You know what NFL? You’ve lost me forever. I never cared about your “sport” anyway. I sort of cared about Madden because it at least helped sell video game systems during the holiday seasons. But now, you’ve gone too far. Yesterday, the NFL announced they’d be banning “nonstandard/overbuilt” facemasks.

This includes Oakland Raiders defensive end Justin Tuck’s mask that resembled that of Shredder from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Now I don’t know who that is but damn them for not allowing a Shredder mask. They have also announced that the similar Bane styled masks will also be a part of this ban.

Now what is funny is the reason for the ban: because they don’t live up to NFL safety standards. The group of gargantuan men who are doing everything they can to throw their body weight on top of each other as fast as possible is worried about safety? Meanwhile hockey lets people play with a rubber puck flying at their face with no protection. Makes a lot of sense.

Well now I have given up on ever giving football a shot. The best chance they have is stepping their game up and creating a hybrid of the XFL and whatever the heck futuristic version of the game that they play in Starship Troopers and when they do it’s Team Shredder vs. Team Bane vs. Team Casey Jones vs. Team Mysterio.

Until then, I say “Good day” to the NFL.

Taking a cue from the designs of Pacific Rim, The Art of Titanfall shows the titans as less than beautiful pieces of hardware that feel like lumbering hulks meant to take a beating as well as delivering them. With only three basic units, there is a great balance in diversity and design of each titan. During the fast paced battles of the Titanfall game, it’s incredibly challenging to try and notice these details but the art book allows you to really appreciate it from the pulled back perspective.

The Art of Titanfall does an awesome exploration of the maps as well. Though not giving a full breakdown as if it was a strategy guide, The Art of Titanfall allows a player to again appreciate the care put into each map that they’d never get to during the heat of battle.

These kids today have it too easy. Back in our day there were certain aspects of being a gamer you just had to deal with. Polygons could be maxed out on screen. You’d have to use your imagination to see what the little collection of blocks represented. And one thing we all knew was that if you made it into the beta testing phase of a game, things were bound to be broken. But that was to be expected. A beta wasn’t a finished product and you “paid” for the early gameplay by dealing with the bugs. Kids today don’t get betas. They just get an extended demo and that’s why they don’t know the pain we went through growing up.

What brought on this jaded old man tirade you ask? The Titanfall beta of course. Don’t misinterpret, there is nothing wrong with the Titanfall beta. Between the beta and the awesome art book I got today (don’t worry, a review is coming soon), I am going to be picking up Titanfall on launch. But when playing it, it hasn’t been a beta experience. The game runs smooth, controls great and looks fantastic. The only limits are some of the maps and weapons not being fully unlocked. It’s basically a smaller version of the final product. And that’s not a beta. It’s a demo. But they’ve changed the name because beta access is a better buzz phrase for marketing.

As we all know, things at E3 can be a tad hectic and unfortunately since the Flickcast isn’t a massive team of contributors, sometimes things do slip through the cracks but if it is important enough, we’ll make sure to circle back and cover it. And one of those trailers we are happy to revisit is Titanfall. In addition to the fantastic trailer below there are a ton of reasons to actually care about Titanfall.

The first is the game’s pedigree. Titanfall is the first game from Respawn Entertainment. And while most people would hesitate to jump to a studio’s first game, others remember that Respawn Entertainment was founded from those who left Infinity Ward, the studio behind Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, after disagreements with Activision.

That means that this multiplayer only shooter is being created by the team that perfected modern online FPS gameplay. While the Call of Duty games always tried to push for a single player story, it was the online multiplayer that kept the games amongst the top played games online at all times. Even though there will be some single player style elements such as NPCs, the goal is still multiplayer.

It broke late in the day yesterday that Electronic Arts would be losing their CEO John Riccitiello at the end of the month. In his stead, Larry Probst will be acting as Executive Chairman until a new CEO is named. (Think of Larry as Sean Bean in Game of Thrones after King Robert was killed by the wild boar… but of course without the whole beheading nastiness.)

For those that don’t know, Riccitiello has been CEO of EA since 2007 and has undergone lots of scrutiny during his time in the role. Early in his time as CEO, he divided up Electronic Arts into four separate parts: EA Games, EA Sports, EA Casual, and The Sims. He was also there when EA purchased the parent company behind Pandemic Studios and BioWare.

Unfortunately for Riccitiello, he was in power as CEO during the economic downtown in the nation which resulted in a huge drop in EA’s stock price as well as the failure to acquire TakeTwo, the owners of the Grand Theft Auto franchise. Though some may try and point at the recent missteps in the SimCity reboot launch, it has been a series of events that likely lead to Riccitiello’s decision to step down.

