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The Wait For It Podcast
Hosted by MrEricAlmighty and PhilTheFilipino, the guys discuss all things in Pop Culture from movies, gaming, anime and anything in between. New episodes every Wednesday, all you have to do is...WAIT FOR IT!
The Wait For It Podcast
The Game Room Where It Happens - EA Sports College Football 25
What if the return of a beloved sports game could reignite your passion for college football and bring back fond memories of the Tim Tebow era? Join us on this special episode of The Game Room Where It Happens as we discuss the long-awaited release of EA Sports College Football 25. We compare our experiences with over 100 hours of gameplay, providing a rich conversation that highlights both the nostalgia and the fresh perspectives on this iconic series.
Managing a college football team has never been more intricate—or frustrating. From securing top-tier recruits in Dynasty mode to navigating the game's persistent bugs, we dive into the highs and lows of College Football 25. Listen as we dissect the nuances of offensive and defensive play, critique the Frostbite engine, and ponder the necessity for a new game engine in future releases. We also address community feedback, offering balanced views on the game’s strengths and weaknesses, making this episode a must-hear for both hardcore fans and casual gamers.
But it's not all about the gameplay; we also delve into the nostalgic "Road to Glory" mode, which allows you create and manage your very own recruit. Despite frustrations with the game's mechanics and progression, our enthusiasm remains high. We’re excited to have you join us on this exhilarating journey back into college football gaming!
Interested in watching us play games? Follow us on Twitch where we stream every Thursday! Want to hear more about how we got into gaming? Listen to the interview we did with Your Friendly Neighborhood Gamers!
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Speaker 2:Gaming. Wait for it Anime PLUS ULTRA.
Speaker 1:Mr Eric Almighty and Phil the Filipino.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they've got you covered and all you gotta do is wait for it. This is the Wait For it Podcast. Hey, everyone, welcome back to the Wait For it Podcast. I am your co-host, Phil Smith, aka Phil the Filipino, and joining me, as always, is your other co-host, Mr Eric Almighty. And Eric, we are here with the August edition of the Game Room.
Speaker 2:Where it happens and I would say you know typically, because the game came out like what? A month ago this is a month in the making, but no, no, no, no, no, this is over a decade in the making when it comes to this specific series and a series that I personally have held very near and dear to my heart. Eric, you have always been more of a Madden guy and this has kind of really been your first full, deep dive into the NCAA slash college football realm of EA Sports. So I'm very interested in this conversation and to see how it will go. I also want to know if other people feel the same way that I do and actually I do know that other people feel the same way, because I've brought notes and I've brought links to reference as far as how people have felt about their experience with college football 25.
Speaker 2:I will say this, Eric, as you have alluded to in the pre-show. For those of you that have not gotten to check that out, you can if you join our Patreon page. It's a shameless plug, but this won't be completely negative. That's not what's going to happen here, but I just have a lot of grievances to air out and I'm interested to see what you have to say about them yeah, I mean it can't be not after the last two episodes where phil's been a grouch.
Speaker 1:So, uh, he's going for the trifecta, and I think for me you mean the first one was top gun no, the last two game room episodes oh, game room, yeah, well, well, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so yeah, not, not great, but I will tell you I've had a great time, so I'm going to be positive, pete, over here. This game is not without its problems, but I mean, what do you expect for a game that came out a decade after the last one? And I'm really excited to jump into the conversation and talk about it? The Phil, this is a game that you know when it comes out, you you immediately want to give your thoughts about it, but I felt pretty confident and safe to say no, we're gonna wait like at least a month before we actually talk about this game.
Speaker 1:There's so much to dive into, so much that's still left unexplored and I'm really excited to jump into I think for both of us, at least 100 hours of gameplay, which is something we don't get to do often, and we've got a lot to say about this. So really excited to see where this ends up. But overall, I mean one of the biggest games of our generation, for sure In recent memory. This is like, for sports people, their GTA six, so I mean we got to talk about it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a pretty good comparison. So, even if you yourself that are, that's listening, if you are not a sports gamer, I highly encourage you to stick around because it will give you kind of an insight to different insights, obviously one with Eric being newer to this franchise and me being more of a legacy player who has again been waiting for this game since 2013. And you know very. It'll be, like I said, incredibly interesting to hear both sides of that perspective. So, for those of you that are returning listeners, as well as our brand new listeners, thank you so much for joining us here for the monthly episode of the Game Room, where it Happens. If you want to know where you can find all the rest of our content, make sure you stick around to the end of the episode. We'll let you know where you can find everything that you need.
Speaker 2:But, eric, let's dive into this man again. 10 years, 12 years, whatever it's been, and we've waited long enough to talk about this. I guess I will throw the question out here to you first, before we dive into college football 25. What was your experience with any of the ncaa football games before it did go on its decade plus hiatus?
Speaker 1:Very casual, very, very casual. I remember playing NCAA 14. That's probably the one that I remember the most, for obvious reasons. But no, madden was just always my thing. I really always enjoyed that and to be completely honest I mean Phil at one point I followed the Florida Gators very closely. But outside of that, like Tebow era, I mean college football I've just appreciated the game, but I never really got into it the way I got into the NFL and I think that was a big difference for me. So I never thought, oh yeah, I should probably go get the college game every single year.
Speaker 1:Also, the gameplay, much different, which I'm sure we'll talk about, uh, for Madden and the difference between this game. This game is still relevant because everyone is talking about how they're going to stop playing Madden and come back to this. So very, very telling. But with that all being said, I think overall I would, I would say, very, very limited experience, very casual experience again play it with a friend against a friend, get destroyed and just say, all right, I'm gonna go back to making a franchise yeah, and if you guys want to know our thoughts on the madden franchise, we do have a madden episode of the game room where it happens, so you can find that if you want to go back to an older episode.
