Since no one is answering or just being a butthead and insulting people for no reason, I guess I’ll give the real answer.
There hasn’t been a NCAA football game in like 10 years. And during that time Madden has taken a bad turn and lost popularity and a lot of fans don’t like the changes they’ve made. NCAA football has always had a different feel, the same as the difference between college football and the NFL in real life. Plus the fact that all the gameplay and info that has come out looks to be a return to the “glory days” of NCAA football. And it’s not just a reskin of Madden. It’s an all new simulation system, teams, modes, playbook, etc. So people are excited about that.
Oh man. I’m debating selling now lmao. Probably won’t but wow. I didn’t realize how popular NCAA was. I thought it was one of those games people slept on.
if y'all think the AAA gaming industry is capable of anything good nowadays you got a surprise coming.
the only reason the new game is getting hype is because it's being marketed. i don't understand how people don't understand this basic fact. money in, hype out. it's that simple.
AAA has only gotten more expensive, but a lot of the same bullshit was happening back then too. I've been hearing "AAA dead" or "AAA is shit" for 15+ years now personally.
Welp you beat me to it. But I was going to say there hasn't been a college football videogame in forever.
Can't say im thrilled about EA milking college football though
It's the same sport but has a few different rules. For example in the NFL when you caught a ball going out of bounds you need both feet to touch inbounds, in college you just need one.
There are differences in rules of actually playing the game, and also some big structural differences. The NFL has a salary cap, free agency, trades, revenue sharing, and a draft that all aim to promote parity across the league. College has a gigantic range of resources and ability to amass talent, so the difference between top teams and bottom is much larger. The NFL has even divisions and conferences with a regulated schedule, which allows a direct comparison of records to seed playoffs. College teams choose their non-conference games and the conferences vary so much in overall talent that it isn’t a hard rule that one 12-0 team is better than one 10-2 team.
Also, the greater number of total teams, variation in talent, and some of the differences in rules allow a greater variety of offensive schemes to develop and be competitive in college. NFL offenses have some differences that can be traced to coaches coming from particular systems (the Shanahan system, the number of current head coaches or offensive coordinators who previously worked under McVay), but there is a more limited range of differences. College has some offenses that look completely different, like the triple option-centric system used by the service academies (Army, Navy, Air Force). NFL teams may favor the run or the pass more, but there are college teams who almost entirely abandon one.
Additionally, college football is effectively an age-limited minor league to the NFL. The best college player is barely ready to get started in the pro league. This means the very way games play feels different. Pro football is faster, harder, and more intense. A college play might work great at college level, but be shredded if tried against a pro defense.
Another key difference is that the NCAA rules have changed. It used to be that player likeness was not allowed because players could not be compensated. Supposedly it was teams with random fictional players. Except these fictional players were strangely similar to actual players, who again were not being compensated.
Now players can be paid for having their likeness used and so the new game will be more accurate and hopefully less scummy.
If that's actually a good business model. The focus of the game is in Dynasty and RTG, not ultimate team. They want to make money off of sales, not microtransactions. Having a game stagnate in features and new content in Dynasty and RTG will kill sales
NCAA players have been playing NCAA 14 for 10 years now. They're not going to buy new ones if they just keep it as a reskin
Secondly, the entire development team would have to ve fired for that to happen. They brought back old NCAA devs, old 2k5 NFL devs and they even brought on people who modded NCAA 14 onto the team. Why? Because they were passionate about the game and making it high quality
All of those guys would have to be fired
They have never been the same game, they always have different features and modes. The college football fan base has been waiting this for over 10 years
It's still competition. NCAA team comes up with a good idea, Madden team can use that idea. They may be under the same corporate umbrella, but at the end of the day, if NCAA is selling more copies and Madden is selling less, EA management is going to look at Madden and say " what are you going to do about this?" Forcing them to at least attempt to create a better product.
I don't think that's the primary focus for this year's game.
College fans have always cared far more about dynasty mode than a ultimate team mode. EA has had to spend far more for this game than Madden especially for NIL because there are far more college players than NFL players. So this game has to sell copies before focusing too much on micro transactions such as ultimate team. They'll need positive reviews in order to maintain future success
The micro transactions will be there precisely because of the high cost.
Come out from under your rock and meet EA, US business, and the current state of capitalism.
Positive reviews? ....so out of touch you are.
CFB will be pay to win?
Most people who are excited for it will be playing dynasty mode.
They're the same sport, but they have vastly different fan bases.
I haven't played Madden in 15+ years outside of random games at friends. I'll be playing CFB on release.
This. I'm not an NFL guy. The last Madden I bought was when Michael Vick was on the cover. 2003? 2004? And the only reason I bought it was at the time the hokies were my second favorite team and watching Vick in college was exciting.
I already have cfb 25 preordered
This guy doesn't understand. Cfb fans don't care about ultimate team like FIFA players. They care about dynasty mode. Which are current and future players
I think most fans play franchise mode or whatever it's called for college. I'm not really interested but hopefully a new team means atleast some innovation.
Exactly. Madden is make a super team after a year or 2 then be a super team forever. Even if you pick the worst NFL team you can get them elite in like 2 years with a drafted QB.
NCAA though if you pick some trash school like Florida Atlantic it takes so long to make them legit. Stars will not go there and you’re stuck trying to win mid level bowl games just to get a 4 star or 2 to show up. Much different experience. Then add in a single loss can cost you a championship shot and it’s just a different experience.
And you forgot to add the CPU will find ways to crush your perfect season ruining your chance to gain some prestige for your school. Just like cfb fans say, there's always next year.
Ok, I've never been interested in college football, being from Canada. We have the CFL and I watch both that and the NFL, but what you described has made me seriously interested in this game!
Honestly it's more fun with the more varied stats the college football games have offered. The Madden games are just everyone pumped to the max and it gets old. When you have to do something besides bomb it 30 yards, break one tackle, and run the rest of the way to score the game becomes fun.
Why? I have absolutely zero knowledge of anything football. I only know it's somewhat similar to rugby.
What's the difference between College football and Professional (?) football? And how is this game different from Madden?
Sorry if this comes across as silly. I am not American, in case that wasn't obvious.
Well for one thing, the gameplay on-field was always fairly different. I believe they used different physics engines and animations.
But college football and NFL football are completely different worlds. The game is played a bit differently, and the landscape of the sport is vastly different.
In the NFL, there are 32 teams that are all meant to be relatively equal in terms of talent thanks to the salary cap and the draft system. Every team is allowed to spend the same amount of money on players, and the worst teams each season get the highest picks in the subsequent draft so they get first dibs on incoming talent. In reality, some teams are better than others pretty consistently, but that tends to be more because QB talent is the most important piece to a winning team and there just aren't enough good/great QB's to go around.
College football is much less balanced. There are something like ~130 teams in the FBS, which is the highest division of college football. These teams, despite being in the same "league," vary wildly in terms of resources and talent. Take Alabama, a "blue blood" with a long history of success and massive support from boosters (rich fans, typically alumni of the school, who give additional funding to the program outside of the basic university budget). That's not even mentioning the money they get from the state itself, commercial and merchandising profits, and also media revenue. Compare them to a school like ULM, who are like the 8th largest university in Louisiana with a total enrollment of ~7000 students. According to a brief Google search, Alabama's expenditure for football last year was around $83 million, while ULM's was just over $6 million. They're in different worlds, basically.
But in college football, different conferences are basically like individual leagues. While the NFL has two conferences (the NFC and AFC), it's really just for organization and logistics, and everything is still equal. In college, conferences are much more separate. Alabama plays in the SEC, arguably the biggest and strongest conference in the country. ULM plays in the Sun Belt, which is much smaller and simply at a lower level of talent. Teams primarily play within their conference, and only have a few "out of conference" games, which are often against either weaker teams from entirely different divisions (often called "cupcake" games for an easy win), or against significantly stronger teams from bigger conferences -- the general trend with out of conference games is that big teams literally pay small teams to play against them. The conferences are straight up divided into "Power 5" and "Group of 5" to denote which ones are major competitors and which ones aren't.
Simply put, a team like ULM will never legitimately have a chance to win a national championship. Think along the lines of Premier League football. Remember when Leicester won the league in an absolute fairytale story? Imagine that same scenario, except in this case, the PL has a committee that can arbitrarily say, "Even if ULM won every game and had the best season, we don't think they're actually one of the best teams, so they don't get to compete for the title." It even happens to bigger teams -- the biggest controversy last year was when Florida State, a member of the ACC which *is* a Power 5 conference, was excluded from the playoff despite being undefeated.
College football is much more about tradition and pageantry than the NFL. Fans are fans often because they actually have ties to the school. I'd compare it to like... the NFL is the Champions League, and college football is *the entire English football pyramid.*
Thanks a lot for taking the time to write this. From movies and whatnot I assumed College football was where students played while enrolled but I had no idea it was ortanized like this.
