king is simulation games and the king of sports gaming. It should be interesting to see how the two combine. We'll have a full review of NFL Head Coach in the coming weeks.