EA Sports College Football coming back!

[MJ4H]

Sigh. No PC yet again. Guess I'll stick to College Bowl since it's probably more fun anyway.

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

EA has started releasing rankings, and it is pretty obvious they have some of these just to get people buzzing. Things like having Colorado at number 8 overall on offense and number 20 on defense, while having Ole Miss at number 13 on offense and not in the top 25 on defense.

Kind of had a feeling some teams with some players that may be popular online would get inflated ratings.

[Kodos]

Heh. Interesting. I just noticed that our NCAA 14 OD ran through 2025. So we're almost caught up.

The Ladder History Thread - Front Office Football Central

Ladder Records 2011 Through 2025




Bowl History 2011 Through 2025




Heisman Winners 2012 Through 2025

[GrantDawg]

One of the biggest name hold-outs that was supposedly was not going to sign the NIL deal not only signed but is doing commercials for the game with his uncle.

I’m IN the game �� #CFB25 @EASportsCollege #EAAthlete pic.twitter.com/mgndu7Khuz

— Arch Manning (@ArchManning) July 9, 2024

[SirFozzie]

Here's what gameplay looks like:

https://youtu.be/LfecVtFQDio?si=j2vDdaF-pR8doa91

the only OD I think I'd be able to play well (at least against folks not our age) is a coach-only dynasty.

[GrantDawg]

Well, I got excited for a minute, then got a kick in the teeth. There will be coach mode in the game, BUT it is the same as the crappy coach mode in Madden. So the same old QB holding the ball too long, rarely throwing the ball away, never scrambling, etc. That just sucks. It is ridiculous that they can't make a real coach mode in these games.

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[RainMaker]

The gameplay looks pretty good. I think the only potential concern is that it seems to be tough to play defense. But that's sort of a staple in Madden too. But the game looks really polished.


Twitch is supposedly going to have all sorts of celebrities and players playing the game this weekend.


https://www.twitch.tv/easportscollege

[GrantDawg]

Cancelled my pre-order. Now I'm just depressed. I was so excited for this game, even though I pretty much knew that coach mode would suck if they even have it. I guess if I really get groggy abd I cab fire up NCAA 14 revamped again, but even coach mode on that wasn't great. Better than crappy Madden though.

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[Kodos]

Can't wait for Friday. I wish they would hurry up and get Team Builder out to the public! I've got planning to do!

[GrantDawg]

Not to keep crapping on a game that hasn't even released, but it looks like the sim engine has the same issues the old game had. Way too many upsets, Blue Blood teams falling off the cliff. In one guy's game, a computer controlled University of Charlotte won the national championship in year three. It looks like playing the game for button mashers will be fun, but beyond that, it is not great.

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[sovereignstar v2]

I cancelled my pre-order.

[RainMaker]

That's disappointing. I wonder if it's an issue where small schools are finding it easier to recruit or if ratings are not matting as much in the simming.

[bhlloy]

No! Not an EA Sports game that has a sim mode that doesn’t hold up to basic play more than 2 or 3 seasons in?! /s

Heart over head for many people on this one it seems, myself included.

[GrantDawg]

"That's disappointing. I wonder if it's an issue where small schools are finding it easier to recruit or if ratings are not matting as much in the simming."

I think it is partly just a problem with the sim engine, added to the lack of real diversity in the ratings. The bottom tier teams are over-rated. They should be more than 20 points off the top tier teams. Also, it looks like based on the sims stats, the starters play the whole game, which takes away the real difference between better teams/worse teams, depth. Then you have the basic problem of the RNG. It always seems the most unlikely thing happens way too often.

Btw, another little fail is there are no lineup based substitutes, nor is there a way to sub out the whole first team with the second team. But hey! They have the mascots running in the field! They concentrated on the important things instead of, you know, actual football.

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[Ksyrup]

My daughter has been frothing at the mouth to play this game and following all of the social media about it. Yesterday she showed me some tweets - half-serious, half-joking, I imagine - warning managers to expect a wave of "sick" call-ins tomorrow and Tuesday and to prepare to be short-staffed at work.

