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The NYT Strands hints and answers you need to make the most of your puzzling experience.

If you’re reading this, you’re looking for a little help playing Strands, the New York Times‘ elevated word-search game.

By providing an opaque hint and not providing the word list, Strands creates a brain-teasing game that takes a little longer to play than its other games, like Wordle and Connections.

If you’re feeling stuck or just don’t have 10 or more minutes to figure out today’s puzzle, we’ve got all the NYT Strands hints for today’s puzzle you need to progress at your preferred pace.

NYT Strands hint for today’s theme: A seat the table

Hard to eat without these.

Today’s NYT Strands theme plainly explained

The clue refers to table settings.

NYT Strands spangram hint: Is it vertical or horizontal?

Today’s NYT Strands spangram is vertical.

NYT Strands spangram answer today:

Today’s spangram is PlaceSetting.

NYT Strands word list for July 20

Fork

Plate

Saucer

Spoon

PlaceSetting

Glass

Knife

Napkin

Looking for other daily online games? Find one you might like – or hints for another game you’re already playing – on Mashable’s Games page.

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Here’s the answer for “Wordle” #1127 on July 20, as well as a few hints, tips, and clues to help you solve it yourself.

Oh hey there! If you’re here, it must be time for Wordle. As always, we’re serving up our daily hints and tips to help you figure out today’s answer.

If you just want to be told today’s word, you can jump to the bottom of this article for July 20’s Wordle solution revealed. But if you’d rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.

Where did Wordle come from?

Originally created by engineer Josh Wardle as a gift for his partner, Wordle rapidly spread to become an international phenomenon, with thousands of people around the globe playing every day. Alternate Wordle versions created by fans also sprang up, including battle royale Squabble, music identification game Heardle, and variations like Dordle and Quordle that make you guess multiple words at once. 

Wordle eventually became so popular that it was purchased by the New York Times, and TikTok creators even livestream themselves playing.

Not the day you’re after? Here’s the solution to yesterday’s Wordle.

What’s the best Wordle starting word?

The best Wordle starting word is the one that speaks to you. But if you prefer to be strategic in your approach, we have a few ideas to help you pick a word that might help you find the solution faster. One tip is to select a word that includes at least two different vowels, plus some common consonants like S, T, R, or N.

What happened to the Wordle archive?

The entire archive of past Wordle puzzles used to be available for anyone to enjoy whenever they felt like it. Unfortunately, it has since been taken down, with the website’s creator stating it was done at the request of the New York Times.

Is Wordle getting harder?

It might feel like Wordle is getting harder, but it actually isn’t any more difficult than when it first began. You can turn on Wordle‘s Hard Mode if you’re after more of a challenge, though.

Here’s a subtle hint for today’s Wordle answer:

A long, narrow part of an arrow or tool.

Does today’s Wordle answer have a double letter?

There are no letters that appear twice.

Today’s Wordle is a 5-letter word that starts with…

Today’s Wordle starts with the letter S.

The Wordle answer today is…

Get your last guesses in now, because it’s your final chance to solve today’s Wordle before we reveal the solution.

Drumroll please!

The solution to today’s Wordle…

SHAFT.

Don’t feel down if you didn’t manage to guess it this time. There will be a new Wordle for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we’ll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.

Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today’s Strands.

Reporting by Caitlin Welsh, Sam Haysom, Amanda Yeo, Shannon Connellan, Cecily Mauran, Mike Pearl, and Adam Rosenberg contributed to this article.

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Connections is a New York Times word game that’s all about finding the “common threads between words.” How to solve the puzzle.

Connections is the latest New York Times word game that’s captured the public’s attention. The game is all about finding the “common threads between words.” And just like Wordle, Connections resets after midnight and each new set of words gets trickier and trickier—so we’ve served up some hints and tips to get you over the hurdle.

If you just want to be told today’s puzzle, you can jump to the end of this article for July 20’s Connections solution. But if you’d rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.

What is Connections?

The NYT‘s latest daily word game has become a social media hit. The Times credits associate puzzle editor Wyna Liu with helping to create the new word game and bringing it to the publications’ Games section. Connections can be played on both web browsers and mobile devices and require players to group four words that share something in common.

