It’s kind of hard to believe that after being away for a decade EA Sports College Football is now in its junior year since making its return to the field in 2024. As a huge fan of these games I was a little disappointed in the freshman year but felt better about the sophomore year as some much needed tweaks were made. EA Tiburon continues to steadily improve the series and after playing EA Sports College Football 27 for quite a while I can say that this latest entry continues the improvements but also made some regressions.
To give a brief overview of what is new in this latest entry the team has made some big changes to both Road to Glory and the Dynasty modes. They’ve also added new commentary, brought back the arcadey Mascot Mashup mode from the old days, and made some gameplay tweaks among other things but let’s talk a bit more in depth about all of this. First off I have to talk about the presentation which continues to get better and better every year. This year the team upgraded the visual and audio package and both have never been better. New commentators have been added helping to bring more variety to that part of the game. I’m pretty sure most schools now have their fight song in the game, marching bands sound great especially with some of the song covers they play, and more traditions have been added. Visually the players and coaches have better models but still have room for improvement and student sections in the stands look livelier. Dynamic weather is one of the big new additions and it helps to make games feel more realistic as I can start off the game with sunny skies but find myself playing in a rain shower by the third quarter. This is much better than just playing a game where it is sunny or raining the entire time as we all know real life college football doesn’t always work like that.
The only part of the presentation that bothered me was some of the menus as they can feel laggy at times which is annoying especially as some of them like the recruiting menus I spend quite a bit of time in. Despite that a lot of information is presented and laid out better this year so if they could just fix the lag I really wouldn’t have any complaints with them. That will bring me to talking about the modes this year and I’ll start with Dynasty mode as that’s where I spend most my time with the game every year. Dynasty mode has seen some new major changes made this year with one of those being the addition of the Athletic Director Expectations. These mean that winning alone may not keep you off the hot seat at your school. You may be asked to have your facilities or recruiting at a certain level, beat your rivals, or be performing on the field in certain ways. Every school is going to have different expectations from the big ones to the small ones.
NIL has made its way into the game now too and you’ll have to manage your budget smartly. Some of that budget needs to go to players, some needs to go to your staff, and some needs to go to improving your facilities. The system in the game isn’t perfect as what some players expect doesn’t seem to be consistent across the board but it’s a great start and adds even more depth to this mode. Only thing is I can see all of these new management systems possibly being a little overwhelming for some players but you can set a lot of it to auto although that doesn’t always do the best job.
Road to Glory is the other mode that has had some big changes made this year from expanded activities to more positions you can play. New positions this year include TE, FS, and Edge with TE probably being the most fun in my opinion while FS is likely going to be the most frustrating. That’s because it can feel unfair at times if you’re asked to do things like swat passes or intercept a ball when the ball doesn’t even get thrown your way. TE on the other hand is a lot of fun as you get to be involved in the passing game but also get to do tasks like blocking. Outside of the new positions you can also do more with your time than study now although some of these activities to need a bit more fleshing out. As for other modes I didn’t mess with Ultimate Team much as it never really interests me but the return of Mascot Mashup is a fun throwback to the old days of this franchise. Here you just play games with the mascots of each team which can provide some fun outside the usual modes. I also appreciated that CFB 27 has better tutorials to teach players more of what they should know.
IMPORTANT: One of the big things that needs mentioning is that EA included microtransactions in the offline modes his year which to me is absurd. Both in Dynasty and Road to Glory you can spend real money to upgrade your skills and you might’ve been inclined to as well as the grind to level up your coach all the way can take many, many seasons. On top of that the XP sliders that were in the game last year are now gone so you can’t modify how much you get to speed it up. Now it’s worth mentioning that the team has posted an update and removed these microtransactions as of this review but the fact is they were there and never should’ve been and it makes me worried that they could return next year or sometime in the near future. I’m glad they got taken out but offline modes should not have this to begin with and we should have more control over how fast we can progress.
The last thing I want to touch on is the gameplay which has seen some changes this year on both sides of the ball. On offense there is a new passing and catching system that gives you more control while the defensive side saw some much needed improvements. There are a lot more defensive playbooks now and coverage in general has been greatly improved. Your corners and linebackers will now do a much better job covering players instead of empty turf, You also have a lot more options pre-snap making it easier to adjust to plays that the other team may be running a bit too often. The fatigue system has also had tweaks made hat punishes you more if you are using the same player like a running back far too much. Overall, the gameplay is in the best place it has been since the series returned.
Overall, EA Sports College Football 27 isn’t a huge leap forward but it has seen mostly positive improvements year over year. The Dynasty mode and Road to Glory modes are now more fleshed out giving you deeper levels of control while both sides of the ball in the gameplay have made upgrades. The presentation has never been better as well although the menu lag does need to be addressed. It’s a shame that the offline microtransactions were a thing as they did hurt my opinion a bit of this entry but hopefully lessons were learned and CFB 28 doesn’t repeat those mistakes.
*EA Sports College Football 27 is available now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC. PlayStation 5 version reviewed on a PlayStation 5 Pro. Review copy provided by the publisher for this review.
EA Sports College Football 27
$69.99
Pros
- College atmosphere has never been presented better than this
- Dynamic weather makes games feel more varied and realistic
- Dynasty and Road to Glory improvements help flesh out those modes even more
- Gameplay is still fun with some improvements made on both sides of the ball
- Mascot mashup is a fun extra mode to have
Cons
- Menus feel laggy at times which is annoying
- Harmful microtransactions that never should've been added in the first place
- All the new Dynasty management features could be overwhelming to some players
