Well, I hate to have to do this, but I have to make a bit of a retraction to my previous blog about College Football 25. As many of you probably know, I posted a pair of blogs a few weeks back, expressing some of my biggest challenges with College Football 25. Those blogs were focused on the difficulty of the kicking meter, and problems that I was having adjusting to the revised option controls.
I stand by most of what was presented in both of those blogs. After all, the core complaint of both was the lack of tutorials and a Skill Trainer to teach the new mechanics, and the lack of difficulty and customization settings to make these mechanics easier to use for people who are struggling. The lack of such features is still an absolutely valid complaint, and EA has yet to take any steps to address it, other than to include QR Codes linking to online tutorial videos, which you have to watch on a separate device because EA didn't even bother to include links to view the tutorials on the console's browser. I mean, heck, the controller summary in the pause menu still does not show any of the read option or kicking controls, nor does it explain that the Switch Stick exists or how it works.
I may have misread this option tutorial pop-up (which only ever appeared once).
But I will admit that I was actually largely wrong about one of my biggest complaints with the option mechanic. I want to correct that error here, and explain how this mechanic actually works. I had previously explained that I was struggling with the new mechanic of having to hold the X button (on the PS5) in order for the QB to keep the ball on a read option hand-off play, and how the input windows didn't seem to line up with the actual mesh point animation for the hand-off. It turns out the the mesh point timing window is not actually broken after all, and my problems were almost entirely the result of me not understanding how the mechanic actually works.
Somehow, I got the mistaken impression that the user is supposed to hold the X button through the mesh animation in order to keep the ball, and could release the button at any point to hand off the ball. As such, I was pressing and holding X through the snap of the ball, and then continuing to hold X into the mesh point animation, and then trying to release X to hand off the ball.
Setting tool-tips to "Always On"
actually permanently disabled them.
That's not how the mechanic works. In fact, looking back at the Option tutorial pop-up, that's not what it said to do. So I misread it, and because there's no way to bring these tutorial pop-ups back up, or to view the controls in any of the menus, I didn't realize my mistake till much later. I tried resetting the the tutorials in the game's settings, but I think that actually had the opposite effect of completely and permanently disabling all tutorials and tool-tips, with no ability to turn them back on. This is a bug that EA needs to fix, and as far as I know, it has not yet been fixed.
So how does the Read Option actually work?
What you're actually supposed to do is press and release X to snap the ball, as you would do on any play. And then during the mesh point, you press or hold X to cancel the hand off and keep the ball with the QB. It's exactly the same as in Madden, except the control is the opposite: hold X to keep the ball instead of hold X to hand it off. I felt so stupid when I realized this. I still have to occasionally battle with a decade of muscle-memory telling me to hold the button to hand off the ball, but I've gotten much better at option play since I realized this, and I have since re-incorporated it into my offensive playbook in Dynasty.
I've also re-tested plays like Navy's Inverted Veer, and they work fine. I was just completely wrong about how this works.
I also now see the logic in this particular design decision. Because QBs don't run the ball as well as running backs, and are more prone to both fumbles and injuries, the default, safer action of a Read Option is to hand off the ball. So if the user does nothing, the QB hands off the ball to run the safer, more conservative play. That's actually not a bad design choice. In fact, for most Read Option plays, this might even be a better design than the older control of holding the button to hand off.
I have re-incorporated the Option into my Dynasty playbook, since realizing my mistake.
The major exception is with the Triple Option, in which the hand off to the fullback isn't necessarily the default action. And in my defense, most of my early play with the option controls was with the service academy Triple Option in the Army-Navy game. This is where the new controls really tripped me up, and where I cemented my mistaken understanding of the new Option controls.
The reason I was having so much trouble is that the game doesn't actually care about whether you release the button. If you are pressing or holding X at any time during the mesh point, the QB commits to keeping the ball, even if you release the X button before the hand-off mesh is finished. And it is still true that the timing window for the option hand-off is different in any given option play. Some plays allow the keeper override much earlier than others. So with plays like Navy's Inverted Veer, because I was holding the X button when the mesh time window started (which is very early, compared to other option plays in other playbooks), the QB was instantly committing to keeping the ball. But if I keep my thumb off the X button until the mesh happens, there is actually plenty of time to read the conflict defender and then press or hold the button to hand off the ball.
This is why we need a proper Tutorial!
Despite having been absolutely wrong about how the game mechanic works, I do however think that this validates my main point in both of those previous videos. This game really needs proper tutorials and an actual Skill Trainer to teach these mechanics. Even long-time veterans of EA's football games are misunderstanding these controls and mechanics, and it isn't just me. Other users are having problems with some of these changes too, whether they are also misunderstanding the actual mechanics, or if they are having trouble shaking a decade of muscle memory. The fact that changing the tutorial pop-up settings in game settings seems to break and disable all future tutorials is also a problem that EA has apparently not fixed yet. Showing this one pop-up one time, is not sufficient for a user to actually learn and remember this mechanic.
