Stop (In the Name of Love) for Richard Sherman’s Madden NFL 15 cover

maddnenfl15-boxBox art reveals are usually pretty boring. Take a nice piece of concept art… emblazon the logo along the top… slap an ESRB rating in the bottom left corner… and you’re done. They only become newsworthy when a publisher does something stupendously weird (such as the word salad on Batman: Arkham City‘s “Game of the Year” cover) or ridiculously neat (such as the minimalist Resistance 3 cover).

The official Madden NFL 15 cover falls in the former category.

I don’t know if cover athlete Richard Sherman is auditioning to become a traffic cop or if he really loves “Stop In the Name of Love,” but it’s definitely an odd choice for the Madden box. It’s possible he’s doing something football-related like reaching out for a high five or stiff-arming a wide receiver, but the whole thing just looks off somehow. A part of me thinks that whichever EA Sports employee it was that made the final cover choice has to be a fan of the Denver Broncos.

Madden NFL 15 will be available for the PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One on August 26.

Posted in News, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One | Tagged

Tecmo Koei Japan has released a new Link-centric trailer for Hyrule Warriors

This beautiful new trailer for Hyrule Warriors, released by Tecmo Koei of Japan, should get your sword hand tingling. It’s got Link wiping out scores of bad dudes. I especially loved his use of bombs!

Hyrule Warriors will be available for the Wii U on September 26.

Posted in News, Wii U | Tagged

Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory II announced for PS4 in Japan

Compile Heart has announced that they’ll be bringing Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory II to the PlayStation 4 in Japan. They did so via this extremely bizarre trailer.

We don’t have any other details as of yet (including if it will ever come to the US), but enjoy!

Posted in News, PS4 |

CoD: Ghosts Invasion DLC will be available for PC, PS3, PS4 on July 3

CoDGInvasionPC and PlayStation Call of Duty players should start getting hyped! The Call of Duty: Ghosts third DLC pack, Invasion, will be available to download on the PC, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 4 starting July 3.

With Invasion, players will get “Awakening,” the third part in Extinction, the four-part episodic storyline. They’ll also get four brand-new multiplayer maps: “Departed,” “Pharaoh,” “Mutiny,” and “Favela.” Players can pay either $14.99 for the Invasion DLC, or get it for a discounted price through the Call of Duty: Ghosts Season Pass.

Pick up the Call of Duty: Ghosts Invasion DLC pack on July 3 for $14.99 on PC, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 4.

Posted in News, PC, PS3, PS4 | Tagged

R.B.I. Baseball 14 coming to PS4, Xbox One next week

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Next week, R.B.I. Baseball 14 will be coming to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. MLB Advanced Media brought the game to mobile platforms back in the Spring, as well as the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The company will be updating these versions of the game this Summer, bringing them a multiplayer mode and alumni packs.

And let’s not forget, there will also be updated rosters! The next-gen and mobile editions of the game will now feature rising stars such as “Jose Abreu (White Sox), Emilio Bonifacio (Cubs), Brandon Hicks (Giants), Mark Reynolds (Brewers), Jonathan Schoop (Orioles) and Masahiro Tanaka (Yankees),” among others.

R.B.I. Baseball will be out on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on June 24 (so two days from now).

Posted in News, PS4, Xbox One | Tagged

Atari’s plan includes catering to “LGBT, social casinos, real-money gambling, and YouTube”

atarilogoAtari is the company that brought Pong and Asteroids to our living room… and brought countless numbers of cartridges of E.T. to New Mexico. The company currently known as Atari recently underwent some financial problems, but they’ve announced that they’ll be focusing on a new corporate strategy, one that involves “reaching out to new audiences – including LGBT, social casinos, real-money gambling, and YouTube with exclusive video content.”

What does that even mean? Well, Chief Executive Officer of Atari, Fred Chesnais, said, “Atari is more than a game publishing company; it’s an iconic brand that has established a passionate and timeless culture… Known across multiple generations around the world, Atari will continue to embrace all audiences. What the company has accomplished over the years is no small feat, but there is more to come. We’re looking forward to delivering on our new strategy and engaging with our audience in new ways across multiple channels as the next era of Atari unfolds. We are leading a rebuilding exercise in a highly volatile industry, so at the same time we are also aware of the challenges that lay ahead.”

The company plans to move to PC and mobile as well as “other digital mediums.” They also plan to continue with hardware licensing, “gamified hardware, and wearable devices.” Does this mean Atari games coming to Oculus Rift – via Facebook? Do you start with more lives if you have more Facebook friends? This is exciting.

Posted in Mobile, News, PC |

Weekly Warp-Up: 2014 Post-E3 Blues Edition

No, that’s not a typo. Welcome to the Weekly Warp-Up, your weekly wrap-up of the biggest and the best articles posted at Warp Zoned this week…

During the E3 Expo, publishers showcase their upcoming wares and get gamers the world over excited for titles that might be more than a year away. And as with any major news dump like that, the week after is bound to be a little bare when it comes to exciting announcements.

But your ever present Warp Zoned writers are here to help. On Monday, Editor-In-Chief John Scalzo weighed in on Mario Kart 8 with a full review. On Wednesday, the staff compiled a list of as many upcoming games as we could think of. The result was a 2014/2015 (and Beyond) Release Calendar With 400 Video Games. The staff got together again the next day to post our “Continue Countdown E3 2014 Super Show.” And finally, Dan Hobbs pored over his E3 notes and came up with 7 Games You Missed At E3 2014.

What else happened this week? Not much, but you can find it all after the break.

Press Start to Continue

Posted in News |

Shigeru Miyamoto wants to bring Minecraft to 3DS, Wii U

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Minecraft, the blocky Swedish sandbox hit available on pretty much every platform except those bearing the Nintendo brand, is a title the House of N could certainly use to further the booming sales that followed from the launch of Mario Kart 8. Even its creator, Markus “Notch” Persson, thinks that the Wii U is an ideal platform for the game, tweeting in December that “a Wii U version makes sense.”

When Stephen Totilo caught up with Shigeru Miyamoto and Shinya Takahashi at this year’s E3 Expo, the Kotaku writer wanted to ask them about it. Miyamoto revealed he had not played Minecraft, but was aware of the game and likened it to Nintendo’s newly announced Mario Maker. It was Takahashi, General Manager of Nintendo’s Software Planning & Development department, that offered a more positive quote for those hoping the game may still wind its way onto the Wii U:

We’ve always thought internally that using the GamePad would probably make for a Minecraft that’s very easy to play. And, of course, if we were to do something with Minecraft on the 3DS, similarly we would probably do it where it would be easier to play and could probably reach a lot of kids.

However, grounding expectations, Takahasi said that the game is not as popular in Nintendo’s native Japan as it is in the US or Europe. Yet, when pushed on the subject, it was Miyamoto who had the last word: “Maybe we’re meeting with them! Who knows?”

Was Nintendo’s most famous developer joking, or could Nintendo be meeting with Mojang to help bring their seminal title to Wii U and 3DS? Hopefully we will find out soon.

Posted in 3DS, News, Wii U | Tagged ,