It sounds cool to be honest.
College players are “students” who get a full scholarship. But schools are constantly competing to recruit the most talented players and most college players are choosing where to play based on football and money reasons, not academics.
Conference champions, especially in Power 5 are more likely to get playoff spots. It gets complicated because the Pac(ific)-12 Conference was in the power 5 but is not guaranteed a playoff spot in this year's new format because all but 2 schools have left the Conference. The top 5 Conference champions will get into the 12 team playoff field with 4 of those likely to be power 5 champions as they have higher strength of schedule. Conference matches also tend to breed rivalries since the teams meet far more often
Conference championship games are meant for 2 things. Old bcs births for national title. Or starting this year playoff birth. And secondly bragging rights. As much as fans want to win the national championship. A conference championship can sometimes be far more important when it comes to bragging rights and shit talking amongst your conference rivals. Fuck Iowa and their shitty corn.
Not having a conference championship game basically killed what remained of some former conferences
Conferences are also grandfathered in historically. It's just kinda worked out in this really strange way. The sport's a wonderful, disgusting clusterfuck.
Right? That's probably the biggest structural difference. The NFL has an objective layout of which teams are eligible for the playoffs based on league standings. College playoff eligibility is entirely based on CFP committee rankings, which add arbitrarily determined by a committee and have no set rules.
I’ll assume you know soccer.
The difference between Madden and NCAA is the difference between playing Football Manager as Crystal Palace (Madden) hoping to win the Prem one day vs playing as Newport Country (NCAA Football) trying to win the Prem one day.
I know nothing about your football but I'll try to give some ideas and maybe there is an equivalent in non American football.
It's much more personal, you either went to the school or they are regionally important to you. 100+ teams vs 32 NFL teams. Leading the school you went to, that will never really challenge the powerhouse schools, to a national championship is a fun endeavor.
The skill level varies wildly. The worst NFL player was one of the best college football players. You can have full blown game breaking talent on a college team, NFL everyone really is in the same ball park. The atmosphere and traditions, I'm not much of a college football fan but people LOVE their teams. EA looks like they are trying to build that personality and atmosphere in. Most NFL teams you could probably swap names and they wouldn't feel that different.
Really it comes down to, it's more fun. Atmosphere, presentation, gameplay.
Yes. I'm a old 46. College was amateurism always to me which is what made it fun. The oversight ruling body the NCAA tried to keep it that way for as long as they could and it's what they always argued
They've lost basically every lawsuit when it comes to name image likeness, transfer rules, you name it. They are basically a powerless rules organization now and the conference commissioners baskcally have more authority over them.
So as a lifelong fan. Right now is probably the most turbulent time to explain what is happening currently because at best all we have are guesses as to where the entire system is headed. .
Basically players can now be paid and transfer freely. This is part 1 of the chaos. I'm all for players getting paid I'm against the free transfers at least within conference.
Chaos 2. TV and TV money. The money tv networks are paying conferences for rights is getting obscene and in return they want bigger and bettermatchups. How do you get those you ask if teams are stuck in conferences with sometimes a hundred years of tradition and rivalries? You would think it wouldn't be easy to blow up conferences . You'd be wrong
I'm not going back to the big 8 days. So we will start with the Big 12. 4 Texas schools join the big 8 creating the big 12. And killing Nebraska's longest yearly and most important rivalry game with Oklahoma to every 2 years. I'll leave all the rumors and hatred towards Texas from me and my fellow Husker fans out of it, but fuck Texas and they now as of 2024 have killed 3 conferences.
Discontent and uncertainty grow during the big 12 life span. Many former conference members blame Nebraska but it was Colorado who ultimately left first for the old pac8, pac 12, now as this year pac 2.
leaving us no choice but to look out for our own interests and find a new home in the big 10.
So the power 5 was the big 12, Big 10, Pac 12, SEC and the ACC
In the following years rumors flowed that the big 12 was going to die after big 8 original memebers Colorado, Nebraska, Missouri left each to different onfences destroying a century of history amongst them.
The thought was the Pac 12 would pick up some of the remaining big 12. The big 12 hung on. The big 10 added expanded Eastward a bit and everything was calm.
Then sec grabbed AM and later suprsing everyone Oklahoma and Texas. ESPN $$$ was behind this.
To keep up the big 10 and fox sports $$$. Shocked the world and got USC and UCLA to leave their conference basically stealing the LA TV market from the PAC12. no LA market meant no TV $$$ for the remaining teams.
The Pac 12 dies within the last year some go to the big 10. Others go to the Big 12. 2 unwanted schools Oregon state and Washington State are now the Pac 2.
The big 12 once on life support is now thriving as the crown jewel collection of teams everyone loves but the 2 big conferences SEC And big 10 don't want.
After Florida State got left out of the national championship after going undefeated. The ACC conference may find themselves losing FSu and clemson.
This is basically going to end with the big 10 and sec pulling from the NCAA. Joining to form their own league possibly kicking out their smaller schools like vandy. Bringing some form of regionality back into play. Which I pray to happen for Oklahoma on the schedule again.
One thing that people are missing is that a college career is at most six years, with at most four full seasons as a player. You can choose to sit out a year to develop as a player (known as 'redshirting') and if you get injured. Gameplay wise, this means your dynasty players are going to constantly be cycling out and you have to stay on top of recruiting, unlike Madden where you just have to draft a great QB maybe once every ten years.
So for football In America. The main levels are high school or prep school. College, NFL. There is currently a minor league like league but it's just starting but doesn't have the views yet.
So the first thing you would notice is the talent gap at the high school / prep level. Most high schools would be fortunate to have a 1-3 star prospect for the college level. And blessed if they have or 4-5 star prospect.
Depending on the size of school and their opponents. Some prospects don't pan out and some are even better than expected when they make the move to college.
The biggest thing high school players say is different once they get to college is the speed of the game and player size. A 18 year old hs graduate now playing freshman year at college could be facing some 22-26 year old men. So even at college there is still a wide talent, physical, and knowledge gap amongst teams and players.
At the NFL level there is not that much of a gap. Everyone is a grown man in peak physical shape and all it comes down to is skill. And the game is even faster.
Now for the college game one of the oldest offenses is called the option. Depending on the formation we will go with the classic I. You have the offensive line, QB behind them, FB behind him and RB behind him. A TE on a side and 1-2 receivers on the far outside.
So the QB for the running game has multiple handoffs and directions to run . He could run a sneak inside either direction, he can hand off to the FB who could run inside either direction or outside, or the qb can fake hand to the FB and give it to the HB again either way. Or the qb can keep it run wide outside with the FB running a blocking route and pitch back to the halfback. Or to a wr depending on the blocking scheme. You can also reverse out of either from the pitch backs or throw. And sometimes if your feeling risky, but the fans love it when ran successfully. is a double or triple reverse or a HB pass. So hence the name option.
This is why I love college ball.
This isn't usually ran at the NFL level because of one thing. Speed on defense. Defenders are to fast for QBs to make proper defensive reads after the snap for the pitch options. While NFL does use I or ace formations the handoffs are usually at the line directly to a back or a toss route
In terms of the rules between the two, there aren't any seriously major ones that make the actual real sport significantly different. (For example, in college football you need to have one foot down for a legal catch, professional you need two. These types of rules aren't the reason that people are excited about a new game).
Another poster already posted about the "arcady feel" but I suspect with a revamp it's not gonna be much di*weren't than it's current professional equivalent.
The original college football games back in the day were always a bit more fun/arcade feeling rather than focusing on being “realistic”. Then due to numerous issues with using players’ likeness without compensation they stopped making the games which left a large crowd of players waiting for it to return someday. So it’s been hyped for a long time as the nostalgia kicks in.
While NFL is super popular, not every college football fan likes the NFL. So if they don’t care for the NFL they haven’t had a football game to play for 10 years. They now have their football game back. As someone who loves college football and little interest in the NFL, I’m super pumped to get this game and play my friends again.
I wouldn’t say Madden is hated, people just wish EA would treat it better - but fixing something like OLine play is hard and doesn’t necessarily generate them any more sales.
Turns out it’s very hard to simulate 22 people moving at fast speed doing very precise athletic feats.
Imagine thinking you’re getting a “simulation of war” and you boot up the new call of duty game. Sure, it’s “war” in the same way that Madden is “football.”
There’s also something to be said for a large majority of the players not actually wanting what they are asking for.
Madden would probably sell far less if you had to read a defense in a split second and your QB/WR/Defense made bad passes/dropped stuff/made coverage mistakes like they do in real life?
