IGN Pulls Cricket Zombie Prank

[Logan Westbrook]

IGN Pulls Cricket Zombie Prank

With the most hotly-contested cricket competition in the world starting tomorrow, IGN has had a little fun with a Left4Dead 2 screenshot.

According to IGN, Valve has announced a new melee weapon for their upcoming zombie apocalypse title, Left4Dead 2. The screenshot features new character Ellis, whacking a cricket-themed zombie with the bat.

However, on closer inspection - although not that much closer - it appears that the fine folk at IGN, and specifically the UK branch, are playing a prank on the internet.

The bat, the zombie's jersey and the zombie's helmet are all in a different art style than the rest of the image, and if that wasn't enough, Ellis's cap has been edited to include a St. George's Cross, which if you didn't know, is the flag of England.

Of course, it could be genuine and be a tribute to Shaun of the Dead [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaun_of_the_Dead] or something, but with the Ashes [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ashes] - possibly the biggest event for Australian and English cricket there is - just around the corner, this supposed 'announcement' seems just a little bit too coincidental to be true.

Source: IGN UK [http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/articles/100/1001544p1.html]


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[Cid Silverwing]

People need to stop with these prank screenshots and fake trailers. They're annoying beyond comprehension.

 

[Logan Westbrook]

Wait, the Ashes is coming up?

Yeah, it starts today actually.

 

[dekkarax]

I hope there is a cricket bat in the game.

 

[Scunner]

^^ This. I now want a cricket bat in the game.

 

[LewsTherin]

What good is a cricket bat if you can't bludgeon zombies to death with it?

 

[Therumancer]

*Shrugs*

I can't help but wonder why anyone cares.

Also how much of the "world" cares much about Cricket? I had never even really heard of the "Ashes" before now, and honestly the only "Ashes" that make sense here is to have Ash Williams make a guest appearance for some Zombie busting, but he uses a proper chainsaw and shotgun rather than a Cricket Bat.

Hey, who knows.. maybe there will be some Kendo Tournament in Japan and we'll get Kendo themed zombies... and that would actually be cool, especially if you could wear the Kendo armor since it would be bloody hard for zombies to bite through. >

Okay, enough rambling.

 

[Zombie_Fish]

Well, I know why they would do that with the ashes coming up, but personally, I agree with Therumancer:

*Shrugs*

I can't help but wonder why anyone cares.

Also how much of the "world" cares much about Cricket? I had never even really heard of the "Ashes" before now, and honestly the only "Ashes" that make sense here is to have Ash Williams make a guest appearance for some Zombie busting, but he uses a proper chainsaw and shotgun rather than a Cricket Bat.

Hey, who knows.. maybe there will be some Kendo Tournament in Japan and we'll get Kendo themed zombies... and that would actually be cool, especially if you could wear the Kendo armor since it would be bloody hard for zombies to bite through. >

Okay, enough rambling.

The truth is, whilst Left 4 Dead and the Ashes are both popular, how many L4D fans care about the ashes? Also, would it be worth IGN doing it, based on the amount of people that would get the reference?

 

[Lord_Ascendant]

i would LIKE to use a cricket bat but I don't think it will happen

 

[Sewer Rat]

Am I the only one who could picture Ellis shouting "BONK!" in that picture?

 

[G1eet]

Am I the only one who could picture Ellis shouting "BONK!" in that picture?

I half expected it to say "FUCK A DOODLE DOO" somewhere in the picture.

 

[The Sorrow]

Jesus, I'd LOVE a cricket bat.
The only issue is that whenever the rescue vehicle was in sight, I'd turn to my teammates and say,
"What? Never taken a shortcut before?"

 

[Logan Westbrook]

*Shrugs*

I can't help but wonder why anyone cares.

Also how much of the "world" cares much about Cricket? I had never even really heard of the "Ashes" before now, and honestly the only "Ashes" that make sense here is to have Ash Williams make a guest appearance for some Zombie busting, but he uses a proper chainsaw and shotgun rather than a Cricket Bat.

Cricket is popular all over the world. Don't make the mistake of thinking that because it isn't big in the US, it doesn't have a presence elsewhere.

 

[9NineBreaker9]

I can only hope that, upon wielding the cricket bat, the "incoming wave" music is changed to a "Don't Stop Me Now" by Queen.

And you can only attack in rhythm to the song

 

[Radeonx]

*Shrugs*

I can't help but wonder why anyone cares.

