Just a quick heads up since this involves one of the first ladies of gaming, BloodRayn. Sure her games have kind of sucked in the past (pun intended), but she is a kick-ass female character, so we had to give her some news coverage. Of course she’s as sexed up as ever, what with her being “The Sexiest Dhampir Ever” and all. Full press release for your fangtastic selves below.

BloodRayne: Betrayalis Now Available!
Epic 2D hack ‘n slash reboot of legendary franchise hits PlayStation®Network today and Xbox LIVE Arcade tomorrow

Majesco Entertainment Company announced today that its highly anticipated side-scrolling BloodRayne: Betrayal launches today for PlayStation Network followed by a release tomorrow on Xbox LIVE Arcade for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft. The PlayStation Network version is included as part of the PlayStation Network PLAY program.

The original video game femme fatale, Rayne, has returned to battle and feed in a brand new hack ‘n slash adventure developed by WayForward, the seasoned team behind some of gaming’s most critically acclaimed brand reinventions. BloodRayne: Betrayal delivers over-the-top stylish action with a healthy dose of bloodshed. You are Rayne, the sexy dhampir with superhuman strength, speed, and agility, recruited by the vampire hunting Brimstone Society for one last mission. The target is a lavish, yet sinister, ball in a secluded castle with plenty of dark surprises. With the help of a mysterious friend, and members of Brimstone, Rayne must infiltrate the manor, take out the fiendish horde, and stop an evil master plot once and for all.

BloodRayne: Betrayal is available now on PlayStation Network for $14.99 and tomorrow on Xbox LIVE Arcade for Xbox 360 for 1,200 Microsoft Points. For more information about BloodRayne: Betrayal, please visit the official game site at www.bloodraynebetrayal.com and be sure to Like us at www.facebook.com/bloodrayne.

According to Bethesda same-sex marriage in game isn’t a big deal, so they’ve not really thought to mention it before someone on Twitter asked them directly. The question was posed: “Is same sex marriage in Skyrim? I know the option to get married to ppl is in. The subject seems like hush hush”, to which VP of PR and Marketing at Bethesda Pete Hines responded: “Not hush hush, just not making a huge deal out of it. You can marry anyone”. Hines then added: “Sorry, should clarify. Not any NPC, just mean any male or female. Doesn’t matter what you’re playing.” Well who’s all happy now huh? Good news.. Thanks Bethesda.

We’ve had a bit more use on Facebook the last couple of weeks, so we’ve decided to ramp things up over there. If you’re on facebook and you haven’t liked us yet, you can of course do so: Lesbian Gamers Facebook page. Whereas the website (that’s the thing you’re on at the moment) will remain the hub of relevant gaming news and of course our wonderful forum, the Facebook page is more of an engagement space, well it is a social networking site after all, so let’s be social! We won’t be posting a multitude of crap and filling your facebook pages, we hate when other facebook pages do that, but we will be having fun hopefully, so if you haven’t liked us yet.. get on over and do it you cheeky devil.. go on.

Oh we also added one of those facebook widgety things to the side of the main site.

Let me preface this piece by saying I love BioWare, they are one of my favorite developers and I support them by buying their games and even their merchandise, I have done so for many years. I’m however upset with the FemShep debacle. Firstly it being touted as a ‘beauty contest’ (by some) demeans what the female Commander Shepard (FemShep) is all about, it belittles her as nothing but an object of beauty, a woman to be judged on her appearance rather than action and that angers me. Somehow this “vote for your preferred FemShep” thing went from “cool they’re finally using FemShep on some marketing” to “oh shit FemShep was voted on and now she’s a young blond bimbo”. I don’t understand why BioWare put it to the vote. I don’t understand why BioWare didn’t take control and make a decision to make the marketing material feature the base model FemShep, with her bobbed hair and non-pouting lips.

Turning FemShep into this young looking blond Samus Aran type just irks and it irks a lot. This isn’t a ‘lesbian thing’, though I’m sure there will be those closed minded fools who assume as a lesbian of course I would prefer the short-haired ‘more-masculine’ female Commander Shepard. To them I say, give me a break, I just prefer the female Shepard who looks like you’d listen to her if the galaxy were in peril and frankly if some jumped up 18 year old blond pouting kid needed me on the front lines, I’d be questioning things big time.

