A New Patch Creates That Urge to Start Fresh

For anyone who missed it, a new patch hit College Football 25 last week. It fixed some annoying issues within dynasty mode like Power OL never getting Pass Block Finesse upgrades. In addition, you now have the ability to more easily cycle through guys on your recruiting board.

But, to me, the big addition was the 700+ new players that were added and the various ratings adjustments implemented. If you’re someone who is very into jersey numbers, tons of those were corrected as well. These changes while small in the grand scheme of things have got me scratching. The updates have given me that itch, that itch to restart my dynasty playthrough.

I’m in one online dynasty that obviously will not be restarted (we’re in the CFB Playoff in Year 1), but in my own realm I have a New Mexico dynasty that is currently in Year 4 that I’m starting to question after last week’s update. I’m in Week 9 at this point, and I’m starting to think about the ol’ reset.

This is not a new phenomenon for me. I struggle with this in certain sports games more than others, but really quality roster updates are my kryptonite. I guess I’m one of those people who just really likes to mimic what I’m currently seeing on TV each day/week when I watch my favorite teams, but it obviously hampers my ability to stick with my franchise mode playthroughs.

I know I’m not unique here, and it doesn’t come from a place of boredom, it’s just another version of that shiny toy syndrome. Some want all the roster moves and everything to be up to date every single game, which is why 30-team control (or the equivalent for the given sport) is what some people swear by. For me, it’s not coming from a place of wanting roster perfection, it’s more that I just want as many real players as possible in my dynasty mode, and it would be cool to have more accurate ratings (and numbers) for these teams.

Of course, why does that matter in Year 4 of a dynasty where all but the freshman who are now seniors are even “real” players at this point? Well, I never said this desire was rational and don’t assume I’m a rational person. I mean Hans Gruber should have taught you that assuming things can get you in trouble many years ago.

But it’s a fair question, and I can’t answer it. The heart wants what it wants I suppose. But the thing that is holding me back from starting over this weekend at this point is obviously the connection to my team. My one-star school is slowly making its way up the ranks, and we’re thinking of moving to a new conference soon. At the very least, I want to finish out Year 4 and then maybe decide on what conference to head to. In other words, I’m invested. I planned to make the CFB Playoffs once with New Mexico. I planned to go to a Power 4 conference with New Mexico. My plans are now in jeopardy.

Even with the memories, there’s more than just a roster update that’s interesting me in the restart. I’m not in love with how I did my coaching skill tree this time around. I’m still learning even now about the coaching skill tree, and it’s a bit absurd that we can’t re-spec coaches in the middle of a dynasty. I suppose the issue is that the pipelines or other things you level in the skill tree itself could get messed up if you reset it, but it still seems weird that something that is in most way more complicated RPGs isn’t here. Even if you could only re-spec in the offseason, it feels like something should be available.

And so I have these little things just needling me, and the grass is looking greener and greener the longer I look at my next door university’s lawn. And it will be another university if I restart because I couldn’t just restart with the same team. I never do that — I can’t do that. Those memories are sacred, and I don’t want to rewrite them. My New Mexico dynasty only has one timeline, it won’t be rewritten.

But whether it’s Bill Walsh College Football ‘95 or College Football 25, I’ve been having these same back-and-forth battles in my head about new vs. existing franchises/seasons since I’ve been playing sports games. It’s easier now to have multiple saves and give yourself an out if you end up having regrets about starting over, so in that sense it has gotten easier to get out of a choice. But at the same time, it’s just made restarting all the more easy, which isn’t good for me because restarting is already what I lean towards in most cases.

I’ll continue to sleep on it as I really savor the rest of Year 4 at New Mexico, but I feel like you probably know which way I’m leaning, and I hope some of you get where I’m coming from and why the new hotness usually wins out for me. Anyway, thanks for being my gaming therapist this week, I needed to get that out.