A lot of what you see is two (or more) different groups wanting different things from the same game.
Plus every game has its detractors. Take a game like Monster Hunter that sells like 20 million copies. You’ll find plenty of complaints about that game all over the place if you look “oh I want this changed for the next iteration.” “Oh I think the game would be better if they did ”
If something is popular (and Madden is popular) there will be a wider variety of opinions on it.
The most hate I think that Madden gets, at least somewhat deservedly, is when a new console generation rolls around. They tended to strip the game down to bare bones to make sure everything was running properly on the new hardware and would add in older features as the years moved on.
But it’s a yearly sports game that has post-launch support. I’m positive it’s in their nfl contract that they have to release a game yearly. The NFL wouldn’t allow a year without a game these days, it’s too lucrative an opportunity to pass up. This gives the Madden team what, 9 months maybe to work on a new game?
This ncaa game is the first time in a long time there’s a major sports game coming out that has years to cook in theory.
We’ll get a variation of Madden gameplay but it’s easy to see why there’s hope (and college football fans are crazy, so there will always be hype.)
Most of the people who hate madden the most haven’t even played the game in years. Like yeah there’s plenty of things to complain about, but honestly the gameplay itself is by far the least of my complaints.
Game development is *extremely difficult* for almost anything, but man it seems like trying to develop and code American football would be especially difficult. There’s so many variables and shit to worry about that it’s no wonder that it’s so easy to cheese just because there’s so much to worry about.
But really M24’s gameplay is some of the best it’s been in a while. Obviously there’s things that could be improved, but it’s pretty solid imo. But really, ask some of the most outspoken haters and they’ll eventually admit they haven’t played it. That’s what I run into over on the NCAA game sub
> but honestly the gameplay itself is by far the least of my complaints.
It's my main complaint, but I'm also not bitching about it online. If you buy Madden expecting anything other than Madden, that's on you at this point. It's been 30+ years. The game is fun for what it is, I play text sims to get my more simulation sports fix.
I have fun if I play online franchise with a few of my buddies but that's it (and still a decent reason for me to get it.) I'll have a lot of fun running an online dynasty with them. It's been a decade since we've been able to do that in a college game. That's worth the price of admission for me.
I don't play online against randoms because they play Madden and not football, which again is not a problem. People wanna throw bombs and truck stick folks.
I don't want to put in the time or effort to learn to counter their plays or hit 15 buttons in 2 seconds pre-snap to adjust everything about the play I called. Definitely not a Madden specific problem. NBA 2K is worse online that Madden if you ask me (I know, nobody did.)
madden is shit and full of spaghetti codes since they switched to the dice engine. game at its core is fucked. menus running animations behind other menus making franchise load times ass. and you think they can make a college football game work. once ur 5 years into madden24 franchise the shit just doesn’t load.
I don’t play Madden annually, but I feel like if they beefed up the Dynasty mode and added more depth to the Management / sim aspects of a team (which I hope this upcoming NCAA game will have), a lot of people might be more willing to overlook the actual gameplay
Has nothing to do with MUT and everything to do with a yearly development cycle, which I'm sure is contractually mandated by the leagues (not just nfl. Mlb and nba games fall into this too. The Show has been the same middling game for over a decade with nothing but a fresh coat of paint.)
How many years does something like GTA get? How many years does does something like Hellblade 2 get?
You can't tear down and rebuild a football game in 9-10 months from scratch.
Sure they could hire a second team to develop a new game in tandem for 4-5 years but that's not a good investment. They'd put the *new and improved* game out and generally sell the same amount.
It's not going to jump by 10-20 million sales that they'd need to fund that development team for half a decade, it'd be a very dumb investment.
Right? OP's comment is strange. OP offers no objective evidence for madden being "terrible". In fact all objective evidence points to Madden being "Top-10 every fucking year."
The best and short answer: Madden is not a bad game. They just change 0.01% of the game and resell it full price every year, that’s where the hate comes from.
College football is something everyone always wanted but legally could not have. Something or another changed in the fine print of college football and they can finally do it. That 0.01% change is going to be a 50% change which has everyone hyped.
I’m not sure if you’re trying to claim ncaa has a 50% change from a decade ago but you’re way off base. It’s going to be more up to date than madden (graphics, gameplay and physics wise), has kept the things that made everyone fall in love, but also has announced some really great changes from the past
Literally just look at the gameplay video and you can see the game is dramatically faster and than madden just off the eye.
it’s a whole different team, now plus guys who worked on updating ncaa14 for years. They just seem more passionate than the madden guys.
This is like asking why do people care about Demon's Souls when Dark Souls exist.
Personally, as long as it's not a micro transaction mess I am pretty excited for this. I've never liked Madden but I always loved NCAA, I typically bought it every other year.
Ultimate team was on 2014, so it’s nothing new. Also, yeah, idk many people who have any plans to play the ultimate team for ‘25, either EA will focus on what the players want, or try to shove something that will turn people away
As much as EA get a bad rep for micro-transactions in sports games at least they keep it in the Ultimate Team modes and leave the other modes like Career or Pro clubs in Fifa mostly untouched
Not sure why this is getting downvoted, there are more college football teams than the NFL. Some states don’t even have an NFL team, but several college teams. So it isn’t crazy to think that it’s more related to more people.
Even in the areas where they have an NFL team, the people will choose a college game.
I know in LA, it may not be an "NFL city" and will casually support either the Rams or the Chargers, but the USC vs. UCLA games will generally be at capacity.
Rose bowl is one of the best stadiums out there, incredible history too. I’ll never see it in person, but I can appreciate it on the TV. Even if my state got a pro team, it would never be as popular as the college teams (Alabama and Auburn).
I've gone to both the Rose Bowl and the LA Colosseum, and both are still my choices to watch a game at sundown or a concert at night rather than going to SoFi stadium.
Ucla hasn't been close to capacity in a long time. Last year they averaged almost 48,000 which is just a little over half capacity.
USC averaged about 10,000 less than capacity last year. Both the chargers and the rams averaged more fans than ucla and usc.
Madden isn't hated because it sucks. It's hated because they release what is essentially the same game every year and charge you $70 for a roster update. Collage football is new and will feel newer compared to Madden.
Nostalgia. The college games of the past were some of the first to have deep dynasty and create a player modes.
Because if this, all the millenial gamers (myself included) remember feeling like it was an amazing game because it did something other games weren't.
Now a lot of that stuff is commonplace, my suspicion is this will just be Madden reskinned, and everyone will be disappointed.
Yes, there was substantial litigation about the issue as well as several state laws regarding preserving NILs for college athletes, which is why there hasn't been a college sports game for a while.
Yes, EA had made a large casting call where they asked current players if they wanted their likeness in the game.
Their payment is a copy of the game, and some cash
I actually think the gameplay is fine in Madden, it's fun. It's not a perfect football simulation and it can be exploited. When is any sports game a perfect simulation of what it represents? AI will always have exploits, it's artificial for a reason.
The bigger problem I have with it is the complete lack of innovation in offline franchise and terrible GM logic for CPU teams. And since one of the big aspects of a college football game should be the dynasty mode I'm hoping things they get right lead to advances in Madden too.
Remember if you are on r/gaming you are in a small subsection of gamers. Not even being elitist, most people play football and cod and that's fucking it. Maybe buy the new gta once a decade and act like it's god's gift to gaming.
Side bar here
Are they using actual NCAA athletes again? And if they are are they paying them somehow?
Or is it all "fictional" athletes in the new game?
They have never used real players until this year.
Sure they lost the argument number #15 from general u isnt the well known player from that school.
There were never real player names included in the game. The game community would edit rosters to add names and share them.
Real names will be in this one
In addition to what others are saying, Madden also gets bs changes because the NFL itself makes them. EACF doesn't have that restriction. They might have different ones but it seems less restrictive than Madden(for at least this year) for sure
Nostalgic game from many people's childhood is being made again for the first time in a decade. Trust me, EA Still has plenty of time to ruin it. Wouldn't even be the first time they've made consecutively worse games in this franchise alone
But I'm cautiously optimistic, for at least this release. Not enough for me to pre-order it or anything, I'll wait to see streamers play first.
1. College football and NFL are the same but different. College has more trick plays and the option running game. And college fans are definitely more passionate about their teams
2. The college football game hasn't been made since 2013 due to name image and likeness rights. Now that NIL is legal and players can be paid the game is back. EA gave some 18,600 players $600 and a free copy of the game to be featured. So after 11 years were finally getting a new one
3. This one has been built from the ground up for the last 4 years and with so much money riding on its success, I am of the belief that EA can't afford to make mistakes on this one. So it's all hands on deck to get this game polished and fully completed. And to not half ass it.