The standard female Shepard looks like she can tote a gun, she looks like she’s a leader and most importantly she looks severe and old enough to have lived through battle. The new FemShep we’re now stuck with for marketing and merchandise just doesn’t cut it. I was so excited to purchase a “Mass Effect” game with female Shepard I’ve ranted it to all my gamer friends, now I’ll be buying the male version because frankly I just can’t take blonde kiddy Shepard seriously.

I realize the result of this ‘beauty contest’ was never going to please everyone, after all, we all have our own FemShep versions and the chance of seeing your exact version on packaging or as an action-figure was never going to happen, but come on BioWare, Seriously?!!! Shepard number 5 is bland, bland, bland, bland and worse than bland, she panders to an audience that don’t and possibly never will ‘get’ what FemShep is all about. Thanks for that Bioware, thanks for placing the decision of iconic female leader in the realm of what statistics suggest is the mostly male voting audience, rather than clasping your testicles and saying fuck it let’s make her the Shep most people know from the game. To those male gamers who did vote for a different FemShep (and judging from the comments I’ve read and received since the announcement), thank you, clearly all our votes just didn’t amount to enough. Sadly the “Gentlemen Prefer Blonds” thing is already doing the rounds on the various male run gaming sites, along with ‘Miss Universe’, ‘Pageant Queen’ and other demeaning headlines. It just makes me want to shed a tear because it feels like gaming has once more taken one step forward, two steps back.

Oh and for the record, none of the choices were all that great.

Check out this awesome female Commander Shepard (femShep) video by YouTuber “gametourists”. The video shows off many of the female Commander Shepards in game, all so neatly knitted together with a funky soundtrack. There’s even some girl on mono-gendered alien lovin (and femshep with dudes.. ugh). I know I spotted someone that looked very like my Commander Shepard, how about you? check out the awesome video and let us know. “I’m just here to get the job done, let someone else be on the poster”. Genius.

Yeah well what do you think of the screenshots in this post, they don’t look more than a little like Lara Croft do they? Yeah Jillian Michaels, or rather the people behind her new game “Jillian Michaels Fitness Adventure” probably had no idea this is generally what Lara Croft wears when she’s out ‘adventuring’. “Jillian Michaels Fitness Adventure” is coming Exclusively to Kinect this Fall. We’ve got the full press release below… now if we could just shake the feeling we’ve seen all this before… hey.. now a Lara Croft fitness game.. that sounds pretty cool!

Best-selling author and Co-Host of ‘The Doctors’ brings you on an interactive journey in this unique, fully customizable experience.

Majesco Entertainment Company, an innovative provider of video games for the mass market, and Microprose announced today that Jillian Michaels’ Fitness Adventure is coming exclusively to Kinect™ for Xbox 360® later this fall. Renowned health and wellness expert Jillian Michaels makes her Kinect for Xbox 360 debut after selling more than one million units across her franchise.

Get ready to use your entire body this time as players join Jillian on an interactive adventure, which of course is also filled with Jillian’s trademark intensity! Jillian Michaels’ Fitness Adventure, the latest iteration of the Jillian Michaels franchise, takes your fitness routine beyond a basic workout and turns it into a real adventure through a mission-based, thrill-seeking journey set in a lush jungle temple environment. The high-energy and fully customizable motion-based experience offers a results-oriented personal training experience that you can expect from teaming up with Jillian to achieve your fitness goals.

Jillian Michaels’ Fitness Adventure features include:

* Multiple Exercise Modes: Fitness Adventure Mode – featuring Parkour-style action (a free-style mix of proactive and reactive running, jumping and climbing) set in an exciting jungle temple environment; Circuit Training – 10 exercise circuits hand-selected by Jillian herself available in three difficulty modes, giving you complete freedom to customize your session; and Individual Fitness Training – offering exercises of varying difficulty allowing you to work out at your own pace .

* Use Your Own Equipment: Jillian Michaels’ Fitness Adventure has training programs that can easily integrate various types of fitness gear you may already have at home. Or you can use the game’s complete regimen of training exercises that use your own body weight to get you back into shape…the choice is yours!