Tweet may have been deleted

Each puzzle features 16 words and each grouping of words is split into four categories. These sets could comprise of anything from book titles, software, country names, etc. Even though multiple words will seem like they fit together, there’s only one correct answer. If a player gets all four words in a set correct, those words are removed from the board. Guess wrong and it counts as a mistake—players get up to four mistakes until the game ends.

Tweet may have been deleted

Players can also rearrange and shuffle the board to make spotting connections easier. Additionally, each group is color-coded with yellow being the easiest, followed by green, blue, and purple. Like Wordle, you can share the results with your friends on social media.

Here’s a hint for today’s Connections categories

Want a hit about the categories without being told the categories? Then give these a try:

Yellow: Not hard for someone

Green: Putting your all into something

Blue: Charging up

Purple: Interpretations of pop

Here are today’s Connections categories

Need a little extra help? Today’s connections fall into the following categories:

Yellow: Effortless

Green: Exertion

Blue: Energy for an Electronic Device

Purple: What “Pop” Might Mean

Looking for Wordle today? Here’s the answer to today’s Wordle.

Ready for the answers? This is your last chance to turn back and solve today’s puzzle before we reveal the solutions.

Drumroll, please!

The solution to today’s Connections #405 is…

What is the answer to Connections today

Effortless: FLUID, GRACEFUL, NATURAL, SMOOTH

Exertion: EFFORT, LABOR, SWEAT, WORK

Energy for an Electronic Device: BATTERY, CHARGE, JUICE, POWER

What “Pop” Might Mean: BURST, DAD, MAINSTREAM, SODA

Don’t feel down if you didn’t manage to guess it this time. There will be new Connections for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we’ll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.

Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today’s Strands.

Is this not the Connections game you were looking for? Here are the hints and answers to yesterday’s Connections.

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Amandla Stenberg discusses the finale of “The Acolyte” and her dual roles of Osha and Mae Aniseya. Interview.

Amandla Stenberg pulls off the ultimate switcheroo in The Acolyte.

Throughout The Acolyte‘s first season, Stenberg’s dual performance as twins Mae and Osha Aniseya walked the line between the Dark Side and the Light. Osha begins the season as a supporter of the Jedi, even though her intense emotions and grief over losing her family led her to be kicked out of the Order. Her sister Mae, on the other hand, starts off as a devotee to a Sith master, hellbent on gaining justice on the Jedi.

But by the end of The Acolyte‘s showstopping finale, the twins have swapped places. Osha has turned to the Dark Side, killing Jedi Master Sol (Lee Jung-jae) and becoming the Stranger’s (Manny Jacinto) acolyte. In support of her sister’s new path, Mae agrees to have her memories wiped, only to wind up in service to the Jedi.

It’s a game-changing finale, one that never loses sight of the relationships that drives it. So much of that is owed to Stenberg, who grounds the series in the connection between Osha and Mae. In an interview with Mashable, Stenberg discussed the catharsis the finale offers both twins, direction from showrunner Leslye Headland, and the already beloved ship between Osha and Qimir/the Stranger.

The following interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Mashable: The finale of The Acolyte has so many moment that made me stop and go, “Wow, I can’t believe we’re actually seeing this.” So I’d love to know, when you were reading the script, what was the moment that stuck out to you as the showstopper, something you couldn’t wait to dive into?

Amandla Stenberg: I think it had to be Osha killing Sol. Leslye said to me, from the very beginning of the show, when we were in pre-production, “It’s very important for a woman in a narrative arc to kill her father.” [laughs] I was like, “What does that mean?”

At first I didn’t understand it. But then, as we continued speaking on it, and I went on Osha’s emotional journey with her, it made so much sense to me, because I think it’s the metaphorical father that she’s facing. It’s the things that she has been told that she is, the things she’s been told she’s not capable of, the suppression of self that she has partook in for most of her life, the emotional repression. All of that is coming to a head in a moment in which it’s able to release itself, and it takes the form of this tragedy. Knowing that’s where Osha was arriving was always such a rich thing for me to get into as I constructed her arc over the season. How does a person arrive to that point? It just became such a fun question for me to delve into.

Sol’s death is also the first moment we see Osha wield a lightsaber and the Force. What did it mean to you to finally take up these iconic elements of Star Wars in this very emotionally charged context?