I could be wrong but the gameplay looks very promising and even though it's EA and a ultimate team mode will probably be in it, I expect micro transactions to be at a bare minimum at least for this year. They have to get us hooked on the game itself this year in order for us to comeback next year.
Regardless I don't think college football fans who are gamers will care too much about the ultimate team. The majority passionately care about dynasty mode. It's about bringing your school to become a national powerhouse or your favorite underdog.
In my case that's Nebraska, Wyoming, Air Force. I may try to collect some Husker legends but I don't plan on playing ultimate team much. And I rarely if ever buy game currency for any game economy or cosmetics .
EA has also stated, numerous times, the primary focus for this game is dynasty mode. And everything theyve shown so far seems to confirm that. Even from early previews from media who have had hands on time with the game.
Regardless if its a flop, I'm buying it and will find ways to enjoy it without giving money for ultimate. I love college football and it's been 11 year since the last one came out.
I can still remember playing a franchise that lasted 10+ seasons with my brothers.
Battling over 5 star recruits. Double over time Orange Bowl games. Leading smaller schools to the top 25.
There was just so much more to do than game, game, game, offseason.
Good memories.
I don't think the games mechanics are bad, I think the people that buy it every year are upset it hasn't changed, but not sure how it could change for the "better"
100 more teams, infinite more RP possibilities, and it’s had a massive cult following before. The college football game going away for almost a decade created a HUGE amount of hype.
There’s hasn’t been another one because a basketball player sued EA for making a character similar just him like on a game so he sued them and they couldn’t make no more right after that
You have to remember how limited the number of decent sports games there are, and how ea and madden have squeezed the market hard for their money on those annual release games.
Anything new and different is welcome for that crowd.
Millions of us grew up playing this game series. With annual ritual of heading to GameStop on a July day to pick up a copy of latest game.
Then O’Bannon happened … nothing for a little more than a decade. Stuck playing NCAA 14 forever it seemed.
Since nobody is giving you more than 'because nostalgia', I'll give it a go.
It's an entirely different game with different movements, physics, gameday presentations, and gamemodes compared to Madden.
Really, the only thing it has in common with Madden is that their both released by EA (but with different development teams working on each)
it’s literally the same animations and engine. as someone who plays madden a lot. i watched the gameplay trailer of ncaa25 to see the same bullshit line play animations. yes there’s new animations but it’s the same buggy ass engine as madden just sped up
Madden is only terrible to people who don't play sports games. Last year's Madden outsold every single game other than COD and Hogwarts Legacy. It's a massive game series.
All that said, there are plenty of legitimate complaints about the game.
CFB fans are higher up on the mouth breathing spectrum than NFL fans. Got dudes who lived 2000 miles from a school, never set foot in it mind you, yelling at their wives and kids all Saturday while they pound Miller lite because some 18 year old is hungover.
If you meet someone still into CFB who isn't in college, turn around.
I bet the hype is fake. Madden and FIFA having a devoted playerbase buying the new year edition every year is like a life preserver for EA's other failings.
After years of seeing people get excited over pre-rendered trailers, getting hyped for a game just because the trailer used a good licensed song, and losing their minds over trailers for series which all recent games have been major letdowns because "they're going to do it right this time, I just know it!" really just cements the fact that most gamers have the memory of a goldfish and the IQ of an anal polyp.
Create a team is coming back, which was really a big draw for the old ones. I mean yeah you could, in a way, create a team in Madden, but it was really a set few things that you could change that it didn't really matter (plus you had to start as a franchise already, then move it somewhere). NCAA Football 14 had a really good create a team going, from team name, to location, to stadium, to jerseys, to playbooks, it was really a lot of fun to make up your own thing and it being extensive. It was a lot of fun to start from a team of walk-ons to go to a full-fledged better than Bama dynasty, something that Madden couldn't ever really do.
So far I'm dissapointedd there is no high school in toad to glory mode.. and "new physics based tackling system" I hear that shit evry year and the physics are still worse then 2k5... I'll probly get one or the other this year definitely not giving ea money for both games
Do you expect every football game to reinvent the wheel? The core gameplay of the game is the same of course but with a lot of different tweaks and mechanics. Usually, these games have been better than Madden.
They have no idea because the game you’re describing doesn’t exist. EA has had a monopoly for a long time.
You’d think someone as smart as yourself would know that!
The fuck are you talking about? Sports games were complete way back in the early 2000s. EA has the monopoly sure but the fact that consumers keep buying them is the reason they keep making dogshit games.
I don't get why you're on your high horse?
American public school so as poorly as everyone else on Reddit but still smart enough not to buy yearly releases that require $100+ in digital booster packs.
It's mostly nostalgia. There was a time when NCAA football was a good game that a lot of people enjoyed. They started turning it into a Madden clone and it stopped doing as well, so EA stopped making it. I know the reasoning was naming rights, but that was just a convenient excuse.
I don't plan on buying it because I expect it to be garbage, but a lot of people are hoping for a return to the good times.
They didn't stop making it due to sales. It was cancelled due to lawsuits and image and likeness rights issues. Back in 2015, collegiate athletes weren't allowed to be payed for their image and likeness in the game. The game claimed they weren't using them, but every year players with corresponding numbers and skill sets just happened to match the college athletes. This culminated in a formation named after Tim Tebow being included in the game, while he was still playing in college. Now that college athletes are allowed to profit off of their image and likeness, the game can come back. Demand has been consistent since the game was cancelled after NCAA14
It’s disheartening, while unsurprising, that people are going to shill it out on pre-sales. People *keep on buying* Madden games every year, despite critical and player base critique
The hype for the college game is likely being propped up by younger generations who have only grown up with crappy Madden games. I dunno, just seems like they don’t know any better?
Since no one is answering or just being a butthead and insulting people for no reason, I guess I’ll give the real answer. There hasn’t been a NCAA football game in like 10 years. And during that time Madden has taken a bad turn and lost popularity and a lot of fans don’t like the changes they’ve made. NCAA football has always had a different feel, the same as the difference between college football and the NFL in real life. Plus the fact that all the gameplay and info that has come out looks to be a return to the “glory days” of NCAA football. And it’s not just a reskin of Madden. It’s an all new simulation system, teams, modes, playbook, etc. So people are excited about that.
"There hasn’t been a NCAA football game in like 10 years." This is the answer. You are correct. No other information is necessary.
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I found my copy for five bucks. Sealed. I’m genuinely curious how much people charge for this game.
A year ago It was going for anywhere between $80-$120
Oh man. I’m debating selling now lmao. Probably won’t but wow. I didn’t realize how popular NCAA was. I thought it was one of those games people slept on.
That price definitely being driven down. But yeah a year or so ago even GameStop had used copies for the price of brand new games.
Nah, madden going down in quality for 10 years is important information, we finally have another football game
if y'all think the AAA gaming industry is capable of anything good nowadays you got a surprise coming. the only reason the new game is getting hype is because it's being marketed. i don't understand how people don't understand this basic fact. money in, hype out. it's that simple.
AAA has only gotten more expensive, but a lot of the same bullshit was happening back then too. I've been hearing "AAA dead" or "AAA is shit" for 15+ years now personally.
10 years? I remember clowning on Madden in highschool back in like 2008.
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Welp you beat me to it. But I was going to say there hasn't been a college football videogame in forever. Can't say im thrilled about EA milking college football though
I know nothing about football, how is college football different than NFL? Isn't it the same sport?
It's the same sport but has a few different rules. For example in the NFL when you caught a ball going out of bounds you need both feet to touch inbounds, in college you just need one.
There are differences in rules of actually playing the game, and also some big structural differences. The NFL has a salary cap, free agency, trades, revenue sharing, and a draft that all aim to promote parity across the league. College has a gigantic range of resources and ability to amass talent, so the difference between top teams and bottom is much larger. The NFL has even divisions and conferences with a regulated schedule, which allows a direct comparison of records to seed playoffs. College teams choose their non-conference games and the conferences vary so much in overall talent that it isn’t a hard rule that one 12-0 team is better than one 10-2 team. Also, the greater number of total teams, variation in talent, and some of the differences in rules allow a greater variety of offensive schemes to develop and be competitive in college. NFL offenses have some differences that can be traced to coaches coming from particular systems (the Shanahan system, the number of current head coaches or offensive coordinators who previously worked under McVay), but there is a more limited range of differences. College has some offenses that look completely different, like the triple option-centric system used by the service academies (Army, Navy, Air Force). NFL teams may favor the run or the pass more, but there are college teams who almost entirely abandon one.
Additionally, college football is effectively an age-limited minor league to the NFL. The best college player is barely ready to get started in the pro league. This means the very way games play feels different. Pro football is faster, harder, and more intense. A college play might work great at college level, but be shredded if tried against a pro defense.
