Draft Day Sports: College Football 2020

I was a huge fan of the NCAA Football franchise, but hardly ever played the actual games. Instead, what attracted me was career mode. I really enjoyed taking a mediocre (or often downright bad) program and slowly building it up into a competitor through targeted recruiting. Draft Day Sports fills the void left for me in that respect when NCAA was discontinued. There are so many options and decisions that can affect the trajectory of your program, including recruiting, coach hiring, and depth chart decisions (good players don't like riding the pine and will transfer) that should keep you busy. One very important warning: "playing" a game is simply playcalling on offense and defense. You recruited these guys, and now you get to see if they execute (or not). No juke moves, no hand eye coordination required. For many, this could be a deal breaker; for me, it wasn't even a consideration.

It's not for everyone let's get that right but this game is as deep as any football game you are going to find on the market. You can do all sorts of stuff with the XML in this game and make it all the real teams as close as you want to. The AI in this game is very smart and is difficult to beat at times. But being able to play football again at a competitive level even with the bugs in the game, its still a lot of fun nonetheless.

Its kinda hard to get into at first and definitely has a few flaws but overall love the game. wish we could use more of the custom playbook more, as in make one before choosing and beginning a season with a team. Also wish they would upgrade the AI for the players on the field i had a qb with 90 awareness miss wide open guys and throw it to double covered WR. Same with my O-line being high overalls but somehow allow 6 sacks in a game??. If you are into stats records and numbers this is your game, but you are gonna be highly disappointed with how AI plays your players.

Even though I think "Bowl Bound" is a better game, this is a little more stable (only 2 crashes so far, and no progress lost). It is also too expensive IMO and in need of more fine-tuning. Having said that, I do like it. It takes quite a bit of tedious micro-managing, and it can get annoying. Your best players will get hurt. A lot. But if you treat it like real life bad luck, it just adds to the challenge.
Here's an example of what makes you want to rage-quit: You absolutely luck out and recruit a 4 star QB for your struggling team. Game 2 he breaks his arm. If you kept your cool during recruiting, maybe you got a 2 star QB who only excels in 1 trait-- high competitiveness. So he comes in and plays over his head until your star comes back. I made the second part up, but it's why I like this game. If you pay attention, you can get some satisfaction. And if you don't want to work that hard, you can cheat a little. The game allows you to create your own walk-ons, and you can stat them any way you want. Also, for some reason, every year great recruits get passed by. If you look through the list you can sign a bunch of ringers just because no one else offered them a scholarship.
I don't think it's great game, but it scratches the itch (I love the college game). I just want to add a note about the biggest weakness-- training. I have yet to figure out how to improve players' skills. Some players get a little better, but these are kids, and you would expect them to grow or get smarter in 4 years, but mostly they don't. Still fun, though. Just don't expect too much.

If you like the recruiting aspects of college football games. It's not perfect, but this is probably the best one out there. I've played Solecisemic, NCAA College football from EA Sports back when available, Grey Dog Bowl Bound College Football, etc. The simulation of games needs some work for more realistic stats and realistic outcomes, but the recruiting part is good. If anything I might be getting too good at the game and want it to be harder, but I've played a lot.

Very in depth. Customization isn't as easy as I like, but overall a very good game.

great game with some minor glitches