Though football may not be at the forefront of the minds of sports gamers just yet, Madden season comes up quickly. For some players, it never even ends, as league ]]>
We can expect Electronic arts to announce the Madden 23 cover star in June if past timelines are any indication. But that means, until then, we get to speculate. Every year, the athlete earning the distinction of being the Madden cover star invites debate, superstition, and excitement from different pockets of fans. With that in mind, we've put together a list of who we think may grace the cover of Madden NFL 23. Who do you think will be on the cover this year?
Justin Herbert, Chargers QB
Herbie was fully loaded last season, coming one historically chaotic overtime game away from making the playoffs. In the 2022 season, Herbert and the Chargers are the hot team to watch, as free agency signings have filled out the roster to give Herbert his best chance to win. EA may see that success coming and give Herbert the cover in August so it looks like a brand full of clairvoyants come January.
Russell Wilson, Broncos QB
"Go Hawks!" is no more. In its place, the oft-sloganeering Wilson has coined "Let's Ride" for his new fans and teammates in Denver. While Wilson's locker room presence has been whispered about as maybe being a bit annoying over the years, fans love a winner, and he would bring his winning legacy and new jersey colors to the Madden cover, perhaps as a way to imply the series has been given a makeover much like his own.
Ja'Marr Chase, WR Bengals
After finishing one of the single greatest wideout campaigns in NFL history, Ja'Marr Chase has two things EA loves to build around for its Madden cover art: a high-upside player and someone who still hasn't hit their figurative ceiling. As incredible as Chase was last season, his 2022 campaign is likely to be even stronger as Cincy's revamped offensive line should give Chase more time to develop game-breaking plays with his young QB.
Josh Allen, Bills QB
It can't be overstated how electric Josh Allen was in his final game of 2021. He was virtually perfect, outdueling Patrick Mahomes in an overtime game where many fans cried foul when the rules didn't offer Allen a chance to respond to the Chiefs' first-drive touchdown to end the game in OT. He will come into 2022 with a chip on his shoulder, and EA may like the idea of marketing the game that way. "Take it," "Prove yourself." The company loves a slogan, and something like this would suit an Allen-led marketing campaign.
Aaron Donald, Rams DL
Another route EA may consider for its cover star is, of course, one of the star players on the team defending its championship this fall. Aaron Donald has somehow never been on the Madden cover before, despite being the very best defensive player in the league for about a decade now. Is this the year? Donald mulled retirement this offseason, meaning the 2022 season may be his last on the field and his first on the Madden cover.
Joe Burrow, Bengals QB
Everyone loves a QB. EA loves them so much that it put not one but two quarterbacks on the cover of Madden 22--and they had each already been on the Madden cover in previous years. For Madden 23, if EA wants to spotlight an up-and-coming QB as it has in recent years (Brady notwithstanding), Burrow is as wise a pick as any. He's flashy in the way EA likes, too, bringing a certain swagger to both the field and the game's box art.
Cooper Kupp, Rams WR
Cooper Kupp isn't at all flashy like Burrow, but if EA wants to lean into his quiet confidence and unrivaled work ethic, the reigning Super Bowl MVP makes a lot of sense. This one may fit especially well if this year's Madden focuses a lot on improving wideout mechanics, as in years past the publisher has shown a preference for featuring a player that fits some marquee new feature found in the game.
Derrick Henry, Titans RB
While the Madden team may have missed a golden opportunity to put #22 on the cover of Madden 22, Derrick Henry's season would've just been more fodder for the Madden Curse crowd after he got hurt a third of the way through the season and looked ineffective in his one playoff game post-injury. But few doubt Henry's superhuman ability to keep pounding, so he should return this year and prove himself to still be the best runningback in the NFL.
John Madden, famed head coach and broadcaster
After John Madden retired as one of the most celebrated head coaches in NFL history, he went on to become one of the most celebrated color commentators in NFL broadcast history. Of course, he's also the name on the box of every Madden, even if his voice hasn't been in the game, or his face on the cover, for years now. Following his recent passing, expect the Madden team to honor the late great in some way. You can safely bet he will appear on the game's high-end edition--likely called the All-Madden Edition, if we had to guess. But maybe he'll even be the cover star for the game's standard box art, too.
