College Football 25 Gameplay Deep Dive Trailer Drops Ahead of July Release Date

Adam WellsMay 31, 2024

Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

Seven weeks from the launch of College Football 25, EA Sports has given fans their biggest taste of what the game will look like with a new gameplay deep dive trailer.

The five-minute video, narrated by Kirk Herbstreit, focuses primarily on the “CampusIQ” in-game feature, which includes the “Wear & Tear System” that allows gamers to utilize strategic substitutions to keep the players fresh as they take more hits during games.

Per Scott O’Gallagher, design director for EA SPORTS College Football 25, the gameplay was “built on these three fundamental pillars: ‘All 22+’, ‘134 ways to play’, and ‘Stories of Saturday’.”

All 22+ is meant to emphasize the “importance of individual players and their unique abilities.”

The 134 Ways to Play signifies the current number of FBS teams, and the game is meant to properly represent “offensive schemes from Air Force triple option to the Air Raid at USC” to honor EA’s message that “every team is somebody’s favorite team.”

EA Sports has added more than 1,500 new plays, more than 50 formations and 134 team-specific playbooks that were created for the game. The game also includes 10 non-team playbooks built from various styles of play, including air raid, pistol, power spread, option, pro, run & shoot, spread, spread Option, and veer & shoot.

Stories of Saturday is designed to “encapsulate the raw emotions of these student athletes as they perform under intense pressure in hostile environments.” One example cited by O’Gallagher is understanding that a true freshman player will likely respond to a big moment in a big game differently than a more-established upperclassman.

The Wear and Tear feature will put an emphasis on gamers being smart with how they run their offense. One example cited is, if you’re playing in Dynasty or Road to Glory mode, your quarterback will feel the effects if he is asked to throw the ball a lot and gets hit in a game.

If you’re running back or wide receiver is tired, his change of direction and acceleration are going to be negatively impacted as the game goes on.

The game does feature a Wear and Tear page for each player that will show you where they are hurt or fatigued and how at-risk they are to suffering an injury.

Another notable part of the gameplay is the modifications to option and RPO plays. The game will give a prompt for the gamer to decide if they want to pull the ball back on an option play or go with the handoff to the running back.

Defenses haven’t been forgotten in all of these updates. EA Sports has changed the artificial intelligence logic on option and RPOs, including a Read Key that will “consider more realistic contexts when deciding to crash or stay home.”

There will also be a Pitch Key that exhibits “more varied behavior” and will allow defenders the ability to bluff whether they are playing the quarterback or running back.

The long wait for gamers to get their hands on EA Sports College Football 25 is nearing an end. The standard edition will be available for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S on July 19.

Gamers who pre-order the deluxe edition will get early access to the game on July 16.