Hasta La Gadget!

The NFL football season is almost over, with the season-ending Super Bowl being held this Sunday. However, Electronic Arts is already planning out its next football game for the 2013-2014 season. The company has announced that the next Madden will be arriving August 27, 2013, but it looks like they’ll be taking a different approach this time around.

According to the EA Sports website, the developer has announced, “Madden 25 coming soon,” suggesting that the next Madden title won’t actually be called Madden NFL 14, but just Madden NFL 25. It wouldn’t be the first time that a Madden game didn’t use the traditional yearly naming scheme, but it’ll mark the first time since 1991 that they’re breaking away from it.

If you didn’t know, the next Madden game will mark the series’ 25th anniversary, and according to the graphic above, as well as the title of the blog post on the EA Sports website, it looks like the developer will be naming the game after its anniversary. The blog post on their website says to come back for more details, and since they usually officially announce the next Madden title during the Super Bowl, we may get more details come Sunday.

The Madden series started in 1988 when it was called John Madden Football. The first game came out for MS-DOS, as well as Commodore machines and the Apple II. It wasn’t until 1991 when the series started put the year after the game’s name, starting with John Madden Football ’92. Then, in 1993, the series was renamed to Madden NFL, and has remained as such ever since.

[via Polygon]

Next Madden game coming August 27, name change imminent is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Less than a couple days after Rovio teased a new update for Angry Birds Star Wars, the company has released the Escape from Hoth update, which adds 20 new levels to the game, as well as new types of enemies. Plus, there’s new bonus levels that introduce more boss fights. It’s a free update, so if you already have the game, it’s certainly worth checking out.

Most notably in this update is the infamous asteroid field that was featured in the movie, where the gang had to navigate their way through the whole mess. In the game, you make your way through the asteroid field while trying to take down the enemies as well, which now include the “mynock pigs,” which are essentially pigs with bat wings that can float in mid-air instead of simply sitting atop rocks and other surfaces.

The video doesn’t show us a lot of the new update, so if you really want to find out what you’ll be getting yourself into, we suggest firing up the game and checking out the new levels. However, we ended up checking it out for ourselves and we have to see we really like what we see. The mynock pigs are especially cute, and navigating the asteroid field is definitely a new experience that we find both challenging and exciting.

The update is available for iOS and Android versions as we speak, and it should be hitting Windows Phone and BlackBerry here shortly. The update will also be available for the Kindle Fire version, as well as on OS X and Windows. The game is free on Android devices, while it costs $0.99 on iOS, and $4.99 on the desktop.

Angry Birds Star Wars adds 20 levels in Escape from Hoth update [hands-on] is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

It’s no surprise that Zynga has been struggling recently. They shut down 11 of their games and even closed their Japan studio, as well as their Boston location, so it makes sense that employees are on edge as far as where they stand with unemployment, and many people are getting out of there before even more hellstorms start up, including the company’s chief game designer, Brian Reynolds.

The company announced today that it will be losing an icon in the gaming industry. Reynolds was a part of the design team behind Civilization 2, Alpha Centauri, and Rise of Nations. He joined Zynga in 2009 to head up head up Zynga East in Baltimore, and he eventually helped out with games such as Frontierville and Cityville 2.

Zynga President of Games Steve Chiang says that he and the company “appreciates Brian’s contribution,” and they “wish Brian the best in his next chapter.” Details are pretty scarce as far as when Reynolds’ last day is or if he has already departed the company, but there are no immediate plans to assign a new chief game designer, but it’s certainly a possibility in the future.

Before he joined Zynga, Reynolds was the CEO and creative director at Big Huge Games, as well as a founding team member of Fireaxis Games. Besides the Rise of Nations trilogy, Big Huge Games also developed Catan, the Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties expansion pack, and most recently Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning.

[via Polygon]

Zynga’s chief game designer leaving company after almost 4 years is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

SimCity is just about a month away, arriving on PC March 5 in the US, with a Europe release on March 8. However, this is Windows only, but developer Maxis announced that the release date for Mac is planned for sometime this spring. The company also notes that both Mac and Windows players will be able play co-op together on the same maps.

The reason for the delay, according to Maxis, is that the Mac port isn’t a port at all, but a “full native version” specifically for OS X. This means that the team will be making sure that Mac players get the same experience as Windows players. However, one of the key differences is that the Mac version will be a digital download only.

As far as minimum spec requirements are concerned, Maxis didn’t give any concrete details on how much power is required out of your Mac, but the company says that they “are aiming to make the game as accessible as possible,” so any user with Snow Leopard and a Core 2 processor should be able to play the game without any problems.

SimCity will be a complete overhaul from past installments. Just from the nine-minute gameplay video that we saw a few months, the new game will include much more detail and better graphics this time around, making the city-building experience more realistic for the players. We definitely can’t wait to get our hands on it.

SimCity for Mac arriving in spring 2013 is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The GameStick is the newest in a line of Kickstarter success stories, and the company is working overtime to get the design of the new portable Android-powered gaming console just right. And thanks to all of the backers who submitted feedback, the final design of the GameStick controller has been unveiled, as well as new docking station to go along with it.

The design of the HDMI dongle itself has stayed the same, but the controller underwent some changes based on feedback from the Kickstarter backers. The controller features a more curvy design, and the HDMI stick now sits at the back of the controller instead of sliding in on top. The GameStick also got an expendable microSD card slot on the stick itself, which was a huge request from the backers.

The new docking station charges up the controller wirelessly using electromagnetic coils, and it can also support peripheral hardware such as mice, keyboards, etc. for use with the GameStick. The docking station also has a memory card slot compatible with up to 64GB, boosting the GameStick’s total capacity to 104GB potentially.

At the time of this writing, the GameStick has received over $515,000 in funding, which surpasses the company’s initial goal of $100,000. The campaign has just under 70 hours remaining, so there’s still time to contribute and get on the list to receive a GameStick console if you’re still interested.

GameStick final design and docking station unveiled is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.