I've finally gotten old enough to require PT for the first time in my life (I have a sciatic nerve issue that's flaring up) and had an appointment scheduled for this afternoon. Got a call from the manager that my therapist called in sick with a stomach bug, so I rescheduled for next Tuesday (which sucks, but oh well). So I asked the guy, "Does the therapist play video games?" and he's like, "No, why?" So I explained the whole NCAA24 thing and how people were jokingly saying to expect a rash of call-ins today, and he thought it was hilarious and said he was going to give the guy shit about it when he's back.

So I guess that means he's going to twist me into a pretzel at my PT appointment next week...

[Kodos]

I wish I had a Gamestop nearby. I ordered from Amazon, but they said expect it on Monday. No sir! I guess I'll have to try Walmart or Best Buy on Friday. I took the day off so I could get started immediately.

[SirFozzie]

I was weak and ordered the deluxe edition straight from PS (I hate dealing with discs), so I'll be playing in a few hours.

[GrantDawg]

I cancelled my pre-order, but I will get a ten hour trial through Game Pass. I will be giving it a shot, and will buy it if it impresses.

[GrantDawg]

Ugh. According this, absolutely no changes can be made to real players (can't even change equipment), there is supposed to be a patch that will allow you to change prospect numbers eventually, but you cannot change ratings on any player.
Online HTH is three minute quarters, you must play with the teams preset playbooks and you can't change uniforms. You also can't turn off wear and tear on online games.
Oh, and you can never create a player except for in RTG.

Blocked

[Kodos]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

I was weak and ordered the deluxe edition straight from PS (I hate dealing with discs), so I'll be playing in a few hours.

I can't say that I'm not tempted to do the same...

[HerRealName]

Of all the issues that I've seen, the screenshot of Boston College in the Championship game next year has me the most shook.

[GrantDawg]

Very, very early assessment: Coach mode plays like coach mode always has. QB holds the ball too long. Any type of screen is an automatic sack. I will say they at least run the option without constantly putting the ball on the ground. Qb will run or pitch pretty well. Other than that, it plays like the old NCAA football coach-mode wise. Playing on 4k, it may be because of using a monitor instead of a TV, but it really isn't that exciting to me visually. Doesn't look all that much different than NCAA 14 with Revamped going.

Can confirm no player editing, though it does look like you can adjust equipment. Plus, on my system I had to unplug my internet to get dynasty to work at all. That I am sure will fix after the servers aren't getting hammered.

[GrantDawg]

Oh, and Team Builder is not coming till the full release. There are some teams in the download area already, but they must either be EA created or some early beta people made.

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[Kodos]

Originally Posted by Kodos

I can't say that I'm not tempted to do the same...

EA’s scheme has claimed another victim. Getting ready to fire the game up!

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by HerRealName

Of all the issues that I've seen, the screenshot of Boston College in the Championship game next year has me the most shook.

I'm curious to see more of the sim engine. I think one of the issues in college games is that they don't properly show the gap between elite teams and everyone else.

For example, in Madden, if the top team is 93 and a mediocre team is 82, the 82 ranked team is going to win say 30% of the time like in the NFL. But in college, the top team is going to win 95% of the time against a mediocre team. So if the sim engine doesn't account for a much wider gap between teams, you'll have teams like Boston College get into the CFP (not that far fetched) and just get lucky and win a few games. But in real life, they'd be such an underdog you'd almost never see it.

[SirFozzie]

Ok, one season RTG review:

Started as a mid-tier (3*) recruit, and went to Northwestern, started as QB3, but won a position battle early in the season to move up to QB2, but didn't get to see the field until week 7 when I won the position battle to move up to QB1 after a horrendous game by the then-starter. We won a couple games against low-ranked teams, but we were looking at being home for the holidays, before winning our two last games, one of them being a 25-23 double OT win AT Michigan to finish 7-6. We played Kentucky in the Music City Bowl and won. I decided to enter the transfer portal as I spent most of my time running for my life as our running game was practically non-existent, so teams were lining up to charge at me. Signed with Texas A&M, and won game 1 (against UTSA) 49-28.

