The Week in Review: Polls, Dinosaurs and Dead Presidents

In this week’s edition, BioWare once again asks fans for their input on FemShep, and scientists try to turn chickens back into dinosaurs.

Dead Presidents Get the Props They Deserve

Being the president of the United States of America comes with one or two perks. Sadly these perks do not include appropriately amazing portraiture, something that artist Jason Heuser has seen fit to correct. In Heuser’s portraits, Lincoln rides a bear, Washington fights zombies, and FDR is a Transformer. Are they historically accurate? Probably not, but they’re a lot of fun. Hit the link for a gallery. (Link)

Science Turns Chickens Into Proto-Dinosaurs

A group of biologists at Harvard University have tinkered with the genes of chickens to create something more like the small dinosaurs that were the evolutionary precursors to birds. Don’t expect a Jurassic Park scenario any time soon though, as the team concerned themselves solely with changes to the bird’s beak, and didn’t actually hatch any of its modified birds because of ethics regulations. (Link)

BioWare Lets Fans Pick FemShep’s Hair Color

Just when you thought the FemShep polls were closed, BioWare comes along and offers fans another opportunity to chose how they want the default female Commander Shepard to look in Mass Effect 3. This time fans get to pick Shepard’s hair color, as apparently many people had voted for the hair style rather than the shade in the first round. Hit the link to see all four variants. (Link)

Russian Cosplayer Recreates BioShock Infinite

While Elizabeth, of BioShock Infinite, does not have the most elaborate outfit in the world, Russian cosplayer Ormeli spot-on recreation of it is still mightily impressive. Ormeli said that she is a fan of all the BioShock games, but that Elizabeth was the first character from the series that she wanted to dress up as. Sadly, there aren’t that many pictures of Ormeli as Elizabeth, but they’re worth looking at all the same. (Link)

Bethesda Shows Off the Fruits of Skyrim’s Character Creator

When Skyrim comes out, you’ll be so busy making the perfect Orc Knight, the puffy-faced potato people of Oblivion will soon be a distant memory. Bethesda has released a gallery of images of characters made by journalists at QuakeCon, showing not only the variety of Skyrim’s characters, but also what you can throw together in less than an hour. Hit the link for a gallery. (Link)