MANTRACK

Also in Gaming…

DANTE’S INFERNO (360, PS3, PSP) Cheating always has consequences. But they usually don’t involve traveling to the ninth circle of hell to save your wronged lover from the devil himself. Based extremely loosely on the 14th century poem, this hack-and-slash gore fest won’t make you smarter, but it’s still a great ride. BBB —S.A. MASS EFFECT 2 (360, PC) Sure, you saved the galaxy from certain doom in the first Mass Effect, but the real stars were its dialogue system, moral choices and rich environmental storytelling. The talky bits are back this time around, along with needed improvements to the combat and health systems. BBBB —S.A. If Sarah Palin were to drop the awshucks act (along with her clothes) and start spectac ularly slaughtering heaven’s angels, you’d get something approaching Bayonetta (360, PS3). And you know what? We’d be okay with that.

Though we spent most of the first BioShock trying to escape the failed underwater utopia of Rapture, we were eager to make the return trip in this sequel to 2007’s best game. BioShock 2 (360, PC, PS3) maintains the original’s high polish and superb art direction but with a new story line that puts you in the diving boots of one of the Big Daddies—your tragic, hulking nemeses from the first game. It's no small job unraveling the plots and secrets that have sprung up over the past 10 years while protecting the creepy Little Sisters and fending off attacks from Big Sisters—fast, powerful evolved versions of the Big Daddies. If it sounds complicated, it’s because it is. BioShock 2 is not about blowing people’s heads off; it’s about pondering deep philosophical questions while blowing people’s heads off. BBBB —Scott Alexander

Pixel Perfect

Book of the Month How Playboy Invented Modern America

Over the past few years historians have started to consider the influence of Hugh Hefner and his magazine on mid-20th century America. To no surprise, they have found PLAYBOY to be essential in the shaping of lifestyles after World War II. In Playboy and the Making of the Good Life in Modern America (Oxford University Press) Elizabeth Fraterrigo, professor of history at Loyola University Chicago, looks at how this magazine helped liberate American society. Hefner reacted to the domestic unhappiness of the 1950s and showed a way for

Americans to lead more gratifying lives. He told PLAYBOY readers there was more to life than marriage, work and Calvinist self-denial, that it was okay for the modern male to defy the archaic moral strictures of the past, just as it was okay for

modern women to enjoy sex. Fraterrigo does not hesitate to look critically at Hefner’s shortcomings as well as his accomplishments. But it is hard to overstate the magazine’s importance, especially in terms of the sexual revolution. PLAYBOY, Fraterrigo says, has “played a catalytic role in the refashioning of America would gender roles and sexuality mores since the 1950s.” be a different How much PLAYBOY generated these changes and place without how much they were expressions of the epoch is Hef’s rabbitry. unclear, but America would surely be a far different ❖❖❖❖ place without Hef’s rabbitry. Detractors may overlook the social advantages brought about by the magazine, but PLAYBOY has always been about more than bosoms and derrieres. As Fraterrigo writes, PLAYBOY’s “underlying messages about pleasure, consumption and the freedom to find fulfillment in a lifestyle of one’s own choosing are now cornerstones of American culture.” —Al Clarke

Playboy TV’s Shootout

Consider Playboy Shootout our version of Project Runway (or America’s Next Topless Model, perhaps?). We paired 10 amateur models with 10 aspiring PLAYBOY photographers to compete for a layout in the magazine. Host PMOY 2001 Brande Roderick—our own Heidi Klum— explains: “It’s like Project Runway in that the models and photographers work together toward earning a spread. And while Runway may interest only those into fashion, viewers who enjoy PLAYBOY, photography, modeling or just beautiful women will love this. You find only one Playmate in a million girls, but there are no sour apples in this group.” Along the way Brande and staff photographers Stephen Wayda and Arny Freytag assist with bringing the contestants up to PLAYBOY’s par. See which pair catches Hef’s eye. Shootout premieres on Playboy TV with a one-hour special Friday, March 5 at nine P.M. (Eastern) and then moves March 14 to its regular time slot on Sundays at 9:30 P.M. (Eastern).

Bryan Batt’s Hef Love Seat

You know Bryan Batt as Salvatore Romano on Mad Men, but his day job is interior designing. He created the elegant yet definitively masculine “Hef” love seat. “It has a deco and a sophisticated mid- century feel,” Batt says. “I could see it in Sal’s pad.” The pieces are handmade, and Hef will autograph a limited run. “It’s a love seat in that you can have a glass of wine there with your date and then move on to someplace else,” Batt says with a smirk. Go to hazelnut neworleans.com for details.

Playboy Radio Spring Break!

With the economy in the urinal, go on spring break with the Playboy Morning Show via the magic of radio. “Our spring break saves you a lot of money on bribing Mexican cops that you can then spend on booze,” co-host Kevin Klein says. “Who has ever seen a girl agree to have cold buckets of water thrown at her for a Señor Frog’s key chain when sober?” Tune in to Sirius XM 99 the week of March 21.