The Week In Review

The Week in Review: too big to fit in your puny earth trucks! This week, zombies, Russians, crates, anime and ugly, ugly GIFS.

It’s Hidden in the Code!

Sometimes, while I’m scribbling away in the dead of night trying to get an article finished or a news post written, I wonder what it must be like to have free time. Then I see what people who have free time actually do with it, and I’m glad I’m so busy. Code-savvy Valve fans who got their hands on the Left 4 Dead 2 demo this week discovered that tucked away amongst the subroutines were clues as to potential downloadable content for the game, and if so, it looks like Valve is planning to release it for both PC and Xbox 360. Hit the link for more details, including a chance to look at the code in question! (link)

Leaks, Terrorism and Australia

There will be spoilers for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in this section. You have been warned! Cod Mewtwo hasn’t been released yet, but it’s already getting people worked up thanks to some footage that found its way on to the internet. The footage is of the game’s opening, where the player is cast as a Russian terrorist attacking an airport and is likely to end with the player being shot in the head by the good guys. That hasn’t stopped Australian Attorney General Michael Atkinson from claiming that the sequence promotes terrorism. Personally, I’m stunned, Atkinson is normally such a reasonable fellow! (double link!)

Box Squares Off With Yahtzee; Box Loses

I’d hate to be a wooden crate around Yahtzee. Why, you ask? Well they don’t call him Crate Killer Croshaw for nothing. Admittedly they don’t actually call him that at all, but that isn’t really the point. Knowing that Yahtzee would be at Sky Base 1 – which is the proper name for the Escapist office – EA sent him a package containing a wooden crate, in which was a hammer, some goggles, and the monster that is Rick Astley (well, his music anyway). The only way to kill the beast of ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ was to smash the box to get to its innards and yank the battery, which EA nicely segued into promoting its game Dante’s Inferno via the sin of wrath. (link)

Cue Unnecessary Nude Transformation Sequence!

No, don’t worry, I don’t mean me, none of you have earned that privilege yet. Except you, yes you, you know who I mean. Anyway, part of what made GTA IV so appealing was the vibrant world that Rockstar created for it, a trend that the company is continuing in its downloadable content. Not content with hiring ropey comedians for the Ballad of Gay Tony (I’m looking in your direction Gervais) Rockstar has created a parody of the entire genre of anime with Princess Robot Bubblegum (not pictured). It doesn’t really matter if you like anime, because they video is sure to put a smile on your face, whether wry or not. Hit the link to watch! (link)

See You at the Crossroads Geocities

Before Facebook let even the computer-illiterate amongst us post our every thought on the internet, Geocities let at least some of us have our very own webpages. It’s hard to talk about Geocities without sounding like a hoary old wizard, but it felt like the future, albeit a future filled with low-resolution animated GIFs and so the news of its passing is sad indeed. Of course it’s taken some seriously bad fiction I wrote when I was a much younger man with it, so it’s not all bad. Still, I shall pour a 40 on the kerb for my fallen brother. Goodbye Geocities, you will be missed… sort of. (link)