After an 11 year hiatus, college football has finally returned to video games. On July 19, 2024, EA Sports College Football 25 was released, bringing the highly anticipated renewal of the storied game franchise. 

The NCAA Football video game series, published by Electronic Arts (EA), began in 1993 under the name of Bill Walsh College Football. But in 2013, the series was canceled due to lawsuits surrounding the usage of players’ image and likeness without paying them..With the recent change in the NCAA’s NIL rules, players are able to earn money through the NIL, which gave EA the greenlight to start developing the game in 2019 and to announce the game publicly in 2021. 

Some of the standout game modes in the new College Football are Dynasty, Road to Glory, and Ultimate Team. Each game mode offers a unique style of gameplay. Road to Glory offers you the ability to become a recruit, and play for a college of your choice. You can choose to start as a 1-5 star player, which will determine the difficulty.  Ultimate Team lets you open packs to form your own team. For me, Dynasty is the standout game mode, with the most replayability. I enjoy building a team up from being bad to being able to beat every team and growing them to a powerhouse through recruiting and playing the games.

The gameplay of College Football 25 is much faster-paced than Madden. The developers changed the running animation, leading to smoother gameplay and a more arcade-like feel. I enjoy playing against the computer a lot more, since the AI is smarter making the games have a more fun challenge. 

Ultimately, EA Sports College Football 25 stands as a bright spot in the sports game industry, and serves as a return to form for EA Sports. By bringing back the great parts of the old games with modern updates, the game certainly lived up to my expectations.