8 College Football 25 tips you should know before playing
Jul. 21, 2024Prep for gameday, Dynasty and Ultimate Team with these College Football 25 tips
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You’re never too late to grab some College Football 25 tips – it might have been out a few months, but the NCAA reboot is still on track to grab sports game of the year gongs. If you’ve just picked upCollege Football 25then bookmark this page for all you need to know about mastering RPO plays, increasing your field goal percentages, and recruiting in the brilliant dynasty mode. These are the eight College Football 25 tips you need to know before you play.
1. Ultimate Team is the Ultimate starting point
The most important element of that onboarding process is figuring out how to RPO. RPO stands for run-pass option, and is the type of play where your QB can keep the ball, hand off to a running back, or sling a quick pass. Here’s how to do each:
Aggression is the norm in online games across the sports genre – henceEA Sports FC 24being packed with 4-2-4 lineups and 7-5 scorelines. In College Football 25, this means many opponents going pass heavy against you, and often blitzing on every play. Get used to it, and begin working up plans to counterattack.
The RPO technique mentioned above will place you in good stead, as will curl routes. Unleash your pass just as a wide receiver reaches his stopping point. Out routes can be similarly effective. If your timing skills are up to speed – literally! – then also look to dump the ball over onrushing defenders, to a running back in the flat. This can be a real field-flipper and make your foe rethink their insistence on unleashing blitz after blitz.
As touched on above, you’re going to encounter a lot of pass-heavy attacks online. The same is true in Dynasty mode: college matches routinely produce higher-scoring games than the NFL, and elite quarterbacks will torch you occasionally. There is an adjustment you can make to help with this.
Before any snap where you’re sure the offense is going aerial, press R1/RB, then push the right stick up. This function is called ‘Guess Pass’, and transmits that instruction to your D – increasing the chances of getting pressure on the QB. There’s a risk-reward element in selling out, but again it can be an important tool in forcing your opponent – human or AI! – to change up their playcalling.
Past football games have conditioned us to automatically make every field goal and extra point. Forget that expectation for College Football 25. The two-meter system – pressing the kick button to determine direction, then releasing it for power – is complex, quick and deceptive. Trying to get full power often fails, and leads to miss after miss after miss, especially on the road. So don’t.
Instead, get used to releasing the button around 80% of the way up the power bar. Sure, you might fall short on the odd 55-yarder. But your directional accuracy is guaranteed to improve, and progress to elite.
Abilities are the College Football 25 equivalent ofMadden 24 X-Factors. There are 80 in total, with four tiers available: bronze, silver, gold and platinum. Knowing which best suit your play style will massively improve both your results, and enjoyment.
For instance, most online players like a scrambling QB, and some of these types have an ability called Magician, which makes them more agile while in the pocket. If this is you, then look beyond the stats on your gameday or Dynasty roster, and re-order your depth chart based on Abilities – or choose a more suitable team. You can see what all these skills do by scrolling GR’s alphabeticalCollege Football 25 Abilitieslist.
Trying to attract high school prospects is the best bit of Dynasty mode, and you’re going to get seriously addicted. Indeed, we’ve produced a comprehensiveCollege Football 25 recruitingguide to cover all the key details.
If you need one salient piece of advice to get underway, it’s to make 10-15 immediate scholarship offers. As Michigan, I shortlisted a bunch of five or four-star prospects who had the the Wolverines as their first choice and three of them committed, just like that. With 35 scholarships to offer, there’s little risk involved in this technique.
The College Football 25 tips don’t stop there. Indeed, we’ve a selection of key scouting reports for you to dip into, whatever your experience levels. OurCollege Football 25 best playersguide is key if you’re looking to sample your favourites before they head to the NFL, while theCollege Football 25 best teamslist is a vital read before selecting your career mode team. As for those moments of glory where you need to gloat over a key first down, or pick six: they’re covered by theCollege Football 25 celebrationslist.
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I’m GamesRadar’s sports editor, and obsessed with NFL, WWE, MLB, AEW, and occasionally things that don’t have a three-letter acronym – such as Chvrches, Bill Bryson, and Streets Of Rage 4. (All the Streets Of Rage games, actually.) Even after three decades I still have a soft spot for Euro Boss on the Amstrad CPC 464+.
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