When you’re a series coming back after an 11-year layoff, spanning two console generations, of course there’s going to be a lot to share. It’s hard to condense everything that awaits college football fans when EA Sports College Football 25 launches July 19. But the developers at EA Orlando have tried anyway, with a deep dive video and blog post touching all corners of the game.
The most important point here is that all 134 schools in the United States’ top division of collegiate football are represented, with all of their traditions, songs, stadiums, and more. Whether you’re a fan of Ohio University or The Ohio State University, you’ll get a warm embrace of your alma mater.
But going deeper, the playbooks are well differentiated and more experimental than you’d find in professional football. “One of our primary objectives was to capture the authenticity and wide open gameplay of college football,” said developer Scott O’Gallagher.
“We studied and tried to recreate the explosiveness of current and former College Football legends. The result is a game that allows you to not only play North and South, but also East and West.” Here he means using the whole field, not just deep bombs thrown by classic dropback passers, but also spread-field antics like reverses, end-arounds, and of course, the triple option.
ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit, who appears in the game alongside real-life booth partner Chris Fowler, narrates this exploration of what College Football 25 has to offer. I can remember sitting on my bed in 2003 with a copy of NCAA Football 2004, watching and rewatching the tutorial videos he narrated, just learning where the buttons were on my phat Xbox controller to know how to pitch the ball or pull back and spear the flanker running a streak route. It’s good to have Herbie, a Buckeye quarterback from 1989 to 1992, back in the facility.
What else can we expect from College Football 25?
Elsewhere, O’Gallagher explains the new Wear and Tear progression system, whereby a player subjected to continual hits (or a long day throwing the ball) is going to break down, not only in the current game, but probably in the next one too. It reminds me of the old condition system in Tecmo Super Bowl, where your stud running back turns up lame in the third quarter, forcing all kinds of strategic adjustments, if not an outright substitution. Pay attention to the Wear and Tear on your athletes, especially if your porous offensive line is allowing multiple unabated-to-the-quarterback hits in the backfield.
EA Sports College Football 25 launches July 19 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.