Mini-Games don't actually teach the mechanic or provide feedback if you're doing it wrong.
Open Practice and Mini-Games are not sufficient for tutorializing mechanics like this either, because they don't give explanations or demonstrations of how the mechanic should properly be used, and they don't give direct feedback if the mechanics are being used incorrectly. I did go into Practice Mode and practice the read option before posting that previous video. I showed clips of it in that previous video. But because I went into practice with a flawed understanding of how the game worked, I was practicing it wrong. You know the saying: "Practice doesn't make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect." I was practicing wrong, and the game did not do anything to tell me that I was doing it wrong.
Including a Skill Trainer like what is in Madden would be a good start, but even the Skill Trainer has room for improvement. Ideally, what I would like the Skill Trainer to have, is actual demonstrations of the mechanics, with an actual graphic of the controller showing which buttons are being pressed at which times, so that the user can get more feedback about if you're just using the mechanics wrong. Such a tutorial would have instantly cleared up my confusion, and I wouldn't have needed to make a whole video about thinking the mechanic wasn't working.
Ideally, there should be a Skill Trainer that shows which buttons to press, and when, as in this MOCK-UP.
I still think there should be at least an option to revert the Read Option controls back to the way they used to work in Madden. The older controls might be more comfortable for users who play with Triple Option teams, such as the service academies, and I see no reason for why they should be forced to have to use the new control that might lead to more accidental handoffs to the fullback due to narrowing timing windows from formations like the Flexbone.
How about the other things...?
As for the other complaints I had, I'm getting better at kicking. I still feel like I miss more field goals than I would like, especially on the hashes. But I am getting better. I still hold that the game should have difficulty settings for kicking, since that barrier of entry is way too high, and could still scare away casual players!
Now, my biggest problems with the game are with general bugs and with defensive A.I. -- specifically the poor pursuit angles and the complete unwillingness of the CPU-controlled defensive players to play outside contain. EA said they patched the game to improve pursuit angles, but pfft, I still feel like I have to constantly baby-sit my force defenders to make sure runs stay to the inside.
I'm getting better at kicking.
I know that a lot of people keep insisting that bad defensive and kicking play in this game is a "feature", because college players aren't as good as NFL players, and they make more mistakes. Sure. Whatever. That's true -- if a bit simplistic.
But I think it you're going to make defensive players play poorly on purpose, then I think offensive players need to be more mistake prone in order to balance things out. If defenses cannot contain or pursue well, then running backs shouldn't be able to see and hit holes as well, and should occasionally just trip and fall in the open field. If DBs can't stick to their assignments or cover passes effectively, then QBs shouldn't be as accurate, and receivers should occasionally run the wrong routes and drop open passes. And receivers should definitely not be as unbelievably good at downfield blocking and sealing the edge. And maybe there should even be other potential mistakes, such as fumbled hand-offs (especially on Read Option and RPOs that are mis-timed), and maybe even botched snaps on shotgun and special teams plays. And all of this should be double-true at the lower levels of the game, such as in the group of 5, where players aren't nearly as good as those in the power conferences.
And if you're OK with defensive players completely whiffing on their assignments and refusing to take half-way decent pursuit angles or refusing to tackle, but you wouldn't accept things like runners tripping and falling, more dropped passes, or botched snaps, then I think that's pretty hypocritical. Should the distribution of such breakdowns favor the offensive side of the ball more? Yeah, sure. But there should be at least some poor offensive play in order to balance things out. And there should also be slider sets and options to customize all this. Maybe we should have a slider for Defensive Pursuit and Runner Vision? I've been trying to come up with a slider set that would accomplish at least some of what I just mentioned, and if I find something that works, maybe I'll upload a video breaking down my custom sliders. Maybe it'll be a Patreon exclusive. We'll see if I come up with something that seems to work reliably...
Also, if the game is going to force sloppy, un-refined play from my players, then I really think that it should have some weekly training and gameplanning features that allow me to improve areas of play that my players are struggling with. You know, like what's been in Madden for like a decade now! That way, being beat on these sorts of things becomes an element of coaching strategy, rather than feeling like the complete crap shoot that it is now. And it would also be nice to have some control over how my players develop, and what skills they improve over the course of the season or their college careers. You know, also like what's been in Madden for like a decade now!
And of course, it would be nice if things like inside shade and outside shade would actually work, and if there was a way to commit to defending outside run, instead of having to commit to running 1 way or the other.
If deliberately incompetent defensive play is actually the design philosophy that EA is going to follow, and it's not fixable with sliders, and not offset by similarly incompetent offensive play, then that might end up being the final deal-breaker for me, when it comes to College Football 25.
The outside running game is still OP due to poor containment, poor pursuit, and crazy-good WR blocking.