Evening Reading: Hypothetically Delayed

I rolled my eyes along with all the other fans at today's revelation that Gran Turismo faced yet another delay. We've gotten familiar with missed release dates in general but have you ever stopped to consider what you would do in their shoes? Sitting here considering that question the only truth I hit on was that each case presents its own unique situation.

Take Gran Turismo for instance. For starters, developer Polyphony Digital has cornered themselves into trying to recreate an incredible mountain of cars and tracks in the game. From outside appearances I've had the impression for a while that the game could have been wrapped up in number of months once a hard lock on what would be included was made. I like to think I'd have had the restraint to make that call long ago and shipped the game; being a car nut myself I can't say that with certainty.

I'll leave Duke alone because we're all well enough familiar with it but how about Mercenaries 2? After the relatively unexpected success of the first, Pandemic jumped right into a sequel. The buzz was in the air and everyone got their hopes up. But the timing put them straddling the generation gap and the game got caught in a tech hell of developing for an understood platform in its prime in the PS2 and the new frontier of 360 and PS3. Again, it's easy to say well of course I'd go next-gen, it's so much more powerful we'll have a better game. But would it be so easy if you had to make that call to turn your back on the PS2 fans that just made you?

While you have fun with the hypothetical here's a few tidbits that really happened today:

Good news for fans, looks like Ivan Reitman will direct Ghostbusters 3 and the whole cast will likely be back!

"It's not that creepy" might be what Johnny Depp is thinking about this life-size statue of himself in Serbia.

And if you have a few minutes and haven't already, check out the 2009 Darwin Awards

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