Seems Sega know that the upcoming Aliens vs Predator is so violent, and packed with so much gore, that they’re not even going to bother submitting it to the USK, Germany’s classification board.

Rationale being that the USK, with a reputation for being sticklers for the ol’ killerspiel, would only force sweeping changes to the game, changes Sega didn’t want to part with, so they’re instead just going to save some cash and not bother localising or distributing the game in Germany at all.

Aliens vs. Predator: Too gory for Germany? [PC Games Hardware]

PC Games Hardware benchmarked both the uncut Left 4 Dead 2 and the censored German demo using to a 60-second demo sequence from the second chapter of “The Parish”. The sequence involves a ton of common infected as well as multiple Boomers and a Spitter. The setup: Radeon HD 5870 used to display the demo at 1680 by 1050 with maximum details, “4x MSAA and 16:1.” I can’t quote what that means exactly but “the setting is quite challenging for the CPU.”

Here’s what they found:

The direct comparison between cut an uncut version reveals huge differences in performance. It doesn’t matter if we use a dual-core E6600 or quad-core Q6600 processor, the less violent version of the demo runs about 40 percent faster that the uncut version. Furthermore the difference between the two uncut results (dual-core vs. quad-core) is bigger, too, what indicates a higher CPU workload.

This isn’t just a trivial difference, PC Games Hardware points out owners of the cut version may play on “uncut” servers. So, “a scene that lags in the uncut version might be running smoothly in the cut version — especially in Versus Mode this could make the difference between death and survival.”

That said, someone with a full version may also reduce the depiction of violence through the game’s command console.

Left 4 Dead 2: Unfair Performance Benefits with Cut Version? [PC Games Hardware via Blue's News]

I picked up the game for the 360 the other day so my girlfriend and I could play through “Angels of the Silences” from Counting Crows, but there were several other tracks that caught my attention. For instance, I secretly enjoy Fall Out Boy’s “Sugar, We’re Goin Down”, despite the fact that everyone else I know despises it. Fair enough. I start playing — alone — only to discover that some of the more colourful lyrics have been cut. For example:

Original Lyric: “I’m just a notch in your bedpost, but you’re just a line in a song”
Band Hero Lyric: “I’m just a notch…but you’re just a line in a song”

No bed post reference. Got it. Later on in the song I encountered this:

Original Lyric: “Oh don’t mind me I’m watching you two from the closet, wishing to be the friction in your jeans”
Band Hero Lyric: “Oh don’t mind me I’m watching you two from the closet, wishing to be the friction”

Jeans are also bad.

It isn’t just that song. I encountered several more edits, including this one my girlfriend pointed out from OK Go’ s “A Million Ways.”

Original Lyric: “one last eighty proof, slouchin’ in the corner booth”
Band Hero Lyric: “slouchin’ in the corner booth”

That song also removes a line about “another couple klonapin”, which given the previous edits is understandable. Perhaps this is why the game wasn’t called Game Heroine.

The point here is, when Activision says the game is family-friendly, they mean family-friendly. This is the price you pay for putting popular contemporary bands in a game and then aim for an E-for-Everyone rating. The silliest thing of all is these are songs that everyone has heard on the radio in their original form, so the edits are simply a disappointment for fans of all ages.

Performing the songs is still enjoyable, mind you. Especially when you imagine singing the missing lyrics loudly in the face of the game producer who thought editing our favourite tunes was a good idea.

According to a report on Reuters, NetEase – the company operating the game in China for publishers Activision Blizzard – have been ordered to “stop operating” the title, cease charging existing user’s accounts and block any new account registrations.

The GAPP claim that because of these supposed violations, the game lacks the necessary approval required to be run under China’s increasingly strict laws governing online video games.

This is the second time this year the game has been suspended in the country, with this move the latest blow in an ongoing struggle between the GAAP and the Chinese Ministry of Culture, which was behind last month’s bluster over foreign investment in Chinese online gaming firms.

Indeed, things are so messy between the two that it’s unclear whether the GAPP’s actions will even be enforced, with reports emerging that NetEase haven’t even been contacted by the GAPP, and that the Ministry of Culture have labelled the threats inappropriate.

NetEase, Activision caught up in China turf war [Reuters]
‘World of Warcraft’ Faces Goverment Crackdown In China [MTV]

On one side we have scaremongering tabloids allowing fearful lobby groups to voice their ignorance of the medium; on the other we have gamers ill-equipped with the necessary vocabulary to defend a brave developer.

Jane Roberts, president of the Australian Council on Children and the Media, told the Sydney Morning Herald that the images seen in the leaked footage of an MA15+ game would not be out of place on the evening news where, I might add, they could be viewed by people of all ages.

Roberts claims that Modern Warfare 2 is guilty of “promoting” terrorism, saying, “If that material was on the internet about how to become a terrorist, how to join a group and how to wipe out people – that would be removed because it would not be acceptable.”

She falls for the fallacy that to depict something is to endorse it.

