EA Sports College Football 25 Review – A New Era Begins

A wise person once said absence makes the heart grow fonder. After 11 long years, the return of the EA Sports College Football series proves that is indeed true. The release of College Football 25 is one of the most anticipated in sports gaming history. Gamers have been eager to rekindle their classic rivalries, pull off incredible trick plays, and take the Cinderella school to glory. Now that College Football 25 is here, does it stand up to the lofty expectations, or are those memories of the past better left in the past?

EA Sports College Football 25 Review – A New Era Begins

Gameplay

Since its announcement, fans have speculated whether or not the gameplay for College Football 25 would feel like just a “Madden reskin.” Thankfully, that is not the case. College Football 25 does an excellent job of differentiating itself from other games by capturing the elements that make college football unique.

Kicking

The biggest adjustment players will need to make is actually in the kicking game. The new kick meter, though very intuitive, is incredibly challenging. You have to line up the moving slider in the green zone to determine your accuracy and fill up your power meter without going too far and causing a shanked kick. It causes you to really think about how aggressive a kick you want to try to make. Are you willing to try for a little extra power on a long field goal and risk filling it up too much and ruining it entirely? The fact that there are more missed kicks in this game is very realistic to how college kickers perform on average. It also makes it incredibly rewarding when you do finally nail a clutch kick from 50 yards out.

Passing

As far as passing the ball goes, it’s an easier learning curve and has the wide-open feel college football is supposed to have. This is a sport where 400 passing yards is seen as almost normal, so there’s no surprise there. There are the occasional mixed-in off-target throws from different parts of the field. You’re able to get balls over defenders’ heads with your trajectory and them not being able to leap 50 feet off the ground so that’s helpful. There’s a huge advantage to having an elusive quarterback as they can look like Michael Lamar Jackson Vick out there with the number of broken tackles they can generate in the backfield. Please be nice to your controller when that happens.

Running Game

Now in the running game, if you have a numbers advantage it can still get blown up by better players. But to have any consistent success, you must run into boxes where you have the numbers and angles. One of the biggest things I was worried about was the juke move being all anybody ever does because of how effective it was in Madden. In this game, it’s effective but earned without people just skipping around the field with no regard for any defenders. This allows other moves like spin moves and hurdles to be shown off more. Now I will have to say, man, there are a lot of fumbles from the running back getting stood up around multiple defenders, even when I protect the ball in settings it still happens if multiple defenders get close while my progress is stopped.

Wear and Tear System

Another new feature that was added is the Wear and Tear System which I was worried about being too restricting, but it makes sense so far. If I’m running with my QB without any worry for his health, those hits are going to add up. Continue to get big hits against my running back and it shows up with his ratings getting docked in key spots. This adds another level of strategy to the game of football. Now in your typical Play Now game with 5 to 7-minute quarters, you might not notice this system too much. But throughout a season in dynasty, or games with longer quarters and no accelerated clock, you’ll definitely start to feel its effects.

Offensive Line/Pass Rush

The offensive and defensive line play, I would put as pretty balanced as currently constructed. Bad matchups do get exploited heavily, which in college football is more common. Sometimes a quick pass route will get blown up, while I would have all the time in the world off of a play-action to hit a deep pass. So far so good there. Defenders do react fairly quickly when a quarterback tries to scramble, which helps prevent players from trying to turn things into a game of Madden 04.

Defense

When passing against and running man defense at least so far, it’s extremely easy to march your way down the field uninterrupted. Defenders will play the ball as best they can, but typically the receiver is far enough away that it doesn’t matter.

Now with zone defense, you are way more likely to get turnovers with the computer as opposed to man. They do an excellent job of turning on to the ball when it’s within distance and make you pay for throwing to the sidelines, but can get heavily exploited with route combinations if you get enough time to execute properly

Now I will say, the game does a good job of having defenders within striking distance fight for contested catches.  Most of the time defenders can punch the ball loose if they are close to the receiver, but you will still come down with the odd Sports Center crazy catch from time to time.

User Defense

The big change to usering on defense is the ability to change to a different player mid-snap with the Switch Stick. The Switch Stick is a game-changer and will take some getting used to. The number of plays I’ve been able to alter or react to faster has been exciting. This is your best bet at causing the most havoc in the passing game. Now you won’t be afforded the chance at interceptions you have no business getting to. You still have to know your angles to play the ball well

Now as far as tackling, you really feel like it’s just you and them out on an island. It’s really hard to line them up properly for a tackle. There are far fewer ball carriers being sucked into tackles, so if you take even a slightly incorrect angle, your opponent will have a good chance of breaking your tackle. You’ll have to be careful and settle for conservative tackles more often instead of trying to land a hit stick every play.

So far this seems better than relying on the computer, who can get shaken out of their shoes fairly easily if your opponent attempts at least some kind of move on them. Otherwise, they seem to wrap up pretty consistently. Now speaking of computer tackling, there are occurrences when the defender will take the worst possible angle of pursuit on the ball carrier, but I’m chalking it up to lesser defenders being lesser defenders.

