College Football 27 Review So Far

Junior year of college was when I finally had to start making decisions about my major, internships, all that jazz. A lot changed. For College Football 27’s junior year, all I have to do is step back onto the field. The rest mostly sorts itself out. I’ve only been able to spend about a day with it at this point, so I’ve got a lot more College Football 27 to play before I’m ready to declare this thing a boom or a bust, but it seems like we’re shaping up for a promising – and very different – season so far.

The first place I went was the Skills Trainer. If you’ve played Madden, the Skills Trainer is old hat, but for the last couple years, College Football has sequestered this tutorial away in Ultimate Team. No longer. Here it is, in all its glory. “But Will,” you might reasonably ask, “you play this and Madden every year.” Yes, reader, that’s true. If you know ball, you know that I spend a lot of time with these games, Madden especially. Get you a league, and you will, too. “Okay, so why are you going to the Skills Trainer? Shouldn’t you like… know all this stuff already, chief?” I’m glad you asked, imaginary-person-I-made-up-so-I-can-structure-this-review-how-I-want.

First, because good teaching tools are essential in any game, and I was stoked to finally see it right there on the main menu. Props to the College Football team on that one. Second, because there are a lot of changes to pre-play adjustments this year, especially on defense. If you’ve been playing EA’s football games for a while now, you’re already familiar with the Konami Code of inputs you have to learn to get your defensive adjustments just so. Well, you’re in for a learning curve with College Football 27, because a lot of those inputs are different now. D-line adjustments, for instance, used to be on the left D-pad. Now they’re left on the right stick. That’s one example of many. The benefit of this new system is it’s more intuitive and allows you to get what you want more quickly with fewer button presses, but that many years of muscle memory is hard to undo, and I’m glad the Skills Trainer is here when I need a reminder.

After getting to grips with the new systems, I went to Road to Glory. The big additions this year are three new positions: tight end, edge rusher, and free safety. Since I’d just spent a while learning the new defensive adjustments, I decided to throw all that in the trash and play tight end because EA’s spent a lot of time talking up how fun blocking is. Sorry, Joe Throw. You’ll have to wait your turn this year. Instead, John Block takes the stage. I gave John a mohawk and Lemmy Kilmeister beard, then spent the points I had to establish his future maximum stats to make him both an incredible blocker (I mean, it’s in the name) and a solid receiver with some speed. If you don’t want to allocate all of these points, though (and there are a lot), you can choose from a preset build based on an NFL legend like Rob Gronkowski. From there, it was off to my high school career, and you know what? Playing a tight end is fun! Blocking a run and pancaking some poor DB is fun! I’ve still got a long way to go (Alabama seems interested in John Block, despite his fairly humble three-star origins), but it’s cool so far.

The other place I’ve jumped into is Dynasty, and to be honest, I’m a bit overwhelmed despite spending almost all of my time in menus. There’s a lot of new stuff to manage now. I’m coaching LSU, which is fun, but man, things feel pretty different this year. It’s not just about doing your recruiting, playing your games, and moving onto the next week anymore. The big changes here are Dynasty Points and NIL. You get Dynasty Points based on things like your conference prestige, stadium atmosphere, and so on, and then you have to spend them to hire staff, upgrade your facilities, offer the players you’re trying to recruit NIL deals, keep the players on your team happy, and so on.

It’s… a lot, and I’m not sure I entirely get all of it or that I’m spending my Dynasty Points wisely. Sometimes I’d try to buy some facility upgrades and College Football 27 would be like “Are you sure? This is expensive and you only get so many points. Are you super duper sure?” On one hand, props to the team at EA for realizing This Is A Lot. On the other… I have no idea if I want to spend my points here, man. I’m just kinda going off vibes and seeing what happens. My complaint about Dynasty for the last couple years is that it’s mostly recruiting (which is just a bunch of menus that I find really boring) and playing games. So I guess at least that is no longer the case.

One thing I do think is neat, though, is that offering a scholarship doesn’t just take a chunk of your limited recruitment hours per week. Now, you gotta spend Dynasty Points to offer them an NIL deal, too. Offering more than they expect may get their attention, but if you renege on it later, they’ll be unhappy. It’s interesting, and I’m curious to see how it plays out over a full season.

So yeah, there’s still a lot to do and see, and this team is still coming together. Who knows if the group I’m assembling has what it takes to go all the way. But as I spend more time with College Football 27 and play more modes like (sigh) Ultimate Team, I imagine I’ll find out. But like my own junior year, this already feels very different than what’s come before. Now we just wait and see how it plays out on the field.