Crysis of Conscience

What a load of patronising nonsense. Just scroll down and check out the attached picture. Ashley whats-her-face from the Pussycat-whats-their-names sporting a Nanosuit. Sure, a pretty girl in a cosplay isn't something new, but to call that news, to issue press releases announcing some pop star covered from head to toe in makeup - isn't that just a little bit insulting.

I'm not going to bang on about this too long, but it needs mentioning, as more and more often we gamers are being represented by this kind of nonsense, with it regularly appearing in the mainstream media. With publishers happy to flirt with the mainstream via this sensationalist claptrap, it's easy to see why the tabloid reader's perception of gamers is such a negative one, and why from time to time most of us have to defend our hobby to people who call it "sad" or "for losers".

There's so much of this kind of stuff flying around at the moment, and in truth we don't always help ourselves. Luckily games that revel in titillation are on the decline, but nonsense like Dead or Alive 5 - where the breasts belonging to the female fighters are the stars of the show - demonstrates that there's still appetite for that kind of content, even if that market is ever dwindling. Thankfully it's just not enough to sell a game based on the physics of breasts anymore.

At the end of the day people can play what they want, when they want. It's a free world after all. But when games like Crysis 3 are publicised in this manner, it really irks. It ties us to a stereotypical image, one that I'm keen to see left in the past. Not least because it objectifies women, and will likely infuriate gamers with both sets of chromosomes. Shame that EA couldn't think of a better way of advertising their stunning game, because as far as I'm concerned this type of stunt is just plain ugly.