Pageantry is back on the menu!
It was always a pipedream to get another college football game back on consoles. In 2014, when news broke that UCLA basketball player Ed O'Bannon sued both the NCAA and EA over the use of his likeness without compensation, we all saw the writing on the wall. It was going to become too expensive and too divisive to create more college sports games. From that point on, EA would only sell one football game and try multiple revives of a basketball series, only to bury their basketball series after a few attempts.
Well, my friends, I can tell you that it is time to retire your copy of NCAA 14 on Xbox 360/PS3, put your emulators to rest and let your old consoles finally live a good life on the shelf because EA is back on the field with College Football 25.
All three dads have had the chance to play the game, but I've had the most time spent with it (about 7 hours of my 10 hour EA Play trial) and I want to give you my impressions before the game officially releases on July 19, 2024.
I plan on covering a lot here, so I think it is smart to give you the TL:DR right off the bat: I really like this game. It feels like a PS2-era football game and that is a really good thing. When Madden made the jump to the 360 era of consoles, something was...off...about them but they were still playable. The PS4/Xbox One era Madden games, in my opinion, were the worst of the Madden "eras" that are still continuing because EA needs to suckle at the Ultimate Team teat.
If you don't care about the rest, stop here. It's a fun game and I'm looking forward to playing more of it.
Now...
Presentation
When it comes to college football, I think I sit with most Northeasterners in that it isn't really important around here. I remember cheering for Boston College in the early 00s because Matt Ryan was slinging the rock around and BC was ranked as high as third overall in the country at one point. I've paid attention to guys like A.J. Dillon and Zay Flowers, but I wouldn't call myself a college football diehard. I don't "have a team" like I do with pro sports. However, I understand the pageantry of college football.
The old adage of "It isn't about the name on the back, but the name on the front" rings true in college football more than any other sport and College Football 25 nails this feeling. The team did a great job of adding almost every major tradition in the sport. If you're a fan of Clemson, you'll see your team walking down the hill. At Boston College, they touch the eagle before heading onto the field. At Florida, they touch the gator. Every pre and post game celebration is in this game and it feels great. There are some misses, like UMass Amherst not firing cannons during touchdown celebrations, but I understand there are limitations and smaller FBS schools are going to miss out when weighed against a Texas or Oregon.
Between plays, you'll get shots of cheerleaders doing their best to amp up the crowd or shots of the crowd celebrating and have a good time. These shots help add to the atmosphere, but they look awful. Both have a grainy type of texture that aren't as polished as the product on the field. Really, think that's okay because no one is playing the game to see the cheerleader do a flip, but I wanted to point it out.
There are two commentary teams ala MLB The Show 24. For the "Game of the Week", you get the A-team of Chris Fowler doing play by play and Kirk Herbstreit doing color commentary. For other games, you'll get the B-team of Rece Davis, Jesse Palmer and David Pollack. The commentary in the game is fine and you'll eventually run into the same issues you run into with every sports game. The commentary can get repetitive eventually you may just turn it off. The color commentary is much better than the play by play which seems to lag slightly behind the action on the field. Typically, I play with commentary off after a few games because I really enjoy the swell of the crowd in sports games, so I don't have a ton of examples.
Dynamic crowds are back, a staple of the PS2 era football games. Are you playing as one star Kennesaw State but you scheduled a money making game to get your butt torn apart by Georgia? Your stadium is going to be packed. Are you the same one star Kennesaw State playing one and a half star UMass? Your stadium is going to be much less populated. It is quite representative of how games look on Saturday. Smaller schools going against smaller schools will have a smaller crowd.
Did you build one star Kennesaw State into a three, four or five star program with good recruits and bowl games in the pocket? Your crowd will start to fill out no matter who you are playing. It is a nice thing to see after years of Madden crowds just staying at games, even if you're getting blown out by the AI.
