You see that picture on my Twitter profile? You might recognize it from the cover of the Xbox game Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict.

I never even realized this coincidence until a colleague sent an image of that cover with the following message to everybody at W!Games:

“What the hell is Nikki doing in Unreal Championship 2?”

Edwin van Gessel

The resemblance is undeniable, especially just after I shave my head. But it’s not just the bald head, it’s the eyes, the shape of the head, the goatee, and of course the muscular body and similar wardrobe. Very unreal! It’s strange I never noticed this before, as I played this game for a bit and a large poster of this game was up on the walls in the game room at the Utrecht School of the Arts for everybody to see. I immediately cut out the head of this character so I could use it on MSN and Twitter, which is weird considering my previous post. Knowing my colleagues, I could expect some funny responses:

“More importantly, who’s the chick he’s with?”

Bjorn Klaassen

I would like to believe this character was the predecessor of Epic’s hero Marcus Fenix and that I had nothing do to with Midway’s current downfall.