Gamers claim that Modern Warfare 2 is just a game. It’s fantasy; it’s not real; you shouldn’t take it so seriously, they cry. Gamers, it seems, agree with Roberts’ view that it is “a product that’s meant to be passed off as a leisure time activity.”

Both perspectives are mindless. Both perspectives only trivialise the medium.

The debate demonstrates how immature the medium is when the argument is focused solely on the very inclusion of this content. Surely what’s worth discussing in Modern Warfare 2 isn’t the fact you play the role of a terrorist in a particular mission, but rather how Infinity Ward handles that scenario. Shouldn’t we be more interested in who the player is controlling? How is this scenario structured in terms of mission objectives? How complicit are we? What happens if we refuse to carry out those objectives? What are the fail states?

Let’s not forget that neither Roberts and the general public, nor indeed anyone outside of Infinity Ward, Activision and an exclusive coterie of games media have actually played the game in its entirety. Without knowledge of vital context, we can’t answer these questions. We can, however, address the broader issue of what such confronting, provocative scenes mean for the medium.

Activision says the mission “is designed to evoke the atrocities of terrorism.” Cinema has a rich history of taking viewers inside the minds of people who commit atrocities. As a more mature medium, film can portray serial killers, murderers, terrorists or just base thugs. As an audience we accept that such films aren’t automatically promoting these activities, but may in fact have something important to say about the human condition.

David Cage, president of Quantic Dream and currently working on the defiantly adult Heavy Rain, recently said: “As a game creator I have one very simple rule: Everything is allowed, no limits, as long as it makes sense in the story and is not gratuitous.”

Video games shouldn’t shy away from something just because it is unpleasant. Choose almost any game and one could describe a scenario that, at least on the surface, seems horrifying. In Cage’s own Fahrenheit, for example, one of the player-controlled characters is a serial killer who, in the opening scene, brutally murders another man in the bathroom of a restaurant.

The idea that the player is assuming another identity, stepping into the shoes of a virtual character is a challenging notion. The language we use to relate our in-game experience reinforces how blurry the distinction is between player and in-game avatar; we talk in phrases such as “I did this” and “I did that”. In Far Cry 2, for example, I shot a man in the legs then watched as he staggered away to collapse behind a tree. I pursued him, drew my knife and stabbed him through the chest.

Did I do this? Was I guilty of murder? No. But the brutality of the scene combined with the necessity of my actions – if I hadn’t killed him, he may well have killed me – heightened my emotional connection to the world, to the character and the themes the developers had intended. I understood the desperation of this place.

The emotional climax of BioShock arrives when you finally encounter Andrew Ryan. You realise you have no free will and have been blindly obeying whatever instructions you’ve received. Atlas asks you to kindly kill Ryan and, since you have no choice, you bludgeon him to death with his own golf club.

It’s a shocking, repulsive sequence. The player is forced to watch “himself” commit bloody, gruesome murder. But it serves a purpose. In context, the whole scene – especially the way direct control is taken away from the player – is crucial to understanding your character’s relationship to Ryan and the tragedy of his downfall.

Shawn Elliott asks, “Must we commit mass murder to appreciate the extent of its evil?” Perhaps not. But Infinity Ward, recent marketing cock-ups notwithstanding, has previously displayed a deft touch in presenting us with an intelligent and mature commentary on how war can affect us. Let’s play the game and hear what they have to say before we condemn them. Isn’t that what a mature medium would do?

Monday Musings is a regular column designed to get you thinking and talking about game design or an industry topic. I’ll be tackling a specific subject each Monday, so email me if you have any suggestions.

The aptly-named The Australian Version Thread over on the Steam community forums has an excellent summary of what’s missing from the local, censored edition of the game. Highlights include:

* No Gore: When you shoot an Infected to you see a small splash of blood. You will not see any “gibs” at all.
* No Blood Spatter: You will not see blood spattering on the screen.
* No Dismemberment: You cannot shoot or melee any limbs, including the head, off an Infected.
* No Corpses: As soon as they’re dead, Infected bodies will disappear.
* No Burning: Infected will not catch fire from, for example, a molotov. They will, however, still die.
* No Riot Cop: The “riot cop” Uncommon Infected will not spawn at all. In fact, if just one player on the server is running the Australian edition, the “riot cop” will not spawn at all.

Check this comparison video to see for yourself.

However, some clever types have worked out how to get around the censorship – at least in the demo that is now available. And it just involves a tiny bit of editing to two files. Click the images below to enlarge and follow the instructions here.

Now, bear in mind, this has only been tested on the demo at this stage. It may not work on the full version of the game when it is released in just over a fortnight. You also have to run the demo directly from its .exe rather than via Steam, which may result in some issues. You have been warned!

[Special thanks to Gary P and Brendan B for their tip-offs!]

Pre-loaders of the PC version over Steam found the file “borderlands_low_violence.ncf” in their download; it’s not a part of the North American version. When contacted about the file, 2K Australia said:

We have been talking to the US 2K team via email and working out how this happened/ what the next steps are to amend this via Steam. They’re working on clearing this up with Valve right now and know to ask how they will handle those people who have already d/l’ed the wrong version.

