Recenzja: EA Sports College Football 25 to długo oczekiwana nagroda

There’s about 45 seconds left in the first half, and I’m trying to find a way to extend my four-point lead against the Wyoming Cowboys. I’m playing a night game with the East Carolina Pirates, and it appears that the crowd at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium is jam-packed and has been pregaming all afternoon. Although I’ve logged around 20 hours of playtime these past fewer days, I inactive find myself occasionally pausing — even during dramatic moments like this, erstwhile I’d usually be locked in and focused on my playcalling.

Holy cow, this is real.

After a decadelong wait between college football video games, I think I can be forgiven for occasionally needing to take a minute and pinch myself. But yes, EA Sports College Football 25 is real. possibly the most real it’s always been, now that the game not only includes real schools, real stadiums, real broadcasters, and the real College Football Playoff… but, for the first time ever, real players.

And EA didn’t just include household names like Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers, Ohio State safety Caleb Downs, or Missouri wideout Luther Burden III — nearly everybody is here. My digital ECU quarterback is the real Jake Garcia, handing off to the real Rahjai Harris. They’re both trying to evade digital Wyoming defensive tackles Ben Florentine and Jordan Bertagnole, who are real dudes who play for the Cowboys. All in all, Electronic Arts paid for the real licenses to over 11,000 college athletes, in what EA Tiburon developers claim is the largest depiction of real people in a video game… possibly ever. surely in a sports video game.

For years, EA couldn’t pay the athletes, which is why older editions of NCAA Football had rosters full of players with names like QB #15 and RB #3 — players who just so happened to closely match the real, and uncompensated, athletes. Eventually, the athletes sued, EA paid back damages, schools pulled their licenses, and the franchise was shelved.

But now, the NCAA has yet thrown out its outdated notions of amateurism, and athletes can be compensated not just for their digital likenesses in video games, but for all manner of another commercial activities, paving the way for EA’s college football video game franchise to return.

Is it a perfect college football video game? No. But it’s 1 that was clearly made by college football fans, for college football fans. It’s a game that was worth the wait.

So much of what makes college football, college football, is the environment in which it’s played: the stadiums, the crowd chants, the uniforms, mascots, and everything else that goes into making game day a small bit different at each of the 134 FBS schools in the game.

Thanks to open records requests and regular ol’ telephone calls, I’ve reported extensively over the last respective years on how EA, and the individual schools, have sought to digitally re-create those experiences. Schools submitted dozens of audio files, from what they play on 3rd downs to what non-R-rated chants their students yell to what riffs their marching bands play. EA asked for hundreds of stadium photographs from all conceivable angle, as well as locker area shots and seating charts, so the game’s developers could more accurately render everything from the exact location in which the opposing band sits to what the tunnel walk into each team’s stadium looks like.

EA didn’t nail this all single time. There are a fewer stadiums whose fresh renovations were missed; most mascots outside the biggest brands aren’t included; and any uniforms and logos are imperfectly rendered. It doesn’t appear that EA opened its wallet to licence very many songs, so iconic college football traditions like Wisconsin’s “Jump Around,” or “Enter Sandman” at Virginia Tech, aren’t included. The deficiency of a robust music library means that you’re going to hear “Mo Bamba” a lot during games, and the drumline-only soundtrack during menus even more than a lot. (I’m a erstwhile band geek drummer myself. I love me any cowbell and marching snares. But even I had to mute the music sometimes.)

But on the whole, I think EA did an excellent job. Team-specific turnover stunts, like a turnover throne? In the game. Teams singing the alma mater to the crowd after the 4th 4th ends? In the game. Minnesota’s mascot rotating his head in a complete 360, like out of any horror movie? In the game. The list goes on.

Image: EA Tiburon/Electronic Arts

The attention to item isn’t just about the school-specific stuff, but about College Football 25’s presentation of the game of football itself. If you look down the sidelines before you snap the ball, you can see assistants holding up massive play call placards, just like they do during real games. You’ll see your quarterback glance toward the sideline if you change the play call at the line of scrimmage. If you rip the heart out of the home crowd, you’ll see fans doing the surrender cobra. The game includes 2 different broadcast teams who recorded tens of thousands of lines of commentary, as well as studio cut-ins, which adds to the immersion. It’s very easy to feel like you’re playing in a major broadcast window, even if you’re playing Wyoming at East Carolina.

The common concern I heard from another fans for months, if not years, leading up to this game’s release was the worry that EA would simply make College Football 25 a “Madden reskin” — essentially, a rerelease of its NFL game, only with Nebraska and Alabama uniforms.

Are there similarities? Of course. It’s inactive football, and both games are made by the same studio and have shared staffers. But I can conclusively state that the games play and feel very different.

This game besides feels very different from NCAA Football 14, and anybody expecting to simply import all of that built-up muscle memory and dominate from the first snap is in for a rude awakening.

