The EA Sports College Football video game revival is a storyline that most people either care about entirely or none at all, with few options in between.
The video game world, though bigger than ever in 2024, isn’t always for everyone. And there’s certainly a sense of nostalgia for many gamers in their 20s and 30s that harkens back to the old days of playing NCAA 14 around a massive (long, not big) TV in a basement or college dorm room.
But when NIL opened the door for the return of the franchise with current players and stadiums, college football and video game crossover fans knew that this had the potential to be a landmark event. And, fortunately, based on the news from the reveals over the last month that looks to be the case.
EA Sports College Football 25 looks to be bringing back the best elements of what made the old game great without being a re-skinned Madden game. In the video game world, that simply means just taking the same base platform that the EA Sports’ Madden NFL franchise is built on and adding different jerseys, names, and backgrounds. Instead, the game looks to be reinvigorating the genre with new game modes, new in-game features, new play styles, a return to form with formations, and much more.
Many of the new gameplay features were revealed through a new five-minute trailer on Friday, breaking down many of the added concepts that have been developed specifically for the CFB franchise. But while Tennessee fans are thrilled at the idea of setting up Checker Neyland with Dark Mode uniforms, many Vol fans couldn’t help but laugh in disbelief over one of the clips from the trailer.
In a clip showing the new “Stadium Pulse” meter, which increases the difficulty of playing on the road based on the stadium, the clip showed a rattled Nico Iamaleava throwing a bad interception to a Georgia player in a road game in Athens. Another clip shows a rattled Iamaleava throwing a bad pass in a game in Athens, but then shows how the gameplay is successfully done by using a clip of Georgia’s Carson Beck completing a pass in a roaring Alabama stadium.
As Mike Bratton put it on X: “EA Sports not buying the Iamaleava hype.”
EA Sports not buying the Nico Iamaleava hype pic.twitter.com/9f9Fnfu9CM
— SEC Mike (@MichaelWBratton) May 31, 2024
More from RTI: Tennessee Football Featured in EA CFB25 Trailer, Official Release Date Confirmed
Now it’s important to note that people aren’t actually mad over these things. There were no pitchfork mobs heading down Kingston Pike last time I checked. But it was something to smirk at and gave Tennessee fans plenty of fodder online to gripe at the game’s clip choices. That’s an entertaining element of sports and video games, after all.
Tennessee fans got a good kick out of seeing their team losing to Georgia or their quarterback throwing a pick against the ‘Dawgs. I’m sure that’ll get taken care of with a few raging “quick play” games when the game is officially released. On that note, stay tuned as Rocky Top Insider will simulate all 12 of Tennessee’s regular season games when the game does release. That should be fun.
Another clip towards the end of the trailer showed an Alabama quarterback completing a deep touchdown to a Tide receiver in the endzone of Neyland Stadium.
“Accurate? Maybe. Disrespectful? Absolutely,” a Tennessee-fan friend of mine sent me after seeing the clip.
It wasn’t all bad, though. In an early clip from the trailer, a Tennessee linebacker is barreling down on Oklahoma quarterback Jackson Arnold in the redzone, forcing him to throw an incomplete pass on third down. The player in the trailer is Eli Purcell, a transfer LB this offseason, but it’s unclear if that was a generic No. 52 on the field or was actually Purcell. It will be very interesting to see which Tennessee players opted into the game when it is released.
Speaking of, you could see multiple correct Tennessee jersey numbers in the clip, leading to believe that those players did opt into the game. The clip shows Tennessee’s line of (L to R) William Satterwhite, Andrej Karic, Cooper Mays, Javontez Spraggins, and Dayne Davis. Interesting that John Campbell Jr. and Lance Heard aren’t on the clip, but there’s no way to know specifics until the game comes out.
The clip also showed Nico Iamaleava as the quarterback, Dylan Sampson as the running back, and Squirrel White as the slot receiver.
EA Sports College Football 25 video game continues to look like a genre-shaking experience in every sense. The game’s graphics look excellent with the realistic players, environment, stadiums, field, movement, and mascots. A side-by-side comparison of NCAA 14 and College Football 25 on X shows a great look at all the improvements and the gameplay reveal on Friday highlights just how much care and thought was put into the development of this game from a college football fan’s perspective.
The success of the game is still to be determined. But EA stated from the start that this game was going to be dedicated to college football fans and a unique college football experience, and it looks like that’s what’s coming later this July on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.
Here’s a look at the full trailer below:
Iamaleava INT – 2:56
Iamaleava incompletion – 1:50
Alabama completion in Neyland – 3:45
Hit on OU QB – 0:46
One step closer to making game day every day#CFB25 Coming July 19
Pre-Order Now 🔗: https://t.co/h079QzWxaP pic.twitter.com/t2t5r6olzA— EASPORTSCollege (@EASPORTSCollege) May 31, 2024
EA Sports College Football 25 will be available on July 19 with pre-orders already underway. Check out the EA Sports website for more on purchasing options.
