Being a Madden NFL cover athlete puts you in rare company (and at risk of injury and/or other negative happenings, if the perceived curse is to be believed), but in past years, it's been up to publisher EA Sports to decide which player gets the honor.

But for this year's iteration, Madden NFL 11, EA Sports has left the final decision up to the fans, who can cast their vote at doritoschangethegame.com within the next 76 days. Three popular players can be chosen in the poll: New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees, Indianapolis Colts wide receiver Reggie Wayne, and Minnesota Vikings defensive end Jared Allen.

Brees and Wayne can be seen duking it out in the Super Bowl this Sunday, while Allen's Vikings were knocked out in the NFC Championship game by the Saints. Assuming tradition holds true, Madden NFL 11 should be in stores come August.

After years of poorly-received Sonic the Hedgehog 3D games, Sega revealed this week that the next Sonic game, titled Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1, will be the first 2D console game in the series since Sonic & Knuckles in 1994. Episode 1 will be released for Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, and WiiWare this summer, and looks to be the first of multiple episodic releases for this classic series revival.

GameSpot's interview with Ken Balough, associate brand manager at Sega, doesn't shed a lot of light on the game, other than it's expected to be very similar to the classic 16-bit entries, albeit with a visual upgrade courtesy of the latest batch of console systems. Additionally, the Wii and PlayStation 3 versions will feature motion control options, and while the Wii version will only run at 480p resolution, the Xbox 360 and PS3 iterations will run in full 1080p HD.

A very brief look at the game is available via a video trailer at GameSpot, but we should see much more of this upcoming downloadable entry as its summer release target nears.

The Connect a Million Minds initiative was created by Time Warner Cable to help convince students that working hard in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) classes in school is the best path to the coolest careers out there. Warner initiated the project in 2009 and has committed $100 million to what is planned to be a five-year media campaign, which includes several public service announcement videos.

Among the PSAs is a video featuring Microsoft's Project Natal motion capture technology. By showing how studying STEM subjects prepares individuals to work on world-changing projects like designing new video game technologies, Warner hopes to counteract the recent decline of interest in math and science careers among students. 

Tessie Tepol, Warner's Director of Philanthropy, said this about Connect a Million Minds:

We want to remind kids and their parents that many of the things they consider cool require a background in STEM to work on. You can’t build a flying car if you don’t know anything about engineering and you can’t be on the team that is creating the coolest and most advanced video game ever if you don’t study math and computer science.

Included below is the Project Natal PSA. Other videos for the campaign are available on the Connect a Million minds page on YouTube.

Via GamePolitics