Games that are "worse" than those that get media coverage for it

[Cryomancer]

I was thinking about how the media sure loves to shit on games nowadays, how the political types are using it to get votes, etc. Granted this has been going on for years now, and before games it was rap, heavy metal, dungeons and dragons, jazz, books, etc; but I've noticed that they are of course only targeting games that have huge sales numbers as well. Of course this makes sense for their strategy, as they want the IT MAY ALREADY BE IN YOUR CHILDREN'S HANDS scare tactic, but cmon guys, if you are REALLY out to protect the kids, you're leaving the truly "bad" games un-mentioned.

Anyway I figured this thread could be a list of games far worse than what the media concentrates on. Here's what I thought of right away:

Mortal Kombat was a huge deal, Eternal Champions was not.
Illbleed has never been freakin touched by campaigns like this.
Neither has the recent Leisure Suit Larry game.

I know Death Race was a big deal when it came out, but what about Chiller?

[njiska]

Doom always gets the blame, Duke Nukem is always a foot note.

Counterstrike is a centerpiece but America's Army get's forgotten.

Super columbine Massacre gets blugeoned, but pretty much all of newgrounds is never touched.

[diskoboy]

I know Death Race was a big deal when it came out, but what about Chiller?


Actually, alot of arcades did refuse to carry Chiller. But it didn't get too much press. The game wasn't all that great, anyway. Plus it was a game that came out during the great crash - any game during that time got generally ignored..

And Time Killers was more violent than MK, and got ignored. Probably because it sucked, too.

[BocoDragon]

Super columbine Massacre gets blugeoned, but pretty much all of newgrounds is never touched.

That one is particularly interesting.

I'd chalk it up to the fact that RPG maker lets you make a self-booting exe, which fools a lot of pundits into thinking it's a real bonafide game... while newgrounds and its ilk are.... the internet.. obviously fan-made tasteless junk, right?

[jajaja]

GTA gets covered, but not Mario and Zelda. You probly kill more enemies in these 2 games. Hehe ;)

Seriously tho, did Soldier of Fortune 1 and 2 get any big media coverage? I did once see it was mentioned in a program about videogame violence tho. The SoF games are probly the most violent FPS games when it comes to details. You could shoot arms and legs of people, shot pieces of their skull off so you can see the brain etc. Crazy stuff, but great FPS games. SoF 2 was really funny online (no gore there tho). Any news on SoF 3 btw?

[Clownzilla]

All of the arcade gun games didn't ever get press. Time Crisis taught kids to kill people with guns (sarcasm). I am surprised these games didn't get a beating just because of the guns.

[8-bitNesMan]

I thought that State of Emergency would be a big target back when it was released, but all the political opportunists seemed to give it a pass. I guess the fact that it was a crappy bomb saved it from being a leftist target.

[njiska]

GTA gets covered, but not Mario and Zelda. You probly kill more enemies in these 2 games. Hehe ;)

Seriously tho, did Soldier of Fortune 1 and 2 get any big media coverage? I did once see it was mentioned in a program about videogame violence tho. The SoF games are probly the most violent FPS games when it comes to details. You could shoot arms and legs of people, shot pieces of their skull off so you can see the brain etc. Crazy stuff, but great FPS games. SoF 2 was really funny online (no gore there tho). Any news on SoF 3 btw?

Google Soldier of Fortune and British Columbia.

[Graham Mitchell]

All of the arcade gun games didn't ever get press. Time Crisis taught kids to kill people with guns (sarcasm). I am surprised these games didn't get a beating just because of the guns.

You'd think Target Terror would be even more of an opvious whipping post, since the characters look as much like real people as possible (you're even shooting young women in that one!) Maybe because they're TERRORISTS Eugene Jarvis and co. get off easy.

[jajaja]

Google Soldier of Fortune and British Columbia.

I see. I did get some coverage, but i only find info that it was related to the rating of the game. What about in the news? Was it like GTA?

[njiska]

I see. I did get some coverage, but i only find info that it was related to the rating of the game. What about in the news? Was it like GTA?

Only over the banning. Not much else. Really kind of muted. Then agaian games never make big headlines here. We didn't have the kind of shit after Dawson that happened after Vtech.

[skylark]

There are plenty of non-blockbuster games that get bad press. Mark Ecko's Getting Up got a lot of attention in New York and I remember some terrible KKK FPS internet thing that got some attention as if it were actually something people wanted and played. There was also that JFK assasination game a while back. Carmageddon wasn't a huge blockbuster, either.

Although I think it's getting a little better, most critics don't understand games or the people who play them well enough to distinguish a blockbuster from some piece of interactive trash on the internet.

