EA Sports
Ten years. Ten entire years since the last college football game was released. Do you even know who was on the cover of that game? Denard Robinson, who is now 33 years old and spent just five seasons in the NFL with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
The world has evidently changed quite a bit in the decade since — we don’t need to delve into the usual discourse about shifting politics, technologies, and so on — but what hasn’t is that successful football teams are built from the inside out, which is an idea that College Football ’25 embraces: running the ball is your way home and passing is challenging (in a good way).
Beyond just the way in which football games are won in College Football ’25, the highly-anticipated EA Sports release proves itself to be a “man’s game” in various other aspects: the recruiting process in Dynasty is meticulous, strenuous, and competitive: just like in real life. Even kicking is as challenging as it’s ever been.
The stadiums and atmospheres feel lived in and alive, the gameplay up-tempo and momentum-based, all reminiscent of what it’s actually like to experience the sport in this country.
Perhaps best of all, College Football 25 has no restart game feature, continuing a strategic decision that the franchise first made in 2011. Comparatively, two of EA’s other popular sports franchises, Madden and FIFA (now called EA FC) both feature Restart Game options.
While something like the lack of a restart button may seem insignificant, it imbues each individual game you load up with the significance that should come with something you’ve waited a decade for. Losing a game hurts the way it would for the college football team you root for in real life — there’s no going back. You want to go undefeated? Better luck next year.
It’s that authentic challenge that separates College Football and Madden, which both feel as though you’re playing more so than trying to win. College football is about winning, and that’s what the first video game about in a decade has achieved.