I’ll admit I’m impressed by the level of commitment by EA Sports “it’s in the game” slogan to Madden NFL 10. Partnering with The Weather Channel (TWC), gameplay is augmented by live and realistic weather conditions as said by Derek Van Nostran, director of marketing for TWC. “Our teams at The Weather Channel provide a data feed that allows EA to pull real-time weather for any location chosen as a venue within the game.”

Simply put, a tropical storm is heading to Florida. As the clouds roll in, your team will see more dropped passes and fumbles on the field. Sure this makes stadiums more challenging, but does it really make a difference? Is it worth it? I mean a developer could just as easily randomly generate weather conditions and a player can always increase the difficulty.

It is cool, no doubt. But I think while it adds another layer of realism, it becomes a passing fad when you gear up to play, you see the bad weather conditions appear in the stadium info, and are faced with the decision to risk your perfect season or move on to another game until the storm passes.

[Reuters]

The Consumerist reports on a reader who took their son to Walmart so he could pick up a game with his Christmas money. The boy chose Madden 09 and rushed back home with the gift. On the morning after, our young gamer was getting ready to enjoy the gaming masterpiece that is Madden, until he opened the game box. Perplexed, he exclaimed “WHAT IS THIS?!”, then rushed to his mother to show him the cause of his distress. Inside the game box was a generic DVD labeled “Redneck Shit”.

The work of some clever prankster/scammer/smartass? Sure! Still, isn’t the honesty refreshing? Quick someone go get me some blank DVDs and a sharpie, I have some Wii games that need “sad excuse for a game” written all over them.

[Consumerist]