They did not have to censor it. There was no-one in America after this with pitchforks. They just chose to do it, because I am sure they have PR with misunderstood views on foreign affairs.
Fahey, gotta say kudos on the description of the online distribution methods. Quite hilarious, and the kind of off-handed, sarcastic, tongue-in-cheek style of writing I haven't seen on Kotaku in some time (I'm sure it's still around, it just hasn't been as noticeable).
In any case, very funny. Good sense of humor right there.
You know, looking at that photo just makes me question our censorship attitude as a society here in the US. Apparently, as long as you don't show the nipple or areola (circle around the nipple, for the uninformed) you can show as much of the rest of the boob you want (See Lil' Kim outfit from circa 2003, etc). WHY NOT THE WHOLE THING? I mean, what's so sacred about the nipple and its base??
At least the Europeans are cool with showing boobs, nipples and all, even in the newspapers.
Or maybe it's that fact that our society is getting more liberal and this is a trend towards the European way of thinking... 10 years ago, showing that much boob (even without the nipple) was probably NSFW. Then the sideboob and underboob was allowed and now we just have to unrestrict the showing of the nipple. I'd give it to 2020...
@Lordd_G:
i think it's a conspiracy by the bible bangers and other religious zealots. you see they want you to believe being gay is bad, so you need to find god and blah blah blah. so they outlaw the showing of female nipples, but male nipples are shown everywhere without remorse. so you see male nipples everywhere, thus some mistake seeing a nipple at all as being sexual, thus thinking they might be gay. so they seek god to make them ungay, and fills the churches coffers with gold.
makes perfect sense.
excuse me while i go speak in tongues.and go stare at some awesome man nips.
I bought a copy of Witcher standard for $20 so I could download Enhanced Edition, and tried modding it. It didn't really work that well, and didn't fix any of the blood content or finishing moves. Gonna free up some space on the old hard drive and load it up for some good times again.
BTW, this is the kind of developer support I LOVE. The game gets censored and they release, essentially, an AO version of it through digital distribution. I wish more game companies would do this when their games get content cut out to appease the ESRB gods and the market of walls.
Is it wrong that I see nothing wrong with either picture (aside from the fish of course)? I find it a whole lot more tasteful than some of the stuff I've seen get through on teen games.
Dear fellow americans,
They're breasts. Everyone has a pair. Even men. It's part of being a mammal.
Kthx.
@sits: It's a valid complaint. In Europe, even the violence, including decapitations, was left in, despite Germany usually causing all those cuts to be made to all the EU releases.
The US edition not only cut the sexual content (including the Dryad, which, IMO, was completely stupid), they cut the blood and dismemberment from the game.
@Wolfgeist: "despite Germany usually causing all those cuts to be made to all the EU releases."
Germany usually gets their own censored versions of games, the rest of Europe is unaffected.
@MaXimillion: Usually yes, but there are cases of other countries getting screwed over by it, the most famous being Probotector/Contra.
Fortunately, they've gotten more tolerant of violent video games. When I lived there for 3 years, I saw lots of violent games in Media Markt and Saturn that were uncut. They have ridiculous packaging (red plastic sleeves that cover it to show that it is USK 18)
Something funny as well: I own the German version of Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines. In the US, it's rated M. That usually means in Germany it will get the USK 18, and Vampire is a pretty violent game as it is. However, I'm looking at the box right now and it's rated USK 16.
That means that VtM: Bloodlines is rated the same as Metroid Prime 3. Yippie.
@sits: Yep. Sure does. Don't mind me. I'm just a girl that's seen areas of the world that don't censor things like bare breasts not fall into the apocalypse from it.
Probably more polished and refined controls as was said on the Witcher website. The combat was completely revamped for the console port to be more action oriented and not just click.....click....click.
@Ghostwize: I kind of expected it to be click click click combat since it was developed using an engine notorious for it. I didn't see any problem with the combat the way it is.
I guess I just don't see it as a console game, not for the combat reasons, but mainly for how the game was designed. If they can pull it off, more power to them, but I don't see how it would be "better" than the PC version. Diablo and Morrowind are good examples of RPG's ported that didn't do quite as well on the consoles as they did on the PC.
Remember when nudity was nonexistent in mainstream movies? Well, that changed, and so will games, eventually. One day, games will be able to have full artistic expression without being labeled as smut that's harming our children. We're not there yet, but it will come.
Now, I'm not saying artistic expression = boobies. However, being able to include adult situations (and even nudity) when appropriate is really telling of the level of freedom that's accepted.
I look forward to the day that some shmuck on a "news" show tries to bash the next big game because it has adult situations, and everyone laughs it off just as quickly as we (as a gaming community) laugh off that kind of thing right now.
