A while back I wrote an article about features that have gone missing in some of EA's titles over the years. I also mentioned how some of them come back after a while. Well with word of another instance of this MIA occurring, it may be a good time to take a look at what this means to consumers, and what EA is trying to accomplish this time around.

It is no secret that EA has heard the consumers' cries for more atmosphere in games. Atmosphere is a word I have typed numerous times when referring to titles such as Madden, NCAA and NHL, and it is something that adds so much to the gaming experience.

Putting uniqueness back into the gaming experience is always interesting, simply because it matters so much to so many, and yet so little to almost as many. If you've spent any time discussing the game with the faithful that visit online forums then you will constantly see the battle of graphics versus gameplay. The thinking has always been that you cannot work on one without taking development time away from the other. Well that is simply not the case. Different teams work on different parts of the game, and they culminate at a point to put together the final product each year. Therefor having a new style facemask wasn't the thing that kept your reverse flea flicker from working correctly.

This aspect leaves us wondering what happened to the Tiburon that was touting a feature, upon coming to next-gen, of how at any hour you can look up and find the exact position of the sun in the sky in any stadium in these games?

So for this year with the revival of cheerleaders in NCAA Football, footprints in the snow in Madden, and dynamic crowd attendance in a few of EA’s titles this season, it is clear that they are getting the picture and working to appease the fans of visual delights. Again things may be considered minor to some, but when playing the game and trying to get immersed in the detail of what you are doing, they do wonders.

One thing some will really be let down about (the thing I alluded to at the start of this piece), however, is the fact that the time and weather for these football games is not progressive -- meaning they do not change as you go further ahead in the game. So if you start a game at the dusk time setting it will still be dusk the entire time you are playing the game. Something like that is a little disheartening to a details nut like me.

This aspect leaves us wondering what happened to the Tiburon that was touting a feature, upon coming to next-gen, of how at any hour you can look up and find the exact position of the sun in the sky in any stadium in these games? What happened to real-time shadows? The effects they had on the game's graphics were stunning, and having visited quite a few stadiums it was a nice touch to be able to say: "that is really what it looks like."

EA Sports is looking to improve the atmosphere of NCAA Football through the use of visuals.

Still EA has toyed around with these functions over the years. Who could forget every night game being a full moon -- after consumers asked for years to see a moon in the sky. Now they seem to be heading back in the right direction. NCAA and Madden feature tremendous lighting features and from the videos and screens circulating around the web, at the very least the weather effects that are in Madden look as good as ever. Hopefully NCAA gets the same deal next year and hopefully progressive features that add so much to the graphics and atmosphere find a home in future titles as well.

Nonetheless, we miss the days of rain changing to snow in Madden, and dry conditions at the start ending up in a muddy mess as a torrential downpour strikes Candlestick. These details and effects were in Playstation, the original. I know it's no easy task to incorporate these changes into these games, but when hyping your new and improved atmosphere you have to go for the whole shebang.