GAME CLEAR No. 184 -- EA Sports College Football 25

EA Sports College Football 25 (2024, XSX/PS5)

Developer: EA Sports Orlando
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Clear Version: PS5
Clear Platform: PS5
Clear Date: 7/26/24

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Why should I care?
The return of the collegiate gridiron game to the world of video games after an elevent-year hiatus just warms the heart, no matter how flawed it may be.

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What a time to be alive!

It’s been a long ass time since my favorite guilty-pleasure sports sim has been on the market. Among the many downstream effects of the outcome of O’Bannon v. NCAA was the cancellation of EA’s NCAA Football series. EA was in an impossible spot. It was (rightly) determined that their (and the NCAA’s) use of anonymous players with the same stats and general appearance as real players did count as unauthorized profiting off someone’s (many people’s) likeness; meanwhile, the NCAA forbade the payment of players for the usage of their name, image, and/or likeness (NIL) because of their amateurism rules.

Then that all changed after National Collegiate Athletic Association v. Alston, in which it was found that actually that rule is totally illegal.

While the positive and negative effects of both decisions have continued to develop in the ensuing years, the fact that they have allowed the premier (read: only) college football video game to return with the players’ actual NIL and proper compensation for said NIL I think is unequivocally good.

But it is still an Electronic Arts product. It’s buggy as hell, untold man hours of development time was wasted on their “Ultimate Team” (read: gacha) mode, and it’s not as featureful as past editions, but man it’s back. In the years before it was cancelled, it was a near annual tradition for me to spend too much money on the latest edition just so I could play through my dream scenario of taking my beloved alma mater Georgia Tech to the national championship game and bring home the crown.

And in that regard, it delivered. I played my one little season in Dynasty Mode as the Yellow Jackets and hoisted the trophy, having narrowly defeated our most loathsome rival Georgia in a rematch of our regular-season finale (which we also won 🐝). There isn’t really a well-defined one otherwise, so that’s my personal beat condition for these games.

Because of that, I think I treat these games (and this mode in particular) a bit differently than most people. It’s designed to be a multi-year mode in which you build up a football program to eventually contend for a title. Well, I don’t have the patience for that, so I treat each game on the schedule more like a traditional video game level; that is, something to be “beaten” or started over on failure. To be clear, the game supports this naturally. There is no penalty for quitting a game early and restarting it if things aren’t going your way. Because of the sheer personnel advantage the big programs have once you reach the playoffs, it’s a virtual necessity if you want to win the title in year 1 with a team like Georgia Tech (unless you’re playing on the absolute easiest difficulty, in which you can really have your way with any team — to a boring extent). Also, in my defense, I did win most of my games on my first try (and I did take one loss that wouldn’t affect my standing), but my line was that I would not tolerate a loss to Georgia nor, obviously, to any of my opponents in the single-elimination playoff.

Most people I see talking about the mode online seem to approach it in the more methodical, intended way. They take the losses in stride, work on their recruiting, and try to elevate the team to contention over time. I ain’t got time for that shit because I have way better games to play than this brief dalliance with buggy, messy sports fantasy that I indulge in every once in awhile. Let me rain confetti on my stupid virtual football team with the [current year] roster and [current year] schedule, and I’m good.

Besides, the real season’s right around the corner. Here’s hoping the Jackets’ upcoming campaign ends something like this.