Here is what EA had to say in a press release yesterday:

Everyone seems to be an expert when it comes to talking about sports but if they knew as much as they claim to, they’d be cleaning up in Vegas. Well at least that’s what my plan would be. But like everyone else, I’m no expert. In fact, most of the reason I am going to watch the big game is because I am waiting to see the latest Iron Man 3 trailer. But for those interested in the Super Bowl’s actual outcome, look no further than EA Sports. If you’re looking for a good track record, EA has successfully predicted 7 of the last 9 Super Bowls including coming within two points of the actual score for Super Bowl XLIII between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Arizona Cardinals.

Since we started covering games, we have always had an eye on THQ and its franchises. From the WWE and UFC fighting games to fantasy adventures like Darksiders and sci-fi worlds of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine to even the modern day gone wrong Saints Row, THQ has been a huge part of gaming for the better part of the past twenty years. Unfortunately, this past week THQ was forced to declare bankruptcy in hopes of somehow finding a way to save the jobs of as many employees as possible and keep their games in progress still alive.

There are a few options to what could happen to THQ. First, it could be bought out by another company and have its portfolio absorbed into the new company including licenses. Another option would be the company dissolves and its assets including studios are auctioned off. If either were to happen, it is possible that we would see some of the THQ franchises picked up by other studios and studios picked up by other publishers. But the question then begins, what would the good combinations be for publishers and studios as well as studios and franchises.

Battlefield 4 being announced was only a matter of time. Billed by EA as the franchise that will take down Call of Duty, Battlefield 3 was an intense and awesome multiplayer experience, though it suffered from a lackluster single player campaign. In both a technical sense and as it was regarded by the most hardcore of shooter fans, the multiplayer of Battlefield 3 was the superior game compared to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

On EA’s Origin service on Tuesday, an advertisement popped up urging players to Preorder Medal of Honor: Warfighter. The incentive, access to Battlefield 4. This is the first time that EA has officially and publicly talked about Battlefield 4. Though everyone knew it would be coming, no one knew when.

“Though Battlefield and Medal of Honor Warfighter each offer players a completely unique experience, they are united by their underlying technology base – Frostbite. These are two of the hottest shooters, coming together to deliver a one-two punch of action, intensity and shooter entertainment,” said Frank Gibeau, President of EA Labels

The Beta access will take place during the fall of 2013, which may determine whether or not the game is going to be current or next-gen as well depending on the timing, though EA is tight-lipped about those details.

Medal of Honor: Warfighter is set for an October 23, 2012 on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. Battlefield 4 has no set release date or official announcements for what systems it will be on. Stick to The Flickcast for more info as it becomes available.

We did it! Last week I implored you to vote for Calvin ‘Megatron’ Johnson in the Madden NFL 13 cover vote, and I am thrilled to report that it work! Yesterday the official unveiling took place on ESPN and Johnson was revealed as the new cover athlete who hopes to avoid the Madden curse.

The spectacle of the announcement might have been a bit over the top, but it was nice to see such a ruckus made of a video game on ESPN 2. Seeing a young, classy star like Johnson win the popular vote was great for fans of the game and more specifically for fans of Detroit who might be finally coming out of their dark ages.

In other Madden NFL 13 news, a new announcer crew was revealed for the game. In the last few years we have had the duo of Gus Johnson and Chris Collinsworth, a solid if unspectacular team. In the new version of the game we will be treated to the CBS ‘A’ announcer team of Jim Nantz and Phil Simms.

These guys are a much better announcer team, and actually work together on a weekly basis. So the game should have a more realistic feel to it on the broadcast side of things. Even though the game is using the CBS team, EA will not be mimicking the CBS graphics packages.

The highly anticipated football sim hits stores August 28th, 2012.

We don’t get a lot of chance to cover sports here on The Flickcast, it just doesn’t fit in with the world of geek culture. Well, there is one place where geek meets sports, and it is the annual spectacle that is Madden. One of the highest selling game franchises of the year, Madden is the one place where geeks and jocks and come together in harmony.

The last two years EA has capitalized on the Madness that is March, and opened up the coveted cover athlete decision to a popular vote. After weeks of head to head battles, the finals have arrived and the next Madden cover star will either be Calvin Johnson of the Detroit Lions or (S)cam Newton of the Carolina Pussy Cats.

For those of you who are not sports fans and don’t see what I just did there, this will be a horribly one-sided, biased attempt to sway your vote should you click this link.

You should go vote for Calvin “Megatron” Johnson. That is right, he is nicknamed after a Transformer, and how cool would it be for the downtrodden city of Detroit? I am not a Detroit fan by any means. I just play a lot of Madden, and as a Video Game AND NFL fan, I think we can do MUCH better than flash in the pan (S)cam Newton. Also I am a Saints fan, and Newton plays for a rival team.

Head over to the ESPN cover vote page and vote, the Cover will be announced April 25th at 5:00 EST on ESPN 2.