• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

The Last of Us multiplayer is censored in PAL [Up: Confirmed, all PAL region]

B

Backfoggen

Banned
#TLOUUncutPatchNow

But seriously I'd love to hear an official statement from ND or Sony. Gearbox was at least honest enough to admit that they cut some stuff from Borderlands 2 because of restrictions of certain markets or something like that
 
B

benny_a

extra source of jiggaflops
If it's because of Germany then this sucks for other countries.

I have the English/Polish version of the game. It doesn't even feature German as a language so I shouldn't have this censorship in my version.
 
I

IHaveIce

Banned
Doomshine said:
While I can respect that, it's also the reason why the violence is the way it is in the game. You're not supposed to enjoy it.
Click to expand...

Yeah but it also leads to me not enjoying to play the game. It was the same with watching the Ryse gameplay demo and the extreme death' in Tomb Raider, just extreme and the excuse of "realism" is questionable.

And lol at people thinking games with tits would be censored here in Germany, we have no problem talking about sex or showing it off in TV and in games. Extreme violance, gore and dismemberment though are not that liked here.

And well I for one am happy that is that way not backwards.

Tits > guts.

EDIT: again I do not think it is ok though to censor games that are already 18+, just make an option in the graphics options to disable gore.
 
B

Backfoggen

Banned
IHaveIce said:
Yeah but it also leads to me not enjoying to play the game. It was the same with watching the Ryse gameplay demo and the extreme death' in Tomb Raider, just extreme and the excuse of "realism" is questionable.

And lol at people thinking games with tits would be censored here in Germany, we have no problem talking about sex or showing it off in TV and in games. Extreme violance, gore and dismemberment though are not that liked here.

And well I for one am happy that is that way not backwards.

Tits > guts.

EDIT: again I do not think it is ok though to censor games that are already 18+, just make an option in the graphics options to disable gore.
Click to expand...

The game has that
 
D

danielcw

Member
vitacola said:
10 years earlier you couldn't expect something like that. Almost every game was toned down violence-wise.
Click to expand...

Almost every?
The vast majority of games had no problems.
If you look at the whole industry, it is a low percentage.

Are you primarely looking at FPS and war -related games?

(for reference, today: only 8.7% got an 18 rating or not rating at all (plus the games were the publisher did not try)
 
S

sleepykyo

Member
Facism said:
the country that brought us such amazing websites like german goo girls doesn't like violence or degradation :(
Click to expand...

Should I google this? I don't mean is it sfw but is it something that will have me reaching for tissues or banging my head into the wall?

vitacola said:
Probably because the violence in the singleplayer of the game is justified by the story and isn't just for fun. Keep in mind I didn't play the game yet and I'm just judging it from other decisions of the USK. Maybe they wouldn't have declined the rating anyway. We'll never know. Still it's Sony's fault for rushing ahead with the decision.
Click to expand...

That doesn't sound too bad (relatively). Didn't RE4 end up like that? ie. Germany allowed the game because the violence was justified by the story, but the mercs was out since it was just killing a bunch of humans for points.
 
J

jimi_dini

Member
sleepykyo said:
Didn't RE4 end up like that? ie. Germany allowed the game because the violence was justified by the story, but the mercs was out since it was just killing a bunch of humans for points.
Click to expand...

Nope.
RE4 was rated not using the final code and/or they forgot to show mercs. Because of that they were forced to cut it or rate it again (which would have taken months), so Capcom decided to cut the content. I think they originally released the uncut version in Germany, but the USK didn't like that :p

BUT RE4 was only cut for Germany.

This here really sucks. Sony doesn't even include German audio anymore for UK versions, so there is no real reason to do this. I'm kinda happy that I didn't buy yet. Will import
the GOTY edition
from US.
 
D

danielcw

Member
J

jimi_dini

Member
danielcw said:
They basicly said, that the German Version is uncut compared to the EU version, and that it would be common today to have different versions for different territories (USA, Europe, Asia)
Click to expand...

Ahhh

now that at least makes a bit of sense. Normally censored versions of games sell like shit in Germany. Which is why some publishers don't release extremly violent games in Germany at all (for example Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles was never released in Germany). So maybe they thought "if we censor all versions in Europe, we can announce The Last Of Us in Germany as not censored
within Europe
".

danielcw said:
It doesn't take months, and Nintendo was the publisher
Click to expand...