With dynamic crowds comes another staple in previous college football games: stadium pulse. Every home game feels different depending on where you're playing. Imagine this: you're the starting quarterback for Maryland and you have to travel to Happy Valley to take on number seven ranked Penn State. It is 3rd and 10, you're down 7 and there's 2 minutes left in the game. Beaver Stadium would be absolutely cranked to 11 and College Football 25 mimics this. The crowd is buzzing, your screen is shaking and your quarterback suddenly can't call audibles or hot routes because his teammates can't hear him. Or maybe your freshman quarterback is in and you don't even know which button is your tight end is because he's rattled from the all the noise. It is a great advantage for good home teams and mimics the Saturday experience.
And while the experience around the field is good, how does it play on the field?
Gameplay
A lot of folks have watched College Football 25's gameplay and they think it is a Madden 24 reskin, but the gameplay feels much different than it looks.
This game was built in the frostbite engine, the same engine used in both the Madden and FC (formerly FIFA) franchises, however, for an engine based in animations, this game feels more physics based. Jukes and spins work incredibly well and given the right abilities, you can chain these without issue.
Look, it is really difficult to talk about good physics gameplay, so let me try to give you the best example. When you fumble the football, the ball bobbles around like a football. In pervious games, when you fumbled the ball, the ball itself didn't necessarily act how a football would. Now, the ball actually moves randomly. The same happens on onside kicks.
Onside kicks in previous football games felt like 99% of the time, it was going straight to the receiving team. Now, it feels like a mad scramble which gives the true essence of an onside kick.
Suction tackling also seems it has been fixed. In previous football games, including my review of Maximum Football, suction tackling was a problem. In College Football 25, you can split defenders without being sucked into a defender. User catching between a linebacker and defensive back and then breaking away from said defenders is one of the most satisfying things to see.
For those that really want to get into the X's and O's of football, there have been multiple additions which lets you change your blocking scheme, shade your coverages on defense or add custom stems to your receivers routes. The development team really did a good job making sure you're able to go as deep as you want on the field.
I do have some gripes with the gameplay, the major thing being they changed the option button. Those who have played any college football game has used the option, it is a staple in the college game. College Football 25 has flipped how you run the option. Previously, you had to hold A/X (Xbox/Playstation) to hand the ball off to your running back, now, you hold A/X to keep the ball as the quarterback. Why they made this change after 11 years of using the same control scheme, including how the option is run in Madden games, isn't clear, but it can be quite infuriating. When I booted up, I went straight into play now, re-read how options worked and just ran with Army for five or six games to get the control scheme down. Getting rid of that muscle memory will be tough, for sure.
Tackling can feel slippery at times and pursuit angles feel a little misleading, but right now, I'm chalking it up to still getting used to the speed of the game. This game definitely plays faster than Madden so readjusting to that will take some time.
Lastly, there's a new kicking meter and it is phenomenal. Gone are the old ways of lining up kicks. You have an arrow moving back and forth and once you press a button, you then have a strength meter that rises. The quickness of the meters are dependent on your kicker's ability, the length of the field goal and how loud the stadium is. If you're the kicker for Kennesaw State and you're kicking a last second 50 yard field goal to beat Alabama in Alabama, that meter is going to be going haywire. It really makes kicking difficult this year.
Becoming Great
If you're here looking for a review of Ultimate Team, you found the wrong place. I am going to review two of the modes I've played most: Road to Glory and Dynasty. First, we'll talk about Road to Glory.
Road the Glory
Road to Glory is the "campaign" mode of College Football 25. You have the option of creating a recruit from five-star to two-star who can play either quarterback, halfback, wide receiver, middle linebacker or cornerback. The higher star rating you give yourself, the more abilities you're able to have and the more schools will want you.
The high school games from NCAA 14 are gone and truthfully, I am very okay with it. There was nothing more boring than playing high school games and blowing out the CPU to get a higher star rating. I found myself playing games until I was a five-star recruit and then simming straight to signing day.
Once you create your prospect and answer a few questions, you're given a list of teams and where you'd sit on their depth chart. I created a two-star recruit named William Bungus, a 6'1, 261 lbs rocket arm quarterback who just wanted to sling footballs over the mountain. The only school who had me on their depth chart was Northwestern and I was slotted in as as their 2nd string QB.
