Florida Gator fan review of EA Sports College Football 25

It's 11 long years since we last had a new college football video game to play. Due to lawsuits dealing with the usage of players, EA Sports discontinued their annual series after 2013. With NIL now the way of the land, we not only have the series back but real players are featured in the game.

But this is EA Sports we are talking about, who haven't had a great track record over the last decade. So is College Football 25 good or is it just another cash grab from the company?

The following is my personal review of the game having played it since the early release came out on Monday.

Florida Football: It's In The Game

When it was officially announced the series was coming back two years ago, I was skeptical. Over the past ten years, EA Sports has turned every series they make into a soulless and unserious game that is more concerned with getting players to funnel money into their Ultimate Team modes than fixing bugs or improving gameplay.

I've played Madden, FIFA/EA FC, and NHL over the past years, and the core problem for all three is an AI system that makes it feel like none of your controller inputs actually matter. The game is going to do what it wants to do, and you are merely a passenger along for the ride.

College Football 25 is by no means perfect, but it is by far their best effort since the Xbox 360/PS3 era.

This being a Florida Gators site, I have exclusively played as the Gators, so all of my gameplay commentary will be based on Florida. But what immediately stands out that wasn't the case during my time with Madden 24 is that star players actually feel like star players without having to rely on gimmicks. If you get Tre Wilson in a one v one matchup, especially against a weaker DB, he will absolutely cook and destroy that DB. Graham Mertz doesn't have random passes that go five yards off target, as is the case in Madden, and Shemar James doesn't let guys go once he wraps up.

But more importantly than stars feeling like stars is that this game will reward you for making good decisions and punish you for bad ones. If you properly read the coverage, there isn't going to be something weird happening on the back end that stops you from having a successful outcome. Likewise, if you make a poor read, the ball is going to wind up in the hands of an opposing DB.

Defense is harder than in Madden, mainly because there is no "suction" into tackles. In other words, in Madden if you get your defender close enough to the ball carrier, the game will do the rest and finish off the tackle with a predetermined animation. I have found, though, playing against the CPU on All-American, that as long as you fill gaps and stay patient rather than sprinting into the ball carrier, it feels mostly balanced and does make it even more satisfying when you do deliver a big hit stick hit.

The gameplay is so much smoother than in Madden, and guys don't feel like they are playing in the mud the whole game. As mentioned, it isn't perfect.

Some of the WR/DB interactions on slants and crossing routes are off as they are prone to stick to each other, pick sixes are far too frequent (and no, it's not just passes into the flat), penalties like roughing the kicker happen too much to the point I already turned that penalty off, and the sim engine in dynasty mode is still far too random, and rankings are random too. I simulated the 2024 season, and Alabama and Clemson made the playoffs with five losses.

But these are minor gripes for an otherwise great game that is, above all else, fun to play. I have stuck mainly with Play Now and Dynasty. There are two online modes: Road to CFB Playoffs and Ultimate Team. Most will probably use the former of those two modes because that allows you to play as the Gators and doesn't force you to have Joe Burrow as your QB like in Ultimate Team.

Road to Glory is also back, though not having the ability to start your career in high school is a bummer.

In the end, this game is worth buying if you are looking for not just a college football game, but a football game period that doesn't suck.

I give the game an eight out of ten.