What? No. Capcom published the game.
http://www.gamefaqs.com/gamecube/535840-resident-evil-4/data

Wait, USK lists "CEG Interactive Entertainment GmbH" whoever that is. Just checked, it's Capcom Europe lol.

And more info about it:
http://www.schnittberichte.com/schnittbericht.php?ID=3219
Gerüchten zufolge war dies aber Capcoms eigene Schuld, da der Hersteller der USK eine Version ohne Minigames vorlegte. Capcom veröffentlichte dann aber anfangs eine deutsche Version, die die Spiele beinhaltete, was der USK nicht so recht gefallen wollte. So musste Capcom die Version wieder vom Markt nehmen und die gekürzte Version verbreiten. (Diese Angaben beziehen sich auf die früher erschienene Gamecubeversion)

...

Bei der Playstation 2 Version war man etwas vorsichtiger und hat direkt von Anfang an die Minigames weggelassen. Jedoch kann man immer noch eine ungeschnittene deutschsprachige Version in den Videotheken und / oder im deutschsprachigen Ausland kaufen.
Click to expand...

Minigames were never released on PS2. So maybe they actually decided against them (after getting the rating for that non-final version) and didn't want to risk the given rating. Idk.
 
V

vitacola

Member
danielcw said:
Almost every?
The vast majority of games had no problems.
If you look at the whole industry, it is a low percentage.

Are you primarely looking at FPS and war -related games?

(for reference, today: only 8.7% got an 18 rating or not rating at all (plus the games were the publisher did not try)
Click to expand...
Yeah, my sentence missed the word "violent" and I used a bit of exaggeration to support my statement ;-) But that's actually how I felt back in the days. "Oh, we are not getting this game uncut or at all? Business as usual ..." Almost every month.
 
D

danielcw

Member
jimi_dini said:
Normally censored versions of games sell like shit in Germany.
Click to expand...
Tehy do?
I never paid attetion to the numbers here. Do you have any?
If they didn't sell well enough, then why did the publishers bother at all?

jimi_dini said:
What? No. Capcom published the game.
http://www.gamefaqs.com/gamecube/535840-resident-evil-4/data

Wait, USK lists "CEG Interactive Entertainment GmbH" whoever that is. Just checked, it's Capcom Europe lol.

And more info about it:
http://www.schnittberichte.com/schnittbericht.php?ID=3219
Click to expand...

My memory told me that Nintendo published the Gamecube version here, and Wikipedia backed me up, so I felt confident about it.
But I can't argue against the USK listing.


I am pretty sure the quoted text from schnittberichte.com is wrong though. It was known on the first day of release, that the German version was missing content. And I vividly remember going to the store and looking at the case.
I have no link to back that up though :(


vitacola said:
Yeah, my sentence missed the word "violent" and I used a bit of exaggeration to support my statement ;-) But that's actually how I felt back in the days. "Oh, we are not getting this game uncut or at all? Business as usual ..." Almost every month.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I know how you felt. It didn't help, that those games that were being towned down were usually big PC titles (Doom, Quake, Command & Conquer), so they had more exposure then the average game. On Nintendo and Sega consoles it was almost no issue.

Could you image NeoGAF it people would use the it-feels-like argument instead of facts :)
 
J

jimi_dini

Member
danielcw said:
Tehy do?
I never paid attetion to the numbers here. Do you have any?
If they didn't sell well enough, then why did the publishers bother at all?
Click to expand...

I definitely remember that I noticed amazon.de selling Saints Row 3 for real cheap almost right after release (way cheaper than the UK version at that time) and wanted to post that in our Cheap Arse Gaffer thread.

Then I remembered that Saints Row 2 was censored in Germany. Checked via google and found out that Saints Row 3 was censored as well.

Now ask yourself - is there any reason besides selling like shit that they would lower the price that much and try to sell it for even less than UK?

My memory told me that Nintendo published the Gamecube version here, and Wikipedia backed me up, so I felt confident about it.
But I can't argue against the USK listing.
Click to expand...

Right. It's a bit strange that even amazon.de lists the gamecube version as "Resident Evil 4 (Nintendo)".