Speaker 2:But yeah, college football or the NCAA football games were always a great highlight because it did give you that little taste of football before Madden came out. So you know, it typically would come out in again June or July and you would get to jump into the game right away. You could import your draft classes, you could import your my player, you know your career player. Road to glory player that's the word I'm looking for. So a lot of really innovative things that came out. That that's that existed in a game that, again, is just so beloved. As far as NCAA 14 goes, I mean people, when you talk about NCAA 14, that leads you to college football revamped, which people were lovingly modding and keeping updated all the way up until the release of college football 25. And that is something that is just wild to think about when you talk about modding the game and people going out and spending hundreds of dollars to get a copy of the game and then also modding their Xbox or their PlayStation 3 or whichever console it is that they use to continue playing the game, very similar to like when you talk about NFL 2K5, as far as like a modding community. So NCAA football, I mean this, eric, this was a game that I was so obsessed with as far as just building a dynasty. I've always been a dynasty slash franchise player, whether it be college football, madden, nba 2K, whatever those. Whichever game it was, I always like building a program from the ground up. I mean, there were times, literally the first time, I got the red ring of death, I was actually in an online franchise with a friend of mine and he would bring his Xbox over and we would swap positions so that we could play our weekly game in advance to the next week. That's how much we played this game. So, for those of you that are unfamiliar, or if you need a little bit of a refresher on College Football 25, this game is. It was originally announced that it was returning, I believe, in 2019. I don't have exactly it up. I don't have it up exactly right here in front of me, but the game went away for a little bit because of NIL, essentially, and because of player likeness, and back in the day, when NCAA football was a thing, the players did not have any like you, didn't have their names or face scans or anything like that in the game. It was called very controversial and now, because ofIL name, image likeness for college football, for college sports, these players are now able to get paid for their time, for their efforts, for their name, image likeness, all of that, and that's why the game has now been able to return. With all of these players that opt in to be in the game, they receive, I believe, a $600 compensation and a copy of the game. So they get paid from EA and they get a copy of the game. All that is great. So that's why it went away for the longest time and then finally it released here July 19th 2024.
Speaker 2:Don't really need a synopsis for the game. It's a college football game. You play college football, you pick a team and you play the games, and that's pretty much what you need to know when it comes to this. I will say, eric, as far as the ramp up to this, when it came to marketing and it came to bringing in creators that were incredibly important to the NCAA football community, as far as college football revamped, they did a great job. I think they did a really solid job, and we know how poor the marketing is for Madden. So, leading up to this, was it just as far as you jumping into this series that, again, you previously never really had an interest in? Was it really just the fact that it had been gone for so long, even though you don't necessarily have a college football team, that there was just no way you could find yourself skipping even a game like this just because of the hype that you mentioned before?
Speaker 1:Yeah. So I mean this is the type of game that I mean could be generational right, and we'll see what future iterations do in hindsight to this game. But I think that right now, sitting in the moment, a lot of people were excited and this is one of those games. I mentioned DTA six earlier, like you, just didn't think it would happen. So I really think that for that reason I wanted to be a part of it. But the other reason, phil, is it's not like I don't want to play football games. I really enjoy that medium. You know I'm a sucker for blitz the league. There are several other football iterations that I've really enjoyed.
Speaker 1:Madden has been that bread and butter that you just always go back to in gaming when it comes to sports games. But you know it's fallen off. We acknowledge it. We played through it. I didn't want to play through it anymore.
Speaker 1:So I've had that itch to play a football game that I'm actually going to have fun in. And when I started hearing about what this game had to offer I'm sure we're going to talk a lot about some of these modes like Dynasty, but I started to kind of see some of the gameplay, hear what it was offering, and I just thought it was really interesting. So if I was going to scratch that itch, I might as well do it now instead of getting disappointed by another Madden. And here I am, phil. One of my biggest things about Madden is I would always wait After I got to that breaking point. I would always wait till the holidays to get it, if I got it at all. And now I'm at the point where I don't want to get it at all. So again, I've been away from it long enough where it just felt like time for me to return, and luckily I got a fresh feel of football in the form of this game.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and not to bring up Madden again, but because it just does not deserve any time whatsoever, especially if you're paying attention to the Madden 25 rollout. It's a disaster and, yeah, I'm finally there with you, eric, and obviously it helps that there is another. There's an alternative football game within their own company to play, but Madden it looks pretty much unplayable. Right now. The hashtag BringBackNFL2K has been trending because of SoftDrinkTV, who is a very prominent Madden YouTuber, who is very famous for just shitting on EA Sports, and for good reason, and also letting people know what we used to have and how good we used to have things when it comes to sports games, football specifically. So that is currently trending on social media.
Speaker 2:2021 is actually when they announced that this game was, that college football was returning. It was a very simple post on social media and the world, including myself, collectively lost its shit. So let's start with the most important thing when it comes to any of these games, and one thing that Madden lacks so much is Madden gameplay is no longer fun. It's a slog, it is repetitive and it is just an absolute chore to get through, and the college football NCAA football game has always been faster and they really had to nail that upon their return and they absolutely did.
Speaker 2:I have an absolute blast. Uh, just kind of, you know, especially when you find down the line, when you're like, when you're building a program and you find those players that have a lot of speed and you're able to, you know, build and craft the team the way that you want them to. The gameplay is focused. It's tight's tight. It is really, really fun and, despite my quarrels, which we'll get to here a little bit later, it's the reason that I'm going to stick with this for a while and as long as they don't mess it up or, you know, introduce something that they don't need to. They've pretty much got the formula down now as far as the gameplay mechanics itself, in my opinion, yeah, and I mean there's so many good things to talk about, phil.
Speaker 1:I mean, when we kind of talk about the game in general, I think one of the biggest things is that the gameplay is so fun, and that's kind of what this eventually kind of has to boil down to like make a fun game. So, again, that's all they really had to. That's the bare minimum we were looking for, and then you add all the other things to it. Now that doesn't mean it goes without its problems, but, sticking with the positive side, I am curious did you still feel like dynasty was your big go-to or did you like any of the other modes? Cause, I'll be frank, I played Road to Glory and I played Dynasty. I haven't really checked out anything else. What is your scope of how much you've been playing? Like, in the hours you've been playing, where have you been spending the most time outside of Dynasty?
Speaker 2:It's been mostly Dynasty. That was what I played prior. I did a little bit of Road to Glory in the NCAA series, but one thing they would do specifically in NCAA 13, the cover player was it was Robert Griffin the third, and you could put Robert Griffin the third on any team in the country. So even though he was in the NFL, you could place him on any team and play through his Heisman season. And that's when I played Road to Glory. I would put him like in all sorts of different. So, even though he was in the NFL, you could place him on any team and play through his Heisman season. And that's when I played Road to Glory. I would put him like in all sorts of different teams. And you can imagine how much fun it was to play as Robert Griffin III in the NCAA football game. So I was really hoping that would return and that, you know, they would put uh like, for instance, caleb Williams in the game, you know, or something like that, or like a recent player that we would love to uh like legacy player, like how fun would it be to play through as trevor lawrence. You know, I hope they add something like that as far as legendary players to the game, similar to like what nba 2k has. So you you probably don't know this, eric, but 2k hat in their dynasty mode.