So, bottom line for Aussies: No content changes were made to receive classification, but this file does make the game “a wrong version”. 2K promises to have this cleared up by October 30 — three days after October 27, the game’s original unlock date for Europe and Australia.

Whew! Glad they’re hot on the case. Because, for real, seeing a level-18 bruiser’s face melt off, and his eyeballs pop out and roll down a flight of stairs after a critical shock sniper attack, is simply not to be missed. Not that I’m rubbing it in or anything.

Borderlands Accidentally Censored for Aussies on Steam [Ausgamers]

LEGO Rock Band’s support of Rock Band store purchases is limited to only those songs “identified to be suitable for all ages,” according to a press release.

“Those cleared songs are the only tracks that will appear within the LEGO Rock Band store for purchase. The LEGO Rock Band store will continually highlight any new family-friendly tunes that can be played across the Rock Band platform as they are released for Rock Band. ”

While I understand why Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and MTV Games might think this is a good idea (and maybe this is a ratings issue), shouldn’t they let parents make the decision on which music their children can listen to?

Songs included on LEGO Rock Band can be transfered to your hard drive to play on other Rock Band games for $US10.

Here’s your full listing of songs for the game due out on the Playstation 3, Wii and Xbox 360 this holiday. I’ve also listed out the 23 songs included on the DS version of the game.

PS3/Xbox 360 Version
All American Rejects, “Swing, Swing”
The Kooks, “Naïve”
The Automatic, “Monster”
KoRn, “Word Up!”
Blink-182, “Aliens Exist”
KT Tunstall, “Suddenly I See”
Blur, “Song 2″
Lostprophets, “Rooftops”
Bon Jovi, “You Give Love a Bad Name”
P!NK, “So What”
Boys like Girls, “Thunder”
The Police, “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic”
Bryan Adams, “Summer of 69″
The Primitives, “Crash”
Carl Douglas, “Kung Fu Fighting”
Queen, “We Are The Champions”
The Coral, “Dreaming of You”
Queen, “We Will Rock You”
Counting Crows, “Accidentally in Love”
Rascal Flatts, “Life is a Highway”
David Bowie, “Let’s Dance”
Ray Parker Jr., “Ghostbusters”
Elton John, “Crocodile Rock”
Razorlight, “Stumble and Fall”
Europe, “The Final Countdown”
Spin Doctors, “Two Princes”
Everlife, “Real Wild Child”
Spinal Tap, “Short & Sweet”
Foo Fighters, “Breakout”
Steve Harly, “Make Me Smile”
Good Charlotte, “Girls & Boys”
Sum 41, “In Too Deep”
The Hives, “Tick Tick Boom!”
Supergrass, “Grace”
Iggy Pop, “The Passenger”
Tom Petty, “Free Fallin”
Incubus, “Dig”
T-Rex, “Ride a White Swan”
Jackson 5, “I Want You Back”
Vampire Weekend, “A-Punk”
Jimi Hendrix, “Fire”
We the Kings, “Check Yes Juliet”
Kaiser Chiefs, “Ruby”
The Zutons, “Valerie”
Katrina & The Waves, “Walking on Sunshine”

DS Version
All American Rejects, “Swing, Swing”
P!NK, “So What”
The Automatic, “Monster”
The Primitives, “Crash”
Blur, “Song 2″
Queen, “We Are The Champions”
Carl Douglas, “Kung Fu Fighting”
Queen, “We Will Rock You”
Counting Crows, “Accidentally in Love”
Rascal Flatts, “Life is a Highway”
David Bowie, “Let’s Dance”
Ray Parker Jr., “Ghostbusters”
Europe, “The Final Countdown”
Spin Doctors, “Two Princes”
Good Charlotte, “Girls & Boys”
Sum 41, “In Too Deep”
Iggy Pop, “The Passenger”
Supergrass, “Grace”
Jackson 5, “I Want You Back”
Tom Petty, “Free Fallin’”
Kaiser Chiefs, “Ruby”
Vampire Weekend, “A-Punk”
Katrina & the Waves, “Walking on Sunshine”
We the Kings, “Check Yes Juliet”
KT Tunstall, “Suddenly I See”

State authorities said the games “encouraged players to engage in illegal activities such as drug trafficking and prostitution,” according to the Beijing News. The offending games were run from abroad and had not received permission to operate in China. Wait, so, CrimeCraft’s available in Chengdu? Wat?

Here’s my favourite detail. According to Agence France-Presse, “more than 200 online games had been investigated as part of the campaign, launched to coincide with communist China’s 60th birthday on Oct. 1.” Kotaku agrees that that is how you f—-in party down: Just start bannin’ the hell out of everything.

That gives me an idea. Oh, and, because I just got off the phone with someone from the U.K. I would like to say the following: “Chiner.” That is all.

China Launches Crackdown on Online Gaming [AFP on Yahoo! Tech, via Game Politics]