I Played College Football 25 Early - The Truth

I played college football 25 last week

early at EA and let me tell you I have a

lot of controversial thoughts I'm going

to talk about almost everything that I

experienced which is going to reveal

everything that we know about the game

up to this point and paint the full

picture of what college football 25 is

really like now EA just dropped a

34-page deep dive that's loaded so I'll

be covering that and the new trailer

with gameplay but I also saw and

experienced things that aren't included

one of those was the recreation of the

infamous Mo bomba false start clip at

pen state

during a presentation they showed us a

recreation of that in game and it left

me with chills along with everybody else

in the room so that's when it really hit

me how crazy this game is about to be

don't get me wrong though there's still

some issues that the game has that I'm

not afraid to mention and I'll be

working with EA on some things but they

still want me to have an opinion and

voice my concerns when I was there I was

honest with the dev team about things

that I thought would ruin the game but

they were very receptive of it and one

of the big things that scared me was

x-factors and abilities coming over from

Madden so you can imagine my reaction

when they first mentioned abilities

during their presentation they are in

college football 25 but X factors are

not and the way that they put them in

the game is actually really neat the

first thing I want to point out is

you're never guaranteed a specific

result or animation just based on an

ability so that's big for me and their

blog goes on to say that they're

introducing 80 new abilities the

majority of which are completely new to

the football gaming space again they're

reiterating that they're purely

situational boost and there aren't any

guarantees with them and just that

they're categorized into two different

groups physical and mental which I just

touched on and all of them are further

divided into four tiers bronze silver

gold and platinum if you've if You' ever

played a 2K game my best interpretation

of it is it's just like player badges in

that and I'll get more into my

experience with them but whenever we

played they weren't too overpowered

anyway the most a player can have at any

given time is five physical and three

mental abilities and their aim is to

provide players with increasing depth as

they progress through those tiers you

can go super deep into them as I

continue to break down this blog but the

last thing that I think is important to

mention here is a players's abilities

are solely determined by their archetype

and I really want to make sure that I

reiterate these are not gamebreaking and

they don't guarantee a specific result I

say that over and over because I was

legitimately scared when they first

brought this up until I got to actually

play with it and inside the game you're

going to be able to find a chart like

this if you're curious what all ad

abilities are and what happens at each

different tier I will admit it was a

little bit overwhelming to see when I

first saw it but it's neat and before we

get into anything else I actually want

to break down one of these abilities

this covers the field General one and if

you pause the video you'll be able to

read each of these bullet points if you

really care to but basically from the

lower tiers blitzers are highlighted but

only after the snap and then by the time

you get down to the Platinum tier it

allows you to see a lot more things for

the play what tier of ability a player

has is all determined by what their

stats are and I can't 100% confirm this

but just by talking with one of the devs

it seems like your abilities are decided

by what stat you have in one or two

categories so let's say Travis Hunter is

84 stamina and that puts him in the

silver tier for rku if he gets like 85

stamina maybe he'll move up to gold and

if he clears 90 stamina that'd probably

put him up into Platinum that's how I

understood it and whenever we played the

game it just made the best players play

like the best players out there on the

field but again didn't guarantee a

certain result they've even shown us

what it'll look like in game with this

screenshot right here and there were so

many sick highlights in the Gameplay

trailer featuring different abilities

which are pretty much just like 2K

badges with no guarantees and just make

the best players really feel like it

what's Wild is this is literally just

one of the like 20 different things that

have been revealed I'm going to cover in

this video and this is just a minor

thing but the display over the team

select screen was seriously beautiful

even if they don't have the ESPN

branding and I'm thrilled with how the

score buug looks too it's a unique

design for every team but if you can't

already tell you'll see very soon that

this game is nothing like a Madden

reskin I also told some of the devs that

I was concerned they might play the same

since it is on the same frostbite engine

but again they reassured me very quickly

that the game play is much quicker and

then I got to experience it for myself

and there were so many Breakaway plays

against some of the other guys I played

against I'm pretty sure not the expert

already talked about it on Twitter and

he did in just one quarter he ran for

over 200 yards with Auburn against Dion

Walker in my Kentucky Wildcats defense

but I was able to respond back by

bombing him over the top with Baran

Brown who for Kentucky fans is so so

quick and all of the fast gameplay and

Breakaway plays honestly reminded me of

lot of NCA football 14 I said I'd be

fair though so even though I have been

hyping it up for a bit I'm also going to

mention things like high school not

being in Road to Glory and this got

leaked which sounds like a bummer but

you can still decide what type of

prospect you start with I think the

ranges are from like 65 overall to 79

and we weren't able to hop into this

mode ourselves but once you all see all

the other stuff that is in Road to Glory

that they told us about I think you're