I am pretty sure the quoted text from schnittberichte.com is wrong though. It was known on the first day of release, that the German version was missing content.
Click to expand...

EDIT: have to research that. My original research was bollocks :p

EDIT2:

EDIT3: Now I finally understand.

Capcom really released the original German version in Austria/Switzerland on 15th of march 2005. Just look at the cover for the USK logo. If this version was never meant to be for Germany, the USK logo would not make sense.

gQb8ESz.png

from http://ogdb.eu/index.php?section=game&gameid=6650

BUT they delayed the release in Germany for 1 week. It was 15th of March 2005 for Europe (except Germany) and 23th of March 2005 for Germany.
http://www.gbase.ch/wii/news/0/Resident-Evil-4-in-D-verschoben-20008.html

They also released another version for Austria/Switzerland that featured the PEGI logo later. Which further proves this theory.

So the schnittberichte.com quote IS actually accurate. They never said that this version was released in Germany. They said "Capcom veröffentlichte dann aber anfangs eine deutsche Version" - "Capcom originally released a German version". But it was actually released in Austria/Switzerland and was also meant for Germany, but was never released there. So this means that they noticed a few days/weeks before release and delayed the release in Germany so that they were able to release this new special censored version, which wasn't originally planned.
 
J

jimi_dini

Member
Just found out that it's really disc specific. Which means: buy US version, use online pass on US PSN account, play uncensored using Europe PSN account.
 
G

Galdelico

Member
Ugh, I hate this kind of stuff.

Good thing I still have to buy the game - and GoW: Ascension (didn't even know it's been censored as well) - seems like I'll import it from US.
 
S

Slair

Member
Pissed me off when No More Heroes was censored. I hate that someone somewhere is deciding that i should see something different than someone else,
 
S

Sylver

Banned
Any official word from Sony or ND about that outrageous mess?.

Was too hard to make an exclusive german server an let the rest of Europe funny play?
There're just few things I can stand less than censorship :_(
 
V

vitacola

Member
Sylver said:
Any official word from Sony or ND about that outrageous mess?.
Click to expand...
Kinda. They answered the German magazine PC Games:
http://www.pcgames.de/The-Last-of-U...Last-of-Us-Offenbar-doch-nicht-uncut-1076287/

Sylver said:
Was too hard to make an exclusive german server an let the rest of Europe funny play?
There're just few things I can stand less than censorship :_(
Click to expand...
There are no exclusive Servers. US players and European players are able to play the game together.
 
S

Sylver

Banned
vitacola said:
There are no exclusive Servers. US players and European players are able to play the game together.
Click to expand...

Yes and that's why I don't understand why the rest of european countries have to deal with Germany shit if we can play together with censored or uncesored editions on the same servers. Make geo-IP block (to prevent german import) and let the rest of Europe play as it should be.
 
V

vitacola

Member
Sylver said:
Yes and that's why I don't understand why the rest of european countries have to deal with Germany shit if we can play together with censored or uncesored editions on the same servers.
Click to expand...
It's not even certain that Germany is the reason. It could be Australia too. But it's still SCEE's fault, because they probably didn't show the uncut version to the USK or OFLC.

Sylver said:
Make geo-IP block (to prevent german import) and let the rest of Europe play as it should be.
Click to expand...
Hell no. That's the worst crap.
 
D

danielcw

Member
Sylver said:
Make geo-IP block (to prevent german import) and let the rest of Europe play as it should be.
Click to expand...
Why should the publisher try to prevent German's to import the game?
They don't have to.

And it is not proven that they censored the game for Germany, and Germany alone.
 
R

Rockshow2oo8

Neo Member
Hi everyone :)

* From TLOU MP Forums...

Dismemberment is clearly visible in Survivors, where the head, arms and legs can be seen blown off for the entire round, and with extra blood! As a paying customer, you should be rightfully upset. You are NOT playing the same multiplayer as the U.S., and it is only fair that Naughty Dog at least make an official response.

I (PSN: Ramify) have private messaged the ND developers on these forums numerous times, the only response I received was from MacGruber310 who "cannot respond to this". He suggested I message Eric-ND, who has read my messages but continues to ignore them. If only IGN, or a major gaming site picked up the story.