Thoughts: Scores are not out of whack (12 minutes, accelerated clock), note the 25-23 game above (we had to drive late to tie the game at 10 in regulation, both teams scored in first OT, the difference in the 2nd OT was that they missed their two point conversion).. Running feels pretty ok (I'm a QB, so I don't control that)

The default view in RTG is tight in to the QB, so you'll definitely have to hold down right trigger and look left and right to see the wideouts (you can change it in the prepay menu, but you have to do it each game)

Ran into two bugs.. one that gave my player a TON of levels (skills etcetera), but that may have just been pre-order bonus stuff, and the other being the aforementioned OT game where they played the animation for handshakes and OT rules AFTER the game, but that was probably because they started with the ball.

It's NCAA Football with PS5 graphics and some upgrades. It's what you want.

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

Ok, one season RTG review:

Started as a mid-tier (3*) recruit, and went to Northwestern, started as QB3, but won a position battle early in the season to move up to QB2, but didn't get to see the field until week 7 when I won the position battle to move up to QB1 after a horrendous game by the then-starter. We won a couple games against low-ranked teams, but we were looking at being home for the holidays, before winning our two last games, one of them being a 25-23 double OT win AT Michigan to finish 7-6. We played Kentucky in the Music City Bowl and won. I decided to enter the transfer portal as I spent most of my time running for my life as our running game was practically non-existent, so teams were lining up to charge at me. Signed with Texas A&M, and won game 1 (against UTSA) 49-28.

Thoughts: Scores are not out of whack (12 minutes, accelerated clock), note the 25-23 game above (we had to drive late to tie the game at 10 in regulation, both teams scored in first OT, the difference in the 2nd OT was that they missed their two point conversion).. Running feels pretty ok (I'm a QB, so I don't control that)

The default view in RTG is tight in to the QB, so you'll definitely have to hold down right trigger and look left and right to see the wideouts (you can change it in the prepay menu, but you have to do it each game)

Ran into two bugs.. one that gave my player a TON of levels (skills etcetera), but that may have just been pre-order bonus stuff, and the other being the aforementioned OT game where they played the animation for handshakes and OT rules AFTER the game, but that was probably because they started with the ball.

It's NCAA Football with PS5 graphics and some upgrades. It's what you want.

This is tempting me to bite...

[Kodos]

I'm really, really bad at this game. I am an interception machine.

[SirFozzie]

Originally Posted by Kodos

I'm really, really bad at this game. I am an interception machine.

I use the classic button mode: (The Athletic explains this)

Passing the ball definitely required an adjustment. The new “revamped” passing game presents a meter over a pass catcher’s head that dramatically impacts how good your throw is. However, the game’s settings do give you the option to switch to classic passing mode, which makes the throwing game easier. “Placement” and “placement & accuracy” passing modes are also available.

[Ksyrup]

I'm sure it was just a coincidence that Xbox decided to email subscribers yesterday that the Game Pass Ultimate cost is going up to $19.99.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Went through some of the lengthy lists of player ratings that are out there.

Dear me, I'm not sure they even tried lol. And that's just after looking at the QB lists, where team after team basically had all their backups (and in some cases their starter) all with the exact same overall.

These rosters wouldn't be any more generic if all the players were named John Smith.

And given the number of missing players from several rosters, either a shockingly high number (somewhere in the 20-25 percent range) chose to not participate/missed the deadline OR EA simply didn't really care to get around to including them.

[SirFozzie]

I will say that the commentary teams were a semi-good idea, having multiple commentator teams would change things up.. if they even sounded like they were calling a game, and not playing-pre canned responses.. of course, most of us turn the commentators off, but it's not ALL roses.

[Passacaglia]

Has anyone tried punting on 2nd down yet?

[Ghost Econ]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

I'm sure it was just a coincidence that Xbox decided to email subscribers yesterday that the Game Pass Ultimate cost is going up to $19.99.

