It’s hard to avoid making comparisons between the two games when playing Madden 25 after getting College Football 25 back in our lives last month. It might not be 2K vs. EA, but it still feels like there’s a competition here.
The new face back after a long hiatus vs. the industry punching bag that represents “all that’s wrong with sports games in the modern era” makes the narratives unfair in year one. Whether you actually feel that way or not about Madden (I don’t personally hold it up as the “big bad” of the industry), it’s a year where I wonder if College Football 25 could outsell Madden 25 just this one time in this very unique situation. Even with any missteps College Football 25 is dealing with today, the aura around it remains intact.
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Even with that being said, I’m ready to say that I theoretically like the gameplay in Madden 25 more than the gameplay in EA Sports College Football 25. However, that statement comes with some major qualifiers attached to it. It’s still early days, and I’m not here to give a final verdict on Madden 25 (I’ve only been playing it as long as anyone else who got it at the start of early access), but I feel like it’s already becoming clear how I’m going to be playing both these games the rest of the way.
Madden 25 Feels Best When Playing Other People
So, as for the gameplay, let me be a little more clinical with my statement and say that if I were to remove the AI from the equation, then I would prefer Madden’s style of gameplay over College Football’s style of gameplay. The tackling, the slower game speed, the look of the game (new pre-snap signature animations and such are awesome), and the “feel” all help Madden 25’s cause. That said, zone coverages in Madden 25 are maybe the worst they have been at launch in many years.
Regardless, here’s the thing, I’m talking about all those positives in a head-to-head environment. Playing against the AI is a whole other ballgame.
If I’m playing against the AI, then it’s EA Sports College Football 25 all day. It does not seem like there is any version of “real-time coaching” in Madden 25, and if you’re not aware, that’s College Football’s way of having the AI adapt to what you do during a game. It’s not that Madden’s AI never changes, but playing the AI feels very much like every other Madden in recent times. Playing the AI in College Football 25 feels far more unique and interesting game to game. Maybe that’s the vast amount of teams/styles and the disparity in ratings between them, but I just feel I have to adjust in that game much more than I do in Madden.
It’s likely that a lot of this comes back to the individual team playbooks in Madden and how that drives so much of every team’s playstyle. It’s a big reason why the Chiefs always had a TE that went for a lot of yards in franchise mode simulations even after Travis Kelce retired in prior Maddens.
(As an aside, I do want to mention the playbooks did get way more love than usual this year, likely because whatever tool they implemented for College Football 25 also allowed them to iterate more easily in Madden. There are a ton of new plays, and a lot of the playbooks have gotten rather big refreshes.)
Still, the structure of these playbooks is also likely a reason why a lot of teams end up passing way more than running. You might not be aware, but there was a lot of talk about pass/run ratios and how the AI ran far too many pass plays in Madden 24. The same iffy ratios do seem to exist in Madden 25 — though don’t freak quite yet, keep reading — but my guess is there are a couple reasons for this. One, is the legacy issue that playbooks probably don’t have the right pass/run ratios and thus AI teams choose passing plays way more by default. This goes a layer deeper because I don’t think the AI knows how to properly parse the playbook. Just think of how Coach Suggestions for you will still always give you Four Verticals if you’re down and there’s like 3 minutes to go in the game.
The other area that comes into play probably goes back to the adaptive AI. The CPU QBs are very accurate and deadly as usual, and I think Madden 25 is a very pass-happy environment because both human and AI can move the ball easily through the air in many situations. If the AI is carving you up through the air, then why should they pass? So it’s not that I haven’t seen good pass/run ratios in this game, but it more seems to depend on you slowing them down through the air — and also certain teams just don’t want to run the ball either way.
Now, you might say that’s true to life, and that’s fair. A lot more teams believe in the idea of “pass to score, run to win” where you run more in the fourth quarter to ice the game (I believe in it as well). On top of that, “establishing the run” doesn’t really mean anything to a lot of teams anymore, and I think that’s also true.
However, it’s not the right comparison here. The score matters to an extent in Madden, but it’s pretty clear the AI is not time and game situation aware enough to really comprehend when it’s time to burn some clock with some running plays. It also feels rather self-evident so far that some teams just run the ball more than other squads independent of anything. Again, that sounds fine when reading it, but it’s not necessarily the teams you would think. The Chargers are not out there grinding out first downs and so on.
In other words, until EA figures out how to make the AI work through its playbook in a more functional way or give coaches more of an identity, I think we’re going to have some run/pass imbalances even if you’re good enough (or find sliders you like) that help corral the AI passing game and make them maybe have to think about running to be more efficient.
EA Sports College Football 25 Will Remain My Go-To Game Against The AI
Beyond that, the other reason I am framing my gameplay preferences this way is because, look, no shocker, franchise mode does not hold up to dynasty mode. I’m not ready to give a full breakdown of franchise mode because I have played way more online H2H games than offline franchise mode games so far with Madden (I’m having a good time playing others online so that’s why I’m playing it that way), but I don’t think scenarios and the updated NFL Draft are really going to drag me away from the recruiting world of College Football 25.
Madden needs its “recruiting/transfer portal” selling point. What is the draw of Madden’s franchise mode beyond playing the games? I still don’t have a good answer for that. Scenarios are not it to me, and team building isn’t that interesting in an NFL game week to week during the season. You have the ability to get way more XP than AI teams, and so I always have to put rules in place anyway so my team doesn’t run away from all the others as I train my guys up.
I don’t know if giving us impressive weekly recap presentation elements or maybe tapping into old Head Coach concepts and just trying to make building game plans more interesting is the answer, but at some point we need something to keep the mode intriguing off the field in a way recruiting does for College Football. Because regardless of any issues you might have with recruiting and the transfer portal, it’s undeniable that recruiting is way more interesting than anything you do in Madden’s franchise mode because it’s the core of how you build a team, and you have to take it seriously week to week.
Bottom Line
So that’s where I’m at here on day one. If you want to play a lot of head-to-head games, or Ultimate Team, or play in an online franchise with some buddies, I think Madden 25 will be in a good place, especially if they can fix some of the mess going on with zone coverages in a future patch. If you just want the offline experience, I can’t see this game pulling me away from College Football 25. My feelings could change since it’s still only week one of me playing Madden, but that’s where I’m at here on the “official” launch weekend.
(I’m still likely going to play plenty of Madden 25 franchise mode, but it will probably be on PC once modders start working their magic so I can get my custom camera angles, improved broadcast graphics, and so on. I still recommend people going back and checking out Madden 24 on PC with some mods if they can.)
Published: Aug 18, 2024 03:59 pm