EA Sports’ motto is “It’s In The Game,” but with their latest lineup of football games, they might want to revise that to read “You’re In The Game.” In the second year since the return of their College series, EA Sports College Football 26 promises to be one of the most immersive sports games ever, putting you deep in the centre of the tradition and explosive gameplay that only college football can offer.
EA Sports College Football 26 has listened to the fans and levelled up this game in every aspect. First, let’s talk about the fact that you have access to 136 teams with 300 licensed coaches, 2800 brand new plays and 45 new formations. The thing about college football is that every fan of the sport has a favourite team, and someone else’s favourite may be a team that you have never heard of. With these changes, your favourite team will feel like your favourite team, right down to their play scheme.
Tradition is the biggest name of the game. EA Sports College Football 26 has recreated the teams’ pre-game and mid-game rituals that puts you in the middle of them, from the Sooner Schooner riding across the field to the Fighting Irish slapping the “Play Like A Champion” sign on their way to the field, you can join your favourite team in the run out onto the field and share in the feeling of 90,000 fans going wild for you. If you’re an Arizona Wildcat fan, see as they add a football to the turnover sword for every turnover during their game.
EA Sports College Football 26 brings the feelings from the crowd into the game with authentic college band music recorded for the game, as well as recorded chants that I am sure college football fans will recognize immediately. EA Sports licensed a lot of music typically found at football games. A college band rendition of Seven Nation Army should be sufficient to get anyone hyped up. College Football 26 has also brought the mascots into the game in a big way by recreating the mascot for every single team in the game.
“EA Sports College Football 26 promises to be one of the most immersive sports games ever…”
Speaking of those large crowds, they have a huge impact on your gameplay if you are playing an away game. You’ll hear the crowd noise increase dramatically when you are on offence, you’ll feel the shakiness and unease that you must feel as an actual player when you have that rumble in your chest, and you can’t hear your teammates’ calls. Even the routes, when you call them up, are all squiggly lines, so you aren’t 100% sure where everyone is going if you don’t know your plays well.
AI improvements in EA Sports College Football 26 look to improve the game at all levels. New AI Progression in dynasty mode provides more dynamic progression of your players in the game, with larger increases in your player or coach level happening early in their career and sustained high performance required to make it to the top. Coach suggestions for plays are designed to be modelled after the actual coaches’ play selection tendencies, leaving you to have to decide if you know more than the coach of your favourite college football team.
A player’s levels and stats in EA Sports College Football 26 also have an improved impact on the game. If you have a cornerback with low awareness, he’s not likely to get his head around to see the ball, and if he can’t see the ball, he is not intercepting it. If your defensive lineman is particularly strong, the other team may need to double-team him, increasing the chances of another player finding their way to the quarterback.
Also, with the quarterback, his height is going to matter. If he is Doug Flutie short (5’10”, and don’t ask how much taller he is than me), his line of sight is going to be much worse than someone who is Trevor Lawrence tall (about 6’6”). The difficulty or ease with which your players play their positions depends on their real-life bodies every bit as much as their assigned stats, and that adds a fun (and much more realistic) spin to the game.
Another realistic aspect of EA Sports College Football 26 that is sure to punish the gamer who doesn’t pay attention is the wear and tear that your players deal with throughout the season and career, with physics-based damage. You can see the impact that each game, the weeks and even the years have on your players by colour-coded body maps that show which body parts are really feeling it. Strategic substitutions and schemes that give your stars the occasional rest will be crucial to keep them healthy until graduation and beyond.
While it is impossible for EA to scan all 11,000 players in the game, they have implemented 350 ingredients to mix and match to make the most accurate versions of the players and coaches. Player jerseys have physics applied to them, so you will watch them flow and wrinkle as they move about. The variety isn’t limited to the teams, though. There are 1700 heads designed for the cheerleaders and the fans in the stadium, so you won’t see so many repeat faces in the game.
The environment in EA Sports College Football 26 is as big of a character as any player in the game. The lighting schemes are identical to their real-life stadium counterparts, and the time of day is better represented than ever before. An early afternoon game will have the sun more over your head, a late afternoon game will present big shadows on the field and night games… well, it’ll be nighttime.
The weather not only looks better in the game, but it will also prove to be more geographically accurate and have an even bigger impact on the game. It’s much more likely that you’ll find heavy snow in the Midwest as winter rolls in, so if you’re playing as one of those schools, you’ll find yourself having to plan around that weather a whole lot more. The players’ ability to run all out in that wet weather will also be particularly tough, so it’s best you start developing a run game.
“The environment in EA Sports College Football 26 is as big of a character as any player in the game.”
The modes in EA Sports College Football 26 are sure to engage any fan, starting with the Dynasty mode, where you find yourself managing a team well beyond the field. Find yourself recruiting the best talent (your coaches’ recruiting stats will have an impact here), developing that talent and hunting down players looking for a transfer to put together a team to take you to Bowl Games and, hopefully, a National Championship.
In College Football 26’s Road To Glory, you start as a high school football player trying to get recruited and make a name for yourself. Every decision you make and your success on the field will impact where you go, how much you play and if you can make it to the big leagues. Your success will also garner fandom. See your name showing up on signs in the crowd if you manage to become a starter and make a big impact out on the field.
Road to Glory is a game mode for the patient. You can create a character and, depending on what college you choose and how well you do in your high school performance, you can go a while before taking a snap. I started out as a QB3 and had to work my way up the ladder, watching games pass me by til I earned my shot, but that only made the shot sweeter. It’s a great mode for people who want to learn positions well and play games that move much faster.
EA Sports College Football 26 brings back Ultimate Team, a mode that lets you collect cards and create your team of college football’s greatest players. Use these teams to play against friends in head-to-head gameplay or complete themed challenges that come up throughout the year to show your team’s supremacy. This is a great mode for lifelong fans and people looking to have more control over the team they play.
If you don’t want to play these modes as any of the huge number of teams in this game, no problem. Just make your own! EA Sports College Football 26 has a robust team builder, where you can create your own uniforms, pick a stadium and define your entire college program. Did you like the team you created in College Football 25? Well, you can import it into this game and keep them going.
EA Sports College Football 26 is now out on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S and promises to be the closest a game has ever come to recreating the experience a fan or player has in the stadium. With major upgrades in gameplay and presentation, and more of a challenge in terms of the consequences that your decisions will have in the long-term game modes, this game is well worth your attention for college football fans and all sports gamers alike.
![College Football 26: - Pre-Purchase - Deluxe Edition - Xbox Series X|S [Digital Code]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51f+brC4Y4L._SL160_.jpg "Ea Sports College Football 26 Review")
- Digital code for Xbox Series X|S. Pre-purchase now and play immeditely on 7/7.
- Bring Glory Home in EA SPORTS College Football 26
- Bring Glory Home in EA SPORTS College Football 26
- Experience college football from high school recruit to the Heisman
- Bring Glory Home in EA SPORTS College Football 26
- Experience college football from high school recruit to the Heisman
