After the slightly odd decision to drop the Madden 26 Deep Dive trailer first, Electronic Arts has come up with the College Football 26 Deep Dive trailer. I say the initial decision was weird because CFB 26 comes out next month. Seems like you’d want to prioritize the hype for that, but then I read the first part of the CFB 26 blog, and I understood.
‘college football 26’ AND THE FOUR-MINUTE OFFENSE
“This year, our gameplay motto is what we called the 4-minute offense. Why? Because after putting points on the board last year, we wanted to come right back out, take control, and march down the field again and put the game away. That means staying true to the foundational vision, continuing to solve football problems with football solutions, and executing on what matters most.”
That is the first thing you see once the explanation of College Football 26‘s features comes into play. The in-house competition/collaboration is in play here. EA Orlando doesn’t have to hype. They just have to keep improving. CFB 25 was a great first run, and the Madden team saw what worked, implemented it, and now they’re both piggybacking off each other. It’s like the good old days.
What seems to be clear about College Football 26 is that this is not a year when the team is resting and admiring the success of the previous game. And while I wasn’t the biggest fan of the wear and tear system in the last game, I recognize its overarching effect. Specifically, the importance it places on recruiting. And EA seems to have addressed my misgivings about wear and tear.
Wearing on me
“Wear and Tear was never meant to be just another injury system. It was designed as a gameplay balance mechanic, bringing real strategic depth and meaningful roster decisions. The foundation was set, now we continue to build on it.”
In College Football 25, that’s exactly what it felt like to me: another injury system. Seeing how much control they’re giving players over how this system works makes me far more likely to not go straight to turning it off like I did before.
To accommodate these diverse styles, we introduced fully customizable Wear and Tear Auto-Sub settings and sliders, bringing unprecedented depth to player management. Here’s how deep the options go:
- Default: Standard CPU substitution logic.
- Keep Fresh: Inspired by real-world rotation strategies, like Michigan’s frequent running back substitutions.
- Grind It Out: For teams that want to keep their best players on the field as long as possible. Players push through being banged up and only sub out when absolutely necessary.
- Custom: Players sub based on the lowest health of specific body parts, giving you precise control.“
Add to this a system that allows you to sub players in and out without having to dig into menus, and I’m locked in on getting in the weeds on this.
It’s time for wisconsin to get back to running the ball
The thing I’m most excited for is getting that damn Air Raid offense away from my Badgers. EA has added over 2,800 new plays and 45 formations in College Football 26. Which they’re calling “the single biggest playbook expansion in EA SPORTS history.” And I believe it. As long as it allows me to really feel like I’m holding down the trenches at Camp Randall, I’ll be happy.
You can also see some of the exchange of ideas with Madden in that both games are utilizing the same system that makes QB height an actual factor in games. Icons fade in and out depending on the window they’re in relative to the spacing of the offensive lineman. I can’t wait to see how that College Football 26 feature plays out. Not just in-game, but dealing with recruiting battles. Personally, I’m not gonna be over here going for Brock Osweiler height guys. But when the pipeline dries up, you never know what might happen.
I’m glad to see some of the excitement coming back into EA Sports summers. For too long, we’ve had to hope that EA just decided to make a better Madden. Now that the College Football 26 team is here (and a certain deal is coming up), we’re seeing some movement. Oh, and that score bug is great. Hopefully, EA Orlando can continue the success they had last year and deliver another elite showing.
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