Dynasty

And now, let’s talk about the crown jewel of EA Sports College Football 25: Dynasty Mode. Where your dream of recruiting with a low-level college to become the next Michigan Wolverines can come true.

Starting out, you can create your head coach or coordinator to take over any team of your choice. You also get to choose which of the three main coach archetypes you’ll specialize in first.

Loading into the mode, it has the usual franchise things you would expect in a college football game. There are standings, rankings, and stat tracking. I do love that there is a record book that tracks it by game, season, and career for conferences and individual teams. That is a great addition!

Coaching Skill Tree

Along with whatever coach you select, you have a coaching skill tree to deal with. Similar to NCAA Football 14, you will get certain advantages depending on which skill trees you choose to advance. Unlike NCAA Football 14, you will not be able to unlock every skill on every skill tree. Coaches max out at Level 50, so you’ll need to pick and choose which skills you unlock carefully.

This also gives you tons of replay value, as you can probably be unlocking skills you’ve never used on your third or fourth playthrough. Some skill trees also require certain requirements to be met before you can start progressing them. For “Master Motivator” you need to have 5 players drafted to unlock the next level. To get the Program builder you need 5 playoff wins to start unlocking these skills. Talent developer requires you to have 2 guys drafted in the 1st round.

Recruiting

Now as far as recruiting, where you will be spending the majority of your time in Dynasty, the biggest thing is setting it up so guys cannot build up the University of Phoenix within 2 years to compete with Alabama and Michigan. With the system in place, I feel they’ve added excellent variables into the mix to keep that from happening. From the different ways you can garner interest from a player in the beginning stages, to then making your push selling them on your program when you’re almost at the finish line and finding out the ideal sales pitch to get them to commit to your program

They also make it harder to ascend quickly with lower-rated programs due to the allocation of recruiting hours. Higher-end schools will likely have over a thousand, while a 1-star school will only have about 300 recruiting hours. Even if you start at the top of a player’s list, you’ll have to be strategic with how you spend your time to land every recruit. I like the game within a game of staying on top of new developments and pivoting on guys when the time comes every week. I haven’t had any super crazy recruiting classes yet, and I chalk that up to a good thing so far. The system does reward you for your time and effort without making it easy. I also love that auto-generated player badges are based on the player’s rating and position. This makes these made-up players feel more like actual players in your 2047 dynasty.

Transfer Portal

The addition of the transfer portal also adds another layer to the recruiting game. If you still have a critical team need or had a player unexpectedly transfer or go pro, you have one last chance to fill the hole. The quick turnaround time of this period takes the fun of recruiting to a new level. It takes the process that usually lasts all season and boils it down into just a few weeks. You feel the pressure of finding somebody, anybody to fill that final spot on your team.

Other Additions

Alongside the new skill trees and recruiting system, there is plenty more to sink your teeth into in Dynasty mode. The new 12-team College Football Playoff system makes its first appearance in this game. Seeing this new system play out in the game helped me understand it more than I initially did when it was adopted in real life.

The coaching carousel returns with some major changes. This process now takes place over several weeks. As you move throughout the offseason, you will receive offers from different teams. This adds an element of mystery, as you aren’t sure whether to accept a job or hold out and hope a better one becomes available next week. Also, in online leagues, you will no longer have to wait for others to make their decisions to proceed with your carousel choice, which is a massive improvement.

Road to Glory

Road to Glory returns with a complete revamp of the mode. You no longer start in your senior year of high school. Instead, you immediately create your character and choose which path you want to go down. Do you want to be the top 5-star in the class or a 2-star underdog?

Choices Matter

If you go with a lower-ranked prospect, expect to spend some time on the bench unless you go to a very small school. Playing time feels very realistic. You will need to make it a priority when choosing which school to go to. Also, don’t think you can come in as a backup and win the starting job in a couple of weeks. As you start to gain the coach’s trust, so will the guy in front of you on the depth chart. You will only get a chance to replace him if you are clearly outperforming him, which adds to the realism.

As a college athlete, you will need to manage your time throughout the week. You will have to choose to spread your time out between the five activities: academics, leadership, health, training, and building your brand. Each decision you make on where to place your time will have its benefits, as well as drawbacks from not committing that time elsewhere. It actually makes it feel like your choices matter.

Another place where your choice matters is in your interactions. Each week you will be contacted by a variety of characters. This includes your teammates, coaches, reporters, or people offering you NIL deals. How you respond to these messages will affect how people think of you, as well as things like your GPA and personal brand.

Suiting Up

With how great the mode is off the field, it is just as fun and addicting as ever on the field. The different camera angles offer you differing views of how each play develops. Your teammates will perform according to their abilities. So, if you chose Kenesaw State because you wanted to be the starter on day one, just know that your teammates won’t offer you much help.

