The Week In Review

This week on the Week in Review: Restoration zombies, ugly consoles, Martian invasions, broken scoreboards and an angry CEO.

Amidala Vs Zombies

Pride and Prejudice, while a classic, isn’t exactly what I’d call a book for gamers; there are no explosions for starters, and Darcy is no match for Nathan Drake or even Duke Nukem in the one-liner department. When Seth Grahame-Smith added zombies to the mix, it was an immense improvement, and now a film of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is in the works, starring Natalie Portman as protagonist Elizabeth Bennet. I don’t think it’s remiss of me to say that Jane Austen has suddenly gotten much more interesting. (link)

The Tackiest-Looking PS3 in the World!

I have a rule when it comes to potential purchases – if I look at something and could imagine it in 50 Cent’s house, it’s probably not for me. Which means that this PS3, coated as it is in the purest 24 karat gold and carrying a five grand price tag, is singularly unappealing. Still, it could have been worse: It could have had the logo picked out in diamonds. Fiddy would love that. (link)

Martians Probably Invade Norway

When weird lights appear in the sky, it can only mean one thing: Invaders from the red planet have torn open a hole in the fabric of space, and are pouring forth to enslave us and leave broccoli-based simulacra in our places to confound the others. So, if you have a trip planned to Norway, have a care, as although rich in iron, the people there aren’t really people. If you’re unsure whether the person you’re talking to is flora or fauna, just remember that broccoli is an uppity plant. To see what I’m talking about, hit the link for a video (link)

Mewtwo Scoreboard Made of Fail

The Modern Warfare 2 leaderboards for the PS3 version of the game have been compromised, with players exploiting a glitch to post impossible scores. Knowledge of the glitch used has become so widespread that some cheaters are using it to put themselves at the very bottom of the scoreboards with mind-bogglingly low scores in the negative thousands. It is unclear at this time what Sony and Activision intend to do about this, but I’d wager that the PS3 Mewtwo community is praying that the plan doesn’t include the words ‘total reset’ (link)

Squeenix Boss Chides Countrymen

Yoichi Wada, CEO of Square-Enix, has criticized Japanese gamers for letting their preconceptions getting in the way of them trying western games, following the apathy that CoD Mewtwo, that Squeenix published in Japan on Activision’s behalf, encountered in the country. He cites the special name that Japanese gamers have for western games – youge- (洋ゲー), and the derogatory connotations that the name carries. “I’d like them to try it once. If they play it once, they’d realize how incorrect that label is,” he said. (link)