Oh my God, it was so much fun. I freaked out. In the finale, I get to use a lightsaber and pilot spaceships. That was a dream come true for me; that was all I wanted to do.

It really felt like a culmination of all the work that I’ve done to sort of graduate — kind of like how Osha is graduating into using a saber.

It was very gratifying, because I spent so many of those months training with knives or doing kung fu stunt choreography. So it really felt like a culmination of all the work that I’ve done to sort of graduate — kind of like how Osha is graduating into using a saber.

I love how in that moment, Mae’s reaction to Osha killing Sol is more gentle and understanding than what we’ve seen from other Dark Side turns in Star Wars. What does her presence and her reaction mean to Osha as she starts down this new path?

I’m so happy to hear that. That was something that felt really important to me when approaching Mae’s role in those moments. Whenever you’re playing someone, you have to think of them as a person. And I always felt that Mae was driven by a profound sense of loyalty and emotionality and identification with her family and where she comes from. So I kind of had that in my back pocket throughout the season, even when it wasn’t revealed why she does the things that she does.

I think that Mae has this deep sense of gratification and release [when Osha kills Sol], both in gaining justice through Osha and also by allowing her sister to be the empowered one in their dynamic. She is used to, since childhood, controlling the power dynamic in their relationship, and she sort of relinquishes that control in that moment. There’s a lot of beauty in his death.

Then there’s that wonderful parting moment between Osha and Mae at the tree on Brendok. When it came to shooting, I’m curious to know which side of the scene you chose to perform first, and why.

I think I chose Mae first, because Mae’s perspective at that moment just felt very clear to me. I wanted there to be the opportunity for there to be a softness in her. Both sisters, they, in this really satisfying way, get to have these parts of themselves that variables out of their control were preventing them from having until that moment. And I just wanted to think about, “Okay, when Mae has experienced this retribution and this release, what parts of her do we get to see?” It felt very important to me that there was a softness and a protectiveness that she felt over her sister, because she’s always been motivated by her love for her family. That just felt very simple to me.

Both sisters…get to have these parts of themselves that variables out of their control were preventing them from having until that moment.

And then Osha is going through it. [laughs] Homegirl is in the trenches. I knew that Mae was going to be the supportive, guiding force in that moment, so I let that performance guide what Osha did.

Osha is going through such quick successions of change, while also being embodied. For me, it really felt like her embodiment was going to look like her allowing herself to feel things, which is just what the Dark Side is. It’s unchecked emotionality. Her journey is her having this stifled sense of self and being so afraid of her emotions, to then getting to the place where she’s allowed to feel and release.

Speaking of the Dark Side and emotions, I know a lot of viewers have latched onto the Oshamir ship. I know I was really excited to see that hand-hold play out. What are your thoughts on how things shake out for them here, and what the future might hold?

It’s been really cool to see how into Oshamir people are, because we didn’t necessarily know how people were going to respond to it.

Originally, the romantic arc was a much more significant part of the finale. We had this whole debate around, “Should they kiss? What should happen?” And we just wanted to prioritize Osha’s choice of going to the Dark Side feeling more autonomous. That was something that Leslye always spoke to. She said, “I don’t want it to feel like Osha was manipulated into making this choice. I don’t want it to feel like it was something that was out of her control. I want it to feel like this was a choice that he made for herself, after she had all the information finally available to her.”

We just wanted to prioritize Osha’s choice of going to the Dark Side feeling more autonomous.

So it became more important for us to prioritize the ideological alignment that’s happening between Osha and Qimir, and that Osha is finally acknowledged and seen in a deep way, allowed to be who she truly is by this other person. To me, that felt so much more romantically significant than any sort of physical intimacy could be.

There’s a little violin melody in that final moment, and I know that you play the violin. Were you approached to play that?

No, I wish I could say that was me; that would be so cool!

I got the chance to play a piece by John Williams on my violin, which was just a piece of video that we made as we were promoting the show. But I don’t think anyone was really aware I played violin up until that point. Then our music supervisor came up to me at the premiere and was like, “What the hell! I would have gotten you into the studio months ago!” So if we have the opportunity to go back, maybe that would be something we could explore.

All episodes of The Acolyte Season 1 are now streaming on Disney+.

