The first red-band trailer for this year’s Mortal Kombat movie did at least confirm that blood would flow, evidenced by one noticeable scene where Sub-Zero fashions a makeshift dagger out of Scorpion’s own internal liquids and proceeds to inject straight back into him, but that’s just the mere tip of this bloodberg.

Now the Germans can appreciate the satisfaction of slicing a zombie in half with a samurai sword and be covered in virtual blood at the same time!

Shocking news: A video game with certain risky elements within it may not be suitable for children. At least that’s the takeaway for Cyberpunk 2077, after Brazil’s advisory rating system accidentally revealed that the game will get slapped with a hard 18+ age restriction when it’s released within those festive borders.

Cyberpunk 2077 has a wordlwide rollout planned for September, but there’s one market that its content may run afoul of the law: Australia. Infamous for its heavy-handed censorship programs that have seen many a game refused a “G’day mate” and a legal release, Cyberpunk 2077’s inclusion of sexualised violence and hard drugs may soon see history repeat itself.

In the past, YouTube has been pretty clear on how it views video game violence of any level: If those pixels are red, gushing and violent in nature, you can expect a hefty slap of age restriction gatekeeping to hit your video because someone needs to think of the children. That’s all about to change, as a new policy enforcement update will see some distinctions being made between proper violence and “scripted or simulated violence” present in video games.

Following the latest tragedies in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio, Republican party members have already begun pointing fingers at the video game industry.

Beyond the character customisation and Fatal Blows that serve as last gasp efforts to even the odds, Mortal Kombat 11 looks a lot more…strategic. That’s not design by accident either, as NetherRealm’s focus on the latest sequel was to scale back on the ruthless aggression of previous games and focus more on redefining that which makes fighting games so special: Space control.

Since pixels could bleed, charlatans everywhere have poured great zealous into their quests to create arbitrary connections between video game violence and cruelty from the youth. Their efforts have, predictably, been entirely fruitless and repeatedly disregarded.