College football 25 latest review: Is EA Sports game worth your money?

After the hype, EA Sports' College Football 25 has been a massive video gaming achievement. But is it worth your time and money? To be truly fair, it's worth considering the good and bad. EA has done some amazing things but also made some significant mistakes.

We'll look at both and then deliver the ultimate verdict on College Football 25

Why is College Football 25 such a significant game?

EA's College Football series was a massive seller every year until it was halted in 2014. Since then, red tape and NIL issues kept EA Sports from bringing out a new game. In the aftermath of multiple legal challenges, EA had to reach financial arrangements with the depicted players to restart the game. Having done that, College Football 25 was announced to much fanfare.

What does College Football 25 get right?

Enhanced game introduction screens are one of many highlights of College Football 25 (Photo credit: IMAGN)

Many of the predictable moments are just as great as they should be. The gameplay is solid, the visuals are impressive and the depth of detail in the game is simply astonishing. Running down the hill before the game at Clemson and being able to swap out multiple uniform possibilities, many moments of this game are as cool as players wanted them to be.

The 30-year Dynasty Mode will offer something for the in-depth gamer who likes the organizational challenge of building the next great team. But players who just want to see their team's QB throw the fourth quarter touchdown will get a chance to enjoy the game on that level.

Obviously, the NIL thing was a massive headache, but if you're an Alabama fan using Jalen Milroe instead of "QB#4" or some other generic moniker, you get why this game needed to happen.

What could College Football 25 do better?

For one thing, the rollout has not been impressive. There have been some gameplay bugs, but the biggest issue is server failure on a regular basis. This isn't unheard of for very popular games, but Sony and Microsoft seem to have been surprised by the massive demand for the game. That's borderline inexcusable.

The one real downside of the NIL issue is that it takes away some interesting points of interplay. Also, back in the day, EA's NCAA players could be imported into Madden, so your five-star recruit could become an NFL star one day. That's gone.

Also gone is the ability to edit the names of NIL players or to change the names of incoming recruits. Detail-oriented fans can't make incoming prospects doppelgangers of their school's top recruits.

Some other details could be cleaned up. The kicking gameplay is infamously difficult. Top FCS teams belong in this game. So does better audio tagging. In some ways, it's still kind of like the pre-2000 EA games with uber-generic commentary from the game broadcasters.

Is CF25 worth your money?

In the end, shortcomings and tweaks are inevitable. But the big picture of this game is one of tremendous achievement. EA has taken a great idea and made it as good – or maybe even better – than it should be. For that reason, it's certainly a worthy purchase for gamers.

What's your take on College Football 25? Let us hear your thoughts below in our comments section!