* Social Integration: Check out your own and your friends’ performance in the online leaderboards. Keep up the great work because Jillian will be monitoring the boards and the best performers will be honored on Jillian’s Facebook page.

* Stats: The game provides statistics to track your progress, including a calendar that shows you what days you have worked out from the moment you started playing the game to present day. It also displays the breakdown of calories burned, number of exercises/circuits completed, and time spent exercising. These can be viewed on a daily, weekly, monthly and even yearly basis.

Developed by N-Space and produced by Microprose, Jillian Michaels’ Fitness Adventure on Kinect for Xbox 360 is expected to launch this November.

Mad Catz Interactivehave announced a pretty sweet range of “Gears of War” audio products. The range for Xbox 360 is expected to ship alongside the launch of the game in time for the holiday 2011 season. The new product range will be previewed at the Comic-Con International 2011 exhibition and is available for pre-order today.

“Gears of War 3 is one of the most anticipated titles arriving for holiday 2011, surpassing 1 million pre-orders to date,” said Darren Richardson, the President and Chief Executive Officer of Mad Catz Interactive, Inc. “We are convinced that gamers will appreciate the competitive advantage achieved via our high-quality audio products and that the range will be highly sought out this holiday season.”

Products available as part of the range include the Throat Communicator, the Performance Stereo Gaming Headset and the Dolby 7.1 Surround Sound Headset.

Check out the full range at GameShark.

Well this is interesting. BioWare’s marketing director David Silverman has been chatting to VG247 and there’s a few bits within we thought you’d like to know about. First up comes word that 18% of gamers choose female Shepard, I actually thought that would be higher for a few reasons. Next up only 13% of players choose the default character and dive straight in. Most interesting though comes news that FemShep will be making her “first official public appearance in marketing materials”, including on the packaging! Nice one BioWare, about time. This is something we’ve mentioned at Lesbian Gamers before, that all the trailers feature male Shepard, all the action figures, statues etc also feature male Shepard (see bottom of this news for linkage). It’s cool that BioWare are finally doing this and recognizing the awesomeness that is female Commander Shepard aka FemShep (voiced by Jennifer Hale).

So why no FemShep love in previous marketing materials? Silverman blames ‘consistency’ for the lack of female Shepard stating: “When creating a rich sci-fi epic like Mass Effect, you need to keep a certain level of consistency so people unfamiliar with the property can clearly identify who the hero is that they get to become”. Fair enough… to a degree.

Kudos to VG247 for looking at – as they put it – “the OTHER Commander Shepard”. I didn’t want to just do a cut and paste of all the good points, because frankly this sort of coverage deserves a link and for you to read it in its original entirety.

Previous FemShep coverage:
No FemShep action figure for us.

No FemShep boxart – surprise surprise.

A non gender specific trailer .. FemShep it could be.

The Female voices of Mass Effect 2.

The Mass Effect movie and the female Commander Shepard.

The female characters of Mass Effect (gallery).

For those interested in the Electronic Arts support of the increase in diversity in the games industry, heads up, we’ve got the full press release of the latest Women in Games event. EA’s Global Diversity and Inclusion Unit has kindly agreed to sponsor the Women in Games Jobs (WIGJ) Networking Lunch taking place during Develop 2011 in Brighton, UK. Over 50 women have committed to attend the Women in Games Jobs lunch so far. Existing and prospective members of the Women in Games Jobs group who are going to Develop or live and work in reach of Brighton are invited to this free lunch and to benefit from an opportunity to network with other women working or planning to work in the games industry.

Ginger Graham, Global Diversity and Inclusion Manager at EA’s Redwood Shores commented,

“EA knows the importance of reaching and supporting top talent on a global scale. We are very proud to sponsor the Women in Games Jobs luncheon which will provide an intimate venue for collaboration, networking and sharing best practices.”

David Smith, Founder of Women in Games Jobs said,

“We welcome Electronic Arts as sponsor of our lunch at Develop. EA is serious about making a difference to the gender imbalance that many feel exist in this industry and this sponsorship will help us to recruit into and retain more women in the video games industry.”