In the offseason, you will be allowed to transfer to different schools. This process is similar to choosing a school at the beginning, but your star rating and the depth chart position offered by each school will be updated based on your performance the previous year.

Ultimate Team

One of the few places in College Football 25 where the “Madden reskin” label can somewhat apply is in Ultimate Team. College Ultimate Team seems to be structured and formatted similarly to how Madden Ultimate Team has been in the last few years. The addition of Solo Seasons does finally give offline players more to do in the mode besides just Challenges and Solo Battles. This actually gives CUT a chance of being a great change of pace from Dynasty or Road to Glory, where you can just turn your brain off and grind against the CPU for a few hours with some YouTube video in the background.

The biggest drawback I felt with CUT is the initial difference in gameplay compared to the base game. Because the starter team has such low ratings, playing with it feels like playing on a field of quicksand. I know that once I get better players on my team it would probably feel better, but with the long grind that EA Sports Ultimate Team modes usually require to get those better players, it makes me question if this juice is worth the squeeze. Especially for players like me who refuse to fork over tons of money every week on new packs.

Presentation

When it comes to pageantry and tradition in sports titles, College Football 25 once again is like no other. One of the main missions of the development team was to bring the atmosphere that surrounds college football to life for every team. The team knew that every team was somebody’s favorite team, and every team’s traditions, chants, songs, and more were honored in this game.

From the intros playing at Notre Dame, Clemon, Florida, to 70,000 people calling the Hogs at Arkansas, to players throwing up “The U’ at Miami, College Football 25 knows how important these little details are to fans of these schools. The atmosphere created in this game is incredibly immersive and a huge step forward for this genre of games.

It is also a huge step forward that actual college football athletes are being compensated to have their name, image, and likeness represented in the game. Gone are the days of having QB #15 for Florida and HB #5 for Arkansas. The face scans and player models look top-of-the-line, and having the real rosters without having to wait weeks to download them is a great improvement for the series.

Another nice addition is the different options you have for equipment. Players are out here with their belly showing, a hoodie on, and all types of stuff! It’s cool to finally see what they’ve been thinking about adding for years and finally make it into the game.

Commentary

For years, players have been asking sports games to add multiple broadcast teams as a new feature. College Football 25 is one of the first games to add multiple full broadcast teams into their game. Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit (who always brings their A-game) lead you whenever it’s a game with serious stakes at hand. Meanwhile, the 3 person team of Rece Davis, Jesse Palmer, and David Pollack will call the rest of your games. You can even change the team you want to hear in exhibition games.

Beyond nailing the excitement of big plays against your hated rival, I love even the random comments that I’ve heard so far like mentioning Detroit Lions legend running back Kevin Jones while I’m using Virginia Tech, or Miami being a wide receiver factory back in the day. The depth of the commentary for each team is incredible and must have taken weeks or months to record between the five commentators.

I must admit I was slightly disappointed with the presentation in between plays. It feels like the game wants to get you back to the play call screen as quickly as possible. Though to be fair they do show replays of big plays even 2-3 plays ago in the play call screen. Stats and ratings of players will also show up on the play call screen, which is cool to see. But this lack of presentation between plays is noticeable in big games like the National Championship game. It feels like just another game besides showing the trophy in the beginning and the Madden lifted celebration with whoever won the game. Although yes, I admit it’s a small nitpick, I would prefer on-the-field stat overlays and such instead.

Performance

College Football 25 runs very well and takes full advantage of the modern consoles. I reviewed the game on a PlayStation 5 and had a silky smooth frame rate the entire time. I did notice an occasional visual bug like a player’s hair clipping through their body, but nothing horrendous. Also, I only experienced one crash which occurred while Super Simming a game in Dynasty mode. However, I did not experience it again when I did the same thing later on.

Conclusion

The SEC has a motto that “It just means more.” That’s a saying that could really apply to all of college football. As attached as people may be to an NFL team, college football fans live and die with their team. Entire generations of some families are linked by the fact that they all attended the same university.

The team behind College Football 25 knew how important these teams and this sport are to the fans. Add on top of that the fact that this series was on hiatus for 11 years, and you can see why the hype and expectations for this game were incredibly high.

College Football 25 meets those high expectations at every turn, and in many cases exceeds them. The presentation and commentary immerse players in the atmosphere of college football down to the tiniest detail. The gameplay is quick, fun, challenging, and at times infuriating (in a good way). Dynasty and Road to Glory are incredibly deep, adding features that fans have wanted in a football game for years. Even Ultimate Team has a chance to have an actual offline offering for no money spent players.

College Football 25 is not a perfect video game. But it does set a new standard, not just for this series, but for sports video games in general. The amount of passion and love that was clearly poured into developing this game is felt every time you pick up the controller. This game made me feel like I was back in my room as a teenager rebuilding NC State on NCAA Football 12 on a snow day from school. And as a sports gamer, there is not much more I could ask for than that.

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