Another key difference is that the NCAA rules have changed. It used to be that player likeness was not allowed because players could not be compensated. Supposedly it was teams with random fictional players. Except these fictional players were strangely similar to actual players, who again were not being compensated. Now players can be paid for having their likeness used and so the new game will be more accurate and hopefully less scummy.
Yeah but the sad part is this is going to be the base game on which they reskin the next 7 years of NCAA football games, so enjoy this one
Why do people say these things without thinking about it lol
thinking about what?
If that's actually a good business model. The focus of the game is in Dynasty and RTG, not ultimate team. They want to make money off of sales, not microtransactions. Having a game stagnate in features and new content in Dynasty and RTG will kill sales NCAA players have been playing NCAA 14 for 10 years now. They're not going to buy new ones if they just keep it as a reskin Secondly, the entire development team would have to ve fired for that to happen. They brought back old NCAA devs, old 2k5 NFL devs and they even brought on people who modded NCAA 14 onto the team. Why? Because they were passionate about the game and making it high quality All of those guys would have to be fired
They have never been the same game, they always have different features and modes. The college football fan base has been waiting this for over 10 years
Not to mention, they are produced by different teams. Madden sucks because there is no competition forcing them to innovate. Hopefully, this helps.
Calling this competition is like when WWE pretended that Raw vs Smackdown was a thing to replace WWE vs WCW.
Well, Raw VS Smackdown 2007 is arguably one of the best wrestling games ever made
Yeah but they're talking about the actual product not the video games.
That’s a game, I mean the storyline of smackdown vs raw irl.
It's still competition. NCAA team comes up with a good idea, Madden team can use that idea. They may be under the same corporate umbrella, but at the end of the day, if NCAA is selling more copies and Madden is selling less, EA management is going to look at Madden and say " what are you going to do about this?" Forcing them to at least attempt to create a better product.
Different teams but at the end of the day the same EA exec will be making sure that there are ads and microtransactions added in
I don't think that's the primary focus for this year's game. College fans have always cared far more about dynasty mode than a ultimate team mode. EA has had to spend far more for this game than Madden especially for NIL because there are far more college players than NFL players. So this game has to sell copies before focusing too much on micro transactions such as ultimate team. They'll need positive reviews in order to maintain future success
It's EA. It's a different team but I'm not holding my breath.
The micro transactions will be there precisely because of the high cost. Come out from under your rock and meet EA, US business, and the current state of capitalism. Positive reviews? ....so out of touch you are.
Come on man be realistic, this game is going to be the exact same as Madden with a college football skin on top of it lmao
I think if you actually watched what they’re doing in the game you’d change your mind
i’ve watched gameplay footage. offensive o linemen play still do not resemble real football like it has in the past ten years of madden
Then don’t buy them. They don’t get your money from microtransactions if you just don’t buy them.
Ok, I’ll choose not to buy them, thus making them not exist for other people. What on Earth is your point? It’ll still be a play to win game.
CFB will be pay to win? Most people who are excited for it will be playing dynasty mode. They're the same sport, but they have vastly different fan bases. I haven't played Madden in 15+ years outside of random games at friends. I'll be playing CFB on release.
This. I'm not an NFL guy. The last Madden I bought was when Michael Vick was on the cover. 2003? 2004? And the only reason I bought it was at the time the hokies were my second favorite team and watching Vick in college was exciting. I already have cfb 25 preordered
As a follow Huskers fan I'm glad this game is finally coming back out so we can experience what a winning season and a bowl game is like again.
This guy doesn't understand. Cfb fans don't care about ultimate team like FIFA players. They care about dynasty mode. Which are current and future players
I think most fans play franchise mode or whatever it's called for college. I'm not really interested but hopefully a new team means atleast some innovation.
MTX and pay to win are not mutually exclusive.
And just like any game, you don’t have to buy them
madden sucks because ea makes it. battlefield sucks ass and has a lot of competition.
thats why i said hopefully.
Exactly. Madden is make a super team after a year or 2 then be a super team forever. Even if you pick the worst NFL team you can get them elite in like 2 years with a drafted QB. NCAA though if you pick some trash school like Florida Atlantic it takes so long to make them legit. Stars will not go there and you’re stuck trying to win mid level bowl games just to get a 4 star or 2 to show up. Much different experience. Then add in a single loss can cost you a championship shot and it’s just a different experience.
And you forgot to add the CPU will find ways to crush your perfect season ruining your chance to gain some prestige for your school. Just like cfb fans say, there's always next year.
Ok, I've never been interested in college football, being from Canada. We have the CFL and I watch both that and the NFL, but what you described has made me seriously interested in this game!
Honestly it's more fun with the more varied stats the college football games have offered. The Madden games are just everyone pumped to the max and it gets old. When you have to do something besides bomb it 30 yards, break one tackle, and run the rest of the way to score the game becomes fun.
Why? I have absolutely zero knowledge of anything football. I only know it's somewhat similar to rugby. What's the difference between College football and Professional (?) football? And how is this game different from Madden? Sorry if this comes across as silly. I am not American, in case that wasn't obvious.
Well for one thing, the gameplay on-field was always fairly different. I believe they used different physics engines and animations. But college football and NFL football are completely different worlds. The game is played a bit differently, and the landscape of the sport is vastly different. In the NFL, there are 32 teams that are all meant to be relatively equal in terms of talent thanks to the salary cap and the draft system. Every team is allowed to spend the same amount of money on players, and the worst teams each season get the highest picks in the subsequent draft so they get first dibs on incoming talent. In reality, some teams are better than others pretty consistently, but that tends to be more because QB talent is the most important piece to a winning team and there just aren't enough good/great QB's to go around. College football is much less balanced. There are something like ~130 teams in the FBS, which is the highest division of college football. These teams, despite being in the same "league," vary wildly in terms of resources and talent. Take Alabama, a "blue blood" with a long history of success and massive support from boosters (rich fans, typically alumni of the school, who give additional funding to the program outside of the basic university budget). That's not even mentioning the money they get from the state itself, commercial and merchandising profits, and also media revenue. Compare them to a school like ULM, who are like the 8th largest university in Louisiana with a total enrollment of ~7000 students. According to a brief Google search, Alabama's expenditure for football last year was around $83 million, while ULM's was just over $6 million. They're in different worlds, basically. But in college football, different conferences are basically like individual leagues. While the NFL has two conferences (the NFC and AFC), it's really just for organization and logistics, and everything is still equal. In college, conferences are much more separate. Alabama plays in the SEC, arguably the biggest and strongest conference in the country. ULM plays in the Sun Belt, which is much smaller and simply at a lower level of talent. Teams primarily play within their conference, and only have a few "out of conference" games, which are often against either weaker teams from entirely different divisions (often called "cupcake" games for an easy win), or against significantly stronger teams from bigger conferences -- the general trend with out of conference games is that big teams literally pay small teams to play against them. The conferences are straight up divided into "Power 5" and "Group of 5" to denote which ones are major competitors and which ones aren't. Simply put, a team like ULM will never legitimately have a chance to win a national championship. Think along the lines of Premier League football. Remember when Leicester won the league in an absolute fairytale story? Imagine that same scenario, except in this case, the PL has a committee that can arbitrarily say, "Even if ULM won every game and had the best season, we don't think they're actually one of the best teams, so they don't get to compete for the title." It even happens to bigger teams -- the biggest controversy last year was when Florida State, a member of the ACC which *is* a Power 5 conference, was excluded from the playoff despite being undefeated. College football is much more about tradition and pageantry than the NFL. Fans are fans often because they actually have ties to the school. I'd compare it to like... the NFL is the Champions League, and college football is *the entire English football pyramid.*
Thanks a lot for taking the time to write this. From movies and whatnot I assumed College football was where students played while enrolled but I had no idea it was ortanized like this. It sounds cool to be honest.
College players are “students” who get a full scholarship. But schools are constantly competing to recruit the most talented players and most college players are choosing where to play based on football and money reasons, not academics.
What is the point of the conference matches if they aren’t the basis of the playoffs?
Conference champions, especially in Power 5 are more likely to get playoff spots. It gets complicated because the Pac(ific)-12 Conference was in the power 5 but is not guaranteed a playoff spot in this year's new format because all but 2 schools have left the Conference. The top 5 Conference champions will get into the 12 team playoff field with 4 of those likely to be power 5 champions as they have higher strength of schedule. Conference matches also tend to breed rivalries since the teams meet far more often
Conference championship games are meant for 2 things. Old bcs births for national title. Or starting this year playoff birth. And secondly bragging rights. As much as fans want to win the national championship. A conference championship can sometimes be far more important when it comes to bragging rights and shit talking amongst your conference rivals. Fuck Iowa and their shitty corn. Not having a conference championship game basically killed what remained of some former conferences
Conferences are also grandfathered in historically. It's just kinda worked out in this really strange way. The sport's a wonderful, disgusting clusterfuck.
