EA College Football 25
While I'm very happy with what I've seen in EA College Football 25, I'm beginning to worry that the game will be negatively affected by the tightrope the developers must walk to comply with all of the rules that come with including NIL athletes.
The attrition system is great in concept, but is it just another area destined to be weakened by the need to develop the game commercially?
Many have been aware of and expressed dissatisfaction with the limitations of player editing, and users hoping for the same level of freedom in player editing as in previous NCAA Football titles will be disappointed.
It hasn't been revealed what will be available to edit about players in the game, but we do know that users won't be able to fully edit NIL athletes.
The WAT system looks great, but if you read the Dynasty Mode blog or watch the deep dive videos, you won't find the word “injury” coming up once from Kirk Herbstreit. The word “injury” comes up only once in the 85-page blog, in this sentence in the Skill Groups section: “Instead of progressing each attribute individually, such as Truck Driving, players progress entire skill groups. Skill groups are collections of related attributes. For example, a running back's Power skill group might include Truck Driving, Strength, Stiff Arm, Toughness, Jumping Power, etc.” Injury.”
It begs the question: can players actually get injured in Dynasty Mode? We know that players' abilities will be hindered when certain parts of their body start to take a beating, but can injuries force players to miss matches?
I am beginning to believe it has been removed. The wording in the Clothing and Team section is a bit more problematic. It reads:
“As explained in the gameplay details, players may incur damage to body parts during gameplay. The more damage a body part sustains, the greater the impact on on-field performance. In addition to on-field gameplay, players also incur wear and tear during SuperSim. Each week, players recover some of the wear and tear. The degree of recovery depends on the degree of damage to a body part. For example, say a running back severely injured his right ankle and only slightly injured his left shoulder in the last game. Next week, the shoulder is expected to be fully recovered and the ankle slightly injured. The ankle will be monitored for the next game.”
There is no mention of the player missing the entire match. A little further down in the blog, the statement is more ambiguous, saying:
“We have set minimum standards that will ensure players recover as the weeks progress to ensure they are not missing for key matches later in the season.”
I looked again at the gameplay details and there was further information suggesting that players may not be allowed to miss games due to injury.
“If a player is severely hurt on a play, he may miss one, two or more plays,” the blog reads, “and it is expected that he will have to endure during the second half of the game.”
Don't get me wrong, I don't want players to suddenly explode on the field or tear their ACL every play, but the possibility of injury and missing games is a part of every sport.
Given the attrition element to the game, leaving out the possibility that injuries can last longer than the current match feels more frustrating than immersive.
Hopefully I'm just reading too much into this concept and injuries work the same way they do in other Franchise modes. If not, and the presence of actual college athletes necessitates to water down the injury concept, I hope there's a slider that can be set across all Dynasty modes to provide a more traditional experience.
Fans should still be excited about college football returning to a video game, but the overall product may have some flaws.
College Football 25 will be released on July 19th for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.
