John-ShepardWhen Splinter Cell: Blacklist showed up at Microsoft's E3 press conference last year, people were a little surprised to see such vicious and brutal torture on display.
In the opening scene, protagonist Sam Fisher jams a knife into an enemy's throat and twists in a player-controlled segment that caused a great many eyebrows to rise. At the time, writer Tom Bissell came out against the content and said-
"We've arrived in a strange emotional clime when our popular entertainment frequently depicts torture as briskly effective rather than literally the worst thing one human being can do to another – yea verily, worse even than killing. I spent a couple days feeling ashamed of being a gamer, of playing or liking military games, of being interested in any of this disgusting bulls*** at all."
And now, according to Eurogamer , Blacklist producer Andrew Wilson has confirmed that the scene in question has been cut from the game. Wilson said that due to the "nature of E3," there are certain aspects of a game that are easier to demonstrate but in truth, that one segment was optional and not indicative of the stealth-oriented title. However, Ubisoft Toronto has scaled things back, which has involved cutting that torture scene:
" Definitely we are not going to see when the game's coming out that there are torture scenes in it. That scene is not there any more. I've not really heard anyone say they loved it… "
We imagine gamers have plenty to say about this.
Thanks, BikerSaint!
Related Game(s): Splinter Cell: Blacklist
Thanks for the shout-out John!
I say stop with all the $&^&$%^ censorship & give us the game as originally intended.
If you feel you have to do something to tame it down for super-sized sensitively-squeamish, then just add a "skip" button so that they don't have to partake in that little extra twist, just like what was done for COD Modern Warfare 2's airport massacre scene.
The dorks at the hearing today brought up that CoD scene specifically today asking "Where is the artistic value in killing innocent people?" As if they were real people.
Personally, I am fully aware of the difference between virtual killing and real killing. And I think pretty much all mature gamers are too.
That's too bad. Hate to see a creation cowtow to The Man. It's the curse of the creator to wonder if their creations have gone too far, but I'd never be ashamed of being a gamer. It's all pretend, but it's still important for free speech everywhere.
If someone is offended by a scene in a game, then
1. Don't buy it
2. It probably wasn't meant for your demographic anyway
3. Grow some balls
Dude, even coming from me… thats too much.
Too much?
I think he was spot on the money.
Screw all the haters.
How bad is it? There are plenty of torture scenes even on TV, with the show 24, being most memorable.
It was pretty bad but it was also in a video game, not real. If you don't agree with the material, fine, don't buy the f'ing game, I'm annoyed though these crybabies have now influenced the direction of a game I was really looking forward to and though it won't mean much in the long run, Ubi has lost a sale from me over this. I really hope Naughty Dog sticks to its guns with The Last of Us.
Guys, I know there's the whole creative freedom argument and all, but because video games are interactive and the player controls the violent actions of the digital person on the screen, I can kinda see why some people would be concerned.
If it were a skippable cut-scene, that's a whole different story. But being part of the gameplay that you control….
Yeah, I can see why there'd be concern.
Even for me, after playing Silent Hill 2, Resident Evil, Gears of War, Dead Space, Madworld, GTA, CoD, pretty much any violent game out there, I know where to draw the line, and that torture scene was tip-toeing the line.
I don't see a line…….
You can't call one scene violent, and be ignorant to the everything else, your either against video game violence, or not.
Personally, I say, violent games are fun, but yet, I will never hurt a fly and am a total pacifist. I say bring on the violent!
Isn't it interesting that most of these gun toting nut cases that go shooting up places are all mentally unstable. Doesn't that tell anyone anything?
Keep mentally unstable people away from violent things…. full stop.
isent this pretty much the same as all the interrogation scenes in conviction?
Can I ask my American brethren something.
All those politicians who cry their eyes out about violent video games, what do they think about the new gun laws? and guns in general?
Sigh… But the deaths in movies are 100% ok. I saw the collection the other day (i loved the first one but wtf was wrong with the second one) and there was nothing but senseless gore. That alone makes me shake my head at all these damn hypocrites. Extremely off topic but, this reminds me of people who get pissed about animals dying in a movie. Even though they don't really die, they get so mad and call the movie a piece of crap. But its 100% ok to kill off people.