by A.J. Focht
Welcome to the first edition of Your Week in Geek; catching you up on all your nerdy updates since… NAO!
Last week started right in the middle of the PlayStation Network outage. It wasn’t until Tuesday, April 26th, that Sony manned up and admitted their system had been hacked and that many of the network users may have had personal information stolen (such as user names, passwords, and credit card numbers). Sony is currently fighting on two fronts as they try to criminally pursue and prosecute those responsible for the attack, while fighting off a class action lawsuit filed by the raging masses. Despite the uphill legal battle, Sony has announced the PlayStation Network should be back online in the first week of May.
While Sony frantically scrambles to get back online, Xbox LIVE landed a major upgrade this week. April 29th marked the arrival of Hulu Plus on Xbox Live. Customers with both an Xbox Gold account and a Hulu Plus account will be able to stream all their favorite programs from Hulu Plus onto their Xbox. This means Xbox customers can now watch the current runs of their favorite shows, and are no longer being bound to Netflix’s arsenal of past series. For one week from April 29th all Xbox Live Gold members can use Hulu Plus for free. The service has several shows not available on Netflix (including two of my favorites Castle and House).
The big winner in the gaming world this week, however, is Nintendo. Rumors of Project Café, the current working name for Nintendo’s next gen system, seeped through the cracks of the internet. Midweek, Nintendo confirmed many of the floating rumors and announced that they would be showing the system at this year’s E3. The little we do know so far is more than anyone expected. It’s estimated that Project Café will be the most powerful system on the market. It is currently capable of supporting 1080p HD and stereoscopic 3D, and is backwards compatable with both the Wii and Gamecube. Possibly the most interesting tidbit is that the new controller will feature a tablet screen. The precise functions of it is currently unknown, but streaming games down to the controller seems to be the reigning theory. Finally, Nintendo has confirmed the system will debut sometime after April 2012.
While the gaming world’s been exploding for the last week, a much more pressing event has occurred in the world of geekdom. Long time symbol for “Truth, Justice, and the American way,” DC Comics Superman, has renounced his United States citizenship. Sick of being used as an icon by the American government, Superman decided he is best off serving the whole world and not claiming ties to a single nation:
‘I’m tired of having my actions construed as instruments of U.S. policy.’
Superman isn’t the first American super-idol to reject the government’s policies, or the nation itself. Marvel Comics version of the patriotic boy scout, Captain America, has had more than his fair share of confrontations with our political figure heads; the last major one, Marvel Civil War, ended with him taking a bullet to the chest for siding against his government. It’ll be interesting to see how DC handles both America and Superman in the aftermath. Superman might just decide to stay on with America now that we’ve bagged Osama bin Laden. If not, I’m sure Cap won’t mind taking the credit.
