GYGO: Apples, Groundhogs, and Political Cats

Hello, friends and welcome to this week’s GYGO! I’m Avery, Sidequest’s resident little red panda, and I’ve dug my way out of my ever-growing blanket pile to bring you this week’s biggest weekly gaming news.

An Apple A Day: Young French Guy Steals PS4 By Pretending Its Fruit

This week’s news roundup would not be complete without talking about the best news story of the week involving a young man with an ingenious plan, a fruit sticker, and a PlayStation 4. The 19-year-old from Nice stole a PS4 from a French supermarket by weighing it on a fruit scale, printing off a price sticker for the weighed “fruit,” and then paying the very low price of €9 at the self-checkout. However, his plan unravelled when he returned to the same supermarket the very next day to repeat the theft and ended up being caught, arrested, and sentenced to four months in prison. However, as Kotaku reports, the sentence has been suspended and he will only have to serve time in prison if he re-offends.

Here We Go Again: Groundhog Day Gets a VR Sequel

Set in the same world as the 1993 movie starring Bill Murray, Groundhog Day: Like Father, Like Son allows players to relive the joys of Groundhog Day in an “immersive VR game” which is due to be released later this year by Tequila Works. Playing as Phil Connors, Jr., who finds himself trapped in the small town of Punxsutawney that he thought he’d escaped, players will have to navigate over eight hours of puzzles and narrative branches to escape Groundhog Day and discover the “true value of friends and family“.

Schrödinger’s Politics: Ubisoft Sends Out Political Email Yet Insists That The Division 2 Isn’t Political

Seriously, what is it with video game publishers and their insistence that their very political games are definitely not political?! Joining the long line of publishers in denial about their political games, Red Storm Entertainment’s creative director Terry Spier insisted in an interview with Polygon in June 2018 that there was nothing political about The Division 2 and that it is just about exploring a new city, despite the game’s references to American nationalism, corrupt governments, and its setting in Washington D.C. Fast-forwarding to January 2019, Ubisoft then sent out an email to fans of the game with the subject heading, “Come and see what a real government shutdown looks like in the Private Beta” only to retract the email a few hours later stating that it had been sent out in error, apologizing for the offence caused for making light of the very real situation that thousands of Americans are currently living through.

In Other News:

• Debates over Anthem continue following release of public demo 
• Resident Evil 2 Remake Mod is here to creep you out even more
• The gothic horror role-playing game Sunless Skies was released on 31st January
• PC Gamer writer starts a whale-worshipping cult in GTA 5 and scams thousands out of players
• DJ Marshmello played an in-game concert to 10 million players in Fortnite 

Avery Delany

Avery Delany is a diverse book blogger who has recently convinced the ivory tower of academia to let him study video games as research. When not reading books, playing video games, studying, or talking about these, Avery can be found submerged in a blanket cuddle pile with his rescue dog.