The Week in Review: PSN, Portal, and Bad Voice Acting

In this week’s edition, some of the world’s worst voice acting gets some of the world’s best facial expressions, and Anonymous starts chasing its own tail.

PSN Could Be Working for Developers

Sony has gotten at least one part of PSN up and running in time for the weekend: the part that developers use. The news started with a QA tester in Canada, and then was confirmed to NeoGAF moderator Kagari. Hopefully, this restored functionality, which allows for online play but not any new account sign ups, will soon find its way to consumers as well. (Link)

Bad Voice Acting Made Amazing by Lip Syncing

The world of videogames has seen some pretty abysmal voice acting over the years. YouTube user HansJamesMusicAOk has collected 50 classic moments of shameful voice acting, and while the worst examples – or best, depending on your point of view – are often funny in their own right, the addition of his wonderfully over-acted lip syncing pushes them firmly into hilarious territory. Hit the link for a video. (Link)

BioWare Trims Squad for Mass Effect 3

Mass Effect 3 will have a much smaller squad than its predecessor, which BioWare says will allow for deeper and more interesting interactions between squad members. BioWare hasn’t said who will actually be in the squad, although it has confirmed that all the major characters from the previous two games will put in an appearance. Assuming they survived, of course. (Link)

Anonymous Turns on Itself

An Anonymous member known as Ryan has attacked AnonOps, saying that it had set up a power structure and hierarchy where one shouldn’t exist. Aside from taking down the AnonOps websites, he published the IP address of hundreds of Anonymous members. Predictably, other members are not especially pleased with Ryan, and pointing out that putting so many Anon’s at risk won’t do much to help the group. (Link)

Portal Fan Builds His Own Turret

Insanely skilled model maker Ryan Palser has created a stunningly accurate Portal turret. While it won’t ever shoot anyone – which is probably a good thing – it does have a red laser eye, and has a motion detected that plays audio clips from the game when activated. What’s more, if you press the right button, the turret will play the Portal theme song. Hit the link for a gallery. (Link)