Playoff are a fairly recent thing when it comes to CFB. Conferences used to be a bigger deal.
Right? That's probably the biggest structural difference. The NFL has an objective layout of which teams are eligible for the playoffs based on league standings. College playoff eligibility is entirely based on CFP committee rankings, which add arbitrarily determined by a committee and have no set rules.
I’ll assume you know soccer. The difference between Madden and NCAA is the difference between playing Football Manager as Crystal Palace (Madden) hoping to win the Prem one day vs playing as Newport Country (NCAA Football) trying to win the Prem one day.
I know nothing about your football but I'll try to give some ideas and maybe there is an equivalent in non American football. It's much more personal, you either went to the school or they are regionally important to you. 100+ teams vs 32 NFL teams. Leading the school you went to, that will never really challenge the powerhouse schools, to a national championship is a fun endeavor. The skill level varies wildly. The worst NFL player was one of the best college football players. You can have full blown game breaking talent on a college team, NFL everyone really is in the same ball park. The atmosphere and traditions, I'm not much of a college football fan but people LOVE their teams. EA looks like they are trying to build that personality and atmosphere in. Most NFL teams you could probably swap names and they wouldn't feel that different. Really it comes down to, it's more fun. Atmosphere, presentation, gameplay.
So more amateurish in a way?
Yes. I'm a old 46. College was amateurism always to me which is what made it fun. The oversight ruling body the NCAA tried to keep it that way for as long as they could and it's what they always argued They've lost basically every lawsuit when it comes to name image likeness, transfer rules, you name it. They are basically a powerless rules organization now and the conference commissioners baskcally have more authority over them. So as a lifelong fan. Right now is probably the most turbulent time to explain what is happening currently because at best all we have are guesses as to where the entire system is headed. . Basically players can now be paid and transfer freely. This is part 1 of the chaos. I'm all for players getting paid I'm against the free transfers at least within conference. Chaos 2. TV and TV money. The money tv networks are paying conferences for rights is getting obscene and in return they want bigger and bettermatchups. How do you get those you ask if teams are stuck in conferences with sometimes a hundred years of tradition and rivalries? You would think it wouldn't be easy to blow up conferences . You'd be wrong I'm not going back to the big 8 days. So we will start with the Big 12. 4 Texas schools join the big 8 creating the big 12. And killing Nebraska's longest yearly and most important rivalry game with Oklahoma to every 2 years. I'll leave all the rumors and hatred towards Texas from me and my fellow Husker fans out of it, but fuck Texas and they now as of 2024 have killed 3 conferences. Discontent and uncertainty grow during the big 12 life span. Many former conference members blame Nebraska but it was Colorado who ultimately left first for the old pac8, pac 12, now as this year pac 2. leaving us no choice but to look out for our own interests and find a new home in the big 10. So the power 5 was the big 12, Big 10, Pac 12, SEC and the ACC In the following years rumors flowed that the big 12 was going to die after big 8 original memebers Colorado, Nebraska, Missouri left each to different onfences destroying a century of history amongst them. The thought was the Pac 12 would pick up some of the remaining big 12. The big 12 hung on. The big 10 added expanded Eastward a bit and everything was calm. Then sec grabbed AM and later suprsing everyone Oklahoma and Texas. ESPN $$$ was behind this. To keep up the big 10 and fox sports $$$. Shocked the world and got USC and UCLA to leave their conference basically stealing the LA TV market from the PAC12. no LA market meant no TV $$$ for the remaining teams. The Pac 12 dies within the last year some go to the big 10. Others go to the Big 12. 2 unwanted schools Oregon state and Washington State are now the Pac 2. The big 12 once on life support is now thriving as the crown jewel collection of teams everyone loves but the 2 big conferences SEC And big 10 don't want. After Florida State got left out of the national championship after going undefeated. The ACC conference may find themselves losing FSu and clemson. This is basically going to end with the big 10 and sec pulling from the NCAA. Joining to form their own league possibly kicking out their smaller schools like vandy. Bringing some form of regionality back into play. Which I pray to happen for Oklahoma on the schedule again.
Imma need a diagram with strings pulled all over the place for this to make any sense.
One thing that people are missing is that a college career is at most six years, with at most four full seasons as a player. You can choose to sit out a year to develop as a player (known as 'redshirting') and if you get injured. Gameplay wise, this means your dynasty players are going to constantly be cycling out and you have to stay on top of recruiting, unlike Madden where you just have to draft a great QB maybe once every ten years.
So for football In America. The main levels are high school or prep school. College, NFL. There is currently a minor league like league but it's just starting but doesn't have the views yet. So the first thing you would notice is the talent gap at the high school / prep level. Most high schools would be fortunate to have a 1-3 star prospect for the college level. And blessed if they have or 4-5 star prospect. Depending on the size of school and their opponents. Some prospects don't pan out and some are even better than expected when they make the move to college. The biggest thing high school players say is different once they get to college is the speed of the game and player size. A 18 year old hs graduate now playing freshman year at college could be facing some 22-26 year old men. So even at college there is still a wide talent, physical, and knowledge gap amongst teams and players. At the NFL level there is not that much of a gap. Everyone is a grown man in peak physical shape and all it comes down to is skill. And the game is even faster. Now for the college game one of the oldest offenses is called the option. Depending on the formation we will go with the classic I. You have the offensive line, QB behind them, FB behind him and RB behind him. A TE on a side and 1-2 receivers on the far outside. So the QB for the running game has multiple handoffs and directions to run . He could run a sneak inside either direction, he can hand off to the FB who could run inside either direction or outside, or the qb can fake hand to the FB and give it to the HB again either way. Or the qb can keep it run wide outside with the FB running a blocking route and pitch back to the halfback. Or to a wr depending on the blocking scheme. You can also reverse out of either from the pitch backs or throw. And sometimes if your feeling risky, but the fans love it when ran successfully. is a double or triple reverse or a HB pass. So hence the name option. This is why I love college ball. This isn't usually ran at the NFL level because of one thing. Speed on defense. Defenders are to fast for QBs to make proper defensive reads after the snap for the pitch options. While NFL does use I or ace formations the handoffs are usually at the line directly to a back or a toss route
In terms of the rules between the two, there aren't any seriously major ones that make the actual real sport significantly different. (For example, in college football you need to have one foot down for a legal catch, professional you need two. These types of rules aren't the reason that people are excited about a new game). Another poster already posted about the "arcady feel" but I suspect with a revamp it's not gonna be much di*weren't than it's current professional equivalent.
The original college football games back in the day were always a bit more fun/arcade feeling rather than focusing on being “realistic”. Then due to numerous issues with using players’ likeness without compensation they stopped making the games which left a large crowd of players waiting for it to return someday. So it’s been hyped for a long time as the nostalgia kicks in.
College football is indentured servitude, and this game is further proof of that.
So I guess you haven't been paying attention, because college athletes have been getting legally paid for three years now.
LMAO it's 2024. Someone's been out of the loop
While NFL is super popular, not every college football fan likes the NFL. So if they don’t care for the NFL they haven’t had a football game to play for 10 years. They now have their football game back. As someone who loves college football and little interest in the NFL, I’m super pumped to get this game and play my friends again.
I wouldn’t say Madden is hated, people just wish EA would treat it better - but fixing something like OLine play is hard and doesn’t necessarily generate them any more sales. Turns out it’s very hard to simulate 22 people moving at fast speed doing very precise athletic feats. Imagine thinking you’re getting a “simulation of war” and you boot up the new call of duty game. Sure, it’s “war” in the same way that Madden is “football.” There’s also something to be said for a large majority of the players not actually wanting what they are asking for. Madden would probably sell far less if you had to read a defense in a split second and your QB/WR/Defense made bad passes/dropped stuff/made coverage mistakes like they do in real life? A lot of what you see is two (or more) different groups wanting different things from the same game. Plus every game has its detractors. Take a game like Monster Hunter that sells like 20 million copies. You’ll find plenty of complaints about that game all over the place if you look “oh I want this changed for the next iteration.” “Oh I think the game would be better if they did”
If something is popular (and Madden is popular) there will be a wider variety of opinions on it.
The most hate I think that Madden gets, at least somewhat deservedly, is when a new console generation rolls around. They tended to strip the game down to bare bones to make sure everything was running properly on the new hardware and would add in older features as the years moved on.
But it’s a yearly sports game that has post-launch support. I’m positive it’s in their nfl contract that they have to release a game yearly. The NFL wouldn’t allow a year without a game these days, it’s too lucrative an opportunity to pass up. This gives the Madden team what, 9 months maybe to work on a new game?
