In case anyone hasn’t noticed already, I like College Football 26! Is it my favorite sports game ever released? No. Is it the best sports game I’ve ever played? Also, no. But, it’s a very good game made by an obviously passionate and dedicated team, and I love what it represents. Within this realm, it’s felt like forever since we, as gamers, have gotten a deep triple-A sports game that is catered to the single-player experience, whereas most sports games these days seem to be focused on chasing the almighty dollar. But, as one could expect, that isn’t enough for some people.
Because of the massive critical and commercial success of College Football 25, many gamers from other series have made the move and decided to give College Football 26 a try. Unfortunately, some of these new faces don’t seem to like the game, which is fine. But their reasoning? Well, that’s suspect.
A Professional Madden Player Has Criticized College Football 26’s Gameplay
While scrolling through X yesterday, I just happened to come across this tweet from Vohes, a professional Madden player and content creator. And his overall impression of College Football 26 was pretty scathing, going as far as to say that he’s never hated a game more. Vohes went on to talk about a litany of issues he has with the game, from constant inaccurate passes, points being scored off broken tackles, and some other things.
To that, I have only one thing to say: Has this guy ever watched a game of real-life college football?
In case anyone reading this isn’t a regular viewer of college football, it should be noted that the people playing it are either teenagers or young adults with no professional experience whatsoever. Because of this, broken plays, miscommunication, and mistakes are way more prevalent — even among the better teams — than you see in the NFL. So, quite frankly, I don’t see really where this kind of criticism is coming from.
But, in a follow-up quote tweet, Vohes doubled down. “College Football is not and should never be a competitive style game,” the Madden pro said.
Well, there it is.
Are there valid criticisms to be made of College Football 26? Absolutely, we talk about them all the time here! But the fact that it’s not a “competitive style” game is not, and should not, be one of them. As I’ve already pointed out, CFB 26 is catered to the single-player experience, and is one of the few big-budget sports games to have that approach. If you’re angry because the game doesn’t play like Ultimate Team does on Madden, then you’ve missed the point entirely.
I don’t know how much stock the team at EA puts into complaints like this. But, for the love of any available deity out there, do not cater to this crowd. As we’ve seen in other titles such as EA FC and NBA 2K, these players will never be satisfied. They’ll get a perfectly competent game at release, then whine because the game doesn’t play exactly like the previous year’s installment, a game they likely complained about ad nauseam.
Can College Football 26 be better? Absolutely, especially when it comes to QB play and other systems such as Wear & Tear. But in no way does this mean that shifting to “competitive style” gameplay should ever be considered as a viable option.
