A couple of excellent little sales for us gamers, so I thought I’d squash them into one post.

First up, if you’re still holding out on BioShock 2 because you want to play the first game, Amazon has a sweet deal for you: a free copy of BioShock with every BioShock 2 sold!

Both titles can be snapped up from HERE for $48.99 – just put both BioShock and BioShock 2 in your basket and the price will adjust accordingly. That deal applies on all platforms (Xbox 360, PS3, and PC) incidentally, though from what I hear, this offer could be wrapping up soon, so get your skates on. Both are worth playing.

Deal #2: until April 9th, EA has $20 slashed off all its $39.95+ titles. That means the likes of Mass Effect 2, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, The Saboteur, Dante’s Inferno and others are going for a song!

Go HERE and enter the code PAXEAST842 at checkout (and bear in mind you can only use it on one game, so choose wisely!)

[Via Destructoid and GamerDeals]

Gamer’s sale: Free BioShock with BioShock 2, cheap EA games is a post from: The Inquisitr

In its place will be a new tagline: the far less convincing “Hell awaits.” This lily-livered spot of censorship was the work of the network CBS, which refused to let the “Go to Hell” tag stay in, deeming it to be too controversial. So once again, religion is preciously shielded from any potential offense. Just as a reminder, CBS, it’s now 2010.

Predictably enough, this isn’t the first time that Dante’s Inferno has found itself embroiled in controversy. The “baby-killing” Achievement that will appear in the game was chastised by the International Nanny Association, while EA has been accused of objectifying women in a Dante’s Inferno contest.

The game itself will hit stores on February 9th, two days after the February 7th Super Bowl. Expect much more theist huffing and puffing between now and then.

[AdWeek, via Destructoid]

Dante’s Inferno Super Bowl ad censored by cowardly CBS is a post from: The Inquisitr

If there’s one thing people have been talking about in the build-up to Dante’s Inferno … it’s not Dante’s Inferno.

Whether it’s the Twittersphere venting about EA’s “objectification” of women, or EA mailing replica severed hands to the press, the focus has kind of been away from the merits of the game. This post is sort of about the game, but still probably not what EA’s PR department had in mind.

The story so far: last week, Dante’s Inferno Executive Producer Jonathan Knight revealed that the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions would award a “Bad Nanny” Achievement/trophy to players who slaughter a certain number of unbaptized infants. Surprisingly, some people found this idea of killing babies offensive.

Today, the International Nanny Association (INA) stepped in and sent EA to the naughty step, saying that the Achievement was “created out of poor taste and bad judgment.” Here’s the INA’s official take on things:

“INA is opposed to video games that promote and encourage players to “kill” babies, even in fantasy play. It is our opinion that this type of play may promote violence towards children. The name of the trophy or achievement, “Bad Nanny,” is offensive to our association in that we strive to promote and educate the public regarding the selfless work nannies do to support families by providing quality in-home child care.”

While the claim that this will somehow discredit real nannies is tosh, I will say it all seems like a deeply unnecessary inclusion, not to mention a bit tasteless. Then again, if you’re sending out detached human appendages to people, I suppose taste is taking a back seat already.

[Via GamePolitics]

Dante’s Inferno in hot water over baby-killing Achievement is a post from: The Inquisitr

And: eep.

In its ongoing PR campaign for Dante’s Inferno, EA has started sending selected members of the media a severed hand, like the one you see above. Obviously, it’s not a real severed hand, silly, though it is an impressive replica.

But hey, what’s it all about? Well, there’s a bit of a backstory, as there should be when detached human limbs are involved. A few weeks ago, EA sent several game journalists a check for $200. This, declared EA, was to educate people about Dante Alighieri’s famous poem, and in particular about the fourth circle of Hell, Greed. Would the journos who received the check cash it?

Well, because most game journalists subsist on ramen and tap water, of course they did (or most of them did, at least. Kotaku’s Brian Crecente self-righteously burnt his). Nick Chester of Destructoid was amongst those who cashed in, only to receive this grisly appendage. The following message was enclosed:

Foul Horder, The Fourth Circle of Hell Awaits

A hand that clutches gold cannot reach forth to help his fellow man. You have hoarded the wealth of the world and incurred the debt of greed, and the wages of your sin were paid by the innocent. For the wealth of one shall always come at the suffering of another.

And then Nick Chester went forth and bought a load of sneakers. Also, for the record, I’d have cashed that mother faster than you could say “How about Gwyneth Paltrow’s head in a box next time, EA?” Yeah, I’m full of integrity like that.

[Via Destructoid]

EA sending out severed hands to the media is a post from: The Inquisitr

In what is supposed to be a modern interpretation of Dante’s Divine Comedy Electronic Arts has finally debuted a real trailer for the game which you can view below. An interesting side story to this is that last year there was apparently a big bidding war going on in Hollywood over the rights to bring the game to the movie theatres. Universal ended up winning the bidding and is still planning on adapting the game after it is finally released.

If the game comes anywhere close to being as good as what the trailer leads one to believe it looks to be one hellva game.

hat tip to FirstShowing.net

EA releases game trailer for Dante’s Inferno is a post from: The Inquisitr