EA Sports is coming out soon with the a new installment in the immensely popular series of Madden NFL video games. IGN.com has a review of the upcoming release here. For many that play fantasy football, Madden mirrors some aspects of what makes fantasy sports so fun and the video game so addictive. 

Among the features of this current edition include:

Player Weapons: is, according to IGN, “a new system that evaluates the skills and abilities of every single athlete on a team.” For example, QBs like Peyton Manning may have a Precision Passing stat, and Tony Gonzalez has a Possession Receiver stat.  

Skills Drills: even the most green newbie can quickly learn to play the game with focused practices on various aspects of Madden, e.g. rushing, passing, defense.

Fantasy Challenge: this is where the game really crosses into the fantasy sports realm. players can go up against other teams in an imaginary league to prove which organization is the best. IGN explains it well on the second page of the article: “Players initially start by drafting a team in a fifteen round draft, selecting everything from individual players to entire squads from football teams. For example, if you liked the Bears offensive line and the Ravens linebacking corps, you could draft them to be on your team. From there, you play a number of games, attempting to defeat the other teams in your division so you can eventually win and move to the next level. As you play each game, you’ll find that teams will try to steal your athletes away via negotiations and trade deals, or challenge you to mini-camp drills which dictate whether or not your teams will swap the best player available for the worst player on your squad.”

Sure sounds like fantasy football meets the virtual world of video gaming and another way in which fantasy sports is becoming a bigger part of our real world.