Also how much of the "world" cares much about Cricket? I had never even really heard of the "Ashes" before now, and honestly the only "Ashes" that make sense here is to have Ash Williams make a guest appearance for some Zombie busting, but he uses a proper chainsaw and shotgun rather than a Cricket Bat.

Cricket is popular all over the world. Don't make the mistake of thinking that because it isn't big in the US, it doesn't have a presence elsewhere.

Is cricket more popular then baseball? Because from what I've heard, those two are somewhat close, and since there is a World Baseball Classic, I know that baseball is popular. I've never heard of Ashes, since America's tendency is to dismiss any sport that we aren't really good at.

 

[Ultrajoe]

Give us the country with perfect beaches? Send the pretty girls to create a country eventually filled with the better ladies? Let us thrash you in cricket, your own game? We may be the colony, england, but you might just be our bit- best friend. I'm overjoyed to see the rivallry spill over into video games, although you can never be too usre if the poms are taking it seriously... Australia has a tendency to take the piss out of everything based on the fact that everything, ourselves especially, needs the piss taken out of it in friendly fashion. It's led to more than one misunderstanding over the years.

Still cricket bat weapons can only four kinds of awesome, anyone who has held one of these knows just how much damage they can do.

Still, until the TF2 Sniper brains that bloody Scout with one, proving the better bat, I won't be happy. Bonk this, mate.

 

[Radelaide]

I can only hope that, upon wielding the cricket bat, the "incoming wave" music is changed to a "Don't Stop Me Now" by Queen.

And you can only attack in rhythm to the song

Shawn of the Dead moment? You need pool cues, not cricket bats!

Edit: My stepdad read this and said "Bah! The only way the English could beat us was if we were dead..."

 

[Therumancer]

*Shrugs*

I can't help but wonder why anyone cares.

Also how much of the "world" cares much about Cricket? I had never even really heard of the "Ashes" before now, and honestly the only "Ashes" that make sense here is to have Ash Williams make a guest appearance for some Zombie busting, but he uses a proper chainsaw and shotgun rather than a Cricket Bat.

Cricket is popular all over the world. Don't make the mistake of thinking that because it isn't big in the US, it doesn't have a presence elsewhere.

Is cricket more popular then baseball? Because from what I've heard, those two are somewhat close, and since there is a World Baseball Classic, I know that baseball is popular. I've never heard of Ashes, since America's tendency is to dismiss any sport that we aren't really good at.

Well, that's not true. In general the US tends to perform in most sports, and goes out of it's way to become good at ones that are actually interesting even if it takes us a while. We're pretty competitive at most things.

When it comes to Cricket though (apologies to Nilcypher) I don't think it's exactly a popular sport "throughout the world". I'm sure a lot of countries have heard of it, but it's not something that actually seems to get a lot of attention outside of England and maybe Australia (as mentioned).

I used Kendo as an example in my goofing off because The Japanese got it added to the Olympics a couple of runs ago if I remember and it was a moderatly big deal at a time since while it does have a perscence it's not exactly a global sport, more of a local thing that is exotic elsewhere.

Games that tend to be really universal are those that take very little in the way of equipment to play well because most of the world is pretty blood poor when you get down to it. Soccor is a good example of a heavily international sport despite only 'recently' being big in the US because all you really need to play it seriously is a ball. Baseball to play on a level that can become really competitive (ie regulation size areas and equipment, stickball might be fun but won't work for learning the real thing) requires a decent investment that a lot of nations just can't put out.

Cricket if I recall is heavy on measurements and such and you need a proper bat, ball, and brackets to set up the right way. It's not a sport that a bunch of kids in your typical ghetto are going to be able to set up and play spontaneously... and honestly that is how a lot of sports become truely international is because anyone can just play them irregardless of status.

Comparing Cricket to baseball probably isn't an unfair comparison overall. Curling might be a bit closer, but that's hard to say.


>>>----Therumancer--->

 

[Logan Westbrook]

Cricket if I recall is heavy on measurements and such and you need a proper bat, ball, and brackets to set up the right way. It's not a sport that a bunch of kids in your typical ghetto are going to be able to set up and play spontaneously... and honestly that is how a lot of sports become truely international is because anyone can just play them irregardless of status.

Comparing Cricket to baseball probably isn't an unfair comparison overall. Curling might be a bit closer, but that's hard to say.

That's a picture of kids playing cricket in the Nehru Nagar slum in Mumbai. I don't think it gets much more lower status than that.