Speaker 2:They have different eras, so there's like the jordan era, the kobe era, the and then current era. You can also go even way back to, like the magic Johnson, let your bird era and the T and the. You know the, the, even the, the presentation, the filters, everything like that is the rules. All that will adjust based on what era you're playing in, and I would really love to see that in the future, just because of the. What infinite well of history when it comes to college football, right, you could go back and play as Tim Tebow, like. How awesome would that be to go back and play in those times. I think that's something they should really explore.
Speaker 2:But I've always been a Dynasty player. I've dabbled a little bit in the road to glory. I see a lot of the memes, of course, because of the funny situations you can find yourself in when it comes to DMing people and all that stuff. But Dynasty has been my main source and I'm on my second Dynasty team because the first one was ruined by a bug which we'll talk about. But the second team. I'm in like my eighth or ninth year of a Dynasty with Hawaii, so that's definitely been my bag.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think that's important because there's going to be a lot of things that we talk about. Uh, that aren't going to be that. We're going to talk about a lot of things, but there are going to be some things that aren't touched on, like the road to the college football playoff. I haven't really touched that. Their version of ultimate team, like not, I haven't haven't touched that. So dynasty and road to glory has been where it's really been, at A couple of exhibitions, a couple of practices.
Speaker 1:I know when the game first started, phil, I was just fully trying out all the practice stuff, just to kind of get my feet wet. So I want to talk to you a little bit about you know, being the college football guy, how the transition was getting back into this game, like getting back on the saddle Because, phil, we talked about it I was having a bad time. I mean a good bad time, like I was having fun, but also like 30 fumbles and 50 picks a game Not exactly a great time, so to say. So how was that jump back into it? Was it, like you know, riding a horse, riding a bike all over again, or what was it?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So let me preface this because we're going to get the, we're going to attract the, get good crowd here, right, I have always played on all American, for the most part even dating back to NCAA. I don't play on all Madden. When I play Madden I know what my lane is and I know how to have fun and I have players or the, the CPU, being magnetized to my uh, to my passes. But I will say I have been playing pretty much all on All-American. I think I played like a uh, an exhibition game on Heisman. I was like nope, not ready for that yet.
Speaker 2:Especially in the early days of a dynasty, when you pick a terrible team, it's almost impossible to play. So as far as picking it up, it was relatively easy. I will say we've discussed this quite a bit. I don't necessarily play defense unless it's like a big moment. If I find myself in a close game I will take the reins. But for the most part, through the Dynasty playthrough, I've done offense only and it is definitely rough early on before you have been able to find the players that you're comfortable with and really learn the ins and outs of the game. It can definitely be a little bit of a learning curve but again, because of some of the new things they've implemented, it just feels more rewarding than Madden ever has, especially the throwing mechanic. I don't even use the new throwing mechanic that's in Madden. I automatically switch it to the old way. I never used that meter or whatever it was called in the most recent Madden games, but this one for college football I have kept and very much enjoy. Apparently they're actually porting that into Madden later, which is strange.
Speaker 2:The game is out. The game's been in production for years. You could have done that. This is going to be equal parts shitting on madden and talking about college football 25. That's just how it's going to be. But yeah, it was certainly a little bit of a learning curve in the beginning but again, once you figure out, uh, you know a great playbook that works for you and also bring in those right players, it really is like riding a bike and it's been a lot of fun.
Speaker 2:And I will say like good on them, because the frostbite engine is not a good engine like it's. It's outdated, it doesn't run very well at all on madden. It barely runs for some of their other games, like their shooters. So when it comes to like battlefield that's on ice right now. Who don't who the hell knows what's happening there. So I was definitely worried when it came to you know, know them using frostbite, but it works pretty well. So we'll see how much longer they stick with that, because they need to rebuild the engine from the ground up or new or do something new pretty soon. So we'll see what happens going forward. But yeah, it was after a little bit of time again, it was like jumping right back in and hanging out with an old friend.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I thought that revamp passing was definitely very good. Like, I thought revamp passing was really fun to play. I didn't know really how it worked, so I kind of had to figure that out on my own, and that's where I wish the game had an option where it would hold your hand a little bit, especially, like you know, getting used to all the different offenses, all the different teams, all the conferences. It's not very kind to a casual college football fan. It kind of assumes you know a lot of what's going on, which isn't a bad thing by all means, but that was definitely my personal experience. Phil, we've also talked about this at length, I think. Sticking on the offensive side of the ball. We'll talk about defense when we transition to opportunities.
Speaker 1:I think that running the ball was a lot about defense when we transition to opportunities. I think that running the ball was a lot of fun and I think it's definitely smooth. I like running between the lanes. I'm taking my time more than usual when I'm running the ball, which I really liked. I mean, how long have they been trying to perfect that in other games? So I don't want to say it's perfect, but very, very good, although that spin move is extremely deadly, I hear, and when you use it right it is a little broken. So there are things like that that I really enjoyed. The fast pacedness of the offense is a lot of fun, especially if you have certain teams that have been built up. We're going to talk a little bit about the modes a little bit later, I think.
Speaker 1:But, phil, I feel like kind of transitioning to the defensive side of the ball. It's hard to say you love the fast-paced offense and then criticize the defense, but that's what I'm gonna do, like I have. This is the first football game where I've just not wanted to touch defense at all and I don't. I super sim and play offense only because it's nearly impossible, honestly, and especially on all american difficulty, if you're playing like a really big for a big team, like you have three seconds to throw the ball, or you're done like the defense on the other side, on the cpu side, is so overpowered, but your defense is not, and I think that is a little bit of a broken scale. I'm curious what you think about that and if you ever will go back to defense. I know it's college football and that's kind of the point, but I am curious what your thoughts are on the defensive side yeah, it's definitely not as fun now.
Speaker 2:I will say I've had some really fun moments on the defensive end, especially in those close games, but yeah, early on when you're so. For instance, I started off with Central Michigan, who is obviously a not really a very good program, and I'm going in and playing some really really difficult teams and even the difference between having like a 78 defense against like an 82 offense, that chasm is wide right, like it's huge. So, early on, especially when you're playing with a team that just does not have the roster construction and, like you mentioned, that is the point of college football there is a lot of disparity between the best team and the worst team. That's just how it is and so it's realistic in that sense. But yeah, early on it's realistic in that sense, but yeah, early on it's certainly not fun. I have not started a dynasty yet with texas, which I have wanted to want to do like as the season gets started, after updates and um as far to as, like you know, more updates to the game, but also, uh, when it comes to overall ratings, um, and I probably will play defense when I have a team like that, but for a team playing early on. My other dynasty is Hawaii didn't really touch it. I do find myself jumping in a little bit more now in year eight because my defense is very good and it can be a little bit more fun to rush the passer or play as a linebacker.
