'EA Sports College Football 25' review: Why it puts 'Madden' to shame

It's cliche to say but college football is back. And it only feels trite to say, because at this point, despite all the hype, the memes, the teasers, and the trailers — none of this feels real. For the first time in 11 years, there is a college football game and it's called EA Sports College Football 25.

All 128 NCAA Division-1 FBS teams are in the game, and for an unprecedented first, this year's version of college football also features current players. It's a massive grab and statement for EA Orlando, which has been diligently working on the long-awaited successor to NCAA Football 14 since the 2021 announcement.

With the game launching across PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X on July 19, two of Mashable's biggest CFB fans took cracks at the game to find out if it was worth the wait. The biggest takeaway from our time playing is that CFB 25 gets the vibe of college football just right, even if the entire package could use some work. After all, it's still an EA game.

College Football 25 gameplay

Section written by Chance Townsend

Playing CFB 25 is a smooth and crisp experience. Of course, it's gonna play better than its 11-year-old predecessor, but there's a level of fluidity in here that even puts Madden to shame. This shines within the running game, which is ultra-fun, crisp, and doesn't feel too animation-heavy. Although there were times when hitting the open hole I felt like the animation was sucking me into a tackle. Running is the bread and butter of the CFB 25 experience, and honestly, it shows.

That doesn't mean the passing game didn't get some love, though. New to this version of the game is "revamped passing," which shows a meter above the receiver's head during a throw. This meter determines the accuracy, power and placement of a pass. Hit the golden spot in the meter, and make the catch, but if you misjudge it, you'll end up putting your receiver in a bad spot. It's very satisfying to use compared to Madden's placement and accuracy, though it lacks the precision of that option. However, if you like Madden's interpretation of passing or love to stick to the classics, both options are available to choose from.

The passing game in general is harder than in years past. There's a frustrating amount of dropped passes by receivers at the slightest bit on contact, which makes for a troublesome gaming experience — while probably true to life, its not fun to play with. So if you thought you could spam 4 Verts like you could in NCAA 14 for easy gains, well tough noogies buddy, get ready to learn how to RPO.

Speaking of the run-pass option, it's busted as hell. If you can't immediately make a decision when passing, you'll get an illegal man downfield penalty 90 percent of the time.

On top of that, the new two-part kick meter may also cause some yelling. Which, again, in real life, these things are difficult, but it doesn't make for a fun video game experience.

Defense, however, is not fun. On higher difficulties like All-American and Heisman, stopping anything felt impossible. To be fair, the last Frostbite Engine-era football game I played was Madden 18, so maybe I just suck ass, but I don't think Troy should realistically be dropping 35 on the Longhorns.

College Football 25 presentation and vibes

Section written by Alex Perry

College football holds a special place in my heart, probably unreasonably so. America's second-favorite version of its most popular sport is unlike any other. The games are often sloppy to the point of hilarity, intensely weird things happen all the time, and one time, a guy got so mad about a game that he poisoned historic trees on the opposing team's campus and called into a talk radio show to admit his guilt.

This colorful menagerie of nonsense, naturally, produces fantastic vibes. Every school has various ancient rituals the players or fans do before, during, and after games. Notre Dame players tap a sign that says "PLAY LIKE A CHAMPION TODAY" in the pregame tunnel. Nebraska fans unleash red balloons after the first scoring play of every home game. Everyone, no matter who they're rooting for, turns and waves at a children's hospital that overlooks the stadium during every Iowa home game.

Without meandering even more, I'll get straight to the point. Pretty much all of those things are present and accounted for in College Football 25. Nearly all that makes college football a compelling TV product, from boisterous marching bands and drumlines to nuclear-powered crowd noise, are represented in the game. The latter point actually affects gameplay, as receiver routes and icons will become misleading or confusing to read while an opposing crowd is bearing down on you. That's not new to football games, per se, but it's still very cool to feel the pressure of driving for a touchdown as the away team at Ohio State.

Sure, there are some typical jerky or unnatural-looking animations (as there have been in every 3D football game ever), but on the whole, College Football 25 nails the look of college football, too. Every in-game stadium, from Michigan's Big House to North Texas's DATCU Stadium, is stunningly rendered. Crowds look voluminous and energetic, too.

