Mad Max stands on it in September

Warner Bros.

Warner Bros. Interactive has announced that Mad Max, Avalanche's fuel-injected road trip through the Australian wasteland, will be out in September. Gamers who preorder will be handed the keys to "The Ripper," which in this case is not a post-apocalyptic chainsaw, but a Magnum Opus car body.

At some point during Mad Max, presumably fairly early on, the man they called Max manages to lose the Interceptor to a gang of skags who, to their credit, don't accidentally blow it up but instead just tow it away to a location unknown. But you can't have a Mad Max game without cars, and so Max, as shown in this trailerfrom last spring, sets out to build another one: his, as it were. One of those machines is The Ripper, which "packs a powerful V8 engine, upgraded exhaust with custom off-road tires, a ramming grill, and a tuned suspension so ti can take on a variety of Wasteland surfaces."

Warner also revealed the Mad Max box art today (below), which I know isn't particularly relevant in this era of digital everything, but I'm a cardboard aficionado and I think this cover is actually quite good. It eschews the usual "rugged scowly-man" approach that you'd quite naturally expect in favor of something simpler, starker, and much more appropriate for a game about gangs ready to go to war for a tank of juice. Anyway, the bit you do care about: Mad Max will be out on September 1. Find out more at MadMaxGame.com.