Weird Gaming News, December 2021 - Article
by VGChartz Staff , posted on 01 January 2022 / 8,488 Views
December - the time of year we reflect on what fat messes we are and what a fat mess our years have been. This month I'm here to report on naked animals, petri dish Pong, and booze!
Animal Crossing Naked Animals
The way I compile these articles is by making a note of any weird headlines I see throughout the month, then I search for them when I come to write up the article. I can assure you that I saved you a bit of misery by searching 'Naked Animal Crossing' so that you didn’t have to; you’re welcome for that right off the bat.
If you play Animal Crossing: New Horizons then you'll probably recall the game's final DLC landing in November. Amongst other things it introduced version 2.0, which included a number of beloved characters from previous entries in the series. It also finally added Gyroids!
Best of all, the DLC added full frontal nudity! Those sexy, super, super smooth curves do it for all of us right?
Alas, as noted by NME, the bug was fixed in December, which is kinda lame.
Indie Dev Takes a Kicking From AK-47 Manufacturer
A small indie developer called Ward B has been working on a game called Oceanic. Ward B consists of several former Call of Duty & Halo developers and is particularly proud of its realistic but futuristic gun designs.
As CEO Marcellino Sauceda told IGN:
"We're looking to have them very, very scientifically explainable. There's actually a few weapons we ended up scrapping and not putting in the game because there were design flaws that we weren't too happy with in the end."
One design in particular attracted attention: a shotgun called the EPM28 Mastodon. A contractor working on behalf of weapons manufacturer Kalashnikov Concern, of AK-47 fame, asked if the developers at Ward B would be interested in the weapon becoming reality. In return for using the design, Ward B would receive money in royalties, and potentially more importantly for such a small developer, its name would become well-known throughout various gun communities.
Well, Kalashnikov Concern seem to have used the gun design, albeit with a new name (MP-155 Ultima, so let’s see if Square Enix can also be pulled into this mess!). Unfortunately for Ward B the developer wasn't mentioned in any materials posted by Kalashnikov in relation to the gun.
And as if to kick Ward B while it's down, Kalashnikov has granted rights to use of the weapon to Battlestate Games' Escape From Tarkov.
The full IGN article on the controversy makes for fascinating reading. It also includes a gallery that compares the Ward B design in detail to Kalashnikov’s MP-155 Ultima. There's even a small indentation on the Ward B gun that has made it onto the real life MP-155 Ultima.
Interesting fact about Mikhail Kalashnikov, the inventor of the AK-47: he's quoted as saying he wished he'd made a lawnmower instead.
US Government Questions Why Teslas Include Video Games
The US government seems to have belatedly noticed that you can play video games whilst driving a Tesla vehicle. A representative of the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has said that they're "aware of driver concerns and are discussing the feature with the manufacturer... The Vehicle Safety Act prohibits manufacturers from selling vehicles with design defects posing unreasonable risks to safety".
At present, when you boot up your Tesla for a quick game of Solitaire or The Battle of Polytopia, you do have to confirm you aren’t driving, but that seems designed purely to prevent Tesla taking the fall when you smash into the car in front while playing.
Elon Musk has previously stated that Tesla vehicles are powerful enough to run Cyberpunk 2077 (this was back when people wanted to play the game), and that in a world where autopilot is taking over and self-driving cars are rapidly becoming the norm, entertainment in the car will become an important feature. True enough, but I’m not sure we’re quite there yet.
Microsoft Can't Get Xbox Series Xs
I personally haven’t experienced any difficulties getting a next-gen console, though I'm frequently reminded that this is actually more to do with luck than my purchasing prowess.
Even Microsoft and 343 Industries are apparently struggling to get hold of retail Xbox Series Xs. An open-bracket Halo tournament took place in December, and the Halo eSports and Viewership Lead for Microsoft and 343 Industries, Tashi, confirmed that they would use developer kits.
Skooma Turned Into a Real Thing
Recently the market seems to have realised that gaming is actually a pretty big and popular industry, and if you whack something like "Smells of Rotting Flesh – Official Resident Evil Product" on a candle, people will buy it.
Enter a crossover between Skyrim and Absinthe to produce real-life Skooma. It’s a 'rouge absinthe' with 69% ABV and a price tag of £69 on Jim and Tonic's website. This earns it the rare-but-sought-after title of 'double nice'. Also, it comes in a fancy bottle.
Petri Dish Pong
Yes, it’s the one we’ve all been waiting for. Last month we had Rats playing Doom, this month we have a brain in a petri dish playing Pong. Cortical Labs, an Australian company that apparently makes biological computer components (not sinister at all), ran an experiment called Dishbrain (also not sinister).
The experiment used electric pulses to create a virtual game world. Basically, the brains in the petri dish believed they were the actual Pong paddles. Chief Scientific Officer at Cortical Labs, Brett Kagan, told New Scientist that the scientists "often refer to them as living in The Matrix. When they are in the game, they believe they are the paddle".
Apparently it's much quicker to teach a pool of brains to play Pong than it is to teach AI to play Pong. What struck me about this story is that it’s exactly the kind of mental science Karl Pilkington would have said was likely happen way back in 2005, only to be laughed at.
There's no doubt plenty of material there that you can use to turn into a joke about my attempt to cover this story, so go right ahead and comment.
That’s it for this month. If I piqued your interest in Rat Doom above then be sure to take a look at last month’s Weird Gaming News here!
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Microsoft being a bunch of boofheads don't keep extra Xboxes laying about haha ask the competitors to bring their own Xbox nxt time.
Re: Teslas letting you play video games while driving. Tesla has cameras in cars observing driver behavious, so Teslas CAN determine where your focus is, and yet choose to go on the honour system instead. Not confidence-inspiring.
