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Will you teach me to football? Straight from the “I told you videogames can be productive!” file comes a unique feel-good story. According toThe Phinsider, a Miami Dolphins-centric site, Southern Methodist University star Margus Hunt learned to play football by playingMaddenvideogames. Hunt originally came to the United States from Estonia to further his promising track and field career. Once in the U.S., he wanted to try his hand at football, but quickly realized that he knew nothing about the sport....

Also, Eastward Ni No Kuni IISwitch is undoubtedly the biggest release this week for Nintendo’s ecosystem. Oh sorry,Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom: Prince’s Edition. Released back in March of 2018 on both PC and PS4, it may have not garnered the same warm reception as the first game (which was a milestone achievement in terms of art direction), but it did pretty well for itself: enough to warrant a Switch port with additional DLC three years later....

While I was at home playingGears of War 2, and Colette and Mr. Destructoid were hitting upmidnight launches in Florida,Destructoid Los Angeles communitymembers were holding it down on the West Coast. Universal City Walk in Los Angeles was the place to be for fans ofGears of Warlast night, the home-base for the biggest of the nationwideGears of War 2launches. Tons of videogame industry folks were on hand (including Microsoft’s Major Nelson and Epic’s Cliff Bleszinski), as well as celebrities like those two dudes fromChuck, who seem to be contractually obligated to appear at every videogame event in the Los Angeles area....

No one knows whenGran Turismo 5is actually coming out, but we do know this: the famous Nürburgring racing complex will be playable in the game. All three of Nürburgring’s tracks — the Grand Prix, the Nordschleife, and the Nürburgring 24 Hours course — are being included as part of the 70+ courses in the game. The Nordschleife track appeared inGran Turismo 4andGran Turismo PSP, but this is the first time either of the other two tracks will show up in the series....

More eSports for 2016 Blimey, a lot happened at The Game Awards this year, didn’t it?Psychonauts 2, aTelltaleBatmanseries, anda very obvious lack of Hideo Kojimawere among this year’s highlights, and according to host Geoff Keighley,a lotof people tuned in. Talking to Polygon, Keighley announced that over two million people watched the livestream (roughly 20% more than last year), and there were more than onebillionimpressions on Twitter. The vast majority of the viewers watched via Twitch and YouTube....

Brrrrrr! Now that we’ve all climbed out bed, it’s time to rejoice over the good times of PAX before we went into PAX plague hibernation. What adventures we’ve had on this staircase year after year! This time, the cold and wind was back and as bad as ever, but some brave souls still made it for the photo shoot. If you look closely, you may even spot a rogue Kyle MacGregor jump in at the last second....

Follow Organ Trail’s sales through its paper trail Organ Trail, the delightful play onOregon Trail, has done well for itself. The indie game, launched one year ago after six months of full time development by five individuals, has crowdfunded, graced multiple platforms, been included in Humble Bundles, and more. In a comprehensive post onThe Men Who Wear Many Hats’ blog, co-owner Ryan Wiemeyer has dumped the game’s year long sales history into some interesting, digestible graphs....

PopCap has released a demo for its upcoming tower defense title,Plants vs. Zombies. It’s available right now.Here. If you have a PC or Mac, go get it. That’s the story basically. The demo appears to be a 30 minute trial of the game, which should give you a good enough idea of what to expect when the game is available tomorrow for a cool $19.99. Destructoid is also giving away some free copies andtoday’s the last day to win it....

As you may have heard, the greatest videogame crossover ever is hitting the DS next Spring in Japan, care of Koei Tecmo and The Pokémon Company. The vaguely historically accurateNobunaga’s Ambitionand thetotallyhistorically accuratePokémonseries are coming together withPokémon + Nobunaga’s Ambition, and I couldn’t be happier about it. Seeing Pokémon from all five generations team up to battle a Japanese warlord from ten generations ago is such an obviously good idea that I’m not sure why it took so long for someone to make it happen....

In 2007, developerRenegade Kidscrewed with our heads and terrified us on the go with its first-person shooter,Dementium: The Wardfor the Nintendo DS. Its next handheld title, Moon, stuck to the first-person formula with the action/shooter,Moon. Earlier this year, it tapped into our nightmares again with its terrifying M-rated sequel toDementium. So it’s a bit surprising to learn that Renegade Kid’s next game appears to veer wildly from what seemed to be a plotted course — it’s a high speed, 3D racer for Nintendo’s handheld calledATV Wild Ride....

Poster from an Italian retailer possibly spills the beans While we wait for the originalDestinyto die with drip-fed announcements ofrehashed raids(which is actually kind of cool, but hella late),Destiny 2is just around the corner. Or at least, based on everything we know so far it’s slated to release later this year, including a recent leak from an Italian retailer. According to his poster,Destiny 2will launch on September 8, and will have a beta associated with it, just like the original did....

The Mini 2 has more power, and includes some Sega CD titles Sega’s next mini retro console is also making its way to North America. The Sega Genesis Mini 2 will launch in North America on October 27, Sega confirms. The Genesis Mini 2 is the follow-up toSega’s Genesis Mini, from 2019. Following in the footsteps of other mini classic consoles, like the NES and SNES Classic or PlayStation Classic, it packed a bunch of Genesis games into a single little console box....

Finally, a smart athlete Even thoughhe’s on the coverof this year’sMaddengame, New England Patriots touchdown machine — and the human embodiment of Edward Forty Hands — Rob Gronkowski isn’t concerned that he’ll fall on hard times as a result. He’s not worried that he’ll be injured on the football field or while celebrating Spring Break in November. Speaking withEsquireabout theMaddenCurse, Gronkowski said “I don’t believe in the curse. I’ve never really believed in that type of stuff....