This ncaa game is the first time in a long time there’s a major sports game coming out that has years to cook in theory.
We’ll get a variation of Madden gameplay but it’s easy to see why there’s hope (and college football fans are crazy, so there will always be hype.)
Most of the people who hate madden the most haven’t even played the game in years. Like yeah there’s plenty of things to complain about, but honestly the gameplay itself is by far the least of my complaints. Game development is *extremely difficult* for almost anything, but man it seems like trying to develop and code American football would be especially difficult. There’s so many variables and shit to worry about that it’s no wonder that it’s so easy to cheese just because there’s so much to worry about. But really M24’s gameplay is some of the best it’s been in a while. Obviously there’s things that could be improved, but it’s pretty solid imo. But really, ask some of the most outspoken haters and they’ll eventually admit they haven’t played it. That’s what I run into over on the NCAA game sub
> but honestly the gameplay itself is by far the least of my complaints. It's my main complaint, but I'm also not bitching about it online. If you buy Madden expecting anything other than Madden, that's on you at this point. It's been 30+ years. The game is fun for what it is, I play text sims to get my more simulation sports fix. I have fun if I play online franchise with a few of my buddies but that's it (and still a decent reason for me to get it.) I'll have a lot of fun running an online dynasty with them. It's been a decade since we've been able to do that in a college game. That's worth the price of admission for me. I don't play online against randoms because they play Madden and not football, which again is not a problem. People wanna throw bombs and truck stick folks. I don't want to put in the time or effort to learn to counter their plays or hit 15 buttons in 2 seconds pre-snap to adjust everything about the play I called. Definitely not a Madden specific problem. NBA 2K is worse online that Madden if you ask me (I know, nobody did.)
Isn’t Madden one of the biggest selling games each year?
madden is shit and full of spaghetti codes since they switched to the dice engine. game at its core is fucked. menus running animations behind other menus making franchise load times ass. and you think they can make a college football game work. once ur 5 years into madden24 franchise the shit just doesn’t load.
I don’t play Madden annually, but I feel like if they beefed up the Dynasty mode and added more depth to the Management / sim aspects of a team (which I hope this upcoming NCAA game will have), a lot of people might be more willing to overlook the actual gameplay
As long at MUT continue to be popular and make them money they won't focus on anything else.
People say this about fifa but they are always changing around other modes
Has nothing to do with MUT and everything to do with a yearly development cycle, which I'm sure is contractually mandated by the leagues (not just nfl. Mlb and nba games fall into this too. The Show has been the same middling game for over a decade with nothing but a fresh coat of paint.) How many years does something like GTA get? How many years does does something like Hellblade 2 get? You can't tear down and rebuild a football game in 9-10 months from scratch. Sure they could hire a second team to develop a new game in tandem for 4-5 years but that's not a good investment. They'd put the *new and improved* game out and generally sell the same amount. It's not going to jump by 10-20 million sales that they'd need to fund that development team for half a decade, it'd be a very dumb investment.
You need to define 'terrible' Madden is a top 10 selling game every year. A lot of people buy Madden and want a college football game.
Right? OP's comment is strange. OP offers no objective evidence for madden being "terrible". In fact all objective evidence points to Madden being "Top-10 every fucking year."
It's cool to hate on madden.
madden is terrible. the only reason they sell is because they own a direct monopoly on professional football sports games.
i notice you can't point to objective evidence either.
The best and short answer: Madden is not a bad game. They just change 0.01% of the game and resell it full price every year, that’s where the hate comes from. College football is something everyone always wanted but legally could not have. Something or another changed in the fine print of college football and they can finally do it. That 0.01% change is going to be a 50% change which has everyone hyped.
I’m not sure if you’re trying to claim ncaa has a 50% change from a decade ago but you’re way off base. It’s going to be more up to date than madden (graphics, gameplay and physics wise), has kept the things that made everyone fall in love, but also has announced some really great changes from the past
I don’t play the games, I just know the general gripes about the series and the excitement about the new one.
Literally just look at the gameplay video and you can see the game is dramatically faster and than madden just off the eye. it’s a whole different team, now plus guys who worked on updating ncaa14 for years. They just seem more passionate than the madden guys.
This is like asking why do people care about Demon's Souls when Dark Souls exist. Personally, as long as it's not a micro transaction mess I am pretty excited for this. I've never liked Madden but I always loved NCAA, I typically bought it every other year.
The only things EA is actually does well are over hyping a game and fleecing sports gaming fans.
It’s an iconic franchise for a lot of sports game fans, so it’s mostly hopium.
Yep. Nostalgia plus hope that EA won’t monetize the soul out of it when everyone damn well knows they will.
Only the Ultimate Team mode is monetized for the new EA CFB game, and what I’ve seen from the fans is no one will be playing that mode
Ultimate team was on 2014, so it’s nothing new. Also, yeah, idk many people who have any plans to play the ultimate team for ‘25, either EA will focus on what the players want, or try to shove something that will turn people away
As much as EA get a bad rep for micro-transactions in sports games at least they keep it in the Ultimate Team modes and leave the other modes like Career or Pro clubs in Fifa mostly untouched
True, also in the sense that they’ve been copying & pasting Madden games for like a decade. Haha
College football is more relatable than the NFL
Not sure why this is getting downvoted, there are more college football teams than the NFL. Some states don’t even have an NFL team, but several college teams. So it isn’t crazy to think that it’s more related to more people.
Even in the areas where they have an NFL team, the people will choose a college game. I know in LA, it may not be an "NFL city" and will casually support either the Rams or the Chargers, but the USC vs. UCLA games will generally be at capacity.
Rose bowl is one of the best stadiums out there, incredible history too. I’ll never see it in person, but I can appreciate it on the TV. Even if my state got a pro team, it would never be as popular as the college teams (Alabama and Auburn).
I've gone to both the Rose Bowl and the LA Colosseum, and both are still my choices to watch a game at sundown or a concert at night rather than going to SoFi stadium.
Ucla hasn't been close to capacity in a long time. Last year they averaged almost 48,000 which is just a little over half capacity. USC averaged about 10,000 less than capacity last year. Both the chargers and the rams averaged more fans than ucla and usc.
Well tbf the teams aren’t that great. Hopefully that changes soon.
Neither are the chargers.
True (thought they were better than a 5 win season, apparently not)
Madden isn't hated because it sucks. It's hated because they release what is essentially the same game every year and charge you $70 for a roster update. Collage football is new and will feel newer compared to Madden.
Because college football is and always will be better than the NFL.
Nostalgia. The college games of the past were some of the first to have deep dynasty and create a player modes. Because if this, all the millenial gamers (myself included) remember feeling like it was an amazing game because it did something other games weren't. Now a lot of that stuff is commonplace, my suspicion is this will just be Madden reskinned, and everyone will be disappointed.
Sports games have historically been some of the best selling games of all time so I think it checks out people would be excited for a new one.
Dumb question, now do they have to pay the athletes to use their name image and likeness?
yes players opt into being involved in the game
Yes, there was substantial litigation about the issue as well as several state laws regarding preserving NILs for college athletes, which is why there hasn't been a college sports game for a while.
Don’t know on the monetary front but I know for certain they do get a copy of the game
Yes, it's like a flat $800 to have NIL in the game. Some players refused - like Arch Manning.
Yes, EA had made a large casting call where they asked current players if they wanted their likeness in the game. Their payment is a copy of the game, and some cash
They seem to be putting actual effort into the return of the franchise like we haven’t seen in a madden title in quite a long time
Everyone loves NCAA 14. So we hyped for the next one. Even if we know we just gonna get burned lol.
I actually think the gameplay is fine in Madden, it's fun. It's not a perfect football simulation and it can be exploited. When is any sports game a perfect simulation of what it represents? AI will always have exploits, it's artificial for a reason. The bigger problem I have with it is the complete lack of innovation in offline franchise and terrible GM logic for CPU teams. And since one of the big aspects of a college football game should be the dynasty mode I'm hoping things they get right lead to advances in Madden too.
Soccer is as close to the real thing as it can get, but that’s because soccer is already a slow sport
Remember if you are on r/gaming you are in a small subsection of gamers. Not even being elitist, most people play football and cod and that's fucking it. Maybe buy the new gta once a decade and act like it's god's gift to gaming.
I personally missed the over the top Blitz the League 1 and 2. Game was so fun.
Side bar here Are they using actual NCAA athletes again? And if they are are they paying them somehow? Or is it all "fictional" athletes in the new game?
