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PSA: Fake EA Sports Instagram account phishing for Xbox, Origin logins
It's World Cup season; reigning champions Spain lost in spectacular fashion and FIFA soccer fans may be interested in rectifying that loss to Chile in FIFA 14's Ultimate Team World Cup mode. Unfortunately, Instagram accounts posing as official EA Sports channels are popping up during this period of piqued interest, posting tempting offers for free in-game currency in order to obtain players' Xbox Live and Origin account details.
Watch Dogs still top dog in UK, despite the World Cup
The UK is still barking mad for Watch Dogs, even at the start of the World Cup. The footie tourney helped 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil surge to second in the charts, but it couldn't stop Ubisoft's big dog from notching its third No. 1 in a row. No surprises it's otherwise a quiet week for the UK charts, since few are brave/foolhardy enough to release a game during E3 week. Enemy Front is the only new release at 19th, Mario Kart 8 hangs tough in fourth, and Murdered: Soul Suspect drops from third to ninth.
EA spoils World Cup, tells us Germany's going to win it
EA turned its crystal gaze to the other kind of football by offering predictions for the 2014 World Cup, which begins next week. Using the 2014 FIFA World Cup engine, EA simulated the sportsballs and came up with a win for Germany against tournament holders Brazil. As for Team USA, the boys didn't even make it out of the group stage. The Germans ran out 2-1 winners to put a dampener on Brazi's samba, with 35-year old sub Miroslav Klose scoring the crucial goal. If that sounds unlikely, EA genuinely has good form for this kind of thing. Madden sims predicted 8 of the last 11 Super Bowl winners and the 2010 World Cup game correctly picked Spain as eventual champions. On the other hand, EA did predict a close 31-28 win for the Denver Broncos in this year's Bowl, with reality proving just a little different. Also, it thought England would reach the World Cup semi-finals in 2010. Speaking as an Englishman, I could've told you that was a mission so laughably impossible Tom Cruise would've shirked it. [Image: EA]
Joystiq Weekly: Nintendo's future, Outlast DLC review, Mother's Day and more
Welcome to Joystiq Weekly, a "too long; didn't read" of each week's biggest stories, reviews and original content. Each category's top story is introduced with a reactionary gif, because moving pictures aren't just for The Daily Prophet. Most of us have joked that Nintendo revealing a Pokemon MMO would shut down the world due to how perfectly the series would fit in the genre. That's thankfully still a joke and the economy is safe for now, but Nintendo's talk of further exploring NFC toys presents an equally worrisome possibility: what if they make a Skylanders-style Pokemon game that's more successful than Pokemon Rumble? They'd have to start with a limited portion of the Pokedex at first, sure. But what if the series achieved enough financial success to support 719 different Pokemon-shaped hunks of plastic? It'd be like the trading card boom all over again, except accumulated masses of figurines wouldn't be something we could hide away in a binder. No, they'd claim boxes of space, slowly consuming our garages until we finally discarded the full box of Goldeens that we know we'll never be able to trick someone into trading for. And if those Goldeens aren't properly recycled, they'll just accumulate into an oceanic clump, a mass with lifeless eyes staring down at the sea floor, at a life it will never truly know. Pretty bleak future, huh? Don't worry, there's so much to help block out these worrisome thoughts after the break. We've got financial news from Nintendo, Activision and EA, reviews for Sportsfriends and Outlast's "Whistleblower" DLC, and a feature where the Joystiq Staff's mothers share their perspective on our childhood gaming habits and our current professions. Dive in after the break - just mind the floating graveyard of Goldeens.
2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil review: Qualifier
The FIFA World Cup is one of the grandest, most cherished sporting events in the world. The quadrennial competition pits teams of the best soccer players on the planet against one another, each representing dozens of nations (hundreds in the qualifying stages). To do the competition justice, a video game would need to elicit how special the World Cup is, especially to nations that hold the sport closer to their hearts (I'm looking at you, everyone but the United States). Purely by virtue of existing as a stand-alone product, you'd think 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil would drive home the event's importance as its own entity outside of soccer. However, EA Sports seemingly spent more time trying to convince us that 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil is worthy of being its own $60 retail game than delivering enough to separate it from the main series in a truly meaningful way.