Each week, you have a pool of energy that you need to allocate to different activities like (but not limited to) attending classes, training, working on your brand and/or leadership with the team. These resources are crucial because you need to maintain things like your GPA or you'll become ineligible to play or increase your following to get better NIL deals. It really makes you prioritize what is important to your character because you're not going to excel at everything.
Practice is a lot better in this mode than in NCAA 14. In this current iteration, you're not just doing 25 snaps, you're doing mini games. As a quarterback, I did a manned and out-manned passing skeleton, an option mini game, a scrambling mini game and my favorite Madden mini game where you sit in the pocket and dodge balls from the jugs machine while throwing to targets. It is a lot of fun and varied with each practice so nothing feels the same week to week.
The transfer portal does exist my brothers and sisters, so please do not be a two-star walk on at Ohio State because you will not play. GPA sim probably isn't as fun as actually being on the field.
Once you've completed your four years, you'll be able to take your Road to Glory player and import them in Madden 25 which is a nice touch.
Dynasty
The meat and potatoes of the offline game is the Dynasty mode, where you create a coach and control every aspect of your school as you do your best to bring them championships. This is where I've spent most of my time during my trial and where I'll be focusing most of my gaming attention. I really love dynasty in college football games.
You'll start by creating a coach and selecting one of three archetypes: tactician, motivator or recruiter. Each of these come with a skill tree that you'll be able to upgrade throughout your coaching career. Once you're created, you choose your coaching position (head coach, offensive coordinator or defensive coordinator) and which one of the 134 FBS teams you want to coach for.
Recruiting
From there, you have an incredible amount of depth at your fingertips, most of it around recruiting. Recruiting is the life blood of any college program. Whether you're one star Kennesaw State or six star Georgia, you need a crop of new freshmen to come in and eventually lead your team to greatness. These recruits, much like your program, are based on a star rating from one (the lowest) to five (the highest).
You're given a total amount of hours per week to use on your recruits. This can be used to scout them revealing their ratings and abilities, to offer a scholarship, schedule a visit and increase their interest in your program through various activities.
It will be very hard for a one star program to land a five star recruit, but it isn't impossible. You'll have to focus a ton of time and effort to land that recruit at the expense of some one or two star prospects. It is up to you, as the coach, to figure out the best way to build out your program. Is one year of "quality over quantity" important or do you just want a big class of lower ranked prospects to fill out a big graduating class?
Pay attention to your recruiting pipelines too!
Just because a recruit commits to a school doesn't mean they're out. Recruits can decommit to a school before signing day and can also enter the transfer portal in the offseason. What you did to recruit that prospect remains if they enter the portal. Maybe that right tackle committed to Army but a stud freshman come in after one year and he won't play as much as he thought, he could enter the transfer portal and all that work you put in finally means something. A commitment to a school, including your school, isn't a 4 year lock anymore.
Every year, College Football 25 will create 3,500 random recruits and use AI technology to create their faces so you don' have the Madden 24 problem of the top 6 draft prospects all looking the same. Recruiting continually makes the game feel fresh and new as you build a top quality program. I've spent a lot of time in my trial UMass dynasty going through recruits, re-ordering them, focusing on which positions are important and allocating how much time I want to allocate to a three star recruit or two as a one-and-a-half star school.
Outside of recruiting, you have coaching goals that you need to meet to increase your rank and earn more "coach coins" to upgrade your abilities which will make you a more desirable coach to play for.
Coaching carousal is back from the older NCAA titles. Coaches can move between teams or jump to the NFL and more jobs will open up. If you're an OC or DC at Middle Tennessee State, its possible that Florida's head coaching job just opened and you're offered the job two weeks into the offseason. Not every job is going to be open in week 1.
Overall, I love the dynasty mode and while some websites have called it barebones, I personally just believe the person reviewing the game isn't familiar enough with subject of the mode.
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