Years of waiting for this game… and it’s a MESS.
First off let me start by saying I’m a huge CFB fan and loved the NCAA Football franchise for years! The game is a big part of my childhood! The game was never perfect but it had depth… and in ways was much more realistic and playable in every single way.
Not this game. The presentation, graphics, player movement, and a couple other things maybe are solid. After that the game goes down hill real fast. The gameplay itself is all over the place. When a player gets the ball the game can be fun. Animations are pretty smooth and there’s a variety of moves to be made. But that’s assuming you can get the ball to a player. There’s never any time to throw. Receivers drop easy passes. AI picks up on all your plays. DBs teleport to INTs. Late games turn into a chaotic crumble for you and some miracle for the CPU team. O-Line can’t ever block really gets me though. I could go on about the clunky and buggy gameplay but that’s the gist of it.
Now after the gameplay is where the game really takes a turn for the worse. At least to me. Limited game modes. No mascot games. Simulation is random, with weird schools making the CFP and 9-2 teams being ranked #1 constantly. Your best players always get hurt when you simulate. Player progression throughout the season and even off season is too slow and no players develop into anything above a 94 rating.
Next would be the customization of the game. It’s extremely limited. No creating a player!? WTH!? I know all about NIL. But cmon EA you CAN figure out how to put that back in the game. No editing players the way you should be able to. Plain and simple I should have full customization of everything in the game and it feels like EA put shackles on us with this product. Can’t even create recruits anymore and set up/view pipelines. No exporting draft classes to madden! Could go on and on. I know it seems like I’m nitpicking but these are all things the game USED TO HAVE! They’ve literally given us a lesser product and we just accept this BS!
Then there’s RTG which is absolutely a DISGRACE! No HS experience? I used to create my real HS season and even play in the actual stadium where the state championship was at! Again EA used to have this in the game! No incentives for earning coaches trust. Can’t call my own plays & no audibles. No real other perks. I get subbed out every other play and my 99ovr RB Ends up splitting half the carries with the backup 75ovr RB. Then there’s just nothing interesting or new about RTG. You’d think with modern gaming technology and software if they actually cared about the game, us fans, and the overall experience we’d have ALL the things I’ve mentioned and maybe even some cool cut scenes (2k my player). Let me stop by just saying why isn’t RTG like 2k my player? It could be so amazing and they CHOOSE to be lazy. Imagine walking your RTG player around campus going into team stores, interacting with students, playing cool online 7v7 games in cool places like the beach, parks, or wherever!
Until we boycott and collectively come together to force their hand we will never get a good product and what we deserve. I know it’s a lot. If you made it to the end thank you and I hope my detailed review could actually get someone’s attention and we can spark some change and a movement with this game!