Leading up to the July 10 release date for EA Sports College Football 26, the company has revealed more details about the upcoming American football game. In a new post on the official website, College Football 26’s Dynasty and Team Builder modes have gotten a deep dive, explaining some of their new features.
The Dynasty mode returns after being a fan favourite from the previous iteration of College Football, and according to producer Chad Walker and prinipal game designer Ben Haumiller, the mode was built with three core pillars in mind – Build Your Coach, Build Your Program, and Deliver the World of College Footbal.
The two explain that Dynasty mode in College Football 26 represents “year 2 of that vision”, with a focus on expanding on the foundations that were first laid down with College Football 25. This means that just about every aspect of the mode, from creating your coach, the RPG-styled progression of your coach, to coach archetypes have all seen quite a few expansions.
For example, coaches will need to meet minimum level requirements in order to access the three base archetypes of Recruiter, Motivator, and Tactician. Rather than allowing players to freely switch their coach archetype, players will now instead have a coach that has grown in a more organic manner.
The Coach Carousel has also seen some improvements, with players getting new notifications about job offers getting accepted or declined, as well as players getting more control over the hiring and retention process. Top-tier coaches now also get better and more consistent job opportunities.
Other aspects, like how recruiting new players, have also seen quite a few changes, including the evolving expectations of every player in your team, as well as players in other teams that you might be hoping to recruit.
“We saw this most recently with Tennessee’s quarterback, who, as a freshman, led the team to the College Football Playoff in a breakout season,” explained the company. “As he grew into a bigger name in the sport, so did his expectations — particularly around his Brand dealbreaker, which increased significantly the following year.”
When it comes to player progression, College Football 26 features quite a few details when it comes to how they improve. The game features a skill groups that can level from 10 to 20 over the course of games played. This, according to the company, leads to more gradual and natural-feeling progression.
Through this system, College Football 26’s athletes can grow over the course of not only games, but also through rigorous training regimens to help develop their various traits. There will also be more direct control over player development available, where skill points can be spent on specific traits to level them up.
Details about these, alongside new features like player archetypes and positions, can be checked out in more detail through the deep dive offered by EA Sports. In the meantime, College Football 26 is coming to PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. The game got its debut trailer back in May which gave us a look at some of its new features, including upgrades to the Wear and Tear system, as well as some of the more than 2,800 new plays and unique schemes.
College Football 26 is available for pre-order on its own, as well as through a bundle alongside Madden NFL 26, which is out on August 14.
