While I was in Los Angeles, I received an email from Brittany Sauser, a reporter from Technology Review magazine. She was working on an article that focused on NCAA Football’s new Weather Channel feature. I answered a few questions and today, the article was published online. Her article is below and it continues after the jump. Thanks Brittany, we appreciate it!

It’s a typical day in L.A.–75 degrees, clear sky, calm winds, no precipitation in sight–as the University of Southern California Trojans football team takes the field. It’s a great day to play football, in real life or with Electronic Arts’s (EA) newest online sports game, NCAA Football 2008. Scheduled to be released on July 17, the game has an entirely new feature: live weather data, played out on the field. Now when you sit down to play, you will get up-to-the-minute weather conditions for the location where you choose to play.

“If you are playing in a cold-weather stadium, you are going to realize it, whether it’s through the snow on the field or seeing the breath of players,” says Ryan Balke, the editor of Sportable.com, a sports news site. Balke previewed the title at EA Sports Tiburon Studios in Orlando, FL, last month. He says it was an incredible experience. “Football is a game that’s played in some brutal elements, and this new feature is a nice way to bring that realism into the game and take online gaming to a more realistic level.”

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We promised a review and here it is. Thanks to the kind folks at EA Sports, Sportable was able to secure a retail copy of their new release, NCAA Football 2008. Last month, I was able to get an early peek at the game at the Tiburon Studios in Orlando. The game that I saw there made me excited about football video games again. The finished product has confirmed that excitement. This game is a must-buy thanks to a bunch of new features and animations.

Before looking into the new bells and whistles of Dynasty Mode and Campus Legend, you need to break down what really matters here: the gameplay. Complaints over a herky-jerky NCAA 2007 on next-gen have been addressed in the best way possible. Instead of the game playing at 30 FPS (frames per second), it’s now playing at 60 for the XBOX 360. This means the game will be playing smoother than ever, which makes those new animations look even sweeter. It’s a change you’ll notice right out of the box and it’s one of the reasons the hardcore players are loving what they’re seeing thus far. You’re in control of your player at every possible second. Instead of an animation controlling you, you’re controlling the animation.

With the improved framerate of the game, you’re able to see plays unfold like never before. Offensive line play is greatly improved, which makes the running game an absolute blast. An early game with Arkansas and the 99 overall Darren McFadden showed exactly why. Because of improved fatigue settings, I felt like I was able to wear down an opponent thanks to the running game. This led to McFadden getting more breathing room and the chance to break off some nice runs. Past titles didn’t seem to place enough emphasis on progressive fatigue but in NCAA ‘08, you can effectively wear down the opposition or viceversa.

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We’ve been feverishly play-testing NCAA 2008 over the past couple days (Thanks EA!). Tomorrow, we’ll be bringing you a sneak peek of all the new features that NCAA 08 has in store.

We’re also trying to figure out how to get screen shots from our XBOX over to your eyes, so sit tight and check back tomorrow.

UPDATE: We’ve posted our comprehensive preview/review of NCAA 2008 Football here.

Based on our inclusion of Mike Tyson in the list of “Top Ten Dominant Athletes“, you can tell we’re big fans of the game Punch Out. The following video is a parody of the game involving two of our buddies from the 1990s: Michael Jackson and Macaulay Culkin. Culkin plays the role of Lil’ Mac, while Jacko is his opponent. Both the knockout and Michael’s morphing make the video worth watching.

Earlier in the day, I chronicled my trip to Orlando, which included hands-on time with NCAA Football 2008, set to launch on July 17th. With tales of my cab ride and tournament beatdown now told, I thought it’d be appropriate to review the game I was sent to look at: NCAA Football 2008 for XBox 360. Keep in mind the game was not in its final build yet. I played a version that still had some bugs in it, bugs that will be corrected before release day. But from what I gathered, this game is going to be incredible.

After we spent some time with the game, Craig from ConsoleSports.net put it pretty well: We finally have our football game back. After the phenomenal NCAA ‘04 was released, the consensus was that EA Sports took a couple steps back in ‘05 and ‘06. After a couple disappointing installments on next-gen consoles (XBOX 360), everybody was itching for a football game that was worthy of such a powerful system. I think we have that now. The graphics and player models were obviously going to be phenomenal. But the big talk of EA Sports’ Community Event was the much improved gameplay.

The complaints about NCAA Football 2007 were numerous. While the current-gen versions of PS2 and XBox were both solid, the 360 version was lacking. But it definitely appears that incredible progress has been made. While playing with David Johnson from MaddenMatrix, we both noticed how tight the controls were. We were able to change directions smoothly and precisely this year, as opposed to last year’s momentum problems. If you caught a swing pass on 2007, all of your momentum would be going towards the sidelines and it would be tough to turn upfield. Not this year. The controls are tight and the improved framerate (60 FPS) insures you have complete control of your players at all time. Read the rest of this entry »

As you probably heard, I had the chance to represent Sportable at EA Sports’ inaugural NCAA Community Event, which gave me the chance to preview NCAA Football 2008 a full month before it will hit store shelves. All in all, the trip was a blast. I got to meet lots of different people involved in production over at EA Sports, as well as lots of big players in the fansite communities. Monday was basically a travel day. Most everyone slated to attend the event had different times of getting into Orlando. I flew U.S. Airways into Orlando, getting in around 4:15 PM local time.

There wasn’t much to report about the flight. I remember watching some movie with John Travolta, Tim Allen, and Martin Lawrence? Strong cast means good movie, right? Not really. The movie sucked complete ass. It was called Wild Hogs and it was one of the movies that is so weak, you really don’t mind if the outcome doesn’t favor the good guys. Travolta is uninspiring, Lawrence has seen better days and Tim Allen? Has he done anything decent in the last ten years? If Tim Allen is around, I’m going to need Al Borland as well.

The fun started when I landed early and walked to Mears Transportation, looking for a shuttle to the Sheraton Orlando North. Because that hotel is a bit far away from civilization, it was going to take an hour. After sweating my ass off in the humidity of Orlando (not to mention torrential downpour), my shuttle finally arrived. The cordial grumpy driver was named Gustavo, who looked at my hotel address and proceeded to drive 100 50 MPH on the Florida Turnpike. I finally reached my destination, paid Gustavo, and got my bags. The minute I said my name to the hotel recepionist, I knew I was screwed. Gustavo drove me to the wrong Sheraton. Who gets Sheraton Downtown mixed with Sheraton North, especially when they have the address?

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