“EA Sports College Football 25” is a True Sports Game Phenomenon

We usually devote our video game coverage at RogerEbert.com to titles with a connection to cinema, whether it’s a series that inspired movies like “Resident Evil” or titles that drew upon a history of movie adventures to tell their tales like “Uncharted” or “The Last of Us.” However, every once in a while, there’s an entertainment property without the film connection that we still think you’d be interested in learning more about. While the “NBA 2K” games remain my favorite sports addiction every Fall, and I find myself drawn more to Sony’s excellent “The Show” with each MLB season, the sports game story of the year is undeniably the return of college football to consoles in EA Sports’ long-delayed, highly-anticipated smash hit “College Football 25.” I would have filed this review earlier but there was recruiting to be done.

Yes, it’s a video game that makes recruiting high school kids to play college football fun. Once known as “NCAA Football,” the series went dormant after 2013 due to issues of naming rights that were cleared up over the NIL (name, image, and likeness) rulings of 2022, opening the door to college football simulations that used real teams, mascots, coaches, and even players. Consequently, over 10,000 actual athletes can be simulated in “College Football 25,” along with actual bowl names and awards like the Heisman Trophy. To say that fans were excited about the arrival of this game after a decade on the bench would be an understatement, something that makes one wonder if other franchises that are often accused of doing little more than roster updates between annual installments couldn’t regain some cultural cachet by taking a few years off.

EA Orlando, the team behind the “Madden” titles, took the lead on “College Football 25,” and the two franchises are clear cousins of each other. The newest “Madden” release is one of the best in the history of that series—it’s refined, smooth, and with strong in-game physics—and it shares a lot of the same basic gameplay when it comes to playcalling and on-the-field action. Even the modes feel similar with each title employing a collector-driven Ultimate Team mode in which you can assemble dream teams of players from multiple generations.

How “College Football 25” distinguishes itself from “Madden” and other sports titles is in the details. From the manner in which it recreates specific school rivalries and rituals to the impact of the massive crowd noise in some college football arenas on the gameplay, it’s clear that a great deal of time and consideration were put into the specifics here. It’s not just a different helmet and uniform—they want your team to feel genuine, making the experience of building an SEC franchise different from a Big Ten or ACC one.

They also understand that fans of this series are into more than just the arcade experience of playing simulated football, offering deep levels of behind-the-scenes action including managing coaching trees and detailed recruiting. Scout a prospect to fill a need on your team and then choose how to allocate your recruiting resources. Maybe you want to scour the social media of one prospect to better determine how to pitch your school to him, or maybe you want to “Send the House” to a 5-star to try to tip the scales. Schedule school visits and choose between a Hard of Soft Sell, fans of this series love spending time planning for the future, and it’s an admittedly addictive aspect of the experience, one that never drew me in during the 2000s but feels even more essential to the game now.

As for presentation, “College Football 25” is refined, especially in-game and studio analysis from Jesse Palmer, Rece Davis, and David Pollack. The graphics and gameplay are solid, especially in the aforementioned details, but there are still some odd quirks to the physics whether it’s a pass irrationally underthrown, a kicker who randomly misses an easy FG, or a cornerback who closes a gap in a literally impossible amount of time. Like so many sports game, it also suffers from the occasional graphics glitch like players running through each other or crowds that really only feature a handful of fan models. It looks SO good compared to “NCAA Football 14” that people are unlikely to care, but it undeniably could have been tighter (and, to my eye, isn’t as consistent in terms of graphics or physics as the newest “Madden.”)

It’s also worth noting here that the modes outside of Dynasty don’t feel quite as deep or refined. Titles like “The Show” and “NBA 2K” give players SO many different ways to play them, but it’s hard to really dig into anything outside the core in “College Football.” Sure, there’s “Road to Glory,” but it’s thin, built around a system of points that can be allocated to different aspects of the collegiate experience. It’s pretty shallow in its design and execution. And the Ultimate Team mode here feels more like a grind than others.

Fans don’t care. 2.2 million people reportedly bought the Deluxe Edition of the game, and the number of people playing this title has grown exponentially beyond that in the month since its release. While the sense that EA Sports was profiting off athletes that couldn’t do the same created something of a bitter taste in the past, that’s been alleviated by the NIL deals that allow these young men to make at least a fraction of what their coaches take home. The real draw of this game is taking your favorite underdog franchise and making them relevant again not just through the right button pushed at the right time but the right hires, recruits, and plan for the future. For a world of armchair quarterbacks, it’s a dream come true again.

The publisher provided a PS5 review copy of this title. It’s now available.

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