I (PSN: Ramify) was also ignored during the July Q&A. I was the third reply. Maybe it was because I had three question marks, but to be fair, it all related to the same topic; censorship. See the thread below: http://community.us.playstation.com/t5/Naughty-Dog-General-Discussion/UPDATED-WITH-ANSWERS-Q-amp-A-with-the-Naughty-Dog-Development/m-p/40853807#M5201

bent_toe has been actively seeking answers (kudos to him!) and got a response from Andy Barnes of Sony Computer Entertainment UK & Ireland who writes, "... there are often slight differences in different countries due to cultural acceptability or local laws etc. In terms of the European release, the version of The Last of Us is the same across the whole territory but there are slight differences with the US version." Andy unfortunately does not go into detail.


* My personal thoughts...

That's utterly disappointing. I can't believe they would such a thing, without a word of notice. I have EU version of the game, and I noticed that in MP you cannot dismember enemies, but I thought that was just due to technical inability to reproduce the same level of gore SP has. I'm glad that SP is uncut, but I can't stand that MP is dumbed down!!! It looses it's realism, and immersiveness. It's really, really disappointing, at least for me, and I wish that they release a patch which lets you toggle between gore modes. Now it has only "Gore ON and OFF", but they could implement something like "Gore - OFF, Low, Moderate & Extreme (Full)".

I don't understand why the rest of the Europe has to suffer, because Germany has these fu*ked up laws??? Would it be so hard to release a specific German version of the game, and let the rest of the Europe enjoy the vision developers had imagined? And why wasn't there any notice about this? If I had known that I was buying a censored product, I would have bought the game on the US PS Store, instead of the UK one. The more I think about this, the more I am disappointed in the game, unfortunately. This is so unfair, and unnecessary. Now I'm stuck with this half-assed EU version of the game, instead of enjoying the uncut US version!

Without the realistic dismemberment, and with this unnecessary censorship, the multi-player looks cluncky. It's even worse now, because I know there is a full, uncensored version of the game out there. I don't take kindly to paying for something unfinished or censored, and I am very displeased on that part right now.

I hope that in near future ND releases a patch that will sort things out, and allow the European players, who paid full price for this game, to enjoy the game in it's entirety.


* When I was asked to provide a good explanation why it makes us guys so mad to not see a guys head get blown off, I responded...

Here is my explanation...It looses it's realism, and immersiveness, and we cannnot enjoy the vision developers had imagined in it's entirety. Without the realistic dismemberment, and with this unnecessary censorship, the multi-player looks cluncky. And the game was advertised as 100% UNCUT, UNCENSORED & 18+ (MATURE), and it's not, and that's false advertising! If I had known that I was buying a censored product, I would have bought the uncensored version, but because there wasn't any notice about that, I bought the EU version, thinking I was getting a full product. I don't take kindly to paying for something unfinished, incomplete or censored. Now I'm stuck with this half-assed, censored & incomplete EU version of the game, instead of enjoying the full, uncut US version! The thing is, I wouldn't get upset, if there was a prior warning about the game being censored, because then I wouldn't buy the EU version. I like my games, movies and stuff like that complete and uncut.

Would you buy the censored version of the game, knowing there is a uncensored version? I'm not a kid anymore, and I hate when everything is dumbed down just to make it more mainstream, and acceptable for kids, and I hated that when I WAS a kid. The game was advertised as 18+, so there is no point in censoring it, if nobody under the age of 18 is allowed to play it. Sigh...

The REAL issue is FALSE ADVERTISING! The part where I said the censored MP feels cluncky, and that it looses it's realism, and immersiveness, is just my personal opinion and the way I feel. I can see you feel different about this issue, and I respect that. The whole issue is not me not wanting to feel like a kid, but me paying full price for a product that was dumbed down for kids, while the advertisment said 18+, mature, uncensored & 100% uncut.

You can't just take one law from a country, and apply it to other countries. Different countries have different laws, and laws of Germany, aren't international laws, and cannot be applied in
my country.


* On "not being a huge deal"...

It's not a huge deal for you, but it is for me, and many others. I am not a blood-thirsty hound, but I bought the game because it was advertised as a immersive, realistic, mature horror game. And I got a version of the game which has 4KiDs multiplayer, and there wasn't ANY notice about that! And "blowing peoples heads off and watching body parts flying" IS part of the gameplay, and as you said 100% of the people who stick with the multiplayer for a couple of months play for the gameplay. I like the multiplayer a lot, but I didn't get what I paid for, and the gameplay looks way better in uncensored version of the game.

