Wisconsin LB says EA College Football 25 game is ‘essential’ for sport
The Badgers senior spoke to reporters Tuesday at Big Ten media days in Indianapolis at Lucas Oil Stadium.
EA Sports has delivered its first major update for its wildly popular College Football 25 game.
The patch arrived Wednesday morning, August 8, and the Orlando-based company laid out all the changes big and small on the Campus Notes page on its website.
The patch was hinted since late July when EA first laid out minor adjustments it was making to College Football 25, the first video game of its kind since NCAA Football 14 came out in 2013. The game made $500 million before the end of July and saw 5 million unique players in its opening week, according to On3.
There’s a lot in the patch, from new formations and uniforms to bug fixes. And yes, Florida State fans should now be able to hear the War Chant in the pregame.
College Football 25 update: What’s included in the patch?
Here’s a summary of the updates EA Sports announced in their first major patch, followed by the full breakdown of changes:
- Expanded playbooks for teams, including new shotgun formations to 35 teams (including Florida).
- Uniform adjustments to 19 teams and eight stadiums.
- Fixed pregame issues where the USC mascot would disappear, and where audio would disappear for Penn State, FSU and Tennessee on Xbox Series S.
- Tuned in-game logic (for example: fewer broken tackles from trailing defenders, reduced effectiveness of multiple laterals, quarterbacks scrambling behind the line of scrimmage will lose stamina faster).
- Fixed the issue of FCS teams winning too many upsets in Dynasty mode (turns out some of the teams had players with pro grades).
- Addressed recruiting bugs in Dynasty mode. EA Sports said its “primary goals for this update were to remove most of the recruiting strategies that were discovered during early access and to smooth out the pain points our players were reporting.”
- Fixed bugs in Road to Glory, including one that didn’t let users upgrade their created player during bye weeks.
- Fixed Ultimate Team bugs, including one that caused the game to crash during halftime kickoffs vs. Champs.
College Football 25 patch notes: Updates to gameplay
Here are all the changes EA Sports announced regarding gameplay:
- Included 8 new shotgun formations to a total of 35 teams:
- Bunch Quads Open (Known as Diamond Quads): added to teams including Texas Tech, Western Michigan)
- Deuce Twins Over: Buffalo, Toledo
- Slot F Wing: NC State, Liberty
- Split Pro Far: NC State, Liberty
- Split Pro Near: NC State
- Tight Y Off Flex: Florida
- Wing HB Wk Close: Indiana, Minnesota
- Wing Slot Over: Texas A&M, Kansas State
- Tuning and logic enhancements to pursuit angles.
- Introduced new behavior that further differentiates players with high pursuit ratings vs. lower pursuit ratings.Â
- Dev Note:Â We will monitor feedback on how this change impacts gameplay and based on results could make further adjustments in a future title update.Â
- Reduced frequency of broken tackles from trailing defenders.
- Fixed various instances of rare broken play bugs.
- Fixed issue where certain formations had offensive players align too wide when on the near or far hash.
- Fixed an issue where you could not use 4-2-5 or 3-3-5 formations in a custom playbook.
- Fixed an issue where singleback formations would be assigned the wrong name when creating a custom playbook.
- Fixed an issue where Spiking the Ball in online modes was not working as part of the Turbo Tempo system.
- Fixed an issue so a Speed Option Running Back will follow the QB longer.
- Adjusted AI QB behavior on shot plays to make more lob throws vs bullet passes.
- Adjusted AI QB behavior to be less aggressive based on awareness rating.
- Adjusted AI offensive line behavior resulting in less illegal man downfield penalties during RPO style plays.
- Dev Note:Â For best chances at success, make sure you press the icon of which receiver you want to throw to before the RB receives the ball.
- Adjusted the DB’s ability to more effectively shed blocks on the perimeter.
- Increased the speed penalty for running out of stamina during play.
- QB scrambles behind the line of scrimmage will lose stamina at a faster rate.
- Fixed an exploit where players would leave a QB contain player unblocked and run around them.
- Dev Note:Â We will make further improvements to QB Contain in a future title update.
- Increased the reward players receive for shading inside or outside correctly in Man Coverage vs passing routes.
- Adjusted False Start chances when you make preplay adjustments late in the play clock.
- Fixed an issue where run-fit defenders were not responding as effectively to Wildcat run plays.Â
- Made an adjustment to the Wildcat Unbalanced Motion Zone play.
- Reduced the effectiveness of multiple laterals in a single play.
- Adjusted the thresholds required to receive the most effective Juke and Spin moves.Â
- Adjusted press animations to be more of an effective counter to the Takeoff Ability.
- Updated pass protection mechanic to only include the RB in the protection if they are already on a block or block and release assignment.
College Football 25 patch notes: Updates to abilities
Here are all the changes EA Sports announced regarding player abilities:
- Updated the coloring of Platinum tier Abilities to further distinct the look vs Silver Abilities.
- Rebalanced the Gold and Platinum tiers of the Juke and Spin abilities like 360 and Side Step.Â
- Rebalanced the Platinum tier of the extender ability which includes not firing on QB designed run plays.
