[B]The same (brilliant?) minds who plunked Flavor Flav down onto the reality scene in "The Surreal Life" — a colossal example of the hazards of unintended consequences on par with Run DMC's inadvertent Aerosmith revival back in the day — are set to debut [URL=http://www.thetester.com/AboutTheTester.html]"The Tester"[/URL] on the PlayStationNetwork.[/B]

The reality game jam, which will air February 18, crams 11 gamers with high ambitions for an industry career and an equally intense lack of self-consciousness into a "Playstation paradise," where they'll compete in games and a series of appropriately humiliating challenges — human slingshots, giant hamster balls, live-action role playing — you know the drill, all in a quest for $5000 and a job as a Sony game tester.

Expect some fun interpersonal antics, scheming and the obligatory quasi-romance ("She's good looking [I]and[/I] a gamer? Perfect!") from this cast, equal parts male and female, who are looking to leave their jobs as cheerleading coaches, theater technicians, paramedics and used car salesmen for life in the big leagues doing quality assurance for Sony. Ok, maybe that's a little snide, after all, as Sony pitches hard on the show's website, David Jaffe (like many others) got his start as a tester. We're just not sure he got his big break on the basis of being able to get inside a giant plastic sphere and maneuver it through an obstacle course.

[url=http://www.gameculture.com/2010/02/01/quotsurreal-lifequot-crew-brings-quotthe-testerquot-playstationnetwork-month]More...[/url]