Up to 30 places still remain which are being offered to women in games on a first come, first served basis. This event is by ticket only requiring attendees to pre-register. To register for your ticket and find more information go to http://wigdeveloplunch.eventbrite.com/

ENDS

About Women in Games Jobs

Women in Games Jobs (WIGJ) is a “not for profit” company that works to recruit more women into the games industry by promoting role models and giving encouragement and information to those women seeking to work in games. It also campaigns to make the games industry a more attractive field for women, both for new entrants and to retain women already working in the industry.

Founded by David Smith, MD of international recruiter Interactive Selection in August 2009, WIGJ has over 2500 supporters. WIGJ is advised by high profile industry women including former European Publisher MD’s Jo Goodson and Alison Cressey, and Sony Production Lead Ali Bergstrom – Allen. Additional Advisory Board members include Geraldine Cross of Blitz Games, Louise Murray of Microsoft, Fiona Sperry of EA Criterion and Giselle Stuart of Ubisoft Reflections.

Web: www.womeningamesjobs.com

Heads up fellow “Halo” fans, we’ve got some word on just how Bungie will be celebrating the upcoming Anniversary (November 15). Pre-order incentives include: Master Chief Xbox Live Avatar Armor, let us assume this will be gender neutral and not a case of the guys being able to purchase / wear this and us female gamers being screwed once again. As well as the armor comes the Grunt Funeral Skull, an in-game modifying skull that changes the rules of play in multi-player. Let’s expect to hear more come this weekend when 343 Industries hit Comic-Con, full details about that and the other stuff in the full press release below.

Pre-order “Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary” to Unlock Your Inner Master Chief and Pay Tribute to the Lovable Grunt

Join 343 Industries for a special Comic-Con “Halo” Universe panel on July 22

Ten years ago “Halo: Combat Evolved” launched around the world and defined both the shooter genre and a generation of gamers. Microsoft Studios and 343 Industries are celebrating this epic milestone with the launch of “Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary” for Xbox 360 on 15th November and inviting fans to join the landmark celebration with a set of special pre-order bonuses*:

· Master Chief Avatar Armour – Heroes never die, and to honour the 10th Anniversary of John 117, you will finally be able to transform your Xbox LIVE Avatar into the iconic hero by outfitting it with Master Chief’s signature MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armour.

· “Grunt Funeral” Skull – An exclusive, game-modifying skull that changes the rules of the game for an explosively humorous experience, “Grunt Funeral” sends “Halo’s” most lowly and lovable enemy out in a blaze of glory. And plasma. And then more glory. Once the skull has been activated, every grunt’s methane tank will explode like a plasma grenade when killed. Watch out for the grunt chain reaction!

Be sure to check out the latest “Halo: Anniversary” behind-the-scenes feature on Halo Waypoint and HaloWaypoint.com for in-depth developer commentary on the creative process behind developing one of the year’s most highly anticipated games.

To learn more about the “Halo” series and the expansive fiction it helped inspire, drop by 343 Industries’ “Halo” Universe panel at San Diego Comic-Con, where the creative minds behind the franchise will be delivering exclusive insights into the “Halo” universe, answering fan questions and more.

“Halo” Universe Panel with 343 Industries
San Diego Convention Center, Room 6BCF
Friday, 22nd July, 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Frank O’Connor, Kevin Grace, and others from 343 Industries, as well as special “Halo” guests Greg Bear and Karen Traviss, discuss the first 10 years of “Halo” and offer a sneak peek into what’s next for this exciting sci-fi universe.

Developed by 343 Industries in collaboration with Saber Interactive and Certain Affinity, “Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary” immerses you in an authentic, next-generation re-creation of the award-winning campaign and genre-defining multiplayer that revolutionized the first-person shooter genre. Featuring a bounty of new features, including cooperative play over Xbox LIVE**, a bundle of some of the most beloved multiplayer maps in “Halo” history reimagined, a Classic mode that lets you play the original version, new challenges and a new story to uncover, “Halo: Anniversary” launches exclusively on Xbox 360 for an estimated retail price of £34.99 on 15th November 2011.