Speaker 2:But I'll just say this like I've always been and you know this from playing me and Madden for years like I've always had trouble reading defense, reading offenses from the secondary. So I've always kind of like used the defensive lineman or the linebacker and that's just a thing for me. Like I know some people are so good at reading offenses and baiting people and that's just never been something that I've been able to do. There's a reason. I just talk about sports, right, eric, we don't play them. We just talk about the nfl, specifically the jaguars. But there's a reason that, like, I just talk about them and have never really played, because some of these things that people cook up and there's a lot of really impressive players like on social media and I'm like man, how how did you manage to read that? Like I would have been absolutely cooked. So uh, yeah, it doesn't really present itself to a lot of, a whole lot of fun, especially if you're playing with a team. That's not very good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and one thing I like on the opposite end is like the home field advantage. So again, heading back to the positives, real quick, like I really love that element of it because it makes you memorize the play, like when you're in the huddle, like that. I think that is so unique. I don't love that you can't see the icon, but again, that also is part of it. So like again, I really just appreciated those little wrinkles that they would do. Then you have the little small stuff, like when you're at the end of the game and you knee, it'll just like run out the clock, which I think is again such a nice little feat, just say which isn't in madden 25 friendly reminder, not in madden uh.
Speaker 1:So I just think it's just really it's the small things that this game I think got right that add up over time and, for me, outweigh the negatives. I am curious before we talk about specific stuff in dynasty, which I think is where we're going to spend most of our time, maybe sprinkle in a little road to glory, I am curious gameplay wise, are there any negatives for you, something that you just can't get over?
Speaker 2:um, I think for you, a lot of it has been bugs yeah, this thing is at times is a buggy mess and I'll say this it has gotten. There have been, there's been at the time of recording here on August 19th, there has been one major update and then there was a smaller update, I believe yesterday and I haven't really been able to check it out was either yesterday or earlier today. I haven't been able to check it out, but the big bug that happened after the first major update, which is the one that I got a little bit of attention on social media for, is the one where, when you pull up the play art, using like either R2 or the right trigger whether, depending on what console you're using the scoreboard would disappear until you snap the ball, and that's obviously pretty detrimental when it comes to just knowing down in distance how much time you have left. On the play clock, I'm kind of fortunate because when I play as hawaii, you can see the play clock like on the stadium, like on, so I can still see it, but it's not like that with every stadium, so that's obviously been something that's really big. I don't know what it is about football games and I don't know if they're ever they will ever be able to get it down, but offensive line can still be a little bit of a mess. I have not seen the bug, eric, that I showed you, where the receiver will just sprint in the opposite direction in a while. Luckily that one has gone away.
Speaker 2:There was a bug for a little bit where the player's helmet would just be a plain white or silver. It wouldn't actually show like the team logo on it. That's one that I experienced and that's pretty much like really the. The biggest one that frustrated me the most was the scoreboard one, but I know a lot of people have been running into some that I haven't, uh, that I haven't seen.
Speaker 2:So I think the frustrating part is that because the game has been in development for so long and because these are things that come up in test runs like how did they make it to the base game, and again we are talking about an engine that probably needs to be completely rebuilt from, be rebuilt from the ground up, so there there are some things that are just going to happen. But when you have a game that's been gone for this long and been in development for this long, wouldn't that have been probably a good opportunity to rebuild that engine or use something new? And they just didn't end up doing that. So those have been the really frustrating things, but again, because the gameplay at its core is is very fun. A lot of my gripes have been in lack of features that we'll talk about here in a moment.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that makes a lot of sense, I think. For me, one minor gripe is that I do like the wear and tear system, but it's not very clear all the time when your player is going through something, especially in multiple body parts. So I find myself having to pause the game to kind of see who is going through it, how hurt are they, and I feel like that kind of takes away from the immersion a little bit. There should be a little bit more quick actions to be able to take.
Speaker 1:On the flip side, though, I will say, phil, this game has absolutely made me shift pass protection, and that's not something I'm used to doing in a game based off the mic linebacker, which you know you have to identify. So again, for every like little thing there's something like really cool and inventive or something, a quality of life feature that exists, but that's very interesting. I have not had that experience with bugs. My game pretty much has run really smooth, so I don't know, maybe I'm lucky. It's usually me who goes through that and you're the one who's having the clean experience.
Speaker 2:so I'm sorry this is happening to you, but I, uh, I'm not going through that at all yeah, one thing that would definitely help when you talk about wear and tear I'm glad you brought that up is is, especially in dynasty they don't have and this is something that actually Madden does have is there is no way to adjust your or do subs based off of formation. Formational subs that's the word that I'm looking for. That's in Madden and it's not in college football. And I remember going through and like looking through everything, I was like, am I just like missing it? There's no way they left this out of the game, right, but they did.
Speaker 2:So. You'll find yourself, you know, over running a running back or over using a wide receiver, and then obviously your quarterback gets beat up. But like, how many colleges run multiple quarterback systems or they have specific packages for another quarterback, like we talk about it all the time how this game is almost I won't say unplayable, but it's much more difficult if you don't have a scrambling quarterback. Well, well, you could. If you have formational subs, you could use a field general and then bring in that package for a scrambling quarterback, like they do in college football all the time. So that's a really crazy omission to not have in a game where, again, leading up to the release they were talking about having so many inclusions when it comes to their presentation and the gameplay of this. So the fact that that's not in in dynasty I've jumped ahead a little bit, but it still has to do with the wear and tear that you mentioned is pretty crazy.
Speaker 1:That's a huge omission that I don't know why that's not in the game yeah, the omissions are really crazy and then the more I read about it like phil, I just read that apparently in ultimate team there are, like they're not very good, but there are more tutorials like how to read defenses and how to do certain things in the game and like again, these are kind of basic things that you think the game would have, but then it does do something really cool.