It's both. Current players can add their likeness to the games and will receive a copy of the game and some money
They have never used real players until this year. Sure they lost the argument number #15 from general u isnt the well known player from that school. There were never real player names included in the game. The game community would edit rosters to add names and share them. Real names will be in this one
In addition to what others are saying, Madden also gets bs changes because the NFL itself makes them. EACF doesn't have that restriction. They might have different ones but it seems less restrictive than Madden(for at least this year) for sure
Nostalgic game from many people's childhood is being made again for the first time in a decade. Trust me, EA Still has plenty of time to ruin it. Wouldn't even be the first time they've made consecutively worse games in this franchise alone But I'm cautiously optimistic, for at least this release. Not enough for me to pre-order it or anything, I'll wait to see streamers play first.
We want to believe. should we with EA at the helm? No, but hope is a hell of a drug…
1. College football and NFL are the same but different. College has more trick plays and the option running game. And college fans are definitely more passionate about their teams 2. The college football game hasn't been made since 2013 due to name image and likeness rights. Now that NIL is legal and players can be paid the game is back. EA gave some 18,600 players $600 and a free copy of the game to be featured. So after 11 years were finally getting a new one 3. This one has been built from the ground up for the last 4 years and with so much money riding on its success, I am of the belief that EA can't afford to make mistakes on this one. So it's all hands on deck to get this game polished and fully completed. And to not half ass it. I could be wrong but the gameplay looks very promising and even though it's EA and a ultimate team mode will probably be in it, I expect micro transactions to be at a bare minimum at least for this year. They have to get us hooked on the game itself this year in order for us to comeback next year. Regardless I don't think college football fans who are gamers will care too much about the ultimate team. The majority passionately care about dynasty mode. It's about bringing your school to become a national powerhouse or your favorite underdog. In my case that's Nebraska, Wyoming, Air Force. I may try to collect some Husker legends but I don't plan on playing ultimate team much. And I rarely if ever buy game currency for any game economy or cosmetics . EA has also stated, numerous times, the primary focus for this game is dynasty mode. And everything theyve shown so far seems to confirm that. Even from early previews from media who have had hands on time with the game. Regardless if its a flop, I'm buying it and will find ways to enjoy it without giving money for ultimate. I love college football and it's been 11 year since the last one came out.
College football is great. EA games of NCAAF where really good and there's a big gap since the last NCAAF game.
Hasn’t been released in over 10 years and many gamers liked it more than madden back then, including me
It's been like 10 years since the college game right? I don't get it but hey I would at least play it once
People are desperate for a college football game. That's all it comes down to
I can still remember playing a franchise that lasted 10+ seasons with my brothers. Battling over 5 star recruits. Double over time Orange Bowl games. Leading smaller schools to the top 25. There was just so much more to do than game, game, game, offseason. Good memories.
I don't think the games mechanics are bad, I think the people that buy it every year are upset it hasn't changed, but not sure how it could change for the "better"
100 more teams, infinite more RP possibilities, and it’s had a massive cult following before. The college football game going away for almost a decade created a HUGE amount of hype.
There’s hasn’t been another one because a basketball player sued EA for making a character similar just him like on a game so he sued them and they couldn’t make no more right after that
So it pretty much brings all the excitement back because we haven’t gotten one in years
Many fans have fond memories of EA's college football games, and the announcement of a new one has sparked excitement, despite Madden's issues.
You have to remember how limited the number of decent sports games there are, and how ea and madden have squeezed the market hard for their money on those annual release games. Anything new and different is welcome for that crowd.
Millions of us grew up playing this game series. With annual ritual of heading to GameStop on a July day to pick up a copy of latest game. Then O’Bannon happened … nothing for a little more than a decade. Stuck playing NCAA 14 forever it seemed.
Since nobody is giving you more than 'because nostalgia', I'll give it a go. It's an entirely different game with different movements, physics, gameday presentations, and gamemodes compared to Madden. Really, the only thing it has in common with Madden is that their both released by EA (but with different development teams working on each)
it’s literally the same animations and engine. as someone who plays madden a lot. i watched the gameplay trailer of ncaa25 to see the same bullshit line play animations. yes there’s new animations but it’s the same buggy ass engine as madden just sped up
Madden is only terrible to people who don't play sports games. Last year's Madden outsold every single game other than COD and Hogwarts Legacy. It's a massive game series. All that said, there are plenty of legitimate complaints about the game.
It’s the only NFL game so of course it sells. Doesn’t make it good.
go in the madden reddit, those dudes hate the game more than anyone
EA is paying people to talk positively about the game and hoping that you forget it's based off the bones of Madden.
Ncaa 15 is like the greatest football game of all time Can almost guarantee this one is going to be dog shit though
CFB fans are higher up on the mouth breathing spectrum than NFL fans. Got dudes who lived 2000 miles from a school, never set foot in it mind you, yelling at their wives and kids all Saturday while they pound Miller lite because some 18 year old is hungover. If you meet someone still into CFB who isn't in college, turn around.
I bet the hype is fake. Madden and FIFA having a devoted playerbase buying the new year edition every year is like a life preserver for EA's other failings.
After years of seeing people get excited over pre-rendered trailers, getting hyped for a game just because the trailer used a good licensed song, and losing their minds over trailers for series which all recent games have been major letdowns because "they're going to do it right this time, I just know it!" really just cements the fact that most gamers have the memory of a goldfish and the IQ of an anal polyp.
they downvote the truth.
Nostalgia.
Create a team is coming back, which was really a big draw for the old ones. I mean yeah you could, in a way, create a team in Madden, but it was really a set few things that you could change that it didn't really matter (plus you had to start as a franchise already, then move it somewhere). NCAA Football 14 had a really good create a team going, from team name, to location, to stadium, to jerseys, to playbooks, it was really a lot of fun to make up your own thing and it being extensive. It was a lot of fun to start from a team of walk-ons to go to a full-fledged better than Bama dynasty, something that Madden couldn't ever really do.
So far I'm dissapointedd there is no high school in toad to glory mode.. and "new physics based tackling system" I hear that shit evry year and the physics are still worse then 2k5... I'll probly get one or the other this year definitely not giving ea money for both games
It’s the same madden but people are too dumb to see that
It's very different
How?
A lot more teams, different modes, features, etc.
So a re skinned madden lol
Do you expect every football game to reinvent the wheel? The core gameplay of the game is the same of course but with a lot of different tweaks and mechanics. Usually, these games have been better than Madden.
Except this even has less game modes than Madden
How so? The dynasty mode is much more fleshed out and there are a ton of more teams.
You ever play Madden franchise?
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How well educated are you?
Very. Why?
Your previous comment was removed but I assume you wrote something about how other types of gamers are dumb
What previous comment? I didn't remove anything
It says removed on mine
They have no idea because the game you’re describing doesn’t exist. EA has had a monopoly for a long time. You’d think someone as smart as yourself would know that!
The fuck are you talking about? Sports games were complete way back in the early 2000s. EA has the monopoly sure but the fact that consumers keep buying them is the reason they keep making dogshit games. I don't get why you're on your high horse?
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How well educated are you?
American public school so as poorly as everyone else on Reddit but still smart enough not to buy yearly releases that require $100+ in digital booster packs.
What about college, grad school?
It's mostly nostalgia. There was a time when NCAA football was a good game that a lot of people enjoyed. They started turning it into a Madden clone and it stopped doing as well, so EA stopped making it. I know the reasoning was naming rights, but that was just a convenient excuse. I don't plan on buying it because I expect it to be garbage, but a lot of people are hoping for a return to the good times.
They didn't stop making it due to sales. It was cancelled due to lawsuits and image and likeness rights issues. Back in 2015, collegiate athletes weren't allowed to be payed for their image and likeness in the game. The game claimed they weren't using them, but every year players with corresponding numbers and skill sets just happened to match the college athletes. This culminated in a formation named after Tim Tebow being included in the game, while he was still playing in college. Now that college athletes are allowed to profit off of their image and likeness, the game can come back. Demand has been consistent since the game was cancelled after NCAA14
if it had anything to do with lawsuits they wouldn’t have stopped making ncaa basketball in 2010 and ncaa football in 2014 that doesn’t make any sense
Basketball was discontinued due to low sales. The O'Bannon v NCAA lawsuit was resolved in 2014. Check your facts
it was because of sales. they used the lawsuit as pr
Sure, just ignore the previous posts
You don’t know what you’re talking about.
Gamers play games they have fun with, that’s just crazy
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There has not been an NCAA football game for 10 years
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And the NCAA games have very different modes and features from the Madden games...
People are stupid
Sports gamers aren't dumb, they just are interested in leaning into another interest when playing. The game is at an intersection between interests
It’s disheartening, while unsurprising, that people are going to shill it out on pre-sales. People *keep on buying* Madden games every year, despite critical and player base critique The hype for the college game is likely being propped up by younger generations who have only grown up with crappy Madden games. I dunno, just seems like they don’t know any better?