- Slightly rebalanced the effectiveness of the Gold and Platinum tiers of the Quick Jump Ability. Additionally we made adjustments to the tier levels found on the Texas Front 7.
College Football 25 patch notes: Dynasty mode updates
EA College Football 25 player ratings: Florida State, Miami, UCF on list
Florida State and UCF had one player apiece in the top-100 player ratings, while the Miami Hurricanes saw three make EA Sports’ initial list.
Here are all the changes EA Sports announced regarding Dynasty mode, including recruiting, Supersim, polls and custom conferences and schedules:
- Fixed an issue where players were unable to have more than 20 created coaches at one time in an online Dynasty League.
- Various fixes around score summaries and Box Scores.
- Various fixes for News Stories.
- Introduced a new Playoff Bracket Screen.
- Updated Texas/Oklahoma Rivalry data.
- Discovered that FCS SE, MW, and NW were secretly using professional players and passing them off as collegiate players. Gave them sanctions and ensured they are now using properly-rated players.
- Dev Note:Â For this change to go into effect, you will need to create a new Dynasty.
- Fixed an issue where Wear and Tear did not recover for FCS teams resulting in a high number of FCS team injuries during gameplay.
- Reduced dynamic attendance penalties for playing FCS teams.
- Increased dynamic attendance in rivalry games.
- Retuned Toughest Places to Play formula to reduce the impact that large stadiums have on Toughest Places to Play and increase the value of filling the stadium and winning games at home historically:
- Reduced impact of raw crowd size.
- Increased impact of historical win rate.
- Increased impact of attendance rate.
- Updated Right hand panel in Stadium Atmosphere Grade on My School screen to accurately reflect the Toughest Places to Play at all times.
- Increased the accumulation of Pride stickers, particularly for defensive players and offensive linemen.
- Reduced the Chance to Transfer Penalty for players rated below 90 OVR.
- Updated Coach Talents on Wyoming Offensive Coordinator.
- Dev Note:Â For this change to go into effect, you will need to create a new Dynasty.
- Defensive Schemes and Playbooks for the following teams have been updated.
- Dev Note:Â For this change to go into effect, you will need to create a new Dynasty.
- USC
- UCLA
- Mississippi State
- Texas Tech
- UConn
- Miami
- Memphis
- Nevada
- North Carolina
- Notre Dame
- Oregon State
- San Jose State
- TCU
- Texas A&M
- Troy
- UMass
- Updating your coach’s playbook in the Schemes and Playbooks screen will now update your team’s scheme and should be reflected in Team Needs.Â
- Fixed an issue where Offensive Linemen would appear in the Preseason Heisman Watch in future seasons.
- Updated the Heisman Watch logic to reduce the value of receiving TDs.
- Recruiting
- Dev Note:Â Our primary goals for this update were to remove most of the recruiting strategies that were discovered during early access and to smooth out the pain points our players were reporting. Recruiting is a delicate balance as we want to try to make things as realistic as possible, while also allowing players to live out their football fantasies. With that in mind, we decided to introduce additional recruiting logic and balance changes:
- Fixed an issue where teams were pursuing too many quarterbacks in High School Recruiting.
- Reduced the number of unrecruited 4 and 5 stars early in the season.
- Increased the number of players that the AI will pursue at one time.
- Dev Note:Â The above changes strive to decrease the number of players that go unrecruited until late in the cycle, while also slightly reducing how aggressive the AI could be with those recruits once they start to recruit them. Our goal is to deliver a fun but balanced recruiting experience that feels rewarding to all players. We will monitor the impacts these changes have on the overall recruiting experience and continue to adjust as needed.Â
- Visits
- Fixed an issue where you could not schedule visits for recruits in certain situations.
- Fixed an issue where a visit remained scheduled even if a recruit was removed from a board.
- Fixed an issue where the allowed the number of visits scheduled for a week to exceed 4.
- Tuned Visit Influence effects:
- Removed initial influence when scheduling a visit.
- Increased disparity between winning and losing a game during a visit.
- Tuned the logic for game stakes to better account for ranked teams.
- Increased the penalty for choosing a visit activity that the team does not have a high grade in or the player is not interested in.
- Dev Note:Â Our primary goals for this update were to remove most of the recruiting strategies that were discovered during early access and to smooth out the pain points our players were reporting. Recruiting is a delicate balance as we want to try to make things as realistic as possible, while also allowing players to live out their football fantasies. With that in mind, we decided to introduce additional recruiting logic and balance changes:
- SuperSim
- Increased hand off rate for simulated RPOs to increase the number of running plays across the country, especially for teams with a lot of RPOs in their playbook.
- Various tuning fixes to increase the gap between good and bad teams/players.
- Dev Note:Â We are going to continue to monitor the simulation results to ensure that teams and players are performing within expected ranges, including reducing frequency of upsets, based on Pre-Season Projections and expected win totals.Â
- Polls
- Increased the loss penalty for schools with more than 1 loss.
- Increased the weighing of Conference Prestige in the poll calculation.