Speaker 1:So, like now I'm getting a little bit more torn about it because I feel like I let this game get away with a lot because it just came back. But yeah, there are some pretty glarious omissions and I think, phil, when we get into dynasty talk, I would love to talk about the ups and downs of what we're experiencing there, because I think dynasty is some of the most fun I've had when we talk about recruiting and all of that, but when you play it for so long, it kind of just falls under the same trope that franchise does in madden. It's like how long do I want to do this for you? You are doing it way long than I have, because you're like eight, nine seasons in, you got multiple dynasties. I'm about to start my second dynasty and that's because I'm three seasons into one and I'm like I think I want to do something different. So I'm very curious, like what are the ups and downs like for you in dynasty? Uh, let's shift the conversation over there yeah.
Speaker 2:So one thing that I definitely do that helps and maybe this will help you as far as switching things up a bit is like eventually, you know if you want to fire an offensive coordinator or if your coordinator leaves, um, whenever I hire a, a new coordinator, I adopt that coordinator's schools playbook. So it's kind of like playing through a whole new. I mean there's so many playbooks in this that it was like playing a whole new game. You know we talked about we were talking about it on Saturday like there are playbooks out there we haven't even found. You know, it's kind of cool that there's so many different ways to play. So that helps out a lot.
Speaker 2:When it comes to freshening things up, and yeah, you know, just to kind of take it back a little bit, like Dynasty has always been my big thing. You know, building a program. I mean I've got a dynasty. I got a dynasty from NBA 2K16, a franchise that I still go back to every once in a while, that's like eight, nine, 10 years in. And you know that's just because I like building a program and building up a history. And you know, that's just because I like building a program and building up a history. So this was always something that I was going to dive into. First. They got a really, really great deep dive when, again, during the ramp up, once again great job as far as building up the excitement for this. And you know, there's something just very, very rewarding about taking a team that is obviously struggling or not your typical blue blood school which is, like you know, know the schools you always see being very successful when it comes to college football and then going through those tough times, like I didn't win a national championship in until my second dynasty and it was like year four because it just took me a while to get those players you know. And one one of my dynasties I had a freshman quarterback that I was like super excited to play for. But you can redshirt that freshman but still, even when you redshirt a player, they can still play in four games a year without losing their redshirt status.
Speaker 2:So, eric, I had this quarterback who I knew was gonna be great, had like 98 speed. I was going into the final stretch of the season and I was probably like I don't know, four and five, five and six, something like that when that's too late in the season, but like probably three and five, four. I was, I was not having a good season, but I put that quarterback in for the last four games of the year and I won, like my, the conference championship. Like that's really fun. It's like you know, sometimes, know, sometimes you have to in your head, you know, make up these scenarios, but I was like man, well, now I'm really excited to play as this quarterback, full-time going forward, and you know, we I won a national championship with him later.
Speaker 2:Uh, he won the Heisman trophy, I believe. So that stuff is always really, really rewarding, um, but so that's always been a lot of fun. So I guess what? I'll ask you what? What is it after three years in and one dynasty have made you want to all of a sudden just start another one? Is it just because you got your board of the playbook or you just want a new team? You know we haven't even talked about aesthetics, like the jerseys, the stadiums, the crowds, those all feel great.
Speaker 1:You just want new jerseys because they have two, they have a black jersey and a white jersey and I'm like you gotta be shitting me that. There's no way they gotta have more.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I'm playing as app state and, oh yeah, I'm having fun. I mean, I've won a national championship. It was a lot of fun to be able to put together. They're fun to play, uh, in the pistol offense and I guess the offense could change it up. I'm pretty comfortable in the playbook. It's just again, I'm not playing defense and I'm not having fun with that, so I'm not playing that.
Speaker 1:So the games go by and then the recruiting is fun, but it is the same thing every single year. So, like again there's, I felt like there would be maybe some more elements included into the game to make it feel a little fresh. So, like again there's, I felt like there would be maybe some more elements included into the game to make it feel a little fresh. But I mean, from season to season it feels the same. So I really just want to try another team just to see. Do I feel that way? Still Right? And I think I am going to feel that way because it's kind of just the UI and it's just the layout of the game and the way that they've created it. It's a good thing, it's fun, but it's like only so fun to a point.
Speaker 1:Recruiting, though I really like a lot of the things you can do, but it's, you know, that's the part. If I was to say I've been experiencing bugs, it's been in that space more than anything. Stuff they are working to fix, but again it can get a little tiresome but but I'm definitely enjoying, like the challenge. So it's it's kind of a given take and that's kind of why I want a fresh start. I also just went back into road to glory, which we'll talk about, you know, shortly, and we'll probably be limited there. But I jumped into that just to kind of mix it up and I feel like that's what I'm missing in this game is everything. After a while all the bells and whistles kind of fall to the wayside and when you strip it down it really is the same old thing that you're doing over and over, and I think I'm just starting to reveal that in the game myself.
Speaker 2:Yeah, as far as. Let me touch on recruiting. Recruiting here first, because that's always been something that obviously a lot, a really big thing when it came to the older games and finding those gems and, you know, building them up over time, and that was always been great. One thing that's really been disappointing to me when it comes to recruiting is the transfer portal. You know, every single year there is a big time player that wants to transfer, that you know the transfers Caleb Williams, the number one overall pick, should he transfer from Oklahoma to USC, like it happens all the time, right, and because you are always just immediately locked out from those top tier transfer players, it doesn't really feel like it's a mechanic that's very beneficial, right, like I'll get a couple of, maybe two or three star transfers, but now that my team is pretty good, I don't really, unless they're three or four star, eric, I don't really recruit them.
Speaker 2:You know I'll try and find some gems here and there, but because you're automatically locked out for their deal breaker or whatever it is, then you don't even get a shot at the top tier transfer portal players. I don't know if it's been different, different for you, but I don't think I've ever gotten a four star, even a four star transfer. I certainly haven't gotten a five. So, um, I will say, now that I've, you know, um, my team is one started to win. Uh, now we're starting to get those top tier players. But yeah, it can be very repetitive and, you know, I thought it would be a little bit more in depth than what we got.
Speaker 1:Yeah, are you just saying transfer portals or recruits in general?
Speaker 2:Transfer portal, specifically as far as the first part, because I was like like some guy in the transfer portal I saw on Reddit got Arch Manning Like that's not going to happen for me?
Speaker 1:No, no, not at all, not early on. But here's what I will tell you, phil, like I don't know if you're spending all your time on the recommended page. It is misleading, because I will go, look for five and four star recruits and some will be open. Yeah, I can go for them, I'll be a long shot, but some of them will be open. So I think I have to do a little bit more manual digging, which takes more time, and then I have to kind of find out do I want to take a shot here?
