EA Sports College Football 25 Impressions (Andy Staples)

[Steve_OS]

https://youtu.be/XdrD0EJ0tqU

[Pokes404]

I am in wait-and-see mode on all of this. EA has burned me too many times for me to give them the benefit of the doubt anymore. I'm also not fooling myself that this game is going to feel/look completely different than Madden because at the end of the day, it's the same company using the same engine to develop both games. There will be a lot of similarities.


https://youtu.be/XdrD0EJ0tqU?si=tVle6Ghz2ljf2NOK&t=1008


That being said, IF stuff like this guy is saying is true (specifically about the run game in this clip), then maybe EA actually took advantage of the longer runway to release date that they had with this game to make some meaningful changes. Or at least, much more meaningful changes than Madden can realistically make in a one-year development cycle. While I was hoping they would try something completely different with College Football, IF they were able to go in and redo some of the foundational elements that have plagued Madden ... maybe there's some hope for a better gameplay experience.


I'm not going to bank on it. They will have to prove it to me first. But there is at least a glimmer of a reason to be optimistic about getting better gameplay from an EA game.

[jerwoods]

i can get over the no editing if everything works as they say i will have to just keep my ncaa 14

[GoDucks1224]

Quote: Originally Posted by Pokes404

I am in wait-and-see mode on all of this. EA has burned me too many times for me to give them the benefit of the doubt anymore. I'm also not fooling myself that this game is going to feel/look completely different than Madden because at the end of the day, it's the same company using the same engine to develop both games. There will be a lot of similarities. https://youtu.be/XdrD0EJ0tqU?si=tVle6Ghz2ljf2NOK&t=1008 That being said, IF stuff like this guy is saying is true (specifically about the run game in this clip), then maybe EA actually took advantage of the longer runway to release date that they had with this game to make some meaningful changes. Or at least, much more meaningful changes than Madden can realistically make in a one-year development cycle. While I was hoping they would try something completely different with College Football, IF they were able to go in and redo some of the foundational elements that have plagued Madden ... maybe there's some hope for a better gameplay experience. I'm not going to bank on it. They will have to prove it to me first. But there is at least a glimmer of a reason to be optimistic about getting better gameplay from an EA game.

It's quite literally not the Madden code. It is ground up. It's just a shared physics engine, which means shared animations and physics interactions. But none of the legacy crap, or spaghetti code should be in the game at all. Brand new code for every aspect of the game outside of physics interactions =/= Physics engine. They're entirely separate aspects of game development. Battlefield is on this same engine. EA FC. NHL. Etc. If you're expecting it to look like a different sport, even though its the exact same sport, you're in for disappointment. It's still football.

Every single article I've read says it doesn't feel like a Madden reskin. I respect a lot of these journalists. I listen to Andy like 5 days a week because his show is one of the best CFB pods out there. He's not just some random EA shill. So yeah, I believe what these guys are saying. Matt Brown, Andy Staples, Chris Vannini, these guys are respected journalists in the CFB space.

[Pokes404]

Quote: Originally Posted by GoDucks1224

It's quite literally not the Madden code. It is ground up. It's just a shared physics engine, which means shared animations and physics interactions. But none of the legacy crap, or spaghetti code should be in the game at all. Brand new code for every aspect of the game outside of physics interactions =/= Physics engine. They're entirely separate aspects of game development. Battlefield is on this same engine. EA FC. NHL. Etc. If you're expecting it to look like a different sport, even though its the exact same sport, you're in for disappointment. It's still football. Every single article I've read says it doesn't feel like a Madden reskin. I respect a lot of these journalists. I listen to Andy like 5 days a week because his show is one of the best CFB pods out there. He's not just some random EA shill. So yeah, I believe what these guys are saying. Matt Brown, Andy Staples, Chris Vannini, these guys are respected journalists in the CFB space.

These are all people who got invited by EA to an early event to preview their game. That means these are people EA trusts to make them look good and not be too critical of anything. I've learned to be very leery of EA's marketing. They will outright lie to your face if they think it's what you want to hear.


So yes, because of that, I'm not taking any of this at face value. BUT, it is encouraging. And the fact that this game had a much longer development cycle, if they really did utilize it like they say, gives me much more reason for optimism than the yearly stuff the Madden marketing team puts out.


We'll all get to find out in a couple months.

[GoDucks1224]

Quote: Originally Posted by Pokes404

These are all people who got invited by EA to an early event to preview their game. That means these are people EA trusts to make them look good and not be too critical of anything. I've learned to be very leery of EA's marketing. They will outright lie to your face if they think it's what you want to hear. So yes, because of that, I'm not taking any of this at face value. BUT, it is encouraging. And the fact that this game had a much longer development cycle, if they really did utilize it like they say, gives me much more reason for optimism than the yearly stuff the Madden marketing team puts out. We'll all get to find out in a couple months.

Almost every article or video I've seen has mentioned negative aspects of the game. Shown skepticism of other aspects. Included cons from their playtime, or things they were told. The idea that respected real life college football journalists would just be happy to throw away ethics and morals to push an EA agenda is pretty silly. Yes, Chris Vannini, lead writer for college football at The Athletic (owned by the New York Times) would happily risk his journalistic integrity for the sake of a video game he has never covered prior to this. You're right.

Be a skeptic, that's fine. My problem is that the skeptics keep floating that every single person with something positive to say about the game MUST be a shill who is lying to you. That the game MUST be a Madden re-skin, and we're all idiots for believing the multitude of people saying it isn't. That is my problem. It is annoying, and rude to the journalists covering the game. Andy in particular, has been talking about this game every time a news snippet comes out about it, for the last couple years. He wasn't given anything by EA until this trip.

[Solidice]

Most EA games use the Frostbite engine. That doesn't mean every EA game feels or plays the same. It was stated long ago that the college game was not starting with "Madden code" and putting a college skin on it. Now I imagine there will be many things that can be carried over and used, like animations, NFL stadium assets, ECT. And the fact that it is the same studio making the game, there could be some similarities in how they code it. But it's quite literally not a "Madden clone". I guess we will have to find out when it comes out.

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[cubby blue]

It's been 11 years since we had a college football game. I don't really care if it is a madden clone. (Although I don't think it will be) I liked madden 24, but I always enjoyed playing the college game over madden. In fact, I will probably not even purchase madden until the holidays or not even then. My 2 favorite sports games are the show and ea college football.