- Reduced variance in CFP poll logic vs Media/Coaches
- Dev Note:Â As with the other systems mentioned above, we will continue to monitor the Polls system to ensure that it strikes a balance between realism and reward for player success.
- Custom Conferences/Custom Schedules
- Dev Note:Â We will continue to monitor feedback about Custom Conferences and Scheduling. Based on this feedback we plan to continue making adjustments in future title updates.
- Fixed an issue in Conference Rules where Divisions were changed to off, even if those Divisions were previously turned on.
- Fixed an issue where the Independents Tab disappeared when removing all teams from Independents
- Dev Note:Â This also fixes issues with tabs to the right of Independents having incorrect or missing data.
- Addressed UI issues around the Conference Title game for the CUSA and PAC-12
- Addressed UI issues around Dynasty Team Select UI appropriately respecting Custom Conference moves
- Updated text in the Team Header on the Custom Schedules Screen
College Football 25 patch notes: Road to Glory updates
Here are all the changes EA Sports announced regarding Road to Glory mode:
- Added an additional scenario and NIL content.
- Fixed rare issues where you’d get a scenario reward screen that did not align with your received bonuses.
- Fixed an issue where users were getting Skill Points maxed out after completing a practice.
- Fixed a crash when quitting a Position Battle.
- Reworked Wear and Tear UI to show position-appropriate ratings-impacts.
- Fixed an issue where you cannot equip a Mental Ability during the RTG Player creation flow if you enter a settings menu during creation.
- Fixed an issue where Meter Mental Progress is not tracked during Bye Weeks.
- Fixed an issue where it is impossible to lose Coach Trust once you reach max Coach Trust.
- Fixed a UI issue related to the display of Coach Trust when a user is close to max Coach Trust.
- Fixed an issue where you cannot Upgrade your player during Bye Weeks.
- Fixed a UI issue related to the display of Weekly Energy in the Meters Screen.
- Fixed issues with Mental Goals not tracking correctly or reaching Platinum correctly.
- Fixed UI issues around Text Messages.
- Fixed an issue where backing out of the Team Selection step in RTG Creation can soft lock the mode.
- Fixed an issue where a player can continue to work on Academics after graduating early. Â
College Football 25 patch notes: Ultimate Team updates
Here are all the changes EA Sports announced regarding Ultimate Team mode:
- Generating ‘Best Lineup’ no longer changes your equipped visuals and playbook.
- Player Portraits will no longer appear on non-player items after filtering or sorting.Â
- Fixed a crash that occurred during kicking off at halftime when playing Champs.
- Attributes on the front of Player Items should update correctly after a Player Item has been upgraded.
- Fixed an issue that was occurring when highlighting the Rename Team tile on the UT Hub.
- Fixed an issue with Squads 3v3 that prevented 2 users from being able to connect to the game.
- Fixed an issue with the Orientation Pack that was preventing new users from being able to upgrade their lineup and progress through the Orientation Field Pass.
- Fixed an issue on the Player Profile Screen that prevented users from being able to transition within the Profile selections.
- Removed the Green Gavel icon that appeared on owned items placed on the Auction House.
- Fixed a crash with House Rules: Touchdown Tango that triggered when the play clock reached 0.
- Player Items displayed on the New Items Screen no longer appear transparent when not highlighted.
- When viewing Challenge Details the yardage marker is now displayed within the Conditions.
- On the Lineup Screen names of players in backup slots contributing to Chemistry should change in scale when highlighting a Chemistry boost.
- Improved UI around Attributes that are receiving chemistry boosts when viewing the Attributes tab of the Item Detail screen.
- Fixed issue that was causing long load transitions on the New Item Screen during the First Time User Experience.
- The Difficulty star for Challenges now displays correctly when scrolling down the Play Co-op List.
- Fixed an issue that was causing users to error out to the Main Hub when trying to access the Auction House.
- Conference Filters in the Auction House now work correctly.
- Fixed stability issues for users entering Ultimate Team for the first time.Â
College Football 25 patch notes: Updates to presentation
Here are all the changes EA Sports announced regarding game presentation:
- Added new uniform pieces for Baylor, Oregon, Iowa State, Ole Miss, Vanderbilt, Bowling Green, Northwestern, UTEP, Boise State, New Mexico State, App State, Texas State, Louisiana, New Mexico, and South Alabama.
- Adjusted uniform pieces for 2024 season: TCU, Arkansas, Missouri, Baylor
- Various improvements made to teams’ uniform pieces for authenticity
- Updates have been made to the following stadiums:
- Holiday Bowl
- Texas State
- Kansas
- Kennesaw State
- Oklahoma State
- Wake Forest
- UL-Monroe
- NebraskaÂ
- Fixed an Issue where the USC Mascot would disappear during the opening ceremony.
- Fixed an Issue where the incorrect mascot would appear during different situations.
- Restored opening chants for Penn State, FSU, and Tennessee on Xbox Series S.
College Football 25 patch notes: Road to College Football Playoff update
Here is the change EA Sports announced regarding Road to CFP mode:
- Tier Rebalancing and Reconstruction changing the format from 3 tiers to 5 tiers