Speaker 1:But the deal breaker part, that also is a different experience, I think. Depending on the coach, the location, your pipelines, there's a lot of factors. So it's not surprising that maybe you have a different experience, and that's another reason why I want to try a different team. You know I'm the mountaineers right now. I don't think if I pick a team in Florida I will have the same recruiting experience per se. But again, it's one of those things that I want to try out and test out. But it's so different for everyone. That's what makes it great, but also a little frustrating, because there seems to be some inconsistencies across the board yeah for sure.
Speaker 2:Um, yeah, I think recruiting definitely needs some retooling, especially because of how important it is to your dynasty. Um, another bug that I will mention. So the bug that I ran into that made me stop playing my central mich Michigan dynasty is that for like my fifth year, sixth year, whatever year I was in it scheduled all of my conference games for away games and if you know anything about recruiting, that's a death wish, like there's no way I can host visits. I can't have. You know, that's it. That's basically like the main thing you have. You get a player to come in and if anything goes well, that's basically a done deal. So that you know that's a huge bummer. I believe they have fixed that, because I haven't seen that issue with my Hawaii dynasty, but I definitely get nervous whenever a new year comes around. One thing that I have seen now I haven't 100% gone and verified this, but I've seen enough people that I trust mention it that if you so say, if you go into your custom schedule, right, eric, and say, like week one, you have Georgia, like say, georgia is automatically there. You didn't do that. If you change to a different team, apparently the CPU would not schedule a new game for Georgia, so they would end up playing a less amount of games than everybody else. A lot of people have been seeing issues with conference realignment as far as not scheduling other conference opponents. That actually has happened with me. I moved Hawaii into the Big 12 and I play the same eight conference opponents every single time, even though there are 16 teams in our conference. So there's no, there's, there's nothing when it comes to that. So I hope they fix that very, very soon.
Speaker 2:Here is my biggest gripe here, eric, with Dynasty and again because you didn't play Dynasty when the game was first around. One thing that obviously is the biggest interest of me when it comes to Dynasty mode is going back and looking at your success. Ncaa football games had like a trophy room. You can go back and look at past records and statistics and all of that stuff. Dynasty is just essentially the way that I've heard people describe it and I agree. It is a play now simulator, but with a schedule, because you're basically, like you said, repeating the same thing over and over again.
Speaker 2:If you win a national championship, you want to go back and look at that team? Nope, can't do that. Want to see the previous Heisman winners Can't do that, want to see statistics from a couple years ago, nothing. So basically, when you turn the page into your new season, that's it. You can't really go back and look unless that player is still on your team. Obviously, you can still look at their stats, but I can't look at past records.
Speaker 2:There's like a little bit of a thing when they talk when you beat a rival, it shows like the the record, like I've won 24 out of whatever, however many games. But for my Hawaii dynasty I kept losing to Boise State and they would ruin my season over and over again and I would like that to be acknowledged, that like I was having trouble beating Boise State and then when I finally beat them, that was the year I went to the national championship, right, like that stuff. Like that, that type of immersion was being alluded to in the lead up and it's just not there.
Speaker 2:So my big gripe with Dynasty, eric, is that it's just kind of a hollow game mode. You know it's, like you said, rinse, wash, repeat, and I can enjoy the gameplay but also still want more from the mode itself and I hope people understand that when we know when it comes to these criticisms. So that's been my biggest thing is like I'll keep playing dynasty and I'll continue to have fun, but again, once you turn that page, that's basically it. You have no recollection unless you write it down, take a screenshot, whatever you do and I see some people have literally brought out like their laptops to like type out stuff just to have that sort of immersion and recall what happened in previous years, because without that you just don't have it and when you spend this much money for a game like that, you've been waiting for so long for a game like that.
Speaker 1:That should not be the case. But yeah, I think that kind of just plays into my feelings about dynasty phil. It doesn't really get much better when we get to road to glory. I have learned that apparently you could play high school games in road to glory very frustrating in previous versions or the late the, the most recent version of college football. So you know my surprise. I want to play underdog. Moving to road to glory really quick, I pick a two-star recruit and I'd like to just share, cause I don't think you did this. I'm assuming you didn't. I want to share my experience. So I skip ahead and I skip ahead and I skip ahead and I skip ahead. And guess what? Year one? Not a single down, not a single down of football. What school did you pick again?
Speaker 2:Buffalo or something. You ended up transferring to Buffalo. I think is what it was.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I ended up transferring to Buffalo. I can't remember the first team I was on. It was so bad, so so bad. But you know you get to whatever team you have to be on to kind of kick things off and you know I'm playing through the first year. You know two Stark recruit, qb, no downs, nothing. And you think why am I doing that? There must be a lot to do. Well, not really Road to Glory. It's kind of the same rinse, wash, repeat cycle but with different stuff.
Speaker 1:And there are things I like again when we talk about it. You can do things like focus on your grades and build your leadership skills up and train, but you only have so many energy points every single week to spend and it feels like there's no real way to massively improve for you to have a shot. I've never been redshirted, I don't even know if that's an option. So there's little things like that that I'm like unsure about. And when you finally do get to play film, I don't really love the POV from a quarterback position. I'm having more fun in my second attempt Now doing a two-star recruit.
Speaker 1:I should say now, where before it was a one two-star recruit. Now now doing running back I think is a lot of fun because I could kind of see a pathway to playing time. I can see that there might be potential to do this, and at running back POV it's also not as jarring. So there's a couple of things like that that were just really really tough for me in Road to Glory. What has your experience been? I know you didn't play a lot, but are you seeing the same things where it's like oh cool, like I got an NIL deal. Oh, I skipped class, my GPA is gone, now I can't play? Are you having that same experience?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I also chose underdog two-star quarterback and, but I did it way later, so I actually just started it here within the last couple of days. So I did it with the benefit of knowing what you had gone through and what so many people on social media had gone through. So I knew to allocate my points correctly. Although I definitely misunderstood, like, because my GPA was pretty high, because I was spending points on like extra credit, I still didn't put enough points into like being prepared for the test, so I kept failing tests. But I was like, hey, I'm still over a 3.0, I don't give a shit. Like, I'm a really good, I'm just not a good test taker. Uh, professor, that's. I don't know what to tell you. I'm still showing up and and I'm not cheating'm I'm picking all the right options when it comes to the dialogue.