going to be very excited more will come

in the future kind of like this huge

gameplay drop today and one of my

controversial opinions is I don't think

I'm going to miss high school being in

Road to Glory I know that's kind of of a

big part of getting recruited but at

least on NCA football 14 it was really

dull you could have a scholarship offer

at Alabama in like three games even

playing on Heisman and if you wanted to

role play as a recruit that wasn't very

good maybe start as a one star it was

almost impossible to do you would get

scholarship offers no matter what I

understand why people liked it and it

would definitely be cool to see what

they could do with it now in 2024 but

you never know it's something that they

could add to Future releases and there's

a reason that I am so confident whenever

I talk about this game and it's because

I met all of the dev team I think one

thing that gets really overshadowed is

EA brought over people from college

football revamp that built the mod that

I've been playing on my channel for the

last 2 years and they did that just

because they were so passionate about

college football not knowing that it

would lead to this opportunity and let

me tell you they had a huge impact on

this game but I think the best thing

about the entire thing of being at EA

was just seeing the dev team like

grinning ear to ear as we react to

actually playing they were so passionate

and that level of detail and care really

shows whenever you have teams like

Arkansas State's water fountains going

off when they score a touchdown and I

got a little Sidetrack there but I'm

just trying to convey why I know this

game is going to be amazing besides the

fact that I played it and saw it

firsthand seeing the behind the scenes

of what goes into making a video game

especially one that looks as realistic

as the ones they put out was super eye

openening and I'm honestly super

thankful that you all put me in the

position to have that type of

opportunity as well but now we should

talk about wear and tear because this

has another big impact on the game the

feature pretty much just ensures that

every hit matters and not all hits are

created equal it is definitely a brand

new and unique damage system that adds a

whole new layer of depth and strategy to

your gameplay this is very accurate of

what it is and let let's just say it is

designed to simulate the real world

effects of fatigue and damage on a

player's performance and it operates on

a play to-play and game- to game basis

which then carries over to Dynasty and

Road to Glory I even saw an effect in

the few play now games that I hopped

into but basically if your quarterback

has thrown the ball like 40 plus times

in a game and has taken some big hits

don't expect him to be at 100% the

following week in a dynasty and this is

why I need to learn how to slide because

there's subtle gameplay components such

as getting the ball out early and

covering the ball and getting out of

bounds that will really impact how much

damage your player takes before I even

try to describe how it works I feel like

I have to show you all this screenshot

because it really breaks down as you

take damage to each body part you're

going to lose stats in certain

categories and that pretty much sums up

this entire section here as an example

if your quarterback's throwing arm

receives a significant hit you're going

to notice a decrease in your throw power

and accuracy and then the same is true

for your legs it could make you move

slower if you take a lot of big hits

there so you have to be very careful

about the type of situations that you're

putting your players into and it's no

longer just about getting a roll of the

dice on an injury it kind of just builds

up over time and you don't want this

stuff to carry over week to week in

Dynasty or Road to Glory but from my

perspective whenever I played with it in

game it wasn't too game-breaking I would

maybe lose like one or two in a stat

category at a time but I was also very

careful to not take a bunch of huge hits

because I knew this feature was in the

game what's so interesting about it is

recovery has to be a critical part of

the feature as well and you can regain

your health back when you're not on the

field during timeouts at halftime and in

between weeks too another thing is we

have to be cautious of our players

workload because the worse a body part

is is damage the slower it's going to

recover and this is what's going to make

the game so much fun especially in

Dynasty because this encourages

strategic planning and management of all

of your players to ensure the best

performance out of them what's nice is

outside of the quarterback and offensive

line teams are going to substitute

around the fatigue so you don't have to

micromanage it and not that this list of

places that you can find it in means

anything to you all right now but there

are a lot of places to track it in again

when I used it it wasn't anything that's

game-breaking but with these changes

wear and te definitely adds even more

depth to a player's gameplay and

hopefully you all are starting to

realize all these new things that they

have added to separate this game

gameplay-wise from the Madden game

besides it just being faster and having

a bunch of different animations I'd also

like to mention that with wear and tear

involved they also had to overhaul

fatigue and their main goal with it was

to make it more realistic to snap counts

at the college level for example let's

say a running back gets three

consecutive carries for positive yards

you're going to notice them huffing and

puffing in the pre-play clip and then on

the next carry they're probably going to

come out of the game but because of how

they've redone the fatigue you're only

going to sit out for most likely a

single play that's really big because on

NCA football 14 you would have your

players Auto sub out whenever they got

too fatigued but sometimes they'd missed

like three four plays in a row and I

know I'm probably going to say this a

ton in the video but I really like the

display that they have in this game