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Let's start with what we know for sure. According to leaked maps of the Fortnite island to be seen in-game in future weeks, The Seven will continue successfully pushing back against the Imagined Order (IO) week after week. After already taking down two IO airships, The Seven look poised to continue driving the IO into a corner. That figurative corner, by the end of the season, will be the region that includes Command Cavern, The Fortress, and Loot Lake.
Phase 3, 4, 5 & 6 of The Seven & IO war territories 👀 pic.twitter.com/rgVpJId1J2
— HYPEX (@HYPEX) April 5, 2022
But, like a caged animal, the IO may be driven to press the proverbial red button as a last-ditch effort to maintain any power over the island and its precious Zero Point. Mentions of a "Doomsday Device" in yet-to-be-released Resistance quests have been spotted, and when combined with the knowledge of the IO's dwindling influence, you can start to paint a picture of how it all ends in Season 2. In fact, that's exactly what Hypex did.
Continue Reading at GameSpot ]]>According to IGN, shintendo first announced their demake via the Elden Ring subreddit, where they posted a clip of the opening area and boss fight, which is meant to kill players and send them to the actual tutorial of the game. The short video also features the most adorable dodge roll ever and ends in the aforementioned death before text promoting shintendo's Twitch channel appears. They intend to show how they develop Elden Ring for actual Game Boy hardware there and archive it on their Youtube channel.
In the comments below their Reddit post, shintendo clarified that they were using software called GB Studio 3.0 to accomplish this enormous feat. Due to that enormity, shintendo has also not settled on the scope of the project yet, but did say that they're "at least hoping to finish Limgrave area by the end of May."
Continue Reading at GameSpot ]]>Arcade games offered a sense of community, competition, and intense excitement. They're inseparable from the story of video games as a whole, and we've rounded up the very best from the '70s, '80s, and '90s. Many of these can be played on alternative platforms today, ranging from home arcade cabinets from Arcade1Up and iiRcade to console ports on Switch, PC, and more. And because they're such classics, you'll definitely want to.
Space Invaders
One of the most iconic video games of all time, Space Invaders wasn't the best of the classic arcade fixed-shooter games, but it set a standard that all others had to match. With iconic enemy designs and ships despite the downright archaic technology, it's no wonder it's still a common reference point for classic arcade games today. While Arcade1Up's Space Invaders cabinet is no longer available at retail stores, you can get this tiny Space Invaders cabinet with a backlit marquee.
Continue Reading at GameSpot ]]>Instead of a shooter accompanied by pumped-up music meant to send players into some kind of blood rage, Lucid opts for a calmer approach. It pulls the same chill vibes from Celeste, as well as that game's movement, all while throwing players into the middle of a Metroidvania-like map.
To be clear though, I wasn't able to actually play Lucid. The game, which Eric has been developing for just a year and a half, wasn't exactly safe for consumers to play. "So I was asked to come to PAX East very last-minute by Apogee. I was woefully unprepared because I pretty much tore apart the game, I was fixing some stuff, so I thought nothing of it. Then I got here and by midday, someone asked me, 'hey do you have a build?' and I had to make one. I scrambled, I put one together, I tied some rooms together and that's how I was able to show it."
Continue Reading at GameSpot ]]>Multiverse of Madness won't have its premiere until May 2 and stateside release until May 6, which means that critics haven't yet seen the film. However, it has already been announced that the movie introduces the Marvel character America Chavez, who is gay in the source material. The character is portrayed by Xochitl Gomez (Gentefied). It's not known how prominently America Chavez will feature in the film overall.
As The Hollywood Reporter notes, Disney has already--and fairly recently--seen two of its major releases run into pushback from the Gulf region. In January this year, West Side Story was not allowed to hit cinemas in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait for its inclusion of a transgender character portrayed by a nonbinary actor. Before that, Marvel's Eternals was pulled in November 2021 for including a same-gender couple.
