EA SportsEven though College Football 25 has received overwhelmingly positive reviews, and deservingly so, one feature needs to be nerfed or removed entirely.
In January, EA confirmed College Football 26 will be released this summer. It shouldn’t be surprising that the series will follow an annual release cycle because College Football 25 became the all-time best-selling sports video game in US history.
College Football 25 did have a lot going for it since it was a long-awaited revival after the series sat dormant for 11 years because of a legal dispute. Many fans were just excited to get their hands on a new college football game, regardless of its quality.
To EA’s credit, the developers went above and beyond to deliver an impressive sports title, as reflected in our review. But now that the honeymoon period is over, the pressure falls on EA to capitalize on the momentum and give players a reason to make it an annual purchase.
For me, that all starts with removing or reworking wear and tear.
Why wear and tear needs to be reworked in College Football
EA SportsWear and tear is a new feature in College Football 25, which accurately tracks the impact of every hit and fall on your players. For example, if your running back takes a massive shot to his knee or lower leg, they will feel the impact of that blow, and their stats will take a hit.
Or, if your quarterback gets walloped multiple times in the pocket, their attributes will be negatively impacted. EA created the feature to encourage players to make substitutions to mitigate the damage to their best players.
In addition, it also encourages players to run out of bounds instead of taking a hit near the sideline or go down immediately after making a catch with a wide receiver in the middle of the field, just like you would in real life.
However, the feature is flawed and doesn’t always work as intended. College Football 25 content creator Throne posted a video of Joe Burrow suffering severe wear and tear on the first play of the game after only taking one hit in the pocket and not even falling over.
As a result, Burrow lost 11 attribute points for Speed, 10 for Throw On The Run, 7 for Throw Power, and 2 for Throw Accuracy. And those attributes get worse after more hits.
For reference, the 98 Overall Joe Burrow card costs one million coins in Ultimate Team, making him the second most expensive player in the game mode.
It’s inexcusable that a card with excellent attributes across the board is so quickly impacted by wear and tear, and it’s infuriating that an expensive item is essentially rendered useless.
The issue doesn’t just pop up in Ultimate Team; wear and tear also plays a massive role in Dynasty and Road to Glory, as players can experience adverse effects after one or two minor hits.
Thankfully, you can turn the feature off in offline games but that isn’t an option in online matches, and it can swing the tide of a game if your best player gets injured when they shouldn’t have.
Wear and tear is one of the game’s most annoying features, and EA needs to either nerf or remove it entirely. Otherwise, we will run into the same issues in College Football 26.