especially from the play calling screen

which is like your command center but

before we get into the next big Edition

I also want to just say I didn't hear a

single thing about Ultimate Team the

entire time that I was there take that

as you will and the menus were also very

quick and responsive I was concerned

about this I voiced my concerns to the

dev team because of previous experience

on another football game and the menus

were actually really good you're

probably starting to see I went in a

little bit scared and I've come out so

pumped up and amped up for this game

because of how happy I am with what I

played on it's so nuts though because

all of the features are just going to

keep on adding up another neat thing

that they added was they changed the

kicking from NCA football 14 and it

makes sense because College kickers are

not good and they miss a lot of field

goals especially short ones being able

to drill 63 yarders whenever you want on

NCA football 14 with no issues was not

realistic so that's why you'll see that

they have completely overhauled the

kicking meter here it's genuinely

difficult I didn't hit a perfect kicked

once and I played for hours I know the

kicking things a smaller detail than

some of the previous things I've listed

but it was something that really caught

me off guard and I was glad that they

nailed because they wanted it to be

realistic if you're super curious about

how it works you can always read this

entire post I'm not going to go through

every single thing but the one thing I

do want to also point out is hitting in

the red represents an over KCK and you

don't want to do that because that can

mess you up so that was something new

that they added to the game but one

thing they did back from NCA football 14

at least in my opinion was the Juke

moves I personally didn't get great at

them on the new game yet but I did watch

good game bro put in some nasty work on

the sticks and stuff like the spin move

isn't slow or lethargic in this title

it's actually really quick and tight now

it's something that's a lot easier to

show than tell so I'm sure even though

they didn't go in depth on it in this

article they're going to do that

whenever they show the gameplay so have

fun exploring that and shout out to EA

for adding another sick edition I'll

also say one thing I didn't notice was

they said that they introduced all new

specific run styles for different

archetypes in the game and I just didn't

pay attention to it but it's also a

small detail that I wasn't searching for

and I'm sure if you are paying attention

you could definitely notice I mean I'm

not just going to sit here and lie to

you all and be like it was amazing I

genuinely did not see it but of course

it's going to provide a more in-depth

and personalized gaming experience so

that's a good thing that they put in now

one of the Staples of college football

is definitely the option game and it

really threw me off at first because

they reversed the controls from 14 with

it but they made it much more realistic

basically to keep it simple the first

thing that they did was make the mechan

miror the real life quarterback and

running back exchange which it didn't do

in 14 so just like in an actual game the

quarterback's going to place the ball in

the running back's belly with the intent

that he's going to hand it off to him

but if the read key comes down he's

going to have to pull the ball by

pressing an X key on 14 if you wanted to

give it to the running back you'd have

to hit that button but now if you want

to keep it you have to hit that button

and I like that it's going to simplify

our reads while also making rpos which

we're not very used to from 14 much more

usable they've added a lot of controls

so you can change in lifetime what you

want to do and then this is another

little tweak that I didn't expect them

to mention but you can have different

pitches whenever running the option just

so there's more depth to the gameplay

holding down L1 or lb will result in a

strong pitch while a quick tap will be a

swift pitch and there is a difference

between the two the quick tap one is

pretty much just useful for tight spots

but it might not hit the pitch back in

stride and then if you hold down the

button for a strong pitch you'll want to

do that when there's ample space between

you and the approaching Defender which

does require a little bit more time but

it also offers precise accuracy and

veloc vity fake pitching is even back

activated by double tapping L1 or lb

which I didn't even know you could do in

previous titles and everything that

they've added has just been to refine

the gameplay and make it a lot more

smoother and enjoyable to run stuff like

the option we'd even get a little bit of

it in the Gameplay trailer but it's hard

to get a feel for how it plays when you

watch it and as somebody that didn't

enjoy recent Madden gamep plays I really

enjoyed the gameplay on this game so

take that as you will it's not just

offense that has gotten some upgrades

though the defense has also seen some

different changes and this is pretty

similar to 14 where there's just a read

key that determines what you do on the

option whether or not you crash or stay

at home but the computer is so smart now

that when on the wide hash marks they're

going to react differently than whenever

the offense is close to a first down or

something else pitch keys also have more

varied Behavior which is definitely

needed with the ability to Bluff whether

they're playing the quarterback or the

running back and I definitely noticed

that when I played the game it wasn't as

easy to just know 100% what the right

move to make was now I've already said I

struggled to run the option because it

confused me so much the new controls

with them reversing them so I didn't run

for 200 yards like not the expert did

versus me but I did figure things out

eventually for all of you that play this

game a little bit more competitively you

will notice that they have removed Bas

alignment which never worked greatly but

now they've added disguising coverages

which is a super cool feature this is

