The Week in Review – Lawsuits and Pizza Eating Demons

In this week’s edition, a man sues NCSoft over how he chose to spend his spare time, and Atlus reveals its sexy but creepy new game.

Man Tries to Make his Lineage 2 Problem NCSoft’s Problem Instead

A man is suing NCSoft because he claims that it didn’t do enough to prevent him from dumping a staggering 20,000 hours into Lineage 2 between 2005 and 2009. He says that his addiction to the game has left him unable to function in the real world, which is rather like blaming your cold on your runny nose. It’s hard to imagine any judge taking this particularly seriously, but we’ll have to wait and see what actually happens. (link)

Hackers Crack Open the PS3

Hackers appear to have busted the PS3 wide open, enabling it to play homebrew games and unfortunately, pirated ones too. The crack seems to use a combination of a USB dongle and some software installed on the PS3 itself, instead of needing a “mod chip” to be physically added to the device. It could be a hoax of course, but if it’s genuine then it must be troubling news for Sony. (link)

I’m Telling You, She’s a Demon

Atlus has announced a new “erotic horror” title called Catherine, the first game the Persona team has developed for this generation of consoles. The first we saw of Catherine was a series of rather provocative images which seemed to emphasise certain aspects of the eponymous female character’s anatomy. The images had a certain creepy vibe to them though, a feeling only intensified by the trailer. It’s almost certain that Catherine is not what she seems, and I must admit that I’m super curious to find out who – or what – she is. (link)

All Valve Games Chase Gordon Freeman

“Sandviches”, zombies and murderous artificial intelligences have yet to dislodge a certain mute physicist from the top of the Valve leaderboard, says the developer’s head of marketing Doug Lombardi. Half-Life 2 remains the studio’s most successful game to date, and is used as the yardstick that all other Valve’s games are judged against. Lombardi does think, however, that Portal 2 might give it a run for its money when it’s released next year. (link)

So Long Japan, and Thanks For All the Pokémon

There was an upset at the World Pokémon Championship this week as New Jersey trainer Ray Rizzo triumphed over Japan’s Yasuki Tochigi to take the title in the senior division. Rizzo is only the second non-Japanese competitor to become the champion in the tournament’s history. Rizzo’s prize is said to include a share of $100,000 of scholarship money, as well as the various Pokémon themed gifts you’d expect. (link)