EA Sports College Football 25 Review

I cannot understate this enough. I used to love playing the college sports games growing up in the 2000s and the 2010s. When they went away I felt like a piece of me as a gamer Low-key kind of died. Afterwards many of us who enjoyed the college video game experience were stuck in the nebula where we just had to settle for Madden and NBA 2K each year. For most people that was perfectly okay. However with the announcement that EA sports was bringing back college football there was a slew of people including myself who were ravenous and excited to have that experience back. So how is that experience now that it’s here? Is college football 25 a good video game and is it a good single player experience?

Let’s dive into it.

So before we begin this review keep in mind that I’m coming at this from a single player only perspective. I don’t play any sports games online for the most part. So with that said I mostly have played the exhibition mode, the road to glory mode, and the Dynasty mode.

Narrative:

Now with the road to glory mode you basically play and live the life of a college student athlete with your own created player and you try to become the best college football star that you possibly can be. You manage your weekly schedule your GPA, your image and you try to earn coach’s trust to get more playing time. You can also use the transfer pool to kind of get more time or find a different school to elevate your status. This mode is the college equivalent of every other career mode that you see out there in sports games nowadays. The story that goes along with this mode is weak sauce and that’s okay because let’s face it you’re not really playing this game for story and narrative. As for the road to glory, it’s better than before but still lacks excitement. You start by choosing a position and star ranking, which affects how quickly you get on the field. However, there are no high school games, and the gameplay becomes repetitive quickly. Managing stats like Academics, NIL, and Health through a basic resource system feels lifeless, with no cutscenes or meaningful interactions.

The Gameplay:

The gameplay is a mixed bag as well. There are moments where everything seems to be working immaculately and then all of a sudden you have moments where the game shows you an extreme level of jank and there is funky animations that happen. For example, I had the ball on my own 20 yd line and it was second down. I was throwing the ball to one of my receivers and managed to catch it about 2 yd shy of the first down marker. The game glitched though and gave my opposition the ball without there being a turnover. I don’t know what happened because there wasn’t a fumble, interception, our turnover on downs so I for the life of me do not know how the opposition got the ball in such good field position.  I ran into multiple occasions where the game would glitch a tackle animation are there was some clipping problems. But for all the junk that I encountered I still found myself fascinated with the game and obsessively playing it.

The gameplay isn’t great and you could tell that this game needs to be refined quite a bit but overall there is a certain magic to this year’s college football game. Maybe it’s because we’ve been missing college football and it feels like a shot in the arm to sports games especially football game since Madden has become stagnant. Maybe it’s the energy of the crowd and the music that you hear the band play but there is a certain atmosphere about this game that is infectious. You add that on to gameplay that feels more zippy and fast pace than Madden and you get gameplay that doesn’t necessarily feel refined but it’s a fun football experience. If you choose Placement & Accuracy passing type it is much easier to pull off back-shoulder throws to your receivers. Once the ball is in the air, receivers have a couple of options before catching the pass. Is it wise to catch the ball in stride, securely catch the ball, or make an aggressive play at the ball? The choice is yours via the face buttons.

Once the ball is caught or passed off to a running back you have many different moves to get past your defenders. Breaking ankles with swift jukes and hesi’s, hurdling over defenders, spinning out of tackles, and even pitching the ball back to another teammate to extend the play. Mastering these skills and using them in the right context will earn you extra yards. On top of that, hitting these moves at the right time is so satisfying.

Additional Pros:

Playing this game on the PS5 and the Xbox Series X is a treat because the game looks so crisp and detailed in a lot of ways. The series S is different story because everything kind of feels a bit more muddled and muddy but it is still a more than playable visual experience. Visually, NCAA 25 is impressive. EA also nailed the pageantry that makes college football special. The stadiums feel alive, and the attention to detail from the pre-game traditions to the crowd reactions is spot on. the new Stadium Pulse feature where the atmosphere affects your controller and even your player’s ability to perform was a new feature that I really liked, despite it causing me a few unlucky interceptions along the way. The weather effects are on point as well. Playing in the rain or snow adds a real sense of unpredictability, and the player models this year actually look like they belong in a next-gen game.

The game’ modes are a good starting block of potential. Dynasty let’s you build a football program of your chosen school, scout/recruit prospects to your school, hire and add skills to your coaching staff, and edit the conferences of College Football. the crown jewel of NCAA Football 25: Dynasty Mode. This mode allows you to build a college football dynasty from the ground up. You start by creating a head coach or coordinator and taking control of any team you choose. There are three coach archetypes to choose from, and recruiting players is key!

This mode has kept me in the game for hours. The new Wear and Tear system is also a new realistic feature, where the number of hits players take actually affects their performance, but it has definitely made the game more challenging.

Road to Glory also feels like it is a good starting blocking as well. Mixing in RPG elements with football gameplay. The more you play the mode the more it feels shallow, but that’s the right now because this mode could become a beast in future interations of this yearly installment.

Running the game on a Series X, the resolution looks to be 1440p upscaled to 4k. The frame rate when in action is a buttery smooth 60fps but will drop to a locked 30fps in cinematics and transitions. It sounds jarring however while playing it’s hardly noticeable. What else is there to say, other than that it works as intended; plays smoothly, and the load times are fast.

Cons:

Well the game is good to look at in most ways there are some instances where it is plain ugly. The crowd, cheerleaders, and coaches look so bad that they feel like they came from video games generations ago. I’m talking about ugly potato people looking assets that should not be in a game nowadays.

Well I do think this is a good intro roster of schools that you can play with there are quite a few across the country that are missing. My alma mater Stephen F. Austin University for example is not in the game at all but it is available via the terrible creation suite. I don’t mean that lightly, the creation suite is done online and you have to import it into your video game from the creations menu. You can’t just create your team and keep them locally, no you have to have all that stored on the cloud so if you don’t have internet access due to server issues or whatever the case may be you are unable to play with your downloaded assets.

My biggest problem with the game is the fact that a lot of the modes are online. Which means that if you use any online assets, such as, download a school your Dynasty mode becomes online only. This wouldn’t have been a problem if I didn’t run into the problem where not one, but two of my Dynasty saves were deleted because of an error that said “Your League has been uploaded due to server issues.” I looked up this issue and multiple people have been have this issue in dynasty mode since the game launch. Evidently EA knows about it, but haven’t done ish to fix it. For those like myself who play this game for Dynasty mode it is devastating to know that at any time your Dynasty can be inaccessible just because of server issues.

Overall/Should you play: EA Sports College Football 25:

The gameplay is dope and a dose of fresh air in the sports game field. It’s not without fault, but it’s a great starting foundation to build off of. To answer the question though I’d say that it depends on who you are as a player. If you are playing the multiplayer modes then the game works fine without loading save issues. If you are playing this game for Dynasty I can’t in good conscience recommend this game until they update they servers. There’s not point in playing the mode, getting invested and then having your Dynasty inaccessible randomly. Overall, EA Sports College Football 25 is a solid entry for die-hard fans of the franchise. Its gameplay has become more realistic, though that comes with a steeper learning curve. While Dynasty Mode shines, Road to Glory still leaves something to be desired. Nonetheless, the return of college football to gaming is largely a win—though it may take some adjusting before it truly feels like a touchdown.