The Week in Review – Brains, Bunnies and Kombat

On this week’s edition, a short Mortal Kombat movie ignites the gaming world with its awesomeness, and Dead Rising 2 gets a little eye candy to go with all the zombies.

Braaaaains … and Booooobs

Capcom has struck a deal with Playboy to include the magazine in Dead Rising 2. Images from Playboy – presumably reasonably safe for work ones – will decorate the game’s Las Vegas-style casino setting, with the intention of making it feel more authentic. “The Sin City-type environment in Dead Rising 2, Fortune City, is a natural playground for the Playboy Bunnies,” said Capcom’s Senior Director of Licensing Seon King.”We have integrated the Playboy brand throughout the game in ways that bring even more life to Fortune City and add to the user experience.” (link)

Blizzard Gets Starcraft in your NBA

First came the news that there would be a Starcraft 2 advertisment running during the NBA finals on Thursday night. The ad would have new, unseen footage and voice-overs from two iconic characters. Then, we discover that the ad had leaked out early and we didn’t have to wait! Made up of thirty seconds of incredibly impressive CGI, the trailer no doubt piqued a lot of people’s interest for the game. Hit the link to watch it for yourself. (double link)

Halo 3 Takes on Six PS3 Games and Wins

NPD numbers released this week showed that the massively successful Halo 3 has outsold six of the the PlayStation 3’s biggest games. In a tweet, Microsoft’s Aaron Greenburg relayed the information, saying that sales of Halo 3 were greater than those of Resistance 1 & 2, Uncharted 1 & 2, Killzone 2 and God of War III combined. It has to be said, those are some very impressive numbers, but remember, we’re not talking quality here, just sales. (link)

Mysterious Mortal Kombat Trailer Amazes and Delights

A short, live-action re-imagining of Mortal Kombat appeared on the internet this week, recasting the fighters of the game as dangerous killers and psychotic freaks. At first no one knew what it was, until Jeri Ryan, who plays Agent Sonya Blade, revealed it was a movie pitch that she did as a favor to a friend. The film maker was revealed to be Kevin Tancharoen, of Fame ..err… fame, who talked at length about how the movie came about and what he would do with a full length feature. If you only do one thing today to enrich your life, I implore you to hit the link and watch the film for yourself. It’s just that good. (link)

Study Finds Violent Games Have Little Effect of Teenagers

Parents! Don’t let your teenagers play violent games! Don’t you know it will…errm, well, do very little indeed? A new study has found that the only teenagers to really be at risk from violent videogames are those who are “predisposed to be highly neurotic, less agreeable and less conscientious”. The study raises the point that if such games were really that damaging, then incidences of gaming related violence would be fairly commonplace, which simply isn’t the case. Hit the link to read more about it. (link)