* I have sent e-mails to both Kotaku & IGN. Now we wait and see if they will pick up the story or not.

* Naughty Dog AMA Reddit is happening on Wednesday July 31 at 3pm PT / 6pm ET / 00:00am CET (http://www.naughtydog.com/site/post/ask_me_anything_with_naughty_dogs_the_last_of_us_directors/)

My question si ready for Naughty Dog AMA Reddit...

Hi,

First of all, I would like to congratulate you on The Last of Us. It's truly an amazing game. I bought it on "day one" from my UK PS Store, and I'm on my 2nd playthrough now, trying my best on Survivor difficulty. My question is...why was The Last of Us multiplayer censored in Europe/Australia without a word of notice, even though the game was advertised as 100% uncut, uncensored & 18+/Mature. Those were one of the main reasons I decided to buy the game. If I had known that I was buying a censored product, I would have bought the uncensored version from US PS Store. The thing is, I wouldn't be upset, if there was a prior warning about this. Any explanation why? Any chance of a future toggle via title update?

Please respond!

Thanks,
Rockshow2oo8
 
R

Rockshow2oo8

Neo Member
Here are some GIFs I made from various YouTube videos, that show exactly what the EU/AU version of the game is missing!

1.
dOy4A.gif
2.
pN7JF0Wj.gif


3.
wQNvPK.gif
4.
Ryvz9.gif


5.
lcqGhRL.gif
6.
2sE9p1oyu.gif


7.
d5uSyT.gif
* Created by PSN: Ramify

...in my honest opinion, that was false advertising, because we in Europe/Australia, didn't get what the trailer showed, and we paid full price for something that was advertised as "100% uncut" or "uncensored". But whatcha gonna do 'bout it, right?

YouTube Credits:
- PhilliesDude16
- IGN
- PlayStation
- ItsGamingFancy
- BroKenGaMezHD
 
S

Sylver

Banned
Rockshow2oo8 said:
Some more multiplayer gore (US version only)...

http://i789.photobucket.com/albums/yy177/Rockshow2oo8/TLOU-Gore_zps4af9f5a2.png[/IM]

Courtesy of YouTube: redhamuSLA[/QUOTE]

The best thing you can do, as many others did, is sell your germanized european copy and buy the US version (you can buy it digital version too), the servers are global you will play with european people. I refuse to give my money to any form of censorship.
Try to find explanation from any SCEE responsible or Naughty Dog worker is useless nobody said a thing, deal with it, then f*ck them.
Click to expand...
 
iNvid02

iNvid02

Member
was listening to the sessler and he was going on about how incredibly violent it was, i've seen it in action and it didnt look that crazy, but it looks like i was looking at the neutered version

those gifs are insane
 
C

Cataferal

Digital Foundry
I felt something was missing compared to the single-player component. That's quite a deep censorship cut actually, even if it's just a gorier wrapper over the top of the same basic gameplay.
 
Ardenyal

Ardenyal

Member
AKyemeni said:
Here's a comparison GIF between American and European special executions with the sawed off Shotgun to the head:

xmf0W1G.gif
Click to expand...

I guess that's why the multiplayer felt unfinished to me when I first tried it. There's the cinematic angle and build up which leads to... a really unsatisfying sputter of blood.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Why gamers complain about their games being taken away |OT| Censorship Controversy Central
|OT| NSFW 26 27 28 29 30
1K
178K
Pantz replied
The Last of Us Remastered censored in all countries in Europe
2 3 4 5 6
291
51K
Memorabilia replied
  • Locked
The Last of Us - Review Thread [Emargo up, scores in OP.]
201 202 203 204 205
10K
1M
Ricky_R replied
Fighting Games Weekly | Oct 6-12 | One Frame, Two Frame, Just Frame, Plus Frame
31 32 33 34 35
2K
107K
BumblebeeCody replied
Fighting Games Weekly | June 9-15 | Q Bomb is Top Tier
64 65 66 67 68
3K
186K
SolarKnight replied
Top Bottom