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GeForce NOW’s Summer Sale slashes Ultimate and Priority membership prices by 50%! Plus, enjoy new games added to the library.

GET 50% OFF: One-month and six-month GeForce NOW Priority or Ultimate memberships are 50% off until Aug 18.

Attention all gamers: GeForce NOW’s summer sale is live, and you won’t believe just how good it is this year.

From now until Aug 18, you can lock in a one-month or six-month GeForce NOW Ultimate or Priority membership for a whopping 50% off the regular price. Bonus: Nine new games were added to the cloud throughout this week, including Capcom’s Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess, so the timing couldn’t be better.

To get this deal, head to the GeForce NOW website and click “Join Now.” There, you’ll see the 50% off Ultimate and Priority plans. Ultimate is around $19.99 per month, but with this discount, you’re paying just $9.99 — that’s the same price as a regular priority plan. If you choose a six-month Ultimate membership, you’ll only pay $49.99 instead of $99.99.

This is a no-brainer for any serious gamer, especially those who want to stream the latest AAA titles on low-end PCs or even their mobile devices. With GeForce NOW, you can play latest releases like Cyberpunk 2077, Elden Ring, and more.

Each plan gives you ad-free access to cloud gaming with up to 240 FPS gameplay (with Ultimate) and extended session lengths.

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This week, Max launched a new discount subscription offer for college students. Verified college students can save 50% off and get Max with Ads for $4.99 per month.

SAVE 50%: Max launched a brand-new deal for college students this week. Verified students can get a Max with Ads subscription half off, bringing the price down from $9.99 per month to $4.99 per month. That’s $5 less per month.

When you’re on a student’s budget, there’s not always tons of room for extra expenses, especially when it comes to expensive streaming services. Now, the days of bumming logins can be over: Max is offering a special discount for college students.

This week, Max launched a new deal that lets college students score a Max with Ads subscription for 50% off. This takes the monthly subscription price down from $9.99 per month to $4.99. This extra $5 per month back in your pocket adds up to $60 over a year. The deal lasts for 12 months, and at the end of the cycle, students can sign up again (as long as they’re still in college).

Students must live in the United States and be 18 or older to take advantage of the deal. Students also have to go through a verification process through UNiDAYS, which they’ll be redirected to through the Max site. Once their student status is verified by UNiDAYS, they’ll receive a discount code via email to claim the sale.

Head over to Max to get started and claim the discount.

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Filmmaker Luke Gilford is joined by Mason Alexander Park, Charlie Plummer and Eve Lindley to discuss the significance of a film highlighting queerness in American rodeo culture.

Filmmaker Luke Gilford is joined by Mason Alexander Park, Charlie Plummer and Eve Lindley to discuss the significance of a film highlighting queerness in American rodeo culture.

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This is a review of “EA Sports College Football 25” for the Sony PlayStation 5.

It’s cliche to say but college football is back. And it only feels trite to say, because at this point, despite all the hype, the memes, the teasers, and the trailers — none of this feels real. For the first time in 11 years, there is a college football game and it’s called EA Sports College Football 25.

All 128 NCAA Division-1 FBS teams are in the game, and for an unprecedented first, this year’s version of college football also features current players. It’s a massive grab and statement for EA Orlando, which has been diligently working on the long-awaited successor to NCAA Football 14 since the 2021 announcement.

With the game launching across PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X on July 19, two of Mashable’s biggest CFB fans took cracks at the game to find out if it was worth the wait. The biggest takeaway from our time playing is that CFB 25 gets the vibe of college football just right, even if the entire package could use some work. After all, it’s still an EA game.

College Football 25 gameplay

Section written by Chance Townsend

Playing CFB 25 is a smooth and crisp experience. Of course, it’s gonna play better than its 11-year-old predecessor, but there’s a level of fluidity in here that even puts Madden to shame. This shines within the running game, which is ultra-fun, crisp, and doesn’t feel too animation-heavy. Although there were times when hitting the open hole I felt like the animation was sucking me into a tackle. Running is the bread and butter of the CFB 25 experience, and honestly, it shows.

