As if you needed an explanation for this Zombie Bear

There are no doubt certain sticklers for authenticity who have problematized the spread of zombies in next week's Red Dead Redemption add-on Undead Nightmare. "The undead simply do NOT belong in the heretofore historically accurate RDR canon. Period," reads one hypothetical tweet, which might echo the thoughts of others.

Perhaps giving voice to these naysayers, GameSpot has questioned Rockstar boss Dan Houser on the matter. "We wanted the game world to feel like a 1970s movie set," Houser explained, "in which by day people shot a serious revisionist Western and by night some maniacs invaded the studio and filmed a somewhat insane horror movie using the same sets and cast."

Well, good, that certainly closes the book on the issue for us -- though we do wonder about Houser's suggestion that "it simply was not what people expected." We've been pretty much stockpiling weapons in heated anticipation of a zombie apocalypse at least since '02. Now, if you'd thrown a transforming steam-powered hovertrain locomotive that flies through time at us? That would've been totally unexpected, not to mention an accepted fact of revisionist history.