The game gets big points from me for also altering the colors and theming of the main menu depending on which school you choose as your favorite team. In particular, I love that every school's main menu screen features a ticket stub to a legendary real-life game from that program's history. Remember the time in 2011 when Iowa State upset Oklahoma State in overtime? No? Well, I do, and so did the developers of this game — and that's what matters.

There are really only a couple of minor criticisms I have of College Football 25's presentation. First up is the commentary, which is made up of various big names in the world of college football broadcasting like Chris Fowler, Rece Davis, and Kirk Herbstreit. Those guys are all pretty much fine, if a little flat at times. The play-by-play guys like Fowler and Davis will occasionally throw in school-specific references, which is cute. I enjoyed hearing some "Rock Chalk Jayhawk" while playing a game at Kansas, for example.

Unfortunately, the game also includes David Pollack on color commentary. I don't like David Pollack very much, for reasons that are not entirely relevant to this review. I also just find his commentary annoying and inane most of the time. Beyond that, any stadium rituals that involve licensed music are touch-and-go at best. Virginia Tech can potentially lay claim to the greatest pregame intro in all of sports, but since it uses Metallica's "Enter Sandman," it's not accurately presented in this game. Bummer.

Still, you'll occasionally hear "Sandstorm" blaring over stadium speakers between plays in any given game, so it still feels enough like college football to me.

College Football 25 Dynasty Mode

Section written by Alex Perry

College Football 25 has two primary modes that dominate most of the attention outside of online exhibitions and microtransaction trading card nonsense. The first is Dynasty, a returning mode from the NCAA games of eld that casts the player as a made up head coach or coordinator for the school of their choosing.

I have to admit, I was never the biggest Dynasty guy back in the day — and I still may not be. But the version of the mode that's present in College Football 25 seems to have nearly everything you could want. Your coach or coordinator can have as many or as few responsibilities as you want. If you want to be meticulous about recruiting talent, you can do that. If you want to focus on gameday tactics and actually playing football (which is really more of a fun treat you get to occasionally do in this mode), you can do that, too.

Speaking of recruiting, that particular side of College Football 25's Dynasty mode is funny. It more or less works the same as it always did, as you have limited resources for player recruiting and the players' decisions are not entirely in your hands. It's been updated for modern times, though, as one of the resource-consuming activities you can do to court a player is to DM him on social media.

Yes, there is a button that just says "DM player" in the Dynasty menu. I laughed a lot when I saw that.

Aside from that, though, Dynasty is impressively flexible and accommodates many different styles of play for something that, from the outside, would seem to be the most hardcore mode in the game. I pretty much only like playing offense in football games, so I made an offensive coordinator and only call offensive plays now. Easy! That's what I like to see. If I'm good enough at it, maybe I'll get a mediocre head coaching job, flame out in three years, and cause an entire community in Tennessee or whatever to hate me for eternity. That's what college football is all about.

College Football 25 Road to Glory

Section written by Chance Townsend

Gone are the glory days of playing in high school with this year's version of CFB 25. In previous games, players could simulate high school games to garner interest from potential schools and commit to them. However, that feature got cut in favor of a more limited, streamlined Road to Glory (RTG) experience.

Instead, players can pick from one of four options, starting as an elite five-star talent to a lowly two-star underdog. Your decision will determine your player overall, your choice of schools, and your place on that program's depth chart. For example, a five-star will have their top of top-level programs like UT-Austin or Michigan. But a two or three-star will have their pick of fighting for starting spots at lowly programs like Air Force or Eastern Michigan. You can walk on to any school in the game, but you'll be starting from the bench and it's hard to get rise up the depth chart.

I started my RTG at Memphis, which promised my created QB the second-string position. Once the creation and recruitment process is done, you'll be taken to the main hub where you can play or sim that week's game, participate in practice drills, and spend energy points on your weekly agenda. You have the choice to put your energy into academics, leadership skills, recovery, training, or brand building. These each come with pros and cons that affect each other. For example, putting points into brand building will drop your academic bar; training causes increased injury risk; and low leadership skills create a passive loss of coach trust points until you've invested a certain amount of energy into that agenda.