Speaker 2:But, yeah, I'm still in the first year and I'm third string. So I I've been trying to build up my um, you know more skill points, but it is incredibly repetitive. Uh, you know, spend your skill points, go into practice, do one thing and then rinse, wash, repeat. Um, you know, in terms of when you I do know when you do get up there. Uh, when it comes to quarterback specifically, you get a little bit more, uh, you get a little bit more freedom, but you still can't like do audibles right out of the gate until you have the right amount of trust, and it's just a mode that's never really interested me specifically. It's been more so a mode that I enjoy watching content creators make content out of, specifically not the expert, which is one of my, one of my favorite content creators, eric, one of the person responsible for the pandas being in the game for college football 25. Really really cool of them to do that.
Speaker 2:But yeah, that's really more so of me wanting to watch other people play Road to Glory. So it's not really my thing and I would have much rather preferred. Hey, you want to play as caleb williams and you know on whatever team. That would have really really drawn me in. So I hope we see that, like I said, um, in in the future. But road to glory has never been something that was, uh, super interesting to me and because of the grind, um and like I mean luckily there's no microtransactions in it, like with the NFL version. But one thing that is a bummer, because you can import your player into Madden how well you do in college has no effect whatsoever on the Madden gameplay. You have to go through the combine that decides your statistics, which is again another huge fumble by both companies or by both teams. But yeah, it's just something that I probably won't dabble into very much, but I'll probably jump into it, maybe every once in a while to up my quarterback. But yeah, I mean, I'm a 61 overall, I'm not gonna play.
Speaker 1:I think I'm at memphis, um and uh, yeah, but I I haven't even gone through my first season yeah, in my journey I now remember it with my, with my quarterback, I was at Northwestern for two years, that's right. Didn't play that first year, but that second year got a little bit of playing time. Towards the end of the season transferred to Buffalo, which was Buffalo.
Speaker 1:Bulls as one does Crazy, crazy season. And then I ended transferring, uh, one other place oh, mid Tennessee state was where I finished my college career and then it was just done, and then it's just done. There's like no real excitement around that. You're just kind of done and you move on to the next one. In game you also get the chance to like ask the coach for other play calls, like two other play call options, if you build trust. But there's like no audible and the calls are usually the same. So like if you don't like play a play, b and C are typically the same ones every time. So like if you don't want to run, well, b and C are runs and they're the same types of runs that you've been running all game.
Speaker 1:So I think my biggest gripes have been road to glory, because it's like the biggest fumble in my opinion. But there definitely have been things in each of these modes and just the gameplay in general that is not perfect and for that reason, phil, I really do feel like this game has so much shine on it. But as the days go by, more people are finding holes and that's just a shame, because it's starting to feel like maybe this game wasn't ready yet, ready for greatness yet. Are you walking away feeling like that? Or are you still having that positive experience where you can see yourself playing this into next year? Because, for me, I'm going to definitely sink more time into it, but by the time the holidays come around, it's going to be much more casual. I could foresee that, and that's not exactly a bad thing for a casual gamer like myself in this genre. But where are you going to be by the end of the year? Are you still thinking you're going to be pouring hours into this every single day or every single week?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think I will, because one thing when it comes to, especially when the college football season comes around this is what happens for me in NBA 2K is I will see a player doing very well and be like, oh, I'd like to play with that player, and now in college football, because of NIL, I can do that in the game. So I'll find a team. Like you know, some random team will have a really great season. You know, like UCF, I believe, has like a really interesting quarterback that I think might be very good this year and I'll probably jump into a UCF franchise or dynasty. I keep saying franchise, dynasty. But I'll jump into UCF and, you know, use that player and then build that program up. So you know me, that is a thing that I will sink hours and hours into. Like I don't even know how many hundreds of hours I have in NBA 2k23 because I didn't like 2k24. Like I will stick with a game when it comes to the gameplay. That works for me. That's why I played 2k16 for uh so long, because I liked the gameplay and I didn't like the changes that happened between then and now. So I can see myself playing this for a while. I mean, uh, for me, even for madden, where that I don't like. I then have not enjoyed madden in a long time. I'll still play madden well into, you know, february or march, which is a detriment to me, but I just like to sit down and play a sports game and turn on a podcast and that'll be like my quiet time. You know, like I don't always want to play a competitive shooter or whatever it may be. Sometimes you just want to jump into you know, your, your franchise, your dynasty, whatever it is, and and play that for a while. So, yeah, I do think I'll probably be playing this for a good moment, be playing this for a good moment.
Speaker 2:Another thing, eric, I brought this up this point here on reddit, is it? Um, because what's really frustrating? Because there are so many different faces when it comes to, like, the players in the game and even the coaches, but there's two options there's polo and jacket, and they don't even have the logo of the team on the polo or the jacket. It's just such a small oversight because, again, like you said, there's immersion stuff in here. That's great, it's really fantastic, but like that's it.
Speaker 2:No, hoodie, I don't even wear a headset. I don't think there's not a jacket like what do you? Why wear all these other customization options? You know we didn't even touch on how you can't change numbers for your players yet. Hopefully they patch that in very soon. The the fact that it wasn't in the first patch, when it was like the most requested thing from players, is insane. So the fact that ea like is still at the helm of this is really what is shining through. So it's it's like you said, it's very surface level and at the end of the day, you're still reminded hey, ea is still in control of this and this is what you're going to get.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I am worried about what future iterations are going to be, because I don't know. You know they're going to do the right things now, but like three, four, five years from now, who knows what that's going to look like, assuming they still retain all the licenses to everything. But Phil, you mentioned listening to a podcast as you play, like a sports game, this game. I've had to play a lot of music because the music in this game is terrible.
Speaker 2:There is not. It's the same drum line. It's the same drum line. It's the same.
Speaker 1:No licensed music no different at all during the game. Also, like it's just crowd noise, like there's no, there's no real interaction, like there's no like engaging stuff going on. The commentary in one ear, out the other I don't know how you feel about that. I feel like the commentary is just all right, like it's passable, and I feel like this game has like three elements to it. This game has really excellent stuff going on. This game has very passable stuff, which is like a lot of it, and then there are things that just are egregious misses and I feel like for a game like that, for me to have sunk this many hours into it, I feel like I hope this game would be better than it is and I just continue to believe into that. Like, yeah, no, it's gonna get better, it's gonna get better, but I am wondering when that's gonna actually happen and if I'll still be playing this game as much as I am now when that happens yeah, and that's another thing they put a lot of emphasis on.
Speaker 2:When it came to the play-by-play and the commentary, yeah, I don't listen to that. It's repetitive, as per usual, and credit to reese davis, who has said he wants to get into the booth and re-record some lines with a little bit more excitement. But ultimately, like you know, when is that going to happen? Is it going to happen? Are they going to really spend the time and money to do so? I don't even know. One other thing as far as like gameplay, eric, I don't know if this has happened to you. If I am punting the ball away, I would say 40% of the time, I can get a roughing the kicker or running into the kicker call. Is that happening with you?
