With the EA Sports activities School Soccer 25 trailer now at over two million views — plus some preliminary press releases and notes from EA — OS members have been cooking up ideas, reactions, and insights on the boards, so I needed to collect up a few of the basic sentiments thus far.
The overwhelming response has clearly been optimistic, and the highest factor to return up thus far has been the clear ardour for the “pageantry” of the game showcased within the trailer. This is sensible as a result of effectively over half the trailer was pregame rituals or basic celebrations. The depth right here even within the trailer was spectacular, and it was arduous for some to not make a comparability to Madden.
OS consumer CM Hooe was possibly probably the most blunt with the comparability, however I don’t assume it’s actually flawed to say:
That trailer had extra life, vibrancy, and pageantry viewable in its runtime than each single Madden NFL launch from the previous ten years mixed. Preordering as we speak lol.
Madden has tried to deal with a TV-style broadcast (no less than in concept), and clearly school soccer and the NFL are very totally different by way of the quantity of traditions and pageantry on show on any given weekend, nevertheless it’s arduous to not view that trailer and take into consideration how way more life comes by means of in it than your typical Madden recreation. Environment does a ton to maintain issues contemporary in a sports activities recreation, particularly for those who get uninterested in the commentary and all that after a sure level, so focusing quite a bit on these presentation parts does quite a bit in your recreation within the brief and long run.
The graphics themselves additionally received a whole lot of thumbs up, and I feel the shot of the twelfth Man was possibly probably the most famous factor past a few of the gear feedback (OS likes to level out new gear). The nonetheless screens of the Texas A&M crowd look very near actual, and it’s solely in movement you can begin to nitpick a bit extra. Nonetheless, a few of the crowd photographs have been nice trying.
On the unfavourable aspect, we did have some individuals mentioning the helmets look a bit of small and the jersey numbers don’t appear to look fairly proper. There’s a little little bit of confusion with a few of the jerseys although as a result of we’re unsure if EA is basing it off 2024 jerseys we possibly simply haven’t seen but. There was additionally a bit of speak about a few of the colours trying washed out, however I feel that’s extra chalked as much as a basic model alternative than an “error” of some kind.
It was additionally enjoyable to see individuals calling out small issues they seen within the trailer. Past the gear stuff, we had issues like OS consumer LeBlonde James stating the playcall indicators on the sideline through the Syracuse snapshot.
Past the aesthetics, a lot of the modes information ended up being obtained as excellent news on the boards. There’s clearly some disappointment about on-line dynasty not being cross-play enabled, however 32 customers is the “commonplace” now primarily based on Madden, and we’ll greater than be capable to fill out an entire Energy 5 convention (or I suppose Energy 4 now) and all that.
Among the buzzwords utilized by EA induced a bit of extra “nervousness” if you’ll, and I feel it’s honest to be a bit of cautious of sure issues. OS consumer kennylc321 places it succinctly:
Okay…two issues that scare me: “Extensive open gameplay” and homefield benefit. Within the historical past of EA soccer video games, “broad open gameplay” has at all times meant that QBs will full 75% of the passes and there ain’t a single factor you are able to do about it. Homefield benefit scares me as a result of I consider how poorly momentum was applied with Madden 24.
These are completely legitimate issues. The gameplay in NCAA video games is usually at all times extra “broad open” because of the school sport itself, but when we return to NCAA Soccer 14, the passing recreation was very highly effective there. With homefield benefit, yeah, EA has actually messed this up within the final 12 months — and whereas it wasn’t particularly homefield benefit being the only concern, there was some bugs round momentum (together with being unable to show it off at one level) in Madden 24. I don’t assume anybody is pre-judging or saying it’s going to be dangerous, however the buzzwords did make some waves.
Total, with a whole lot of the early information now out of the way in which, individuals are prepared for the primary course. They wish to know the way totally different the gameplay goes to look in comparison with Madden (albeit they know they’ll be in the identical ballpark on account of being in the identical engine). They wish to know extra about recruiting and dynasty mode. They wish to know what Kevin Connors and Desmond Howard are doing since we all know now concerning the a number of commentary groups however don’t but know what each voice within the recreation is doing. In different phrases, are we getting recreation breaks, a halftime present, a pregame present, one thing else solely? There are many good questions that stay — in truth there’s even a thread for questions, which I’ll be making right into a information story all its personal quickly sufficient. However above all else, EA largely nailed this preliminary reveal and has saved the joy ranges close to max.
