Operation Sports Newsletter #3 - Not Just Another Roster Update

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This newsletter will be about catching you up on any sports gaming news you missed from the past week and letting you know about hot topics on the OS forums. We’ll also be listening to your feedback to shape this newsletter even further from there. 

With that out of the way, let’s get to it.

What Makes Presentation #Elite In A Sports Game?

It’s one week removed from the most hyped sports game release in the last 10 years (and College Football 25 will come up here for sure), but the sports game release window being what it is means Madden 25 was right back in the news this week as the hype now builds to its release on August 16. And while the focus for Madden 25 this week was technically gameplay, I was most intrigued by the gameplay tidbits that I would also consider part of the presentation.

It’s not unfair to say Madden’s presentation has not been good enough for a long time. From commentary to TV-style presentation, it doesn’t really have something I would point to as “elite” in the sports category. It’s not terrible either, but I would say it’s mostly just “there” in most cases. That said, I’ve also always been very interested in the question “what makes presentation special in a sports game?” and “what makes it a fan favorite?”

You can point to halftime shows or other broadcast-style flourishes — and those things would be true — but I think a lot of that can work in every sports game. Even if TV-style presentation is not something most sports games are great at, it’s something they could be great at no matter what sport the developers are mimicking.

This brings me back to Madden 25 and the inevitable comparisons to EA Sports College Football 25. We don’t know the full suite of presentation upgrades in Madden 25 so far, but EA went out their way to discuss things like “signature pre-play style,” “signature locomotion run styles,” and general fidgeting and nuances by both offensive and defensive players as they head to the LOS. We can’t technically talk about the Madden 25 beta, but I will say (hypothetically) that if someone did play that beta, something that would be immediately noticeable is how much stuff like the pre-play fidgets are noticed and how much they add to the game.

When I play EA Sports College Football 25, the presentation pops the most with the crowds, the chants, the music, the pregame hype, and the team-specific celebrations. Some of those things could also work and be presented better in Madden, but they’re probably not at the top of many wishlists. College Football 25 could use better TV-style broadcast elements, and the “A team” of Herbstreit and Fowler is clearly worse than the “B team” of Rece Davis and co. but that’s the sort of stuff they just need to do better — it’s not specific to the sport.

But College Football 26 likely won’t be mimicking real running styles or showcasing the real throwing styles of college players. I would argue it would be a waste of resources to do that anyway.

At the same time, some of the stuff that will end up in Madden 25 should just be in all football games. The pre-play fidgeting and stuff like the gameplay visuals that tie into the feedback after you make adjustments to the offensive line should/will likely be in both football games by next year. However, the “signature” aspects are probably always going to be unique to Madden. After all, the NFL is more about stars that play for 10+ years, and the college game is more about the team itself and rolling over your roster year to year.

It’s also worth pointing out that NBA 2K has been held up as the gold standard for presentation in a sports game for many years. The series has slipped some in recent times, but while there’s a multitude of reasons NBA 2K became the leader in the clubhouse, I believe it started all the way back near the start of the Xbox 360/PS3 generation with the NBA 2K7 release. For the old-heads out there, I would say that the NBA 2K7 demo is still held up as one of the greatest demos of all-time (we were really lucky that year with demos overall as the NHL 07 demo that introduced the Skill Stick was also a massive moment). It was a great demo for many reasons, but what that demo really started to show was how cool it was to see Nowitzki’s real shot or Shaq’s real free-throw routine, and so on.

NBA 2K made “signature style” a foundational portion of gameplay and presentation. From dribbling to shooting, the personal styles of NBA superstars are what help to define them. It’s those moves and shots that people mimic in gyms or out on the playground.

Now, just “copying” the NBA 2K playbook wholesale would not work for any other sport. You can make note of things like how they make the Eras Mode cooler by doing era-specific broadcast touches, but making LeBron James look and play like LeBron James is still what is going to help out presentation and gameplay the most.

