How I Feel a Week After Launch
Spoiler alert: This game is awesome (but there are a few nitpicks).
I’ve played College Football ‘25 for a week now, and I’m having a wonderful time with it. It’s been a while since I played one particular video game so heavily. It’s brought me back to my childhood when I spent hours grinding and playing my favorite games without getting bored.
Today, I will touch on the good and the bad aspects of my experience with the game.
Visually Stunning
The player models, the uniforms, the crowd, the 3-D grass—everything mixed- make CF 25 the best-looking football game ever released and one of the most visually appealing sports games overall.
Looking at the game on the screen makes you want to play, and that’s a precious quality.
The Gameplay is the Best I’ve Experienced
CF 25 doesn’t just look good. From a pure, play-one-game standpoint, it plays the best single game of American football I’ve ever experienced.
The speed, playbooks, styles, hit physics, catch, juke, and spin animations make for a crazy good combination of football goodness. The wear-and-tear system is robust and, quite honestly, could’ve been even bolder and not too much.
Does it look and feel like Madden? Of course, the fundamental arrangement is similar. It’s a video game, football, but I’m having tons of fun, which is the most important thing to me when playing a video game.
The School-Specific Presentation is a Great
EA’s motto was that every school in the game is someone’s favorite. That motto was taken to heart, as every team has crazy-specific details during its runouts, stadiums, and uniforms.
From running down the hill in Clemson to white-out crowds and many other details.
Road to Glory Has Some Potential
I’ve gone up and down on RTG since I started playing. I liked the multifaceted approach to managing my players’ week and energy.
However, there were times when I felt bored because, depending on where I was on the depth chart, I spent too much time on the menus and very little time playing football or other mini-games.
However, I tried a few other approaches, such as having three, four, and five-star recruits, and those experiences were different. At that point, I gained more appreciation for the variety of experiences available in the mode. Does that mean there is no way to improve the experience of a player who isn’t a starter?
At least in my two-star rRTGplay, calling could be better and more varied. You would think that in third and long situations, you would throw the ball, but a lot of run plays happen, and quite frankly, it doesn’t make sense to me. Hopefully, that gets fixed later.
NIL Giveth and it Taketh Away
Most of us were happy to see real players added to CF 25. It is fantastic to see college players represented and able to earn money using their likenesses. Also, as we were told during the preview, |no NIL, no game.”
It was just that simple. EA had to make this happen to bring college football back to video games. Along with introducing real players came a wave of restrictions that negatively impacted multiple game areas.
In TeamBuilder, you cannot edit player names on the website, though you can do that once you’ve loaded them into your game. That’s a reasonably small concession to make, though it severely nerfs the impact of TeamBuilder and makes it a uniform and stadium designer. Users cannot edit any NIL player in the game, which covers most of the guys on every roster.
Gamers who remember NCAA Football recall being able to edit everything about every player. That functionality landed EA in hot water, as former players cried foul at using their likenesses without compensation.
There’s a lot of gray area here, and, likely, EA doesn’t yet feel comfortable giving the user too many customization tools–especially early in the return process. You can’t edit recruiting classes, which will likely prevent users from creating current high schoolers that EA doesn’t yet have the rights to use in their game.
Likewise, you cannot export your draft class from CF 25 into Madden 25 as you could for years with NCAA Football. Why? Because EA doesn’t have the rights to use all the NIL players in Madden.
Dynasty mode simulation is terrible:
The ranking system is broken, and so is the simulation system. It’s all over the place. Not even to mention the coach carousel.
Teams with losing records in the top 25. Teams with four losses ranked ahead of teams with one loss. There’s no way a four-loss Georgia would be ranked ahead of 1 loss Texas.
When people get into their dynasties and advance a couple of years, the poor sim logic of being unable to change recruit numbers might lead to lower immersion. The gameplay is fantastic, but I need help going deep into dynasties with the current issues.
It hurts a bit more because it’s the offseason. Others and I will enjoy it more once college football season starts. EA said this will be part of the patch but I need to see it to believe it.
I am enjoying the recruiting process, seeing my school slowly increase in the ranking, and ultimately getting a prospect I’ve put time and effort into. But this is year one of the game. It has a perfect foundation to build, and the team cares very much about the sport.
Not everything has to be so black and white. The gameplay is fantastic. The small details that matter to schools in the game are unique. Recruiting and coaching skills are excellent. However, immersion and realistic simulation of the dynasty could have been better. Those who care about the simulation will view the game less favorably than those who care more about gameplay.
I give the game an 8. That might be too high for many of you, and rightfully so in some areas of the game. But having fun is a significant factor in how I view a game, and I’m having a blast.
Another big thing is the game is challenging, which I like. I’m learning on the fly. Heisman’s difficulty has me fighting for my life all the time, but I’m having fun, and I slowly see myself getting better, which is satisfying.
The road to the college football playoff is my favorite mode. I’m not an online player, so I wasn’t expecting to play as much as I have, but I keep coming back and having fun. And I like that you must use the actual team’s playbook instead of a custom playbook.
And one of my best friends has played many head-to-head games using the play-a-friend feature. We’ve played probably a total of 24 games, but I recently started tracking who wins each game, the final scores, and what teams we used (since tracking is leading the series 7-3)
I can’t wait to do an online dynasty with all my friends. I think that’ll make it even more fun and immersive for me. Let me know how you all feel so far in your experience with the game.
Brandon Scobey is a Featured Columnist for Four Verts: A College Football 25 Substack. He also writes for The League Winners covering the Pittsburgh Steelers and Oklahoma Sooners. You can follow him on X and Instagram at yoitsbrandonfr.
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