That doesn’t mean the passing game didn’t get some love, though. New to this version of the game is “revamped passing,” which shows a meter above the receiver’s head during a throw. This meter determines the accuracy, power and placement of a pass. Hit the golden spot in the meter, and make the catch, but if you misjudge it, you’ll end up putting your receiver in a bad spot. It’s very satisfying to use compared to Madden’s placement and accuracy, though it lacks the precision of that option. However, if you like Madden’s interpretation of passing or love to stick to the classics, both options are available to choose from.

The passing game in general is harder than in years past. There’s a frustrating amount of dropped passes by receivers at the slightest bit on contact, which makes for a troublesome gaming experience — while probably true to life, its not fun to play with. So if you thought you could spam 4 Verts like you could in NCAA 14 for easy gains, well tough noogies buddy, get ready to learn how to RPO.

Speaking of the run-pass option, it’s busted as hell. If you can’t immediately make a decision when passing, you’ll get an illegal man downfield penalty 90 percent of the time.

On top of that, the new two-part kick meter may also cause some yelling. Which, again, in real life, these things are difficult, but it doesn’t make for a fun video game experience.

Defense, however, is not fun. On higher difficulties like All-American and Heisman, stopping anything felt impossible. To be fair, the last Frostbite Engine-era football game I played was Madden 18, so maybe I just suck ass, but I don’t think Troy should realistically be dropping 35 on the Longhorns.

College Football 25 presentation and vibes

Section written by Alex Perry

College football holds a special place in my heart, probably unreasonably so. America’s second-favorite version of its most popular sport is unlike any other. The games are often sloppy to the point of hilarity, intensely weird things happen all the time, and one time, a guy got so mad about a game that he poisoned historic trees on the opposing team’s campus and called into a talk radio show to admit his guilt.

This colorful menagerie of nonsense, naturally, produces fantastic vibes. Every school has various ancient rituals the players or fans do before, during, and after games. Notre Dame players tap a sign that says “PLAY LIKE A CHAMPION TODAY” in the pregame tunnel. Nebraska fans unleash red balloons after the first scoring play of every home game. Everyone, no matter who they’re rooting for, turns and waves at a children’s hospital that overlooks the stadium during every Iowa home game.

Without meandering even more, I’ll get straight to the point. Pretty much all of those things are present and accounted for in College Football 25. Nearly all that makes college football a compelling TV product, from boisterous marching bands and drumlines to nuclear-powered crowd noise, are represented in the game. The latter point actually affects gameplay, as receiver routes and icons will become misleading or confusing to read while an opposing crowd is bearing down on you. That’s not new to football games, per se, but it’s still very cool to feel the pressure of driving for a touchdown as the away team at Ohio State.

Sure, there are some typical jerky or unnatural-looking animations (as there have been in every 3D football game ever), but on the whole, College Football 25 nails the look of college football, too. Every in-game stadium, from Michigan’s Big House to North Texas’s DATCU Stadium, is stunningly rendered. Crowds look voluminous and energetic, too.

The game gets big points from me for also altering the colors and theming of the main menu depending on which school you choose as your favorite team. In particular, I love that every school’s main menu screen features a ticket stub to a legendary real-life game from that program’s history. Remember the time in 2011 when Iowa State upset Oklahoma State in overtime? No? Well, I do, and so did the developers of this game — and that’s what matters.

There are really only a couple of minor criticisms I have of College Football 25‘s presentation. First up is the commentary, which is made up of various big names in the world of college football broadcasting like Chris Fowler, Rece Davis, and Kirk Herbstreit. Those guys are all pretty much fine, if a little flat at times. The play-by-play guys like Fowler and Davis will occasionally throw in school-specific references, which is cute. I enjoyed hearing some “Rock Chalk Jayhawk” while playing a game at Kansas, for example.

Unfortunately, the game also includes David Pollack on color commentary. I don’t like David Pollack very much, for reasons that are not entirely relevant to this review. I also just find his commentary annoying and inane most of the time. Beyond that, any stadium rituals that involve licensed music are touch-and-go at best. Virginia Tech can potentially lay claim to the greatest pregame intro in all of sports, but since it uses Metallica’s “Enter Sandman,” it’s not accurately presented in this game. Bummer.

Still, you’ll occasionally hear “Sandstorm” blaring over stadium speakers between plays in any given game, so it still feels enough like college football to me.

