College Football Video Game '25

[Riddickulous]

Man the playoff rankings are bizarre. In my current dynasty, 7-5 Alabama is the 8th seed and a lock to make it in since they're missing the SEC title game.

 

[dublinirish]

 

[ulukinatme]

I ran with Arizona's offensive playbook last night. It says it's Pro, but there's definitely a ton of Spread/Shotgun in there. Nevertheless, it does feel like an improvement over the ND/LSU playbooks, at least as far as the Running Game goes.

There's a lot more options on types of runs. There's more Traps, there's Smashes and Isos, there's Counters (There's some in the ND/LSU playbooks too, but very few), there's more outside plays. They've got a lot more Speed Options, and even a Triple Option. While I feel like the Read Option logic and blocking isn't very good, I do like the Speed Option setups. If the defender goes for the QB and you time your pitch just right you can often get an easy 5-10 yards a carry (Provided your WR on the outside gets his block). There's a lot of other trick plays, stuff like HB Direct Snaps, a few Wildcat plays, and a lot of Jet Sweep options that the other playbooks don't have.

Basically you just have a lot more options with that playbook, and I was having more success running the ball in general. I didn't dive as deep into the Passing trees, but a lot of it was similar to what I saw in the other Spread playbooks.

 

[BeauBenken]

I talked about some Recruiting strategy before...

You seem to have studied the recruiting system pretty well. I'm curious, it appears like I would get more influence from a recruit by doing the "Contact Friends/Family" + "DM the Player" + "Search Social Media" than I would from "Send the House" despite the latter requiring more hours (50 compared to 45 for the three combined). I feel this cannot be right but looking at the influence arrows from doing the actions you usually get 4 from "Contact Friends/Family", 2 from "DM the Player", and 1 from "Search Social Media" while the "Send the House" only shows 5. Is the game just full of shit and sending the house is better, or can I really be rewarded for spending less hours on guys?

 

[LifelongFan]

If you are using the ND playbook, Shock and Nod in the 5 wide shotgun set is easy cheese. The slot or the tight end will be open against any zone, and Evans is good enough to beat man as well. Really I've only seen a Cover 2 Man be able to stop going to one of them. It kind of ruins the game but I do plan on using it almost exclusively against USC to make it a realistic score of 105-7.

 

[ulukinatme]

If you are using the ND playbook, Shock and Nod in the 5 wide shotgun set is easy cheese. The slot or the tight end will be open against any zone, and Evans is good enough to beat man as well. Really I've only seen a Cover 2 Man be able to stop going to one of them. It kind of ruins the game but I do plan on using it almost exclusively against USC to make it a realistic score of 105-7.

The Slot Fade seems pretty effective against a variety of defenses. Sometimes that Slot is wide open against Zone if you give it a second.

 

[ulukinatme]

You seem to have studied the recruiting system pretty well. I'm curious, it appears like I would get more influence from a recruit by doing the "Contact Friends/Family" + "DM the Player" + "Search Social Media" than I would from "Send the House" despite the latter requiring more hours (50 compared to 45 for the three combined). I feel this cannot be right but looking at the influence arrows from doing the actions you usually get 4 from "Contact Friends/Family", 2 from "DM the Player", and 1 from "Search Social Media" while the "Send the House" only shows 5. Is the game just full of shit and sending the house is better, or can I really be rewarded for spending less hours on guys?

Yeah, I'm putting a lot of focus on the Recruiting since the system is a bit different from the past. I used to just spam Send the House in the beginning. You may be right that the Family/DM/Social Media approach is more effective, I haven't tested that yet. I do know that Pipelines definitely matter, maybe more so than in previous games.