Madden has never really leaned into signature style enough, and I do think that’s finally starting to change. I don’t think you can make a Dak Prescott or Christian McCaffrey standout as much as a James Harden or Steph Curry because there’s just more obvious visual panache that plays out during an NBA game. But there’s certainly a specific way Dak throws and comes to the line. There’s certainly a specific sort of way McCaffrey runs and moves. Those things matter, and EA needs to care about them more.

So when I return to the question of what makes presentation in a sports game elite, I do think the answer should include the words “it depends” somewhere in there. Some elements will matter in every sports game, but other components depend on the real sport. In part, these games exist to accentuate our love for the real sport we watch on TV, and so the presentation needs to be able to tap into that and help make those same things blossom in the video game.

Let’s get to the rest of the news from this past week and scope out what’s going on in the community…

All Eyes On The Patch

EA has given us a couple updates this week with EA Sports College Football 25. The first included posting a patch that did fix an issue that was preventing some from entering existing online dynasty saves. But the bigger news was that they released a list of the top known issues they’re tracking for a future patch.

I’m not going to try and speak for everyone and say they’re focusing on all the right issues or anything like that, but I’ll say it seems like the top priority for EA is dynasty mode. Things like Super Sim logic, custom conference bugs, and tweaks to recruiting logic are all on the agenda for the patch. They didn’t seem as interested in saying all simulated stat logic is going to be looked at as it was more framed around blaming Super Sim for the issues. I do think they’re off-base in that regard because the teams making it to the College Football Playoff and the unrealistic qualities behind some of the simulated stats are issues that go deeper than Super Sim logic.

This doesn’t mean if there aren’t bigger tweaks to the simulation engine that we won’t get them at all, but I do think it’s worth pointing out that Madden and College Football are likely sharing large portions of the same infrastructure for its dynasty/franchise mode. Madden has had many simulation issues over the years as well, so I’m just not sure how much of a “quick fix” is available to EA when it comes to that specific issue. You can “force” wins and losses to technically smooth out certain irregularities within dynasty mode, but I don’t think there’s going to be a magical fix for simulated stats coming from the community either.

Going back to presentation, KG did breakdown some of the presentation upgrades coming to EA Sports FC 25, and EA did release a deep dive into the gameplay changes that will be in FC 25 as well.

Also, if you’re just not feeling EA Sports College Football 25, Houtz really liked his time with College Bowl, and he thinks it’s definitely worth checking out on Steam. I have not personally played it yet, but I liked Legend Bowl a lot and it’s by the same studio.

Let The Slider Tweaking Begin

With EA Sports College Football 25 being out for a week now, some folks are ready to start messing with sliders. Slider tweaking is a tradition in these parts, so my only words of warning with sliders are don’t let a one-game sample size influence you too much, and don’t try to hunt for “perfect” stats.

If you’re ready to start tweaking those sliders, there’s always plenty of choices on OS, but I’ll stick with two “known quantities” with canes21 and Armor & Sword. You can of course find these sliders in the Download Center in the game itself, but here is the thread for canes21, and here is the thread for Armor. I’ll also note that Armor goes more in-depth with potential tweaks to dynasty mode itself, while canes21 puts in some special sections for potential house rules to implement.

I would also keep an eye on the Auto-Subs thread that’s going on in the sliders forum. It’s something that can be a bit confusing to tune, and Wear and Tear isn’t mattering as much in all areas, so Auto-Subs do still matter if you want to get more players more touches.

Lastly, the Team Builder threads are also starting to come together. EA’s website is still very touchy and buggy — it’s quite annoying — but folks are persevering and already posting some awesome shit. You should totally check this thread out with some of the creations because they should only get better as EA hopefully irons out the issues with Team Builder.

I’ll be eagerly awaiting things like Krusty College making their way to the Download Center in the coming weeks.

Until next time y’all. And, as always, thanks for reading.

-Chase