As someone who hasn't played an NCAA game since 2011, this is pretty fun. I don't have a next gen console so I can't compare it to 25 or 26 and I don't play Madden. I just finished a full season in offline dynasty mode and didn't really encounter any bugs that was game breaking. Never crashed, never had any performance issues, the ui/menu isn't laggy like some people have said. I'd say it's more difficult than the old games, but it didn't take to long to figure out the new mechanics.
Positives:
-Graphics are next level. Solid 75-100 FPS on max settings, on my PC at least.
-Real life players with most of them having matching characters in game that are spot on.
-You can edit the helmet, jersey, pants, socks, shoes individually for each game with tons of options, especially Oregon.
-The game atmosphere is immersive, especially rivalry games.
-Rivalry games were tough regardless of the team record/rank.
-Tackles and movement is smooth. I haven't seen players glitching around or unrealistic tackling/pass blocking although I wasn't playing on Heisman mode, so maybe it gets worse with defenders basically teleporting to block a pass. (i've seen this in videos)
Negatives:
-Penalties seem a bit excessive. I'd say 90% of penalties throughout my season were against me. Multiple offensive pass interference calls to the point where it seemed broken, I tried turning these off specifically but I don't think the settings save because they'd still happen every game. (explained below) Some penalties just don't get called. One time an ai opponent called a fair catch, but I leveled him anyway and didn't get a penalty called on me.
-I have injuries turned on, but never saw a singe injury all season.
-Announcers can be a bit repetitive.
-Some of the players eyes seems glitched, going cross eyed, especially Kewan Lacy, who is literally on the cover, so i'd expect that to get fixed quickly.
-Gameplay settings seem odd. You have settings in the main menu, then you have the same settings within the dynasty mode. There were times I changed settings in both (skill settings, penalty settings etc) and they'd revert back to default. Some settings menus, you have to save the settings like your making a game save. I mainly tweaked the QB accuracy and catching settings because I was struggling with it, I cranked it to the max just to see if it'd help and I didn't notice a difference. Unless there is a bug where it just doesn't work which would make sense.
Neutral/No Comments:
-I'm not sure how the gameplay compares to the new Madden games since I haven't played them, but the gameplay is fine to me, just takes some learning since there's more freedom than there was 10+ years ago which means learning new button combinations. For passing/catching my receivers pretty much have to be wide open for them to make a catch, I usually don't switch to the receiver mid throw and try to manually make a catch, but the mechanic is there if you want to. I put this in neutral because its basically a skill issue not a problem with the game.
-I can't really comment on any other game modes because I have only played in offline dynasty and my experience was good there. I don't really interest in the other games modes.
-I understand you basically play as the head coach of the whole program, and the game allows you to go very in depth with recruiting, coaching skills and abilities, maintaining facilities, handling money, etc but it's overwhelming for someone that just wants to play the games in a career format. I simulate everything except the games, so I'm not sure how "good" of a job the ai is doing simulating everything else, but I guess I will see in the coming years in my dynasty.
-The XP system seems outrageously slow, even though I turned on Casual or Simple mode, which ever it's called to speed things up. I only went from lvl 50 to 53 in one season. but I'm not sure what any of this means because I haven't looking into what coaching abilities or whatever XP unlocks.
-Scores seem a little unrealistic, unless it's just how it was simulated through my season. It seemed like every weekend, half the top 25 teams lost to an upset. And Alabama was 3-7 the last time I checked on them lol
Overall, I'm enjoying it. If anyone is out there that's been waiting for the PC release and hasn't played since 2014 you'd definitely enjoy it. Ignore the negative review bombing about microtransactions, they have been removed from the game. I was iffy about it during the first few games because it was almost was too realistic feeling, but the more I play the more fun it gets.