Right now I'm trying to unlock "Hard Sell" as soon as possible for every recruit. This usually means getting to Top 5 I think, or until roughly half of the recruit's likes/dislikes are revealed. Once I get 2 green checkmarks, and Hard Sell is unlocked, I drop everything and switch to Hard Sell (I occasionally DM them also for extra influence if it's a tight race). Once you have 2 checkmarks you can typically use process of elimination to figure out what the 3rd checkmark is for the Ideal Pitch. Hopefully you have all A's and/or B's for the Ideal Pitch, and if not that's where the Sway can come into play. Of course, Sway can also be used to game the system a bit as previously mentioned, but sometimes it's just a waste of a week (Especially if it fails). Right now I seem to have between a 66-75% chance to Sway a recruit as long as there's at least one green checkmark in the Sway's new Ideal Pitch.

 

[ulukinatme]

I was checking out a Recruiting video and I just found something else out: Pipelines are even more useful than I thought.

So, anytime you add a new Recruit to your board you'll automatically unlock 2 of their interests/dislikes the next week without doing anything I guess. The Youtuber was doing some testing as they were trying to figure out what combination of Actions would unlock the most Likes/Dislikes the quickest. As it turned out the answer was complicated. It seems that the Prospect's initial Interest in your program AND your school's Pipeline strength relative to the Prospect will determine how fast their Likes/Dislikes get unlocked on your board. Obviously throwing more hours at them will help, but it explains why some recruits fly up a school's board while others take longer, even when said school has strong grades across the board.

 

[GowerND11]

I’ve noticed on a few of the spread sets with 5 wide that I can’t get 5 WRs on the field. I even try formation sub, but it won’t let me sub my RB out for a 4th or 5th WR (won’t let me put a WR for TE either).

What’s the point of going 5 wide if a RB is running the routes?

 

[BeauBenken]

I’ve noticed on a few of the spread sets with 5 wide that I can’t get 5 WRs on the field. I even try formation sub, but it won’t let me sub my RB out for a 4th or 5th WR (won’t let me put a WR for TE either).

What’s the point of going 5 wide if a RB is running the routes?

Have you set your SLWR in your depth chart as a WR?

 

[Veritate Duce Progredi]

Has EA hinted at a coming SU? Companies rarely hint about such things, instead waiting until it's completely defined/packaged/tested.

 

[Jimmy3Putt]

I just turned it on and am getting an update.


Btw, I haven’t golfed since last Wednesday. I’ve missed 5 straight rounds now for this stupid game.

 

[FightingIrishLover7]

How many of you guys have bathed or seen a woman since this game has come out?

 

[Jimmy3Putt]

Does anyone else run better with Price than Love???

JL is nice to bounce one outside, but JP is a workhorse!!!!

 

[ulukinatme]

I just turned it on and am getting an update.


Btw, I haven’t golfed since last Wednesday. I’ve missed 5 straight rounds now for this stupid game.

After the update last night I threw 5 straight picks. I think they changed something.

 

[SDIrishFan]

How many of you guys have bathed or seen a woman since this game has come out?

I'm married, neither of those things happen anyway.

 

[GowerND11]

Have you set your SLWR in your depth chart as a WR?

All my receivers are set in my depth chart. The issue arises that in game formation subs won’t let me make that receiver in a 5 wide set a WR, I can sub Price in for Love, but not Faison in for Love in a 5 wide set. If that makes sense.

 

[ndfanatic78]

So disappointed I wasted money on this game.

 

[ulukinatme]

So disappointed I wasted money on this game.

Really? It's that bad for you?

 

[GowerND11]

So I’m currently beating up on BC, and the game actually automatically updated my depth chart (ie put the back ups in). That’s great and all, but why can’t I just have the mass sub option myself.

 

[ndfanatic78]

Really? It's that bad for you?

Yea totally sucks and I’m not wasting anymore time trying to figure it out. I have played almost all the other NCAA football games and none took me the time to get everything setup and figured out like this game. That and I have other things in life that I would rather spend my time on then wasting hours just to get recruiting set up. I SIM’ed a whole season and the computer didn’t even recruit a single player. Pretty fucking stupid.

