The game’s rousing soundtrack was recorded by a session orchestra (at Abbey Road, no less), not some guy with a synthesiser, and if you’ve ever wanted to make your office feel less like a rat race and more like a military junta, you can grab it on iTunes right now for $US10.

Killzone 2 Soundtrack Released On iTunes [PlayStation]

Of course, the game doesn’t call it torture. I think the term they use is “extreme interrogation tactics”. But when is something “interrogation” over “torture”? Is it just how badly you beat somebody up, or does it matter what you’re trying to get out of the person/NPC?

In Brink, this is what happens: You’re playing as a military operative in a futuristic setting. During a firefight, you sneak behind enemy lines and happen upon an injured rebel writhing on the ground. An option pops up, prompting you to press X to interrogate the guy and it looks like if you select it, your character pulls out an iPhone-iish device. Your character then shocks the heck out of the guy until he screams, “Okay! I’ll talk!” Then your objective screen updates and a new icon appears on the map.

In the grand scheme of violence in video games, it’s not graphic. It’s actually similar to what happens to Snake in the first Metal Gear Solid when Revolver Ocelot has him strapped spread-eagle style and shocks him (as the player, you press buttons to Resist or Submit—Submitting kills Meryl and I couldn’t hit that button fast enough). The difference in Brink is that my character is doing it to someone else. So on a gut level, I don’t want to call it torture because I’m the “good guy”, right?

But then there’s the Punisher game with interactive torture. That’s torture because I think the game goes so far as to call it so, but as a player I’m comfortable with it because I’m playing as the Punisher. Yeah, he fights for justice, but he’s not what people would call a “good” guy. So it’s okay for me as a player to play as him torturing somebody because that’s what the Punisher would do—never mind what I would do. Besides, they were probably bad people who deserved it anyway.

Now think about Red Faction: Guerrilla where you’re playing on the side of a rebel faction. Like Brink, it’s a wartime situation and gaining information is crucial to the success of missions. In one scene, explored by Stephen Totilo, an NPC sidekick “interrogates” somebody for said information. With knives. Is that torture? If you’re not sure, apply the same line of questioning to Killzone 2 when Rico gets a little “extreme” when interrogating an enemy.

To confuse you even more on the subject of torture, think about situations where it’s not about information—it’s about control. For example, there’s the Grand Theft Auto: Vice City mission, Death Row and the Ransom mission in Grand Theft Auto IV. In both cases, somebody is deliberately hurting someone else for revenge or just because they’re violent by nature. That’s really easy to spot as torture—but at the same time, in GTAIV, you’re playing as Niko, the guy that hits a woman tied to a chair and then takes a picture of her. You don’t really want to call that torture, do you? It’s easier just to play it down as no big deal or write it off because it’s not an interactive part of the game—so “you” didn’t torture anybody.

Lastly, let’s talk about torture being inflicted on you, the player. In these cases, you probably wouldn’t think of what you’re going through as “torture”, (unless it’s a Saw game), but by definition, a game is deliberately inflicting suffering on you. Example: Missile Command. The game is about mutually assured destruction in the Cold War era, but at the same time, it’s a psychological exercise that tortures the player: by design, you cannot “win” Missile Command. Sure, a lot of early arcade games were un-winnable—but by forcing the player to realise that no matter how good you are at the game, no matter how many quarters you sink into it, you cannot save six cities from a nuclear holocaust, the game is deliberately messing with you. A more obvious example of mental anguish inflicted on the player would be Fable II—because it’s not just that your character is being electrocuted, it’s that you’re losing all of that XP you gathered and racking up evilness (which is torture to a goody-two-shoes gamer like me).

So what’s really going on in Brink? When I zap the guy with my iPhone-looking device, am I committing torture or just “extreme” interrogation? I didn’t see an option to just question the guy before shocking him. I’m not sure if there were other ways to get the information that the subject had. I do know that if the game actually called it “torture”, I’d be way less inclined to play as that class of character. For me, that would be the worst kind of torture: role-playing as a character that I want to play as benevolent, and then being forced to do something I’m not okay with because the game has other ideas about where the line between torture and interrogation lies.

P.S. You want the line clearly drawn? Check this game out.

Image Cred — GTAIV
Image Cred — The Punisher
Image Cred — Fable II
Image Cred — MGS

Before you say anything, yes, we know Metal Gear Solid 4 has been out in select PAL territories for months now. Guess it’s now out in more territories.

