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Have you ever been playing a video game and thought “Gee, I bet I could be a British Spy?” Well then, most likely you were playing a James Bond game. Apparently, though the surveillance arm of British intelligence thinks there are a bunch of gamers out there who would make good spies.
USA Today reports that the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) will be placing in-game ads in to certain games to attract candidates to fill their positions. The ads will be placed online in games like Need for Speed, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars and Splinter Cell (Splinter Cell being the only spying game of the bunch) on billboards within the game atmosphere.
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It doesn’t come as much of a surprise that PETA is not a big fan of KFC. To get this point across they have the website Kentucky Friend Cruelty to explain their problems with the fried chicken manufacturer.
Something you’ll find on the site that is a little different is the PETA video game Super Chick Sisters (SCS). Based on the classic Super Mario Brothers SCS is the story of two chicks who need to save the Princess Pam Anderson who was kidnapped by the Colonel for giving away the secrets of KFC (apparently the flavor comes from animal cruelty) through out the game there are little side characters who give you PETA talking points about the horrible things that KFC does to their chickens. Mario and Luigi even make appearances in the game, they are trying to recover from their Wii related injury because Mario feels that he is the nly one who can save “Princess Pam.”
I get it, KFC treats their chickens poorly and should probably have slightly more respect for the birds, but they are a fast food restaurant. They are not raising chickens to have a healthy and fruitful life, they are raising them until they are just plump and tender enough to cook. I am a bit torn on this one, while I am sure KFC should change their practices, I also find PETA’s message to be a bit on the extreme side. While KFC is probably a PETA problem I am not convinced that other companies, like say McDonalds, are treating the animals they raise for meat much better.
Oh, and another nod to Mario Brothers, at the end of the game, when you are battling the Colonel he starts off wearing a mask of the final villain from Mario Brothers. Oh, and beat the game and you will get a code to play as Pamela Anderson.
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Have you heard of “America’s Army?”
It’s a video game designed by the Army that serves a couple of functions. It previously was only available for download, so right off the bat, they could identify you as some one with an interest in the army. The it got you used to the armies language, tools, machines, and mind set. if you downloaded enough episodes of the game you could even play with teams online, building a nice dynamic group of folks interested in the army who had the most basic of basic training in an effort to indoctrinate them into the army.
There have been a number of iterations of “America’s Army” (your tax dollars at work to build a bigger and better video game). Now, due to its popularity, you can not only download the game for free, but as Arcade Heroes reports to us, you can pay $.25 (okay, well the last time I paid to play an arcade game it was $.25 I am sure it will cost you at least $.50 if not more) to play it. Global VR is working with the U.S. Army to design and release an coin-op arcade game based on “America’s Army.”
There are a few questions to be to be asked in relation to this game, both supporting it and bashing it, like why is the military paying to develop video games is the military that strapped for cash that they need to resort to video games? and- this can’t be serious, can it? (apparently I can only think of negative questions, but I am sure there are some positive ones out there). This just seems like a total misappropriation of my tax dollars to me.
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So, as you may have heard, David Beckham is coming to America. For those of you who haven’t heard, he’s a soccer player or, as the rest of the world calls them, a footballer.
American Madness’s friend and frequent commenter Jason had this to say from his expat home in Spain:
On Sunday David Beckham and Real Madrid won their 30th Championship in the Spanish Liga. This was especially sweet for Beckham who, since joining the club in 2003, had yet to win a single title with the club and had already decided to terminate his contract at the end of the season and join the L.A. Galaxy midway through the MLS season.
Now this summer Beckham can make his move to California on a high note and perhaps help to increase popularity for soccer in the United States. That is, of course, his stated goal (the 5-year, $250M contract is probably just a sweetener). He claims that he wants to go to a place where soccer is not especially popular in adult life (most American children play the sport until they reach pre-adolescence) and do what he can to keep kids interested in the game.
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About 10 years ago there was this smart-ass know it all trivia game called You Don’t Know Jack. It was kind of awesome. It started as a web game that you could play with your friends, then it was a PC video game, had a whole bunch of editions. Then it disappeared. Rumors ran rampant that it would return, the website and owners (Jelly Vision) had clearly moved on and were producing other games. But then recently, say 4 months ago all of a sudden YDKJ reappeared as both a PC game and an internet game. The internet game let’s you try to beat top scores of other people and to challenge your friends. Currently they are up to episode 14 (I believe episodes are released every Monday). It is a great pop culture-trivia-know-it-all game. They also have daily “Dis-orDat” Challenges (I assure you it makes sense once you check it out, which is worth doing). So, what are you waiting for? Go now.
