The Censored Gaming Recap (19th - 25th September 2016)

Published: September 28, 2016 2:00 PM /

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censored-gaming

Welcome to the Censored Gaming Recap. In these articles, we take a look back at all of the latest happenings in the world of censorship and then round them up in a special weekly feature.

This time sees the world's first ever case of censorship being made to a virtual reality-based game, as well as info on how certain other VR titles have faced restrictions in some regions.


last-sniper-vr-1-censored-gaming

The censored VR title is a WW2 game entitled The Last Sniper VR. The game allows you to take the role of both Allied and Nazi soldiers and experience various iconic moments from the brutal World War.

It was the Nazi elements that led to the title facing censorship issues, courtesy of the German region's complete ban of many Nazi themes in video games.

last-sniper-vr-2-censored-gaming

One of these prohibited elements is any usage of the swastika symbol and, due to this, the game ended up being pulled from Steam in the German region. Shortly afterwards, the title returned, but with all of swastikas changed to the Iron Cross symbol instead.

One other part of the game came under fire, this being the title featuring the Nazi anthem "Die Fahne Hoch". This was replaced with the German national anthem, which was then also changed, following certain fans taking offense to this. The game now uses the marching song "Wehrmacht - Erika".

The title was released last month on Steam and these changes have been made only in the German region version.


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Moving on to some PlayStation VR related news, you may have noticed that the demo disc has much fewer games over in Europe, compared to the US. North America has a total of 18 titles, whereas Europe has only 8.

As reported by Digital Spy, a Sony spokesperson has explained that there are a few reasons for this and one of these is something that is very relevant to what we at Censored Gaming cover.

The Sony representative states that the difference is "due to several considerations specific to our region, for example, age rating and localisation".

Due to several considerations specific to our region, for example, age rating and localisation requirements, there is a difference in content between the US and European VR demo discs. We continue to explore the possibility of making further demos available for free download from the Store.
Now, the localisation point is likely to refer to translation and how Europe consists of countries with lots of different languages. The age rating point, though, appears to indicate that one of the stricter regions for ratings ended up affecting the entire territory, with Sony seemingly publishing one version for all European regions.

Here's a full comparison of the available games:

European demo

DRIVECLUB VR - Evolution Studios PlayStation VR Worlds - LONDON STUDIO. RIGS Mechanized Combat League - Guerrilla Games Tumble VR - Supermassive Games Battlezone - Rebellion EVE: Valkyrie - CCP Wayward Sky - Uber Entertainment Headmaster - Frame Interactive

US demo

Allumette - Penrose Battlezone - Rebellion DriveClub VR - SIE WWS Eve: Valkyrie - CCP Games Gnog - KO_OP Harmonix Music VR - Harmonix Music Systems Headmaster - Frame Interactive Here They Lie - SIE WWS Job Simulator - Owlchemy Labs PlayStation VR Worlds - SIE WWS Resident Evil 7 Biohazard: Kitchen Teaser - Capcom CO., LTD. Rez Infinite - Enhance Games Rigs Mechanized Combat League - SIE WWS Thumper - Drool Tumble VR - SIE WWS Until Dawn: Rush of Blood - SIE WWS Wayward Sky - Uber Entertainment Within - Within

Highlights include Europe missing titles such as the Resident Evil 7 teaser and Until Dawn: Rush of Blood, both being extremely graphic games.

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Until Dawn: Rush of Blood

That's all for this week, though, in this surprisingly VR-themed Recap. With the industry making a big push towards virtual reality, it's likely that this will be far from the last time we have to cover VR games.


To just bring up one more point that regular readers will be quite familiar with by now. NIS America's Criminal Girls 2: Party Favors has finally hit shelves in Europe, with the US release scheduled for October 11th. This means that we have been able to take a look at the game and compare the numerous changes made to the Western version's artwork.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jZkevQNj3M

You can see the full censorship report in the video above.


See you next week for more of the Censored Gaming Recap and please check out the Censored Gaming YouTube channel for more content on video game censorship! Or our Twitter account here!

Have a tip, or want to point out something we missed? Leave a Comment or e-mail us at tips@techraptor.net


EggRaptor
| Past Author

Censored Gaming is a former TechRaptor Contributor.