Killzone 2 plays a big part in tomorrow’s PlayStation Home update, with the launch of the Visari Throne Room bringing with it a ton of new Killzone 2 items you can use to make you feel more at home in Home. Along with the influx of Killzone 2 merchandise comes the Post-Apocalyptic Apartment, guaranteed to make your high-tech virtual presence look more like a total dump. The update includes more than 70 post-apocalicious items dedicated to this new apartment alone. You can almost taste the radiation poisoning.

For those of you preferring to spend your time in PlayStation Home as a transient, there’ll also be animated city t-shirts to help show off your civic pride, and animated glow sticks to help show off your love for animated glow sticks.

It’s a veritable cornucopia of worthless virtual items you can spend money on! I’d point and laugh, but I frequent Second Life and have no room to talk.

Over 100 New Pieces of Content Releasing This Thursday in PlayStation Home [PlayStation Blog]

Killzone 2 for $49.95? Sold!

Other notable specials over at the Gamesmen right now include Need For Speed: Undercover (360) and Prince of Persia (360) for $30, the Guitar Hero: Metallica PS2 guitar bundle for $100, Wipeout Pulse (PSP) for $10 and—bizarrely—the Frontlines: Fuel of War PC collectors edition for $40.

If you’ve spotted any good gaming deals, let the Bargain Hunter know now via the usual address.

This compendium will be called the – wait for it – “Map Pack Bundle”, and will sell for $US12. It’ll include not just everything that comes with “Napalm & Cordite”, but everything that came with “Steel & Titanium” and “Flash & Thunder” as well.

It’ll be made available tomorrow, as part of the same PlayStation Store update that’ll bring “Napalm & Cordite”.

Killzone 2 DLC “Napalm & Cordite” and Map Pack Bundle Releasing Tomorrow [Sony]

Showcased are the Suljeva Cliffside and Arctower Landing maps, plus the two weapons that give this downloadable content its name. Official release date via the PlayStation.blog is July 23rd in North America. Make the necessary digital wallet preparations while enjoying video game trailers after this.

Killzone 2 Napalm & Cordite; The Weapons pack [PlayStation.blog]

It’ll introduce two new maps, “Suljeva Cliffside” and “Arctower Landing”, along with two new weapons (well, new for multiplayer), the flamethrower and boltgun.

The DLC will also be accompanied by a new patch for the game, the features of which we’ve listed below. The update will be out on July 14, while pricing and release info on the DLC will be released next week.

* Feature – Higher values for Bodycount mode. Players can now create games with 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 50, 100 and 200 points to increase the time of the mode for 32 player games.
* Feature – Moderators can now create double-points events.
* Fix for persistent squads now working correctly when users using separate Japanese accounts join Friends.
* New loading screens.
* Moderation – Additional powers and functionality for online moderators.
* Fix for Clan Leader leaving his clan before an active Tournament of Clan Challenge.
* Fix for score replication on different clients.
* Fix for a Clan Challenge results displaying a won/lost games as a ‘Draw’.
* Fix for incorrect Tournament timings being displayed for (semi)-final.
* Fix for an empty message pop-up being displayed.
* ‘High Precision Mode’ now defaulting when requested.
* Fix for stuttering audio on the Asian version.
* Fix for network error displayed when trying to log in with another users account.
* Fix to reduce network traffic and improve performance.
* Fix for occasionally being displayed an empty background when ‘Join Friend’ via Communications tab.
* Exploit – Pyrrhus Rise map boundary fix.
* Exploit – Radec Academy collision fix to prevent players being revived inside a pillar and using it to their advantage.
* Cosmetic fix for Medic Gun visual effects.
* Cosmetic fix for Search & Retrieve object being cloaked by the Scout.
* Cosmetic fix for Scouts body remaining cloaked after being mortally wounded (i.e. headshot).
* Gameplay – Damage from Sentry bots tweaked back on request of the community.
* Collection of minor code fixes.

Reader Corey sends us this list of trophies for the game, which were updated today to include mention of stuff not previously spoken of by Sony or Guerrilla. It appears there’ll be two new maps – “Suljeva Cliffside” and “Arctower Landing” – along with two new weapons, a Boltgun and a Flamethrower.

No idea on when these will actually appear, or how much they’ll cost, but if they’re turning up on official trophy lists, they can’t be too far away.

Sent in by a Best Buy employee, and confirmed by other BB employees, it’s an 80GB PS3 bundled with copies of two of the biggest games on the system: Metal Gear Solid 4 and Killzone 2. All that for the asking price of a standard PS3, $US400.

It’s one hell of a bundle. It’s like getting a Wii with Twilight Princess and Mario Galaxy, or a 360 with Gears 2 and Halo 3. But perhaps more importantly, it’s also one hell of an offer; perhaps Best Buy need to clear out their stock of 80GB PS3s for oh, I don’t know, a new PS3?