One of EA's taglines for College Football 26 is "the bestselling sports game of all time just got better." That sounds like a lot of marketing hype, but, and I can't believe I'm about to say this either: EA Sports is 100 percent right.
No Sophomore Jinx Here
One of the best gauges of how necessary a sequel is whether you still have the urge to play a previous game. I can still fire up Madden 04 today and enjoy it because Michael Vick revolutionized the game. NBA Jam and NBA Street are still more enjoyable than many modern basketball offerings. I have hundreds of hours in CFB 25, and after two days with the newest title, I knew I was never going back.
While Madden and College Football will always share resources (and they should), the college game has several advantages that CFB 26 makes the most of. With over 100 teams and 2,800 new plays to choose from, there is an infinite number of ways to enjoy this game. Unraveling the mysteries of each playbook will be like hundreds of little Christmas mornings for football fans.
One of the new additions is an online trophy room, and lord, there are a million trophies and I want every one. The Golden Egg? Gimme. I'm an LSU fan, so unlocking the Golden Boot for a victory over Arkansas is a must. Don't even get me started on the Old Oaken Bucket for the Indiana-Purdue rivalry. Not only is that fun to play for, it's fun to say.
College football drips with countless Saturday traditions, and it's hard to find one that didn't make the cut in CFB 26. If you haven't seen its excellent depiction of Virginia Tech's iconic "Enter Sandman" entrance...
Defense *Clap Clap* Defense!
Offense fills seats, but defense wins championships. Some of the best games in EA's pantheon have recognized that the guys on that side of the ball get paid too. After Michael Vick ended friendships in Madden 04, Madden 05 brought the hit stick so quarterbacks had a reason to fear leaving the pocket. CFB 25 gave us the "Switch Stick," which also appeared in Madden. It gives the skilled defender more tools to counter one-play touchdowns or blown coverage by simply using the analog stick at the right time.
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That said, last year's game had too many clairvoyant players who picked off passes without turning their heads. "No eyes, no pick" was a focus this year, and it shows. Now, defenders will have an opportunity to make last-second plays on those, but they'll need to go for the swat instead of the 360 Matrix picks of past years.
I should mention no eyes, no pick appears to apply primarily to computer opponents. I've heard reports of ridiculous picks happening in online matchups, but since a lot of people paid for those players, I understand the distinction being drawn. I'm not saying I agree with it, but Ultimate Team is what it is at this point.
That feels like a natural transition point. Ultimate Team has a lot of little upgrades such as Pack Helper. After pulling a card now, you quickly get a lot of info about it. You can put it on Auction, with a suggested price. You can quickly compare it to the card starting in front of it. It's possible to decide whether a card is auction fodder, grindable for training (CUT's equivalent to dusting a card in Hearthstone) or your new WR3 faster than ever before.
Also, I can't speak to the power creep that we'll have by October, but right now there are a lot of good cards that no money spent players can add to their lineups. It's possible to get 12-13 85 overall players just by grinding free content. At this stage of the year, a team with even five or six top-tier cards will win a lot of games, many of them by the opponent conceding after seeing your top-three cards.
Road to Glory, CFB 26's career mode, is as addictive as it has ever been. High school games return ,and you have the option to begin your career as any level from five-star prospect to little-known underdog. I've been trying it on the hardest setting, and it takes an insane amount of work to crack the lineup as an underdog.
Last year, once you had unlocked the maximum level of Coach Trust you were staying in the starting lineup even if you questioned the coach's lineage. Now, there are myriad ways to make Coach unhappy. A GPA that is too low incurs a consistent trust penalty. Not having the respect of your teammates pings your leadership grade.
In one fourth-wall-breaking incident, I played in a CFB 26 tournament with my teammates. It asked my playstyle, and I responded with "mid-blitz cheeser," causing my teammates to lose respect for me. It is definitely a work in progess though. Coach Trust is far too reliant on statistics. While playing quarterback at Duke, I led my unranked team to a huge upset over North Carolina, who was ranked in the Top 25.
I didn't have the best statistical game, but we stayed turnover-free and pulled off a program-defining victory. I eagerly backed out of the game to see my Coach Trust meter and found that it hadn't moved one iota.
But all in all, this is a college football offering I struggle to tear myself away from. If you enjoyed CFB 25, you are probably already playing this. If you are even a tiny fan of college football or mild enjoyer of sports games, your new addiction is here.