It's more about whatever Call of Duty game that's going to be available day 1. I just bought some cheap codes from India and threw them on my account so I don't have to think about it for a few years.

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Went through some of the lengthy lists of player ratings that are out there.

Dear me, I'm not sure they even tried lol. And that's just after looking at the QB lists, where team after team basically had all their backups (and in some cases their starter) all with the exact same overall.

These rosters wouldn't be any more generic if all the players were named John Smith.

And given the number of missing players from several rosters, either a shockingly high number (somewhere in the 20-25 percent range) chose to not participate/missed the deadline OR EA simply didn't really care to get around to including them.

It seems like this is a problem with overall team ratings too. Bad teams like Ball State are not as bad as they should be. Probably what is causing issues with the sim engine.

Maybe they didn't feel comfortable rating guys low or maybe they just thought having the teams be more equal would encourage people to use more than the same 5 teams online.

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

Maybe they didn't feel comfortable rating guys low or maybe they just thought having the teams be more equal would encourage people to use more than the same 5 teams online.

Makes total sense too. They want as many real players in the game as possible, which means not pissing them off by rating some middling junior DL a 62 or whatever.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Makes total sense too. They want as many real players in the game as possible, which means not pissing them off by rating some middling junior DL a 62 or whatever.

And for whatever reason(s), they're still missing an awful lot more players than I would have ever imagined.

Ga State, as a low end example, is missing more than 2 dozen players ... not counting several transfers AND not counting 3 players on their game roster who are long gone from the program (including one that will start against them in week 2)

These rosters seem a lot similar to the route for the "historic" NBA rosters, where they clearly only worried about doing anything remotely accurate with a handful of big names. And that completely killed any value of me playing with those rosters :/

[Kodos]

Maybe there'll be a roster update on Friday?

For me, the rosters don't matter a whole bunch, but I hope they fix them for the people who do care more.

[RainMaker]

Yeah I was wondering if they will be doing roster updates with this game. Or if it's just going to stay the same right out the box. There are always a few surprises during the season and I feel like the ratings should reflect that.

Roster accuracy baffles me because you can probably hire some folks off a message board who used to do that shit for free that'd be willing to work for peanuts. I think OOTP actually did this.

[GrantDawg]

There are going to be live updates on the roster and ratings.

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[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

There are going to be live updates on the roster and ratings.

The baseline seems so flawed, my confidence in their changes making sense is limited.

[Ksyrup]

My daughter said kicking is horribly difficult and then showed me this:

The game recommending me FGs over 25 yards: pic.twitter.com/PhwkswF3Yx

— The Dan (@lsudan5) July 16, 2024

[RainMaker]

I'm more concerned about the sim engine. Seeing lots of people talk about FCS schools routinely beating P5 schools like Georgia, LSU, etc.

[RainMaker]

I've always wanted a feature in football games where the computer kicks for you and the make/miss based on the kicker's ratings. There was a basketball game that did this with free throws and I loved it. The issue with kicking/free throws in video games is once you master it, you never miss.

[bronconick]

Hilariously, it's upstaging SEC Media Days in social media because a dozen years with no CFB video game has left people a little crazy. Over a million online yesterday, and it isn't fully out until Friday.

[Young Drachma]

I don't care about editing real players, but can you create your own? Always said this was going to be the game that got me to upgrade from PS4 to PS5 (I bought my PS4 2nd hand like 8 or 9 years ago, but don't play much)

[GrantDawg]

You can only create your own in RTH. You can't in any other mode.

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[Kodos]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

I'm more concerned about the sim engine. Seeing lots of people talk about FCS schools routinely beating P5 schools like Georgia, LSU, etc.

I believe there is the option to force wins, if you want to avoid that. Annoying, but a way to avoid too many upsets.

[cartman]

EA Sports 'College Football '25': Inside the internet hype and the game's lasting legacy | Mashable

[Izulde]

I caved and preordered the Standard edition.