10 Video Games With Shameless Product Placement

2. Metal Gear Solid 2 - FHM

92029 Zool 2 (World) 4
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Solid Snake is used to sneaking around undercover, so perhaps it made a lot of sense for Metal Gear Solid 2 to include a magazine used to being shoved beneath the sheets by startled teenage boys.

The best examples of product placement in games are those which aren't offensively invasive (such as a giant CHUPA CHUPS logo in the sky), but instead sit logically within the game. Or maybe they're the worst, for being so deviously insidious. Either way, the placement of an FHM magazine which could be used to distact MGS2's mooks didn't feel obviously incongruous, and even added to the depth of the world. That some of the guards had glossy pin-ups in their lockers humanised them, giving just that bit of extra nuance to the narrative.

It also means that Metal Gear Solid 2 has an inexplicable link with 'illiterate' tax dodger and "f*cking football manager" Harry Redknapp, thanks to the appearance of his daughter-in-law Louise on one of the posters. Weird, that.

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Editorial Team
Editorial Team

Benjamin was born in 1987, and is still not dead. He variously enjoys classical music, old-school adventure games (they're not dead), and walks on the beach (albeit short - asthma, you know). He's currently trying to compile a comprehensive history of video game music, yet denies accusations that he purposefully targets niche audiences. He's often wrong about these things.