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CNN: The 10 biggest violent video game controversies

Flying_Phoenix said:
Were you a child during GTA III's reign? That game was insanely controversial.
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This isn't about GTA3, but the original. Which was definitely controversial up the yahoo.
 
Manmademan said:
I thought so also- there really wasn't any "outcry" over that one.

I DID have the pre-release "demo" of that game though, and the enemy they're talking about squealed, giggled, and were obviously children (as opposed to monsters, or zombies) in the demo- they took all that out for the release copy.
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Neuromancer said:
Crazy, I wonder if there is any Youtube footage of that.
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That was only censored in the European and Japanese versions. The monsters in the elementary school were still child-like in the American version (and although even that version of the enemy was toned down from what the developers originally created, that earlier version wasn't even in the demo).
 
Silent Hill was controversial? I don't remember any kind of outrage over it back in the day even with Resident Evil.
 
Yep, Silent Hill was likely cited because of the school children with knives and such. Surprised most of you dont remember that, I recall quite a few articles about it.
 
DrFunk said:
No Carmageddon? Manhunt? Kingpin?

lol CNN
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Stole the words out of my fingers.

Also I think the original Postal had a bigger reaction than the sequel. Thrill Kill, even though unreleased, still should have been listed simply because of the clusterfuck of hysterics it had caused.
 
Borman said:
Yep, Silent Hill was likely cited because of the school children with knives and such. Surprised most of you dont remember that, I recall quite a few articles about it.
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I remember seeing some changes about the children in the school and such, but it didn't seem like a humongous deal.

I think something like Mass Effect's sex scenes got more play.

Of course, I do believe though I was paying waaayyyy more attention to the actual 'industry' of games than I was when SH came out.
 
Akuun said:
The first God of War had a bit where you push a caged soldier up a hill so that you can burn him alive, so that you can reach the next area. He is struggling, screaming and begging you not to kill him the entire way. I'd say that was pretty bad.
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I didn't say GOW isn't brutal, but did it even hit the mainstream news?

Like I said, Rule of Rose was basically banned in Europe before its release and probably no mainstream media even see this game. AFAIR some PR firm thought they will get some cheap buzz telling that RoR is brutal and kids are killing and being killed there. Shit hit the fan and sometime later publisher afraid of ban cancel the release.
 
bloodforge said:
What was so controversial about Bioshock? I don't remember any controversy at all.
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None of that kept the complaints from coming, though, when word got out that the game gives players the chance to kill little girls for in-game rewards.
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Almost anything involving harming children will cause controversy.
 
Polk said:
I didn't say GOW isn't brutal, but did it even hit the mainstream news?

Like I said, Rule of Rose was basically banned in Europe before its release and probably no mainstream media even see this game. AFAIR some PR firm thought they will get some cheap buzz telling that RoR is brutal and kids are killing and being killed there. Shit hit the fan and sometime later publisher afraid of ban cancel the release.
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That's true. I don't remember it being mentioned in the news at all.
 
Silent Hill and Bioshock should be off the list. Manhunt 2 is a glaring omission.
 
The only remote thing I can think about with Bioshock would be...

Harvesting the children, but I don't recall hearing about it on the news it all. Given you could totally also choose to save them.

CNN I gave you a D Minus for this one.
 
jmdajr said:
remember that Punisher game?
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It was pretty bad as far as violence goes, but it flew under the radar. This is (suppose) to be a list of the most controversial violent video games.
 
CNN does not know how to arrange a top 10 list. I didn't know that Silent Hill had any controversies. Most on that list seem tame to games released now.
 
Bioshock? I don't remember much fuss over that one.

Also, I remember more controversy for GTA III than the original GTA. Unless they just mean GTA in general for this article.
 
bengraven said:
I don't remember there being any controversy for all the bolded games.
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Remember some chick saying in the news that they really went "for the most brutal way to show this" about harvesting little sisters in bioshock, lol.
 
Flying_Phoenix said:
Were you a child during GTA III's reign? That game was insanely controversial.
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That it wasn't the first game to draw cries of 'too violent' from the usual voices and that the ESRB not only survived a test of its M rating and as an authoritative body for industry self-regulation probably blunts the impact of said controversy in my memory, which is why I may sound like I'm shrugging it off. By the time GTA III was controversial I'd already read through the trials and tribulations of the 1990s wave of violent games, so maybe I was numb to the noise. I realize the game was highly controversial, I just never placed it on a mental top-ten list due to the relatively happy ending.

The Hot Coffee brouhaha still seems worse from a publicity to severity ratio. That cost Take Two millions in settlements and legal fees. For unfinished content that was dummied out.

KittenMaster said:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiller_(video_game)

Not a big controversy, but it deserves some attention anyway despite the focus of this thread, I think. This game basically lets you shoot helpless people and blow each of their limbs to chunks and such.
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I remember my local Golf n' Stuff had this in the arcade. I must have been twelve or so when I saw it and thought 'man that game looks awful,' before putting my tokens into the nearby Street Fighter machine, instead.
 
Another reason why the list is terrible: no Soldier of Fortune. How can anyone overlook that? If it weren't for Postal 2 i would have thought CNN is disregrading PC titles. As it it, they are just clueless.
 
Im extremely surprised NO ONE in here has mentioned Lethal Enforcers being left off that list. The game released around the same time as MK and NightTrap and was one of the first with the MA-17 rating. Hell, I even remember watching courtroom footage on CNN involving it and game ratings when I was 12 or 13.
 
321956-lethal_large.jpg
 
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