Continue Reading at GameSpot ]]>Players were eager for Savathun's arrival in Destiny 2, but in dealing with The Witch Queen's threat, Guardians were also unwittingly killing the only conservationist we've had in Destiny. Even though she spent millennia destroying planets and people across the universe, the Lightbearer version of Savathun was instilled with the most resource-conscious traits of anyone in the game.
The Witch Queen story frames Savathun as a merciless witch out to get Guardians, ignoring her true eco-friendly intentions. She upcycled her entire Throne World using the Light in a matter of days, while The Last City is still trying to repair the Destiny 1 Tower even with the Traveler directly in front of them. Savathun even tried to save the Traveler in her Throne World from The Witness, but Guardians just had to stop her--when, in reality, she was setting an example to players that old technology doesn't need to end up in the landfill.
Continue Reading at GameSpot ]]>On May 19, the Angelyne limited series debuts on the platform. Co-executive produced by Sam Esmail (Mr. Robot) and created by Nancy Oliver (True Blood, Six Feet Under), the show is a deep-dive into a Los Angeles-famous celebrity known for a series of provocative billboards. If you've ever lived in or visited LA, it's pretty much impossible to not be aware of the singer, actor, model, and media personality's presence. The show will cover her rise to local prominence, and given the trailer below, also offer some poignant insights into fame and its drawbacks. Emmy Rossum (Shameless, A Futile and Stupid Gesture) stars in the title role, joined by Alex Karpovsky, Lukas Gage, Martin Freeman, Hamish Linklater, David Krumholtz, and Michael Angarano.
Right out of the gate on May 1, the entire original run of Resident Evil films hit Peacock.
Continue Reading at GameSpot ]]>
Johnny Depp is one of the best-known character actors in cinema. While he's never nabbed an Academy Award, he has been nomi ]]>
Depp is known for the characters he plays, immersing himself in the roles, with some of the most notable being Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean series, Edward Scissorhands, and Willy Wonka. He's had a long career in TV and film, and because of this, his resume is long.
Currently, Depp is involved in a defamation trial with his ex-wife Amber Heard, who accused him of abuse in 2016, before the two divorced. And after an op-ed Heard wrote was published--which did not name Depp but alluded to him--Depp claimed that hurt his career, which is part of this defamation suit. This also led to a decision for Depp to not return to Disney's Pirates movies.
Looking at Depp's career, what were his best movies? Looking at GameSpot's sister-site Metacritic, we can get a good idea. An aggregate of critical reviews, Metacritic assigns movies, TV shows, and video games a score based on write-ups from said reviews. We've tabulated Depp's top 10 reviewed movies, and present them before for you, starting with number 10.
10. Public Enemies (2009)
Score: 70 (35 reviews)
Depp plays infamous bank robber John Dillinger during the Great Depression. The film follows the mobster crime wave of the 1930s.
9. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
Score: 72 (40 reviews)
In this remake of the classic children's movie, Depp plays eccentric candy-maker Willy Wonka.
8. What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1994)
Score: 73 (20 reviews)
One of the stars of the film, Depp plays the titular Gilbert Grape in this coming-of-age story about a young man caring for his obese mother and mentally-disabled brother.
7. Edward Scissorhands (1990)
Score: 74 (19 reviews)
Working with Tim Burton, Depp played the titular character, a modern-day Frankenstein's monster with scissors for hands. Leaving his solitary life, he adjusts to the suburbs.
6. Rango (2011)
Score: 75 (35 reviews)
In this animated movie, Depp voices the titular character Rango, who is a chameleon who ends up in a lawless town in the Wild West that needs a new sheriff.
5. Donnie Brasco (1997)
Score: 76 (21 reviews)
Once again, Depp plays the titular character here. Brasco is actually an undercover FBI agent infiltrating the Bonanno crime family.
4. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Score: 76 (12 reviews)
Depp appears in the very first Freddy Kruger movie as Glen Lantz, a teen who sleeps with a CRT TV on his stomach. Lantz gets dragged into his bed by Freddy and a volcano of blood erupts from it.
3. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)
Score: 83 (39 reviews)
Another Tim Burton/Johnny Depp joint, Depp plays a barber in 1840s London who was wrongfully imprisoned for the death of his wife. He extracts his revenge by killing people involved with his imprisonment during shaves and haircuts. Then, the woman below his barber shop makes them into pies. It's probably the most-wild musical feature film.
2. Corpse Bride (2005)
Score: 83 (35 reviews)
Depp teams with Burton for this animated film about a man who is practicing his wedding vows in the forest; however, after doing so, he finds himself married to an undead bride.
1. Platoon (1987)
Score: 92 (16 reviews)
Depp has a smaller role in this Oliver Stone Vietnam war movie, compared to the others on the list. In Platoon, he plays Lerner, a soldier who can speak Vietnamese.
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At the beginning of the latest episode of GrubbSnax, he discussed a recent Skate 4 leak and what he'd heard from playtesters who were able to try the game and this new mode, which appears to be an early standout for the upcoming title. According to Grubb, this "free skate" mode would let players hanging out in the same server to alter the environment around them, allowing everyone present to become a skate architect and freely add elements like ramps to the game world whenever and wherever they wanted. Players can also reportedly delete these elements if they don't want to keep them up, and it should all happen in real time. This would serve the incredible degree of customization that Grubb says EA is reportedly eager to really show off with Skate 4.
To that end, player and board customization also seems to be a core tenet of the game that's being locked down very early in development. Grubb stressed that this customization might look a lot like implementations players have seen in the Forza games, where the community generates a lot of skins and artwork that you could apply to your vehicle. EA's emphasis on user-generated content for Skate 4 is reportedly an attempt to "make Skate modern without taking away what Skate is," according to Grubb, and would be in line with what EA's past comments about UGC finding its way back to this series.
Continue Reading at GameSpot ]]>According to Treyarch's patch notes, the update will add a new secret location into Zombies. This location will offer over a dozen rewards and a permanent upgrade in all Zombies maps, but the total rewards received will vary depending on how many main story quests a player has completed. The developer doesn't hint at the location, but Zombies' Outbreak mode could be a likely spot, as Treyarch's large-scale Zombies experience was used for many other Easter egg hunts.
The Year 2 update will also add a new mode to Outbreak called Outbreak Collapse. This variant provides a greater challenge for Outbreak, as it will require players to outlast "increasingly intense waves for 10 minutes" before attempting to exfil from a single Outbreak region. The difficulty of the mode also ramps up every two minutes.
Continue Reading at GameSpot ]]>The report went on to say that House of the Dragon's per-episode budget was not "too much above" Game of Thrones Season 8, so that means it's between $15 million and $20 million. According to the report, HBO was able to keep costs down due to what it learned in making Game of Thrones, as well as Westworld and His Dark Materials as it relates to efficiency.
In other news about massive TV budgets, The Wall Street Journal reported this week that Netflix is spending $30 million per episode for Stranger Things Season 4. That makes it among the most expensive TV shows ever produced.
Continue Reading at GameSpot ]]>Multiple sources told Kotaku that a part-time contract worker had been fired before their contract had concluded after voicing support for unionization during a business meeting. When GameSpot asked Nintendo for comment on this earlier in the week, the company denied this was the reason for the firing, instead saying it was for "the disclosure of confidential information and for no other reason."
But according to Kotaku's sources, the post was vague to the point of it not warranting such an action, only possibly earning most a warning--not being terminated from the position. This suggests Nintendo may have been looking for a reason to let them go after the unionization comments, which would have been illegal on Nintendo's part. However, the worker's name has been omitted from the National Board of Labor Relations filing against Nintendo and it's not clear what that social media post happened to be.
Continue Reading at GameSpot ]]>