BloodRayne 2

[Noriko Takaya]

I do not know if any of you out there read the gaming magazine Play, but I had to buy it yesterday when I caught a glimpse of my favorite Dhampir gracing the cover. It has a very interesting article on BloodRayne 2, and from what I have read, it is shaping up to be a great looking game. Some other news that is being released are a premier of a video on MTV2 on September 18th at 9:30 PM EST and 6:30 PM PST featuring Rayne and other BloodRayne 2 characters as they perform a lip-synced version of Evanescence's hit "Everybody's Fool." And another bit of news is a titilating (no pun intended) 'photo' spread of Rayne in Playboy. This ought to have all the fanboys of the game drooling, as this is the first time in the history of a video game where a character is going to be 'filmed' nude. This comes out in early September for those of you out there interested. Me, I'll probably be one of the sicko's out there buying it just to see what it looks like.

As for the magazine, here is a copy of one of the pages. The graphics look pretty good, and this is the PS2 version they say. Sorry for the large image size for those of you out there on a modem. I just wanted everyone to get a good look at the page.

Edited August 23, 2004 by Noriko Takaya

[VF19]

"Gore and senseless vampire bondagerape your TV, with BLOORAYNE 2!"

Edited August 23, 2004 by VF19

[Jemstone]

And another bit of news is a titilating (no pun intended) 'photo' spread of Rayne in Playboy. This ought to have all the fanboys of the game drooling, as this is the first time in the history of a video game where a character is going to be 'filmed' nude.

Am I the only one who finds this rather disturbing? Way more insane than the Lara Croft book of a few years ago. Poor lonely otaku bastards developing this stuff.........

[CoryHolmes]

Am I the only one who finds this rather disturbing? Way more insane than the Lara Croft book of a few years ago. Poor lonely otaku bastards developing this stuff.........

Thought I may be asked to hand in my male-gamer fanboy card, no, you're not alone in that this is not of the cool.

In fact, it's getting rather tired. Less eyecandy for the sake of eyecandy and more gameplay goodness.

[Jemstone]

Am I the only one who finds this rather disturbing?  Way more insane than the Lara Croft book of a few years ago.  Poor lonely otaku bastards developing this stuff.........

Thought I may be asked to hand in my male-gamer fanboy card, no, you're not alone in that this is not of the cool.

In fact, it's getting rather tired. Less eyecandy for the sake of eyecandy and more gameplay goodness.

The scary thing is that this sort of thing is spreading. When the animation (both 2D and 3D) students here passed in their final porjects last semester, many of them featured scantily clad women. Now I know how many hours and hard work goes into developign and shaping the deatils of polygon and nurb characters. So I couldn't help but feel bad for the male student that spent countless hours staring at a screen and working on a fake CGI female body and often times with "reference material".

Yet, they care less and less for the real girls in their references and literally pour their hearts into the animated character they just created. It's very distrubing. I have a student who believes he's in love with Velma from Scooby Doo. Know not a look alike or the actress that plays her int he POS movies but the cartoon character. It was funny when watching Otaku No Video eyars back but since being in the industry... I'm not laughing anymore.

Edited August 23, 2004 by Jemstone

[Noriko Takaya]

By the way, I am interested only in REAL WOMEN. I just found it kind of interesting they were doing this in an American magazine. That's probably why I would buy it, just to see what they did, not to get my rocks off (God, my gilrfriend's plenty enough for me as it is.) I realize they have a problem with this in Japan right now as I heard that the birth rate over there is suffering because of stuff like this. I had no idea it was becoming a problem over here as well.

As for the new game, I really hope that it comes out decent. That's all I really care about. I was just passing along news from the magazine for those who didn't buy it.

[CoryHolmes]

Am I the only one who finds this rather disturbing?  Way more insane than the Lara Croft book of a few years ago.  Poor lonely otaku bastards developing this stuff.........

Thought I may be asked to hand in my male-gamer fanboy card, no, you're not alone in that this is not of the cool.

In fact, it's getting rather tired. Less eyecandy for the sake of eyecandy and more gameplay goodness.

The scary thing is that this sort of thing is spreading. When the animation (both 2D and 3D) students here passed in their final porjects last semester, many of them featured scantily clad women. Now I know how many hours and hard work goes into developign and shaping the deatils of polygon and nurb characters. So I couldn't help but feel bad for the male student that spent countless hours staring at a screen and working on a fake CGI female body and often times with "reference material".

Yet, they care less and less for the real girls in their references and literally pour their hearts into the animated character they just created. It's very distrubing. I have a student who believes he's in love with Velma from Scooby Doo. Know not a look alike or the actress that plays her int he POS movies but the cartoon character. It was funny when watching Otaku No Video eyars back but since being in the industry... I'm not laughing anymore.

For me, the scantily-cladness of the women in games has always felt tacked-on, just for the sake of giving the 16-30 year-old male audience a woody. It serves no purpose for the plot, gameplay, or anything of value.

Case in point. Look at the cover of Everquest. Need I say more?

Now then, I won't claim to be a total prude. I enjoy the DOA series of games and I AM looking forward to the new Leasuire Suit Larry game, but that's because they go towards the campy end of the spectrum and don't really want to be taken seriously. But for games with a serious bent, the complete polarization of the female characters is getting very old, and has been for some time.

For a military game, the male characters are decked out in body armour and uniforms... and the female character is in cutoffs so low they count more as stockings and a shirt that's ripped high up on her torso. Crap like that just irritates me because of it's total lack of use in terms of the game.

To get this slightly back on topic, I am impressed with the modelling for BloodRayne 2. The way they've been able to render her face in that screenshot is nothing short of amazing, and it would be great if that was an in-game screenie and not a prepainted special release.