UK Charts: Titanfall holds No.1 spot, 2014 FIFA World Cup debuts 2nd
It's been a while since British soccer fans have seen their nations associated with the words "World Cup" and anything even remotely approaching second place - that said, at least England can say it won the damn thing once. Enough ancient history: 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil is the highest-placing new release in the UK this week, but unlike FIFA 14 it only reached second place; that top spot is still held by Titanfall. Maybe the most telling thing is FIFA 14 is only two places behind the World Cup game in 4th, some seven months after it was released. It's lower down the charts where things get a bit more interesting this week. The physical Deluxe copies of Trials Fusion, which contain the game's season pass, did well enough to see the grueling bike-former debut in 7th place. Meanwhile, you have to go all the way down to 20th to find colorful MMO Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn, which has just made its debut on PS4. On the other hand, Square Enix seemed pretty upbeat about the game reaching 2 million registrations last week, so make of that what you will. [Image: EA]
PSN Store Update: Final Fantasy 14, Trials Fusion, FIFA World Cup
It's football, fantasy, and FMX in this week's line-up of PlayStation Store additions for North America, starting with the full launch of Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn. PS4 players can hook up with the subscription MMO for $40, or $60 if they fancy some in-game items from the Collector's Edition. You can also transfer a PS3 copy across to PS4 - Amazon has the PS3 version going for $25. Next it's FMX: RedLynx's next attempt to break your controllers is Trials Fusion, and it's the first in the series to arrive on PlayStation. The PS4 game - also available on Xbox One, 360, and PC - adds freestyle tricks to the trademark mix of motocross and puzzle-platforming. The regular game is $20 but if you're wheelie keen for the upcoming DLC, a Deluxe Edition is $40 and comes with the season pass. Speaking of puzzles, the PS4 also gets a few brainteasers this week. Pure Chess and Backgammon Blitz are $8 each - you can get a game-pack stuffed Deluxe Edition of Pure Chess for $15 - and finally, That Trivia Game will set you back That Ten Dollars. Onto to PS3, and football - the rounder, kickier kind. The catchily titled 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil is only on PS3 and Xbox 360, and you can score it as a $60 download on the former. Meanwhile, Beyond: Two Souls has been out for a while, but it's also now on PSN as a $60 download. Don't forget, this week's PS Plus freebie is the new Castle of Illusion, and that comes bundled with the Genesis original as a nostalgic bonus. Finally, the Vita has plenty of new releases including Conception 2 ($40, also out on 3DS) and Cross-Buy portable versions of Dead Nation ($8) and Ethan: Meteor Hunter ($10). For the full list of new releases, sales, and Plus discounts, head over to the PlayStation Blog. [Image: Ubisoft]
2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil trailer is proud to be from (nation of origin)
This gameplay trailer for 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil bleeds red, blue, green, white, orange, yellow and potentially other national colors we missed. The soccer game that celebrates the global sporting event launches April 15 for Xbox 360 and PS3, and includes six core modes.
Captain your country in 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil
EA's quadrennial FIFA World Cup sub-series comes around as often as the global sporting event does, but this year's version will still include some familiar modes. EA Sports announced six core modes for 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil this week, each celebrating the cherished soccer event in different ways. First up is the game's Road to the FIFA World Cup mode, which allows players to take one of the 203 international teams through the World Cup competition starting in the qualifying rounds. That's separate from the game's "authentic" 2014 FIFA World Cup mode, which begins with the teams that qualified for the group stages and can be played online or locally. The game also includes the Road to Rio de Janeiro mode, which has players competing online at each of the 12 Brazilian World Cup venues, similar to FIFA 14's Online Seasons mode. 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil also includes two historic modes: Story of Finals follows this summer's competition and issues challenges based on the results of each real-life match while Story of Qualifying features over 60 matches from the two-and-a-half year qualifying cycle for the upcoming World Cup event. The latter mode also features challenges specific to the outcomes of those historic games as well, such as scoring two goals as a 10-man France team against Spain in 11 minutes to qualify for the event. Lastly, players will be able to guide an individual athlete, either real or created, through the World Cup process in Captain Your Country mode. While a similar mode from 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa allowed players to use their created footballers from FIFA 10 in the mode, it's unclear if 2014 FIFA World Cup maintains the same compatibility with FIFA 14. The game will also feature standard online and local friendly matches in addition to 50 new skill games. 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil launches April 15 in North America and April 17 in Europe on Xbox 360 and PS3. [Image: EA Sports]
2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil announced for Xbox 360, PS3 in April [Update: Not next-gen]
EA announced a new game to accompany this summer's World Cup soccer event: 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil. The game will arrive on April 15 in North America and April 17 in Europe for Xbox 360 and PS3. Pre-order bonuses for the game include special All-Star and Classic XI teams, though no price was given for the game and its four editions. The next entry in EA's World Cup series will uses licenses that span 203 national teams, 7,469 athletes, 19 officially-licensed managers and 21 new stadiums, which will include all 12 stadiums from Brazil in which the global event will take place. EA said that 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil will improve on the excellent FIFA 14 with one hundred new animations and other buzzword-like locomotion features such as Explosive Movement and World Class Control. It will also include an offline tournament mode, Road to the FIFA World Cup, as well as the new online mode Road to Rio de Janeiro, which has players "win their way across a map of Brazil's 12 host cities in licensed and authentic stadiums." EA CFO Blake Jorgensen was pretty clear in including the next FIFA World Cup game in the publisher's list of games upcoming next-gen games during its Q2 2014 earnings call in late October 2013. We've asked EA if 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil will come to PS4 and Xbox One, and will update as we learn more. Update: An EA representative tells Joystiq that the game is "coming exclusively to Xbox 360 and PS3 as a fully featured console game. There will not be a World Cup full console game for the new generation of consoles." To make up for it, the publisher plans to issue "a range of engaging content within FIFA Ultimate Team so that fans on the new generation of consoles can experience the World Cup in fun and unique ways."