Image: EA Tiburon/Electronic Arts

In my experience, this year’s college football game is simply a lot harder than NCAA 14. For one, the passing strategy has been completely revamped, with the game putting a immense emphasis on decently “layering” the ball in coverage. Each pass has a blue/yellow/red meter, depending on the QB rating, the pressure, and the angle and kind of pass thrown. If you hold the button down besides long, trying to throw a bullet pass, your accuracy will take a major dive. The pass you end up throwing might inactive be catchable, but the wideout might request to break stride to catch it, turning what should be a walk-in touchdown into simply a large gain.

Consider the following example that I experienced many times over my first 20 hours. A quarterback drops back to pass to a wideout moving a post route. In a perfect world, the QB throws the ball over any lurking linebackers and hits the receiver juuuust in front of him, so he can catch the ball in stride. Even if my receiver was open, if I pushed the button besides lightly, the ball might “float” besides much, allowing the defender to catch up to his man and break up the play. Throw the ball besides low, and the linebacker could choice off the pass. If I didn’t hit the metre perfectly, possibly my guy would catch the ball and immediately journey over himself and falls down.

It takes quite a few practice. You can make the right decision, get your guy open, and inactive easy mess up the pass. It can be frustrating if you’re expecting to instantly run a competent Air Raid offense, but I mostly appreciated the challenge. It makes completed large plays feel even more like an accomplishment.

Running the ball has besides changed. The AI around blocking schemes has improved, and fresh animations and physics make it easier to fight through arm tackles or mediocre pursuit angles. The option strategy has besides been revamped. The good news is that players now have multiple types of pitches they can throw, which can open up the playbook beyond the commonly utilized Read Option. The bad news is that the button strategy to hand the ball off or keep it has flipped from the last fewer years, meaning that I spent hours handing off the ball erstwhile I meant to hold on to it.

The fresh mechanics on offense take time to practice, but they’re not totally inaccessible. Defense, however, feels much harder. In my very first game, I played my beloved alma mater, Ohio State (one of the very best teams in the game), and took them on the road to play a middling BYU squad, my wife’s alma mater. I gave up 49 points with five-minute quarters, as the Cougars ripped off multiple 50-plus-yard touchdown bombs. Figuring out how to control to the right defender, how to take the appropriate pursuit angle, and that I shouldn’t Hit Stick on all chance was not easy.

Yikes.Image: EA Tiburon/Electronic Arts via Polygon

I’ve gotten a small better at playing against the AI, but online, I inactive haven’t cracked the code on playing effective defense, and I’ll quit 250-plus rushing yards to virtually any competent opponent. I’ve found that if I’m not forcing a turnover, getting consistent stops takes practice, a good eye… and most likely a small luck.

College Football 25 offers 5 main game modes: Play Now, Dynasty, Road to Glory, eventual Team, and Road to the College Football Playoff. Road to the CFP is the game’s ranked online play system, and is the mode that I’ve played the least. I’ve spent the bulk of my time in Dynasty, RTG, and eventual Team.

Dynasty has been the bread and butter of EA’s college football series for years. Here, players can make their own coach, hire a coaching staff, set their schedule, recruit players, and take over a college football program.

One area where EA clearly tried to add complexity and depth is with coaching skills. Just like in erstwhile years, coaches can level up and add fresh skills by completing certain recruiting or in-game goals. But in erstwhile editions, just about everybody would beeline to trying to max out their coach recruiting tree. In practice, there was truly only 1 way to build your coach, and after a fewer seasons, you could fill out the full skill tree.

Image: EA Tiburon/Electronic Arts via Polygon

Now players can choice between different coach archetypes, like a master recruiter, tactician, or motivator, while blending skills from different trees. You can besides hire coordinators, who have their own skill trees, leaving you to decide if you want to double (or triple) down on your strengths, or build out a more balanced staff. I actually found the nonrecruiting buffs like tactician to be very helpful erstwhile turning around underdog programs, and I love that there are now multiple ways to approach moving a program.

Recruiting is substantially deeper than in erstwhile years. Users will request to allocate time to not just scout individual recruits, but besides to find what sorts of things the athletes are curious in, like playing time, campus environment, and coach prestige. The process makes it much easier to become attached to certain recruits, and winning a tough conflict feels more rewarding. But it’s besides way harder to recruit athletes to lower-profile schools than it was in erstwhile years. It doesn’t substance if you go 9-3 and win the Who Gives a Crap Bowl with your MAC program in year one; you aren’t signing more than possibly 1 four-star recruit out of advanced school right off the bat. Just like in real life.

The recruiting strategy grapples with a critically crucial question in college video game design: Where is the line between realism and fun? In real life, if users had to manage a roster precisely the same way coaches at Power 4 institutions do, they’d absolutely hatred it. They’d hatred the shady payroll management via outside collectives, hatred the babysitting of 19-year-olds, hatred needing to send a gazillion texts to teenagers, the full thing. This game simplifies any systems in a motion to preserving the fun, even if any die-hards would most likely want for a more Football Manager-like simulator.