something I wish I had a screenshot of

but you just have to visualize it and of

course whenever you're on the field

there is a button that would allow you

to command your secondary to position in

the range of so many different disguised

looks and they can range from a high

pressure cover zero Blitz all the way to

a backed off cover four look this is

something I wish I tried more of when

whenever I was playing the game but we

were just so excited to witness all the

atmospheres the new features the

gameplay and disguising coverages will

be a great way to confuse your friends

in online dynasties I'm not shutting up

anytime soon either there's so many more

features including something that's

called revamp passing and this was

something that took me a while to figure

out this is just a very long way of

saying you have almost full control of

where the ball goes what the trajectory

is and this is a new feature that really

overhauled all of their passing

trajectory so you're going to see stuff

you've never seen in a football game

before when I was throwing up deep bombs

to Barry and brown sometimes it felt

like the ball was lofted in the air for

like 10 seconds and if I put a little

more power on it it got there a little

bit quicker with a lot lower trajectory

it's kind of funny though because if you

tap it super lightly you could throw a

slant across the field that just floats

in the air forever and throw power no

longer refers to the distance of the

throw but how hard you can throw it

which changes things too depending on

what quarterback you use what is throw

power is how you're throwing the ball

with him those balls are going to travel

way different than others and as wide

open as the gameplay felt at times it's

also important to maintain balance so

for years they did mention that players

could just hold a bullet pass with

little to no consequences but that's

where this passing meter changes things

the distance of the throw and the

quarterback's attributes and abilities

will all affect the accuracy of a pass

and before I really take a dive into it

you're going to take a look at this

screenshot and see that meter what you

really want to avoid is that red section

there's going to be three colors on the

screen the sizes of the sections all

depend on like the same things I just

mentioned your attributes your abilities

throwing distance and other factors and

there's so much more from that but

landing in the blue is what increases

the chances of a safe accurate ball

while Landing in the yellow could mean

more uncertainty from your ideal Target

like I said though you do not want to

get into that red category and

quarterbacks with weaker arms or lower

throw accuracy ratings will have larger

red sections it's not different from

real life trying to push the ball

downfield consistently with a

quarterback who has a weak arm is just

not a great move I think once you all

get this down you're going to really

enjoy it I did but it took me a while to

figure it out and they also even

mentioned that they've updated the pump

fake mechanic but never in my life have

tried to use a pump fake mechanic in a

video game so I'm just going to ignore

that section I don't think it would ever

actually work to fool the defense

because the computer knows exactly what

you're doing but maybe it will do

something and I probably should have

tried it when I had the game if you

thought all the features were done

though there is still a ton more and

when they started listing all of these

off during our presentation at EA in the

most respectful way possible I thought

they were never going to stop talking it

just kept going but it was also super

exciting that level of detail and new

features can be seen across the entire

game and I think the stadiums are

perfect example there's like 150 of them

that are almost perfect replicas and

it's not just visually but soundwise too

every single time you played a different

place you feel like you're in a

completely different environment and

even though this college game is going

to sell less copies than Madden it's

going to sell less copies than the

soccer series FC EA's put more stadiums

in this game than any of their other

titles that I'm aware of I mean Madden

has like 30 something FC has 60 but they

went above and beyond you all will see

more of it as more things get released

and really nailed all 134 atmospheres I

think when stuff looks this good this

realistic it's hard to not just sit here

in amazement at what the dev team pulled

off in a few years and the level of

detail is just going to continue to get

deeper with the next one being the

pre-nap recognition features basically

just to sum all of this up a senior will

see things on the field that a freshman

wouldn't and they'll also experience

different environments in different ways

as you can see that they have brought

back something similar to the hot and

cold system with the confidence and

composure experience would obviously

play a huge role in this feature and a

freshman is going to have more volatile

swings compared to a season SC but to be

honest in my short time playing this is

another thing I didn't notice much of

because I wasn't searching for it as

crowd level increases though I

definitely could see this being

something that has an impact on certain

players especially in a dynasty but it

was also balanced enough to where it

wouldn't obnoxiously stand out like 90%

of the time which I think is a good

thing those rare moments for an away

team on a third and 15 with the crowd

roaring need to be special and plays

like that are going to be where you're

able to notice some of these more

in-depth features as I'm saying that it

continues to touch on the exact same

thing I was talking about like a rivalry

match and not only do events such as

scoring touchdowns lift the morale of

potentially your entire team but also

it's going to have a stat boost to some

of your players for example a scrambling

quarterback is going to have improved

ball security while a field General is

going to benefit from improved throw

accuracy If your player starts to cook