College Football 25 Dynasty Mode

Section written by Alex Perry

College Football 25 has two primary modes that dominate most of the attention outside of online exhibitions and microtransaction trading card nonsense. The first is Dynasty, a returning mode from the NCAA games of eld that casts the player as a made up head coach or coordinator for the school of their choosing.

I have to admit, I was never the biggest Dynasty guy back in the day — and I still may not be. But the version of the mode that’s present in College Football 25 seems to have nearly everything you could want. Your coach or coordinator can have as many or as few responsibilities as you want. If you want to be meticulous about recruiting talent, you can do that. If you want to focus on gameday tactics and actually playing football (which is really more of a fun treat you get to occasionally do in this mode), you can do that, too.

Speaking of recruiting, that particular side of College Football 25‘s Dynasty mode is funny. It more or less works the same as it always did, as you have limited resources for player recruiting and the players’ decisions are not entirely in your hands. It’s been updated for modern times, though, as one of the resource-consuming activities you can do to court a player is to DM him on social media.

Yes, there is a button that just says “DM player” in the Dynasty menu. I laughed a lot when I saw that.

Aside from that, though, Dynasty is impressively flexible and accommodates many different styles of play for something that, from the outside, would seem to be the most hardcore mode in the game. I pretty much only like playing offense in football games, so I made an offensive coordinator and only call offensive plays now. Easy! That’s what I like to see. If I’m good enough at it, maybe I’ll get a mediocre head coaching job, flame out in three years, and cause an entire community in Tennessee or whatever to hate me for eternity. That’s what college football is all about.

College Football 25 Road to Glory

Section written by Chance Townsend

Gone are the glory days of playing in high school with this year’s version of CFB 25. In previous games, players could simulate high school games to garner interest from potential schools and commit to them. However, that feature got cut in favor of a more limited, streamlined Road to Glory (RTG) experience.

Instead, players can pick from one of four options, starting as an elite five-star talent to a lowly two-star underdog. Your decision will determine your player overall, your choice of schools, and your place on that program’s depth chart. For example, a five-star will have their top of top-level programs like UT-Austin or Michigan. But a two or three-star will have their pick of fighting for starting spots at lowly programs like Air Force or Eastern Michigan. You can walk on to any school in the game, but you’ll be starting from the bench and it’s hard to get rise up the depth chart.

I started my RTG at Memphis, which promised my created QB the second-string position. Once the creation and recruitment process is done, you’ll be taken to the main hub where you can play or sim that week’s game, participate in practice drills, and spend energy points on your weekly agenda. You have the choice to put your energy into academics, leadership skills, recovery, training, or brand building. These each come with pros and cons that affect each other. For example, putting points into brand building will drop your academic bar; training causes increased injury risk; and low leadership skills create a passive loss of coach trust points until you’ve invested a certain amount of energy into that agenda.

Additionally, there are fun choose-your-adventure style scenarios that pop up throughout the season. You’ll occasionally get messages from your academic advisor, your coaches, teammates, and even classmates that’ll put you in scenarios that could increase your brand, GPA, and coach trust, or vice versa. In one instance, a classmate asked me to party the night before a game, and when I said yes, my coach caught me and I lost trust points.

You can gain a coach’s trust through practice and playing games, but if you’re sitting on the bench, you’ll have a hard time getting points cause the drills you can play are really short and your success depends on how well the AI is at giving you plays you can work with.

Limitation is pretty much the theme of playing RTG. Since you’re not really in control, while playing games, you’re at the mercy of the AI from everything like playcalling to the actions of your teammates on the field. Playcalling is repetitive and conservative. Going 3 and Out will cause an unskippable cutscene as you fade back into the super sim screen and the AI will only allow you to call hurry up on 4th down during the last few minutes of each half — when the situation determines that going for it “makes sense.”

Receivers drop open balls like they have grease on their hands and handing the ball off to the running back is like watching an AI programmer teach their LLM how to navigate a maze. So when I finally got to start at Memphis in my second season, I started 0-4 before finishing the season with a conference championship and a 7-6 record. That conference championship, by the way, did not have a special trophy presentation. Instead, I got the same victory cutscene that you get after every other game during the regular season.