[Gentlegamer]

And Time Killers was more violent than MK, and got ignored. Probably because it sucked, too.haha, I played Time Killers via Mame the other day for nostalgia . . . yeah, it is a poor game, but it's pretty funny too!

[roushimsx]

Rule of Rose seemed to get jack shit for negative press. Being a sub-average game and getting published by Atlus (as opposed to Rockstar, EA, Ubi, etc) probably helped.

[Push Upstairs]

What about BMXXX.

[j_factor]

I don't recall The Immortal ever being controversial at all, and it's pretty gory, especially the Genesis version.

Also, that one FMV game for PC... I think it was called Harvester? I remember thinking that game went way too far.

[Chadt74]

How about War Gods? That game tried to be more brutal than MK, but because it pretty much sucked it never got much press. Funny thing was Midway also made this one! Some how this got released on the N64 but I'm not sure how much they toned down the blood as I have never played it outside of the arcade.

[njiska]

How about War Gods? That game tried to be more brutal than MK, but because it pretty much sucked it never got much press. Funny thing was Midway also made this one! Some how this got released on the N64 but I'm not sure how much they toned down the blood as I have never played it outside of the arcade.

Significantly if i remember.

[Neil Koch]

There's a reason most of the games in this thread haven't gotten any press... they're average to horrible.

There are a ton of games more violent/sexual than the current "poster boys" like GTA, but if they're off the general public's radar, neither media or politicians are going to talk about them because they won't have any sort of resonance for their audience.

[njiska]

There's a reason most of the games in this thread haven't gotten any press... they're average to horrible.

There are a ton of games more violent/sexual than the current "poster boys" like GTA, but if they're off the general public's radar, neither media or politicians are going to talk about them because they won't have any sort of resonance for their audience.

All i have to say to that is... Night Trap.

[LAGO]

All i have to say to that is... Night Trap.

And Custer's revenge don't forget that one.

[OatBob]

All of the arcade gun games didn't ever get press. Time Crisis taught kids to kill people with guns (sarcasm). I am surprised these games didn't get a beating just because of the guns.

They pulled through, somehow. Sega tried pulling the plugs on light guns with the Dreamcast in the US market as a fear of backlash as a result of the Columbine shootings. They never made their own light guns for the systems but published several games! Third parties stepped up and there are a small handful of them available.

This wasn't the only instance of them avoiding unwanted negative media attention. Sega cancelled a fully developed game called "Propeller Arena" because with airial combat in urban settings, people can crash into buildings, and with the September 11, 2001 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11%2C_2001) tragedy... well, you get the idea. Fortunately, a final development copy was given to the dev team, and one managed to stream out to eBay, where the highest bidder dumped and shared the disc image, and honestly, its one of the best Dreamcast games.

[njiska]

They pulled through, somehow. Sega tried pulling the plugs on light guns with the Dreamcast in the US market as a fear of backlash as a result of the Columbine shootings. They never made their own light guns for the systems but published several games! Third parties stepped up and there are a small handful of them available.

This wasn't the only instance of them avoiding unwanted negative media attention. Sega cancelled a fully developed game called "Propeller Arena" because with airial combat in urban settings, people can crash into buildings, and with the September 11, 2001 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11%2C_2001) tragedy... well, you get the idea. Fortunately, a final development copy was given to the dev team, and one managed to stream out to eBay, where the highest bidder dumped and shared the disc image, and honestly, its one of the best Dreamcast games.

RE: Survivor. One of the worst games affected by the great US media fear.

[roushimsx]

They pulled through, somehow. Sega tried pulling the plugs on light guns with the Dreamcast in the US market as a fear of backlash as a result of the Columbine shootings.

It's not like the Japanese gun was all that good to begin with. I was greatly disappointed when I got home with House of the Dead 2, loaded it up, and was stuck using....that. Yuck.

Anyone know if it's possible to convert a stunner to work on a Dreamcast?

[8Ways2Tuesday]

Rule of Rose seemed to get jack shit for negative press. Being a sub-average game and getting published by Atlus (as opposed to Rockstar, EA, Ubi, etc) probably helped.

I remember reading quite a bit about Rule of Rose being banned in some European countries, actually. But in the US - indeed, I can't say I remember any commentary.

[TheTrench]

Wasn't there some arcade game called Time Killers or something like that? It had way more blood than Mortal Kombat and never was a big deal.

[Cryomancer]

Do you guys think Persona 3 is going to be targeted by this kind of thing? For those who don't know, you release your character's personas by having them shoot themselves in the head. And apparently there's a dog character too.