[GobotFool]

Am I the only one who finds this rather disturbing?  Way more insane than the Lara Croft book of a few years ago.  Poor lonely otaku bastards developing this stuff.........

Thought I may be asked to hand in my male-gamer fanboy card, no, you're not alone in that this is not of the cool.

In fact, it's getting rather tired. Less eyecandy for the sake of eyecandy and more gameplay goodness.

The scary thing is that this sort of thing is spreading. When the animation (both 2D and 3D) students here passed in their final porjects last semester, many of them featured scantily clad women. Now I know how many hours and hard work goes into developign and shaping the deatils of polygon and nurb characters. So I couldn't help but feel bad for the male student that spent countless hours staring at a screen and working on a fake CGI female body and often times with "reference material".

Yet, they care less and less for the real girls in their references and literally pour their hearts into the animated character they just created. It's very distrubing. I have a student who believes he's in love with Velma from Scooby Doo. Know not a look alike or the actress that plays her int he POS movies but the cartoon character. It was funny when watching Otaku No Video eyars back but since being in the industry... I'm not laughing anymore.

Doesn't seem like that new of a trend to me. Men have been drawing fantasy women since the beginning of time. Sex as a marketing strategy is very old.

Edited August 23, 2004 by GobotFool

[Jemstone]

By the way, I am interested only in REAL WOMEN. I just found it kind of interesting they were doing this in an American magazine. That's probably why I would buy it, just to see what they did, not to get my rocks off (God, my gilrfriend's plenty enough for me as it is.) I realize they have a problem with this in Japan right now as I heard that the birth rate over there is suffering because of stuff like this. I had no idea it was becoming a problem over here as well.

As for the new game, I really hope that it comes out decent. That's all I really care about. I was just passing along news from the magazine for those who didn't buy it.

I know, Takaya. My comments are directed at the guys that came up with the Playboy spread idea. Those poor lonely otaku bastards. I know you want to see it out of sheer curiosity which I'm sure this will generate alot of. A CG Playboy spread will make anybody go "WTF? I have to see this!".

Gobotfool, of course they have. Only now it's almost practically socially acceptible to have a virtual girlfriend instead of a real one.

Edited August 23, 2004 by Jemstone

[GobotFool]

Gobotfool, of course they have. Only now it's almost practically socially acceptible to have a virtual girlfriend instead of a real one.

Question did all the lonely women animators do scantily clad men pictures? okay that was a cheap question but I'm still curious

[Jemstone]

Gobotfool, of course they have.  Only now it's almost practically socially acceptible to have a virtual girlfriend instead of a real one.

Question did all the lonely women animators do scantily clad men pictures? okay that was a cheap question but I'm still curious

LOL I knew someone was gonan ask that at some point. Ironically, most of the girls animate animals and cutesy stuff. The ones that do animate guys seldom have the model half naked. The few cases that I have seen of this is because the model is actually modeled after her boyfriend/husband and she's animated some fantasy situation (I don't think I have to explain). Been the same case with me as well. I've never been interested in the CGI subject but definately my live reference. heh Sure when I was a little kid back in the 80s I had a crush on GI Joe's Shipwreck, Thundercat's Liono, Jayce from the Wheel Warriors, Char Aznable of Gundam fame and to some extent in 89 my ideal flesh and blood version of Link from the Legend of Zelda. Then I grew up and didn't care about that stuff anymore and more or less applied ideals of those characters personalities to flesh and blood men.

Now, that I think about it. I think women in gneral just think differently when it comes to these things because we know in the end a virtual guy won't give us an orgasm no matter what crazy fantasies go thru our heads. Plain and simple.

Edited August 23, 2004 by Jemstone

[Keith]

Is it just me, or does the close-up shot look a lot like Deb Harry?

[Amped]

OMG!!! For once I AGREE with Keith!!!

[Mislovrit]

I had no idea it was becoming a problem over here as well.

Low birthrates or Otakus? Edited August 24, 2004 by Mislovrit

[Noriko Takaya]

For those interested, the Playboy comes out in October, not in September as previously reported.

Low birthrates or Otakus?

I believe it was something to do with a small majority of the Japanese male population which was staying home prefering to ogle images of female anime and video game characters instead of going out and finding real girlfriends. I remember reading a news story about a while back, and honestly, I could not tell you where I saw it. Maybe someone else out there would know. As far as American males go, I think as a culture, a large majority of us would rather go out and hang with girls than stay at home and dream about pixelated ones. That's just my opinion.

Edited August 24, 2004 by Noriko Takaya

[Max Jenius]

For those interested, the Playboy comes out in October, not in September as previously reported.

Low birthrates or Otakus?

I believe it was something to do with a small majority of the Japanese male population which was staying home prefering to ogle images of female anime and video game characters instead of going out and finding real girlfriends. I remember reading a news story about a while back, and honestly, I could not tell you where I saw it. Maybe someone else out there would know. As far as American males go, I think as a culture, a large majority of us would rather go out and hang with girls than stay at home and dream about pixelated ones. That's just my opinion.

IIRC hentai and the like sells better in the US than in Japan.

Who gives a crap whether or not she's dressed all sexy? The first game was fun, not perfect.. but fun. Its entertainment... women will always be scantily clad and men will always be topless and ripped.

Does it really matter that much? I mean... if we're gonna berate people for admiring the digital sex kittens, why not those that take offense? To me, taking offense validates them even more. If they're just fake anyway, why let it get under your skin? That's the same as people eating it up to me...

[Keith]

OMG!!! For once I AGREE with Keith!!!

Yes, they should have her singing "Sunday Girl" on mtv instead!