If you’re surprised my 7-6 Memphis Tigers even made the conference championship, that’s because the sim engine is busted. This is partially due to the overall of the teams in the game being so evenly rated despite the huge gaps between teams like Akron and Alabama. Despite going 2-10 in 2023, the Akron Zips are a 73 overall team. Kennesaw State, a team that is about to have its first season in Division 1 Football (D-1 FBS), is a 73 overall team. Mid-level Power 4 schools like Texas Tech, Miami, A&M, Arkansas, Ole Miss, Utah, and Florida State are all within the 85-88 OVR range. Thus, what’s been created is a level of college football parity that has never existed in real life. There are no haves and have-nots because even the fake cupcake FCS teams can beat a Power 4 school with ease.

This creates weird situations that see 6-6 Memphis play 7-6 Rice in the American Athletic Conference (AAC) championship because #4 ranked Tulane dropped its last two conference games to UTSA and Charlotte. In the first season, my alma mater, the University of North Texas, made the 12-team College Football Playoff despite only having three winning seasons since 2010. That season also saw Texas A&M win the National Championship — a true real immersion breaker because the real-life A&M has yet to make an appearance in the SEC Championship.

Unlike Dynasty, the happenings of the world around you don’t have much to do with you since you don’t have to deal with things like recruiting and roster management. Plus, historically, RTG has been a rather shallow experience. However, thanks to the addition of the transfer portal, you can change your team at the end of every season to create some interesting scenarios in your career.

CUT and best of the rest

Section written by Chance Townsend

What’s left to cover in this review is the Ultimate Team mode or CUT (College Ultimate Team). While I’ve never cared for Ultimate Team in any game, this version of EA’s favorite money collector isn’t as in your face as its other offerings like EAFC or Madden. We didn’t play around much with CUT during our play testing, so our review is limited, however, it must be said that for those new to the Frostbite Engine era of EA sports games, CUT is the perfect place to start.

Not because that’s where EA wants you to spend money, but because the offering of solo challenges is an excellent way to get used to the different playbooks and schemes that can be used in other modes like Dynasty. It’s the perfect training ground to get a feel of what kind of style you’d want to play for whenever you decide to take the reigns at a bottom-barrel MAC program. Each playbook offers different challenges, like the Air Raid that asks you to use a hurry-up offense and pass for five straight plays.

Is College Football 25 Worth It?

To keep things brief, if you love college football, this game you’re waiting for. As a pure gameplay experience, CFB 25 is both challenging and rewarding in ways that Madden and 2K aren’t. However, it’s not the game we’ve waited 11 years for. Dynasty lacks a lot of depth and quality-of-life changes that were present in NCAA 14, alongside a mind-numbingly inane UI and drumline menu songs.

EA Orlando promised fans that this is the college football game they deserve, and considering it has all the trappings of an EA sports game, they weren’t lying. But if you can look past that and just focus on what’s in the game, you’ll have a fun time.

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Live stream the 100m final at Paris 2024 online for free from anywhere in the world.

TL;DR: Live stream Noah Lyles at Paris 2024 for free on BBC iPlayer. Access this free streaming platform from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.

The Paris 2024 Olympics is just around the corner and athletes from around the world are gearing up to compete. The athletics will kick off on August 1, and there are some pretty big names hoping for a chance at a gold medal. Including USA’s Noah Lyles. Competing in several races, here’s everything you need to know if you want to watch Noah Lyles at Paris 2024 for free from anywhere in the world.

When is Noah Lyles competing at Paris 2024?

Noah Lyles is set to compete in three events at Paris 2024:

Men’s 100m

Men’s 100m Round 1 — 5:45 a.m. ET on Aug. 3

Men’s 100m Semi-Final — 2:00 p.m. ET on Aug. 4

Men’s 100m Final — 3:55 p.m. ET on Aug. 4

Men’s 200m

Men’s 200m Round 1 — 6:50 a.m. ET on Aug. 5

Men’s 200m Semi-Final — 4:02 p.m. ET on Aug. 7

Men’s 200m Final — 4:30 p.m. ET on Aug. 8

Men’s 4 x 100m Relay

Men’s 4 x 100m Relay Round 1 — 5:35 a.m. ET on Aug. 8

Men’s 4 x 100m Relay Final — 1:45 p.m. ET on Aug. 9

How to watch Noah Lyles at Paris 2024 for free

The Men’s 100m and 200m events at Paris 2024 are available to live stream for free on BBC iPlayer.