Speaker 1:no, when you're punting the ball away.
Speaker 2:No, oh yeah, it happens all the time oh, it happens to me all the time where I can almost depend on getting, uh, that penalty to keep my drive going. One one time I have it recorded I got three roughing the kicker calls on a field goal kick. I missed all three.
Speaker 1:That's not the point but let's not even talk about the kicking mechanic because, like it's accurate to college football. But that kick I enjoy it mechanic.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you gotta get.
Speaker 1:You gotta get used to it, for sure. But you just mentioned another thing, phil. Like the more we talk and I think that's why this is one of our longer game room episodes is is because we just keep finding more things. This game, Phil, unless I'm supposed to change settings and I didn't know this game there's no penalties in my game.
Speaker 2:Like I barely ever get penalties, I'll get like a holding every once in a while. I don't even really get injuries.
Speaker 1:There are some egregious pass interferences that are just not called, and I don't know if that's just the college game. I don't think it is, I don't think it is. So, yeah, the penalties is such an issue on both sides of the ball for sure, that that's another thing that's really kind of irked me, because again you'll see a defender dragging all over a receiver and miss that pass and just nothing, absolutely nothing yeah, there's never any dpi opi.
Speaker 2:I barely seldomly get a holding. The only thing, like I said, that I'll see consistently is running into the kicker. I don't know how people are returning kickoffs so often as well. That's never happened for me, uh, but yeah, they're. Uh, like you said, I don't know if it's something as far as the game tuning, but yeah, I don't ever see any any of those. Uh, I don't really ever see any injuries, for the most part, other than when I overrun my quarterback. Uh, but when it comes to like when it gets close, I just, you know, take them out and put somebody else in. But again, formational subs would be fantastic. But yeah, um, I think if we continue to talk about this, there'll be more and more things that pop up, and all you have to do is kind of go through the subreddit.
Speaker 2:I know a lot of people as far as, um, you know, when it comes to communities, a reddit community can be a little toxic, but the this is a, you know, this is a community that, again, has been playing the game for 20 years and a lot of excitement when it came to the re-release of the game. And, like you said, eric, there's just a lot of concern for what the future of this game holds and hopefully we don't see a lot of those negatives from Madden creep in to college football. I don't. I really hope that's not the case, but yeah, because it's.
Speaker 2:The game is so incredibly surface level. It just leaves me disappointed is too strong of a word, because I am still enjoying it. I've got like 130 hours in the game but like I just expected it to be better, especially because of how much time they had and also because of the people they had involved. Like they brought people in from college football advance to work on this game. They worked with the community to improve, you know, to make this game and it still ended up being what it is. That just leaves it being incredibly concerning.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree the fact that the more we talk about this, the longer the list will go of things that we're concerned about or we're a little disappointed about. But again I want to stress this is a game we've both sunk in over 100 hours of playing time for, and this game is very new. So they're doing something right, but definitely remains to be seen what the future holds, phil. I think that's a great place to kind of put it. From what I'm understanding, I believe that this game is selling. Well, I would assume that that's the case.
Speaker 1:I didn't really pay too much attention, but I'm pretty sure it's well over several million copies. So again, this game seems to be sticking around. Seems like they've got it for the long haul. Will we do another one of these episodes about this game? Probably not, but I think that, again, this is something that you just kind of have to try out, even if you're a casual fan or a casual sports fan. If you've ever enjoyed a football game, I would definitely say at some point, pick this up, definitely around the holidays is going to be perfect. If you're not into it, phil, some people are buying consoles just to play this game. So, again, really speaks to what we're dealing with from a level from the community and again just really glad that we got a chance to get a lot of time with it before we did this episode.
Speaker 2:Yeah, as of July 31st. A few weeks ago, sports Illustrated was reporting that it had cleared $500 million in sales and that's only going to go up, like you said, with the holidays. As far as Metacritic scores, it has an 84 Metacritic but a 5.6 user score, so I think that's pretty. Now that's only based on 202. Oh, this is for the PS5, so I'm sure, for the game overall. I'd like to see what it looks like. Oh, here we go. Yeah, 5.64. Yeah, that's for all consoles. So that's pretty representative of what we've been seeing as far as on social media when it comes to the response to the game. Because the honeymoon period is over, I need them, we need them to fix some of these issues that, again, shouldn't have popped up or even gotten into the game. So we'll see what the future holds and we will hold our collective breath that EA does not EA this thing. But, folks, thank you so much for those of you that stuck around for this episode. Obviously, it was a topic we were very passionate about and while there were so many positive things, there were also a lot of opportunities, is what I'll say, because, yes, some of them are negatives, but, like, the groundwork is here if they do the right thing, which we cannot depend on EA to do, but if they somehow find themselves in a position to like to improve this the way that they need to, we could be looking at something that easily outsells Madden each and every single year and then hopefully, we get. You know, we end up getting competitors for Madden and other football games altogether. But, folks, thank you so much for checking out this episode, this month's episode of the Game Room, where it Happens.
Speaker 2:If you want to find other iterations of this series or anything else that we post, make sure you check out our Linktree link. In the show notes of this episode. You'll find all of our other episodes, as well as our social media pages, the most important ones to keep up with being Instagram, tiktok, discord, as well as our Twitch page, where we stream typically every Thursday night. You can also support the show by going over to Apple Podcasts or Spotify, leaving those five-star reviews. Those are incredibly beneficial to the life cycle and the health of a podcast. It shoots us up the charts and gets more eyes and ears on the show. You can also head on over to YouTube, turn on alerts, subscribe, leave those likes, comment. All of that stuff is very, very helpful. But if you find yourself wanting yourself, if you find yourself wanting yourself that, yeah. If you find yourself wanting some additional perks when it comes to the podcast, maybe some behind the scenes stuff, eric, we'll let you know how you can do all of that.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So a couple of free ways that you could support the podcast have been mentioned, but if you want to take your financials and send them over to us to give us a little support there, that'd be great. You could always do that through our Buzzsprout page, or you could take those funds and move them over to Patreon, where patrons like Stefan Briar, corey and T3Kato are helping us out over there and, in exchange, getting access, early access and behind the scenes, exclusive looks behind these episodes like this one. So we would really appreciate continuing to grow that community. A lot of cool stuff, multiple different tiers and even a free tier.
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