Goichi Suda (aka Suda 51) has quite the storied history in gaming, from Killer 7 to No More Heroes to the recently released Shadows of the Damned.  But his latest one could be a bigger hit than all of them, WB Games' Lollipop Chainsaw.  In the game, you guide cheerleader Juliet Starling on a rampage against a horde of rock zombies, with her beloved boyfriend's head by her side.  So, yeah, it's weird.  But that's just part of the fun.

Throughout the history of video games, the oldest stereotype surrounding the industry has always been do violent video games affect player behavior and personality. It is a known fact that people who play games are exposed to more violence than the average consumer. From nuking entire civilization to obliterating players online, it’s has become more and more common now that games are more focus on squarely providing violent action. For this reason alone, parents have long held an underlining negative attitude towards the industry and those who stand by it, but is this criticism injustice or have developers gone to far? Should government step in?

In preparation for The Dark Knight Rises summer movie blockbuster, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and DC Entertainment are adding new content to the critically acclaimed bestseller Batman: Arkham City with a Game of the Year Edition.  The expanded version of the award-winning blockbuster videogame developed by Rocksteady Studios is ship in North America on May 29 for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The developer talks about the game in the exclusive video below.

It seems PAX East has a problem with booth babes. Although attendees were allowed to play the Mature-rated game at Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment’s booth and gawk at a virtual Juliet Starling, the convention said the “family show” had no place for the official cosplay real-life version of game creator Suda 51’s heroine, Jessica Nigri. You can see Nigri in action in the WBIE video for Lollipop Chainsaw below.

Even though Harry Potter mania has pretty much died down with the release of last year’s Deathly Hallows Part 2 film, it’s a “better late than never” situation when it comes to the release of Lego Harry Potter Years 5-7 on PlayStation Vita.  After all, the handheld didn’t have a Lego game to call its own before this came out, and it did pretty well when it came out for consoles last year.  So, yeah, this release makes sense.  And while it’s not as fully featured as we were expecting, it’s a decent port that fans of both the Lego franchise and the Harry Potter series will happily embrace.

SAN FRANCISCO – “Where does he get those wonderful toys?” That’s a quote from The Joker that gamers will actually be hearing for the first time ever in a LEGO videogame. TT Games is adding voices to its LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes game this summer. It’s one of many new features that the game will introduce this summer when it ships across all platforms.

SAN FRANCISCO – The cloud gaming service Gaikai cut deals with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment to begin the streaming of the Lord of the Rings and Dungeons & Dragons Online to players across North America directly from each game’s own website. For the first time ever, Gaikai is streaming massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) from the cloud, straight to players without the need for any download or installation.

Doing a “director’s cut” of a game is nothing new in the game industry.  A lot of companies have come through with Game of the Year editions, featuring extra downloadable content right on the disc or offering a small bonus to those who may have missed out on the game before.  This time, it’s Mortal Kombat’s turn, and one of 2011’s best games, a successful relaunch of a long-running fighting franchise, gets a great package with the Komplete Edition.

Consoles and PC's have had a slow month interms of new AAA quality games arriving for your respected platform. While January got off to a slow start, it quickly recovered to bring us high quality tittles through digital distribution. Plenty of great downloadable arcade tittles were made available through XBLA, PSN and Steam, giving us many hidden gems on the digital marketplace. Let's look back at the games we reviewed over the past month.  

There's no question that 2011 was a big year for the Mortal Kombat franchise, as Netherrealm Games effectively relaunched the franchise and made fighting relevant again, complete with over-the-top fatalities and bonus characters that piqued our interest.  (Freddy Krueger?)  But it looks like 2012 will be just as eventful for the series, as the team has not only announced a new Komplete Edition that's coming to consoles later this spring, but also its debut on the PlayStation Vita.

Warner Bros. Pictures is set to release the first part of director Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey on December 14, 2012. The 3D epic is being shot in collaboration with 3ality Technica in New Zealand. One of the big movies of 2012, the first trailer for The Hobbit is below. And you can bet that Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment has a new game set in this movie universe coming in time for Christmas.

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment is experiencing record sales for Rockstar Studios’ critically acclaimed Batman: Arkham City this Christmas season. And the new trailer for Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Legendary Pictures’ The Dark Knight Rises has smashed the record for most combined downloads through the iTunes Movie Trailers site and the iTunes Trailers iOS app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. The trailer was viewed more than 12.5 million times in its first 24 hours on December 19, breaking the previous record by well over two million. The HD trailer can be viewed below.