If I had 1 early critique of my time in Dynasty, it’s that the computer doesn’t do a large occupation simulating another results. In my most fresh Dynasty (where I created a coach named Dallan McRomneyson to take over Utah State), Notre Dame, Florida State, and Clemson all started out 0-2. High-profile teams most likely lose a small besides frequently right now, which I’ve seen lead to any beautiful comic College Football Playoff scenarios. UMass Minutemen, you are a College Football Playoff participant! Georgia Bulldogs, get ready for the Autozone Liberty Bowl!

Road to Glory is simply a faster-paced mode, allowing the user to take over the career of a college athlete, as you balance academic, social, and athletic pursuits. I know many fans were sad to learn that EA removed the advanced school football component of the mode, but I actually enjoy the change. You can complete an full career in under 20 hours, and the resource management mode (which requires everybody to make any trade-offs), plus a large library of scenarios (complete with weighted-dice-roll randomized answers), means that no 2 playthroughs are the same.

Image: EA Tiburon/Electronic Arts via Polygon

Image: EA Tiburon/Electronic Arts via Polygon

I started with a five-star moving back out of Rhode Island who I named Chuck Steak. I decided to send him to Stanford, where he’d have a chance to start right away, but would besides request to spend a legitimate amount of time focusing on school to stay academically eligible. The pacing of the player progression strategy doesn’t let you to make any 99-overall mutant by week 7 of your freshman year, but you can put up any immense numbers as an upperclassman if you can stay healthy.

The gameplay can be frustrating if you’re not on a large squad (good luck throwing the ball without an offensive line!), or if you don’t have large coach trust (good luck being a quarterback if your coach calls nothing but handoffs!), but that’s besides realistic. It turns out, you mostly can’t play like Broken Leg Greg Jennings very frequently in real life.

I’ve actually been pleasantly amazed with eventual Team, although I completely realize if another people are decidedly uninterested in the mode. I found it was an excellent introduction to the fresh playbooks and game mechanics, giving users a chance to run fast challenges to familiarize themselves with the differences between the Air Raid and the Veer and Shoot. With a large selection of single-player options and a massive base of possible cards — the mode includes not just current college football stars, but NFL players and historical college legends as well — there’s quite a few potential.

I did not feel any immediate request to buy cards or points in order to complete any single-player objectives, but I besides have no designs on being a competitive online player. Like with any another AAA sports title’s eventual squad mode, I imagine it will be very difficult, over the course of the year, to be a competitive online No Money Spent player.

Image: EA Tiburon/Electronic Arts via Polygon

College Football 25 isn’t perfect. But neither is real-life college football.

I don’t love college football due to the fact that I think it’s a perfectly well-oiled, efficient machine. It isn’t! The athletics is terribly governed, faces a multitude of existential challenges, and sometimes produces glitchy, even unwatchable, results.

But it’s beautiful and fun in spite of the warts and glitches — due to the fact that it’s ours. I didn’t go to the Chicago Bears; I went to Ohio State. I rang the triumph bell. I sat in that press box. I feel a tiny stirring within myself whenever I see the Dotting of the I, due to the deep connection that institution has to my own individual history.

Fans haven’t just wanted to play a football simulation with a squad that wears Scarlet and grey uniforms alternatively of Orange and Brown ones. They’ve wanted to replicate that connection. And here, I think EA Sports College Football 25 delivers the goods.

Again, it isn’t a perfect video game. I imagine any of its shortcomings, like the missing uniforms, assorted display bugs — all the players in eventual Team, for example, show up as being from Alabama, even though they get the player’s hometown correct (which is kinda funny, if immersion-breaking) — and another stuff will get patched comparatively quickly. another quirks, like the simulation logic or defensive AI, might take longer to fix. It isn’t hard to think of plenty of fresh stuff the dev squad could add to next year’s game.

But this game is besides very clearly a labour of love from developers who profoundly care about college football and college football culture. It’s a testament to what is possible with sports games erstwhile teams have longer than a fewer months to crank out AAA titles. And if this is the foundation for future college football games, then the series is in a very, very good place.

Would I have liked to have college football video games over the last decade? Of course. But this edition?

This was worth the wait.

EA Sports College Football 25 was released July 19 on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. The game was reviewed on PS5 utilizing a pre-release download code provided by EA. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may gain commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. You can find additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here.

Matt Brown is the publisher of Extra Points, a newsletter covering business, policy, and off-the-field stories in the college sports industry. He has extensively reported on the improvement of EA Sports College Football since 2021, so much so that EA put his dang name in the game’s credits. He was previously the associate manager of college squad brands at SB Nation, which was a good website. He lives in Chicago.