Do any of you who are excited for this game “hate” or dislike Madden?

[ripwalk]

To get this out of the way, I am not part of the “it’s a Madden reskin” crowd …

However, I don’t think it can be ignored that the games will share a lot of similarities, whether that’s animations, UI/playcalling, control schemes, game mechanics etc ..

And while it’s not perfect, I also think Madden gets way too much hate and it’s almost trendy just to pile on and act like it’s the worst game series of all time.

This was pretty evident when reading public comments on the recent Madden trailer, with people (unfairly IMO) saying that it’s the worst thing ever and the game is doomed to be terrible (when those who have actually played it seem to have different opinions)

It would be my opinion that someone who “hates” Madden is not going to be in a position to all of a sudden completely love CFB25 …

So I’m assuming (but maybe incorrectly) that people excited to play this game, at the very least enjoy or like Madden too ?

Or are there a lot of people here who hate or dislike Madden at its core, but think CFB25 will actually deviate enough to make you like it ?

[Ghost Of The Year]

I don't hate Madden, but I do hate that it isn't better than it used to be. I'll be buying Madden 25, but it doesn't have to be my main course football any longer. It is good enough to be the catsup that goes with my fries tho.

[TuffJuff]

Very excited for this game. Can’t stand Madden. Madden was probably my favorite video game series growing up on the PS2. Hate what it has become. Madden died the day they got the exclusive rights and didn’t have to try or compete anymore. EA has earned every negative comment they are getting on that Madden reveal trailer

[TripleCrown9]

I don't hate Madden, I just find the atmosphere of pro football in general to be pretty damn boring compared to college football.

Whether it's Madden or real life. Couldn't tell you the last time I watched a full NFL game.

But on Saturdays I'm glued to the TV from the time I wake up.

[ripwalk]

Quote: Originally Posted by TuffJuff

Very excited for this game. Can’t stand Madden. Madden was probably my favorite video game series growing up on the PS2. Hate what it has become. Madden died the day they got the exclusive rights and didn’t have to try or compete anymore. EA has earned every negative comment they are getting on that Madden reveal trailer

If you can’t play Madden and at least enjoy it, I really just don’t see how one could be all in on CFB25.

[Pokes404]

Reporting for duty, Sir!

I have my reasons for being more optimistic about CF25 than the typical EA football release; but to put it simply, I’ve never really cared for EA’s jerky, stiff, unrealistic, slot-machine animation selector gameplay. What kept me around the NCAA Football series longer than Madden was the fact that I found Dynasty mode to be much more fun than Madden’s Franchise (after Madden 05). I also had some fun with Teambuilder. So NCAA offered me more to do outside of actually playing games, which was always the least fun part for me. And on top of all that, I’m just generally a bigger fan of college football than I am the NFL.

I still skipped NCAAs 12 & 13 because I just couldn’t stand the gameplay anymore, but came back to the series and enjoyed NCAA 14 the most that I had in years. That game had the Infinity engine, which while having some wonky moments, I thought delivered a much better gameplay experience than previous offerings. So if CF25 can either improve on Madden’s more recent (very lackluster) gameplay, or offer a really fun dynasty mode , or preferably both; then I’ll be very happy. If it falls short in both categories, I have no problem deleting it off the hard drive and retiring from the series.

[noarmsduck]

I like the on field gameplay for Madden. I hate that they neglect franchise mode which is a joke compared to what 2k does for Association in NBA 2k.

[Hooe]

I think there are three main reasons which cause many to care more about the college football video game than Madden:

1 - Dynasty mode is just a better setup for a video game mode than Franchise. Because players exhaust their eligibility after four seasons, there is an immediate and obvious counterbalance against power creep. Too often in Madden franchise mode, the mode gets stale after the QB of the Future is drafted, the superstar skill position players have signed their extensions, and the concrete of the roster core otherwise solidifies. That player development in Madden is relatively predictable and one-size-fits-all doesn't really help here. The constant roster turnover in college keeps the career mode fresh.

2 - The possibility space of gameplay is larger in college football. Madden 24 is, objectively, the most capable video game adaptation of gridiron football that is currently available to the public. No, it is, and it's beyond debate; it's got more X's and O's faithfully replicated than any other peer which has ever existed in the football video game space can sneeze at. But when one gets on the field in Madden, the talent level at the NFL level is so concentrated and so close together, and the schemes at the NFL level are so homogenized, that 75% of the teams are playing basically the same game over and over, and a lot of the differences in any given contest are just details around the edges. It can get old kinda quick unless you're a total football sicko. Meanwhile in college, depending on what team you pick and whoever is your opponent, you could very well be playing a different sport week to week. You could play against a triple option team one week, a spread option team the next, an Air Raid team thereafter, and a pro style team immediately after that. Different teams can and do utilize different offensive tempos to change up something as fundamental to the experience as calling plays. And if you play multiple teams with the same scheme, even they could be different because the gap between the best player in the sport and the worst player is so much wider.

3 - Football fans generally develop a stronger emotional attachment to college teams than pro teams, and that probably includes the people in charge of making the decisions as to what goes into each game. For everything that it gets right on the field, the game day audio-visual experience of Madden is so so so dry. Once you get past whatever players are on each team's roster, teams in Madden don't really differentiate themselves from one another beyond laundry and stadium. Meanwhile in college, you can see and hear the differences between each team immediately, not only with wilder uniforms and a variety of stadiums but also with the different traditions, fight songs, crowd chants, school records, mascots, and so on. There's just so much more room for EA Sports to show off the passion, enthusiasm, and life of the sport in the college football game, and they obviously do; I don't know if the NFL is just a stick in the mud about approvals, or if Tiburon just cares more about college football than the NFL, but the difference in passion demonstrated by the two games is dramatic.