Additionally, there are fun choose-your-adventure style scenarios that pop up throughout the season. You'll occasionally get messages from your academic advisor, your coaches, teammates, and even classmates that'll put you in scenarios that could increase your brand, GPA, and coach trust, or vice versa. In one instance, a classmate asked me to party the night before a game, and when I said yes, my coach caught me and I lost trust points.

You can gain a coach's trust through practice and playing games, but if you're sitting on the bench, you'll have a hard time getting points cause the drills you can play are really short and your success depends on how well the AI is at giving you plays you can work with.

Limitation is pretty much the theme of playing RTG. Since you're not really in control, while playing games, you're at the mercy of the AI from everything like playcalling to the actions of your teammates on the field. Playcalling is repetitive and conservative. Going 3 and Out will cause an unskippable cutscene as you fade back into the super sim screen and the AI will only allow you to call hurry up on 4th down during the last few minutes of each half — when the situation determines that going for it "makes sense."

Receivers drop open balls like they have grease on their hands and handing the ball off to the running back is like watching an AI programmer teach their LLM how to navigate a maze. So when I finally got to start at Memphis in my second season, I started 0-4 before finishing the season with a conference championship and a 7-6 record. That conference championship, by the way, did not have a special trophy presentation. Instead, I got the same victory cutscene that you get after every other game during the regular season.

If you're surprised my 7-6 Memphis Tigers even made the conference championship, that's because the sim engine is busted. This is partially due to the overall of the teams in the game being so evenly rated despite the huge gaps between teams like Akron and Alabama. Despite going 2-10 in 2023, the Akron Zips are a 73 overall team. Kennesaw State, a team that is about to have its first season in Division 1 Football (D-1 FBS), is a 73 overall team. Mid-level Power 4 schools like Texas Tech, Miami, A&M, Arkansas, Ole Miss, Utah, and Florida State are all within the 85-88 OVR range. Thus, what's been created is a level of college football parity that has never existed in real life. There are no haves and have-nots because even the fake cupcake FCS teams can beat a Power 4 school with ease.

This creates weird situations that see 6-6 Memphis play 7-6 Rice in the American Athletic Conference (AAC) championship because #4 ranked Tulane dropped its last two conference games to UTSA and Charlotte. In the first season, my alma mater, the University of North Texas, made the 12-team College Football Playoff despite only having three winning seasons since 2010. That season also saw Texas A&M win the National Championship — a true real immersion breaker because the real-life A&M has yet to make an appearance in the SEC Championship.

Unlike Dynasty, the happenings of the world around you don't have much to do with you since you don't have to deal with things like recruiting and roster management. Plus, historically, RTG has been a rather shallow experience. However, thanks to the addition of the transfer portal, you can change your team at the end of every season to create some interesting scenarios in your career.

CUT and best of the rest

Section written by Chance Townsend

What's left to cover in this review is the Ultimate Team mode or CUT (College Ultimate Team). While I've never cared for Ultimate Team in any game, this version of EA's favorite money collector isn't as in your face as its other offerings like EAFC or Madden. We didn't play around much with CUT during our play testing, so our review is limited, however, it must be said that for those new to the Frostbite Engine era of EA sports games, CUT is the perfect place to start.

Not because that's where EA wants you to spend money, but because the offering of solo challenges is an excellent way to get used to the different playbooks and schemes that can be used in other modes like Dynasty. It's the perfect training ground to get a feel of what kind of style you'd want to play for whenever you decide to take the reigns at a bottom-barrel MAC program. Each playbook offers different challenges, like the Air Raid that asks you to use a hurry-up offense and pass for five straight plays.

Is College Football 25 Worth It?

To keep things brief, if you love college football, this game you're waiting for. As a pure gameplay experience, CFB 25 is both challenging and rewarding in ways that Madden and 2K aren't. However, it's not the game we've waited 11 years for. Dynasty lacks a lot of depth and quality-of-life changes that were present in NCAA 14, alongside a mind-numbingly inane UI and drumline menu songs.

EA Orlando promised fans that this is the college football game they deserve, and considering it has all the trappings of an EA sports game, they weren't lying. But if you can look past that and just focus on what's in the game, you'll have a fun time.