 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 | ||||
Internet brokers get the market minnow... Epic tale of love, rivalry and stock opt... Amazing merger of man and machin... Apple aims to reclaim its special place ... The Net prepares to virtually raise the ... Big crackdown on counterfeit softwar... Hi-tech bid to beat mosquito diseas... Who cares if it's never used - bloatware... What to do when upgrade fever strike... Bogus e-mail on the Interne... Believe it or not, Porsche has style but... New CD holds 800 times more dat... Torture chambers and grisly assassinatio... Tips and tweaks to help you to the roo... Learning to have some serious fu... Helping children improve maths spee... The cutting edge of fashion technolog... E-mail that will make you sit up and lis... Mobile PC users get performance boos... Everything you need to get connecte... Helping you to get started on the Intern... |
Torture chambers and grisly assassinations feature in the new generation of games. STEVE BOXER argues that age classifications need more attention than everImpale, maim and crush: It's all in funGORY days are here again. You used to know where you stood with violence in computer games - until now it has generally confined itself to Hollywood B-movie levels in which your heavily armed character would reduce any nearby monsters to quivering masses of blood and gore.Such excesses are disturbing enough. But now a new generation of games revelling in vastly more esoteric forms of violence is waiting in the wings. Activision's Tenchu casts you as a ninja who must carry out a string of assassinations. Beneath its innovative gameplay, which puts the emphasis on proceeding with stealth and avoiding detection by enemies, lies a chillingly violent streak - you can sneak up on targets from behind and cut their throats, or break their backs, and any close combat is marked by copious bloodletting. Virgin's Thrill Kill, a saga set in a torture chamber, features several misanthropic characters such as a dominatrix with a whip, a straitjacketed character who can only bite, head-butt and kick his opponents and a dwarf who uses a pair of stilts as an offensive weapon. If you nail the special moves in Thrill Kill, your character is more likely to rip his opponent's head off than launch a stylised lightning bolt. The gameplay of Interplay's Wild 9 concentrates on giving you the means of dispatching enemies in inventive ways. You can pick monsters up and drop them into rotating fans, hold them underwater until they drown, or crush, burn, impale, decapitate or disembowel them. Messiah, also developed by Interplay, will create even more of a stir. It involves possessing characters (including prostitutes) and making them kill themselves in gruesome ways. This rise in the diversity of game violence is explained by the relentless forward march of technology. As game graphics improve, it is becoming possible to make characters act in more "sophisticated" ways. But it is becoming more important than ever to pay attention to age classifications awarded to games that your children would like to buy. The European Leisure Software Publishers' Association, set up to ensure that the games industry does not bypass the certification processes set up in Europe, does not think that there is any trouble brewing. The association's Roger Bennett says: "Of the 3 000 games released last year, only five percent needed to be classified. "Eighty-five percent of all games published are suitable for all ages. Computer games have a much higher age profile now than there has ever been. Therefore it is inevitable that some people will require more adult material." This is fair enough as long as retailers are scrupulous about withholding 18-rated games from youngsters (Tenchu is 18-rated), but Thrill Kill and Wild 9 belong to genres that traditionally appeal to young gamers. There have been classification wrangles before, most notably involving SCi's Carmaggedon, a driving game that allowed its protagonists to mow down pedestrians. The British Board of Film Classification refused to give the game a certificate, so SCi created a version that substituted green-blooded zombies for the original red-blooded human pedestrians. Then it appealed against the board's decision and won an 18 certificate for the original version. SCi is taking no chances with its forthcoming Carmaggedon II: Carpocalypse Now. Two versions - one 15-rated with green-blooded zombies and one 18-rated with red-blooded humans - will be made available to retailers and the choice over which to stock left to them. The industry's mantra says games are escapist and fun, and don't lead to copycat violence in real life. Bennett says: "The latest research conducted in the UK stated clearly that imitation of computer and video games is hardly a problem.
There is no question that games are beginning to depict violence in ever-more-graphical and realistic terms. Consequently, it's more important than ever to keep a close eye on the age classifications that all but the most inoffensive games are required to carry. Games are about providing their players with the ability to carry out the sort of antasy activities that simply wouldn't be possible in real life. And that includes activities that are far beyond the boundaries of the law. - © The Telegraph, London Top of page
|