You're going to need more then 2D titties to impress me into buying your game :3 You may want to bundle the limited edition with a roll of toilet paper!
Wait. Is the console version officially canned?? Damn! I was hoping for this to come out later this year to tide me over till Mass Effect 2 comes knocking...
07/31/09
07/31/09
In any case, very funny. Good sense of humor right there.
07/31/09
You know, looking at that photo just makes me question our censorship attitude as a society here in the US. Apparently, as long as you don't show the nipple or areola (circle around the nipple, for the uninformed) you can show as much of the rest of the boob you want (See Lil' Kim outfit from circa 2003, etc). WHY NOT THE WHOLE THING? I mean, what's so sacred about the nipple and its base??
At least the Europeans are cool with showing boobs, nipples and all, even in the newspapers.
Or maybe it's that fact that our society is getting more liberal and this is a trend towards the European way of thinking... 10 years ago, showing that much boob (even without the nipple) was probably NSFW. Then the sideboob and underboob was allowed and now we just have to unrestrict the showing of the nipple. I'd give it to 2020...
07/31/09
i think it's a conspiracy by the bible bangers and other religious zealots. you see they want you to believe being gay is bad, so you need to find god and blah blah blah. so they outlaw the showing of female nipples, but male nipples are shown everywhere without remorse. so you see male nipples everywhere, thus some mistake seeing a nipple at all as being sexual, thus thinking they might be gay. so they seek god to make them ungay, and fills the churches coffers with gold.
makes perfect sense.
excuse me while i go speak in tongues.and go stare at some awesome man nips.
07/31/09
BTW, this is the kind of developer support I LOVE. The game gets censored and they release, essentially, an AO version of it through digital distribution. I wish more game companies would do this when their games get content cut out to appease the ESRB gods and the market of walls.
07/31/09
Dear fellow americans,
They're breasts. Everyone has a pair. Even men. It's part of being a mammal.
Kthx.
07/31/09
07/31/09
The US edition not only cut the sexual content (including the Dryad, which, IMO, was completely stupid), they cut the blood and dismemberment from the game.
07/31/09
Germany usually gets their own censored versions of games, the rest of Europe is unaffected.
07/31/09
2nd-ed. Though nice breasts are nice to look at. :)
07/31/09
Fortunately, they've gotten more tolerant of violent video games. When I lived there for 3 years, I saw lots of violent games in Media Markt and Saturn that were uncut. They have ridiculous packaging (red plastic sleeves that cover it to show that it is USK 18)
Something funny as well: I own the German version of Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines. In the US, it's rated M. That usually means in Germany it will get the USK 18, and Vampire is a pretty violent game as it is. However, I'm looking at the box right now and it's rated USK 16.
That means that VtM: Bloodlines is rated the same as Metroid Prime 3. Yippie.
08/01/09
07/31/09
07/31/09
07/31/09
Probably more polished and refined controls as was said on the Witcher website. The combat was completely revamped for the console port to be more action oriented and not just click.....click....click.
07/31/09
I guess I just don't see it as a console game, not for the combat reasons, but mainly for how the game was designed. If they can pull it off, more power to them, but I don't see how it would be "better" than the PC version. Diablo and Morrowind are good examples of RPG's ported that didn't do quite as well on the consoles as they did on the PC.
07/31/09
07/31/09
07/31/09
This.
07/31/09
07/31/09
Now, I'm not saying artistic expression = boobies. However, being able to include adult situations (and even nudity) when appropriate is really telling of the level of freedom that's accepted.
I look forward to the day that some shmuck on a "news" show tries to bash the next big game because it has adult situations, and everyone laughs it off just as quickly as we (as a gaming community) laugh off that kind of thing right now.
07/31/09
Is this shame I feel real? ;_;
07/31/09
Er.........ಠ_à²
PS.I miss those little fishies ^_^
07/31/09
@Curse_Lily: our country's high moral standards
07/31/09
@TaylorEatWorld:
07/31/09
@Curse_Lily:
Something about high moral standards is going on here?
07/31/09
i WAS gonna post goatse but that's just WRONG....even with "our country's high moral standards"....
07/31/09
@icepick314: WHOOOOOOA! we don't need to go that far.
07/31/09
@Curse_Lily:
wait...i fogot about this G-Rated goatse...
07/31/09
*laughter explosion*
07/31/09
07/31/09
By the way I love the Kotaku NSFW Fish.
07/31/09
07/31/09
07/31/09
lolz.
promoted for truth
07/31/09
07/31/09
07/31/09
07/31/09
*Takes a bow*
07/08/09
Any news on that or did I just miss the memo?