Getting Chilly with EA's NCAA Football 08

Today's news brings a rather interesting subject about Electronic Arts' NCAA Football and Madden franchises. The company is set to ramp up the realism of video game play by introducing a host of new features to its series. Basically, when it rains outside your home, it will rain on the pitch too. Neat huh?

The full lineup of features will have new titles incorporating real-time weather conditions as well as real-world sports scores and highlights, as the LA Times reports, while the first to take full advantage of the new features will be NCAA Football 08. Windy conditions in Tucson will be reflected in a virtual game set at the University of Arizona, NextGen points out as an example.

"The initial feedback from the gaming community was, 'Wow, this is great. Within my gaming experience, I can stay connected to the real world.' That was a glimpse of what we were going to do," said Raphael Poplock, general manager of ESPN interactive, recently teaming up with EA.

And why wouldn't they start making games as realistic as possible? First of all, it's damned fun to see your favorite sports title looking a lot better and real (and we know how hard that is with football, baskeball and baseball games) and second of all, it'll be the next-generation of Thompson threats too. We trust him to be evermore furious when violent games look a lot like reality. Who is he going to blame then, the guys behind the technology or the developers that chose it for their games? Probably both, Thompson's not afraid of anything and anyone. Anyway, back to our news.

What I found kind of surprising was the example NextGeneration gave for the windy conditions in NCAA Football 08. Does this mean that wind will affect gameplay? Generally, not all weather conditions have an impact on the gameplay. Maybe this will change. We can't know for sure but it's a nice thought nonetheless. Think of what those sore losers will say when the ball hits the pole because of the wind. That should be something to see.

NCAA Football 08 is due for release July 17, for the Xbox, Xbox 360, PS2 and PS3, but only next-gen consoles will take advantage of the new features.