BBC iPlayer is geo-restricted to the UK, but athletics fans from across the globe can access this free streaming platform with a VPN. These tools can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to a secure server in the UK, meaning you can unblock free streaming sites like BBC iPlayer from anywhere in the world.

Unblock BBC iPlayer for free by following this simple process:

Sign up for a streaming-friendly VPN (like ExpressVPN)

Download the app to your device of choice (the best VPNs have apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, and more)

Open up the app and connect to a server in the UK

Visit BBC iPlayer

Live stream the Men’s 100m and 200m events at Paris 2024 from anywhere in the world

The best VPNs for streaming are not free, but leading VPNs do tend to offer free-trial periods or money-back guarantees. By leveraging these offers, you can unblock BBC iPlayer without committing with your cash. This is obviously not a long-term solution, but it gives you time to stream the Men’s 100m and 200m events at Paris 2024 (plus all the other events) before recovering your investment.

What is the best VPN for BBC iPlayer?

ExpressVPN is the best service for streaming live sport on BBC iPlayer, for a number of reasons:

Servers in 105 countries including the UK

Easy-to-use app available on all major devices including iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac, and more

Strict no-logging policy so your data is secure

Fast connection speeds free from throttling

Up to eight simultaneous connections

30-day money-back guarantee

A one-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for $99.95 and includes an extra three months for free — 49% off for a limited time. This plan also includes a year of free unlimited cloud backup and a generous 30-day money-back guarantee.

Live stream the Men’s 100m and 200m events at Paris 2024 for free with ExpressVPN.

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Live stream Josh Kerr at Paris 2024 online for free from anywhere in the world.

TL;DR: Live stream Josh Kerr at Paris 2024 for free on BBC iPlayer. Access this free streaming platform from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.

The athletics are just one of many exciting sports to keep track of at the Paris 2024 Olympics. It’s set to be an incredible two weeks, with the world’s best athletes all hoping for a chance of a gold medal. The impressive list of athletes also includes none other than Team GB’s Josh Kerr.

The Scottish athlete will be returning for his second Olympics after making a strong debut in 2020 in Tokyo, taking home a bronze medal in the 1500m.

When is Josh Kerr competing at Paris 2024?

Josh Kerr is set to compete in one event at Paris 2024:

Men’s 1500m

Men’s 1500m Round 1 — 5:05 a.m. ET on Aug. 2

Men’s 1500 Semi-Final — 15:15 p.m. ET on Aug. 4

Men’s 1500m Final — 14:50 p.m. ET on Aug. 6

How to watch Josh Kerr at Paris 2024 for free

The Men’s 1500m at Paris 2024 is available to live stream for free on BBC iPlayer.

However, BBC iPlayer is geo-restricted to the UK. But fans elsewhere in the world can catch Josh Kerr and access this free streaming platform with a VPN. These tools can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to a secure server in the UK, meaning you can unblock free streaming sites like BBC iPlayer from anywhere in the world.

Unblock BBC iPlayer for free by following this simple process:

Sign up for a streaming-friendly VPN (like ExpressVPN)

Download the app to your device of choice (the best VPNs have apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, and more)

Open up the app and connect to a server in the UK

Visit BBC iPlayer

Live stream the Men’s 1500m event at Paris 2024 from anywhere in the world

The best VPNs for streaming are not free, but leading VPNs do tend to offer free-trial periods or money-back guarantees. By leveraging these offers, you can unblock BBC iPlayer without committing with your cash. This is obviously not a long-term solution, but it gives you time to stream Josh Kerr’s race at Paris 2024 (plus all the other events) before recovering your investment.

What is the best VPN for BBC iPlayer?

ExpressVPN is the best service for streaming live sport on BBC iPlayer, for a number of reasons:

Servers in 105 countries including the UK

Easy-to-use app available on all major devices including iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac, and more

Strict no-logging policy so your data is secure

Fast connection speeds free from throttling

Up to eight simultaneous connections

30-day money-back guarantee

A one-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for $99.95 and includes an extra three months for free — 49% off for a limited time. This plan also includes a year of free unlimited cloud backup and a generous 30-day money-back guarantee.

Live stream the Men’s 1500m event at Paris 2024 for free with ExpressVPN.

Read More