 

[GowerND11]

Yea totally sucks and I’m not wasting anymore time trying to figure it out. I have played almost all the other NCAA football games and none took me the time to get everything setup and figured out like this game. That and I have other things in life that I would rather spend my time on then wasting hours just to get recruiting set up. I SIM’ed a whole season and the computer didn’t even recruit a single player. Pretty fucking stupid.

I mean… yeah of course the computer didn’t. That’s your job as the person running the dynasty.

There’s a learning curve with this game. There’s tons that can be modified, streamlined, simplified, or added in (that was always in previous editions but you know… EA).

That said, I think the actual gameplay is pretty darn good. RPOs work as intended. The depth of pre snap reads on both sides of the ball is welcoming. It’s visually a nice looking game. As the first iteration in a long time, I’d give it a 7.1 out of 10.

 

[ndfanatic78]

I mean… yeah of course the computer didn’t. That’s your job as the person running the dynasty.

There’s a learning curve with this game. There’s tons that can be modified, streamlined, simplified, or added in (that was always in previous editions but you know… EA).

That said, I think the actual gameplay is pretty darn good. RPOs work as intended. The depth of pre snap reads on both sides of the ball is welcoming. It’s visually a nice looking game. As the first iteration in a long time, I’d give it a 7.1 out of 10.

I’m glad you’re enjoying it. I hope you keep enjoying it. I do not and am done with it. Like I said I have better things to do: Peace

 

[ndfanatic78]

I mean… yeah of course the computer didn’t. That’s your job as the person running the dynasty.

There’s a learning curve with this game. There’s tons that can be modified, streamlined, simplified, or added in (that was always in previous editions but you know… EA).

That said, I think the actual gameplay is pretty darn good. RPOs work as intended. The depth of pre snap reads on both sides of the ball is welcoming. It’s visually a nice looking game. As the first iteration in a long time, I’d give it a 7.1 out of 10.

And in the other games if one simulated the season the computer would recruit for you. I used to do it all the time. I also never had setup or manipulate the game to make it playable.

 

[ulukinatme]

So I’m currently beating up on BC, and the game actually automatically updated my depth chart (ie put the back ups in). That’s great and all, but why can’t I just have the mass sub option myself.

Madden does this too. I want to say the last NCAA did it too, but there was an option to sub 1st/2nd string back in manually if you wanted to pad stats. I don't see an option how to do it now though.

What really gets my goat is sometimes Madden/NCAA will both reset your Depth Chart to default and undo a shit ton of work. For example, if I've got a Freshman QB that's 1 point OVR lower than a Junior or Senior QB, I'm going to start the Freshman every time since he's clearly more talented and I can build him into a superstar. Sometimes EA will just randomly reset my damn Depth Chart changes though and I have to go back in and do it all again. What really sucks is I may not notice for a series or two, and any Depth Chart changes in the middle of a game aren't saved once the game is over, so you have to do them all again on the Dynasty main screen. EA, quit fuckin' with my Depth Chart!

 

[ulukinatme]

And in the other games if one simulated the season the computer would recruit for you. I used to do it all the time. I also never had setup or manipulate the game to make it playable.

I'm pretty sure there's an option to turn on Auto Recruiting. It's in the settings I believe.

 

[GATTACA!]

And in the other games if one simulated the season the computer would recruit for you. I used to do it all the time. I also never had setup or manipulate the game to make it playable.

It’s a setting you decide when you start the dynasty that allows the computer to recruit for you. You’re angry at the game for something you missed.

 

[IrishLion]

Anybody else struggling to do anything at all on defense? Got my ass handed to me by A&M to start my dynasty.

Can’t figure out how to make open field tackles, and my DB’s weren’t within 5 yards of the A&M receivers any time the Aggies threw more than 10 yards down the field.

Then I couldn’t get a stop on run defense when I finally closed the gap a bit.

Sheeeeesh

 

[IrishLion]

Also, I’m testing out 8 min quarters w/ clock runoff to 25 seconds… games still feel extremely short. Might have to go to 7 min quarters with no runoff

 

[Jimmy3Putt]

I play 10 min with accelerated clock to 15 seconds.