LucasArts slams E3's "ultra-violent" trailers, Star Wars 1313 is "mature" but "not for psychopaths"

I agree with him entirely. One of the things that really leapt out of me about E3 was regardless of context the violence seemed unrelenting even in franchises that had never been particularly about violence. Yes, many of the games show cased were expected to have a certain amount of combat but it was the constant focus that just seemed to elevate it to a fetish. And I know I'm not alone, one of GamesRadars writers did an entire opinion piece on how not only the amount of violence but the reaction to it left him needing a shower:

http://www.gamesradar.com/e3s-constant- ... irst-time/

Hmm, two sides here. I saw was action in action games, and I'm pretty sure they're violent. I didn't see the tomb raider demo, or assassins creed - but AC is about murdering people anyway. Halo 4 was very Halo-y, call of duty the same old story, though Splinter Cell is being stupidly action oriented for a stealth game. Is it the up close gore that he's on about? I suppose that's a tad overused.

But really - what's wrong with setting tigers on fire in a game? I'm pretty sure he just murdered a whole bunch of humans prior to it, killing humans is fine but tigers? Nuh-uh (wags finger). Hell, if you're going to shoot robots in our new star wars game it's not violent at all. Well sir, I know who skynet is going after first.

The action parts sell games, so I'm told in regards to Splinter Cell, so it seems only logical that trailers show off bombs and gore etc to sell too. Unless we should show off what the game is really about, I mean, god forbid they do that for Splinter Cell, Hitman, Assassins Creed.

Edit: I've just been trying to get my humour in better lol.

For me Bezza the problem was the way the violence was portrayed. As you say you are always going to get action in action games, but this year there was a definate shift from action to violence to ultra-violence. Too much slow mo so you could see it in full glory, too many up close kills showing blood sprays or exploding heads and franchises like Tomb Raider that have always had action switching to violence (there is a difference)

The unending barrage just ended up feeling like I'd watched some psychos personal fetish video rather than a collection of games.

The Transformers: Fall of Cybertron E3 trailer wasn't "ultra-violent", even if it did have Jazz and Grimlock and co going to town on the combaticon Bruticus.

He does have a point though, Tomb Raider was violent, a game I was on the understanding that it was just a slighty more violent version of Indiana Jones. Speaking of which why does she need a tragic backstory? What's next aliens?

I mean what's wrong with "the bad girl of Archeology"? Oh wait that doesn't sell well to teenages unless it's violent.

For me Bezza the problem was....

Yeah I know, I couldn't get my point across well, I was saying you have these games like Halo, CoD, Gears and AC3 being violent etc, we know they are and let that slide. Then you have bits like TR, Splinter cell etc all games that we expect to be different, and genre wise they're not quite, they're coming out with these batshit crazy trailers and demos trying to sell more games. I'm saying 'god forbid they show what the game is really about', I fear that they are though. That article is good that you linked, about audience reaction. I hate audiences... they lap up anything.

Yeah he has some interesting things to say.So much so some of the games he mentions i won't be bothering with at all.There was some like Beyond:Two souls he didn't mention,that if anything like Heavy Rain won't contain much killing at all.He also sort of answers his own question about they think they are showing the best couple of mins. of the game in the trailer.That might not be the case in the full game and in something like Dishonoured it is something you can steer away from altogether if you want.That's what makes me sad for SC amongst other things.

Christ. All these developers slinging their stupid opinions around is starting to look like a list of articles based on stupid peoples youtube comments. Hideo Kojima starts on about storylines in games being unneeded. (The RPG Community would be non-existent without story, since there would be no good RPGs without it.) Then Christoph Hartmann looses off a few stupid views on photo-realism. (Despite the success of his companies own Borderlands, and challenging none other than Notch, the man who made crap graphics fun.) Bobby Kotick of Activision decided to have a go (But no one listened because of certain heinous crimes on account of the mauling of the mainstream FPS market by a certain Franchise), and now people are getting their teeth stuck into gore in video games.

Now I'm just waiting for someone to open their big mouth and declare that cars in racing games are unnecessary.

@ Zack135

I'd recommend reading the article again and the article Cunning posted, its not just about gore but the way violence is portrayed and received.

I'm in agreement that (from what I've seen) E3's focus on extreme, personal violence is far more disturbing than it is exciting or entertaining. The trailer for FarCry 3 has actually put me off the game and I've bought all the others and enjoyed them.
For me the most unsettling part was the end of the "The Last of Us" trailer, I was enjoying it until the shooting started, and the ending execution was just horrible, it genuinely sent shivers down my spine (I believe the article says similar).

Funny though that Gears never invoked the same reaction in me, perhaps its because it was so over the top?

Thing is the last of us is post apocalyptic so not much different to Fallout 3 really.Fair enough the F3 trailer didn't show that violence but then it doesn't show any gameplay.But you can do similar things in F3 as you can in the last of us gameplay wise.Plus i would have thought anbody would have considered that the last of us trailer wouldn't show everybody sitting around drinking cups of tea.

The thing with Fallout is that it's always been like that, with the "Bloody Mess" perk it's more on the lines of "black humour".

That Last of Us trailer at the end was just violent for sake of being violent.

The thing with Fallout is that it's always been like that, with the "Bloody Mess" perk it's more on the lines of "black humour".

That Last of Us trailer at the end was just violent for sake of being violent.

Yeah i wasn't knocking F3 being one of its number one fans.But what is black humour about VATS targeting somebodys head and blowing that off or legs or arms.My point being if the world ever came to the devastation of post nuclear it would be a lawless,out for yourself world.Plus if it is an adult game that is what you expect adult content.As in being an adult which is tough and hard work and when the way real life is actually,slaps you around the face.

Plus i pretty much think the last of us will be like that a lot of the way through,like both Fallouts.Because that would represent the lawless out for yourself world that the surviving in a post apocalyptic world would require for your survival.

I agree they didn't all need to be that violent.AC used to be that you could kill no one but your target in the early ones if you wanted to.That amongst other things has put me off getting it just the same as SC.FC 3 might be in context not fully knowing the story but for me the last of us fits the context of trying to survive real life which is already harsh sometimes but would be 100 times harsher given those circumstances.

The trailer for FarCry 3 has actually put me off the game and I've bought all the others and enjoyed them.

How so? The whole idea of the game is that the intense violence undergone by the protagonist is sending him insane (or not as the case may be, plot twists and spoilers etc), it's obviously a major plot point, it drives the game really assassins creed with the assassinations being brutal and you then talk to them whilst their throats are slit somehow, it's part of the game rather than gratuitously displayed for effect.

Also, one could argue that the last of us is showing off how violent and brutal the post apocalyptic landscape is, with kill or die decisions, though having not seen the trailer it might have changed camera angle to a close up headshot (like in blacklist) - that's bad, that's silly, but I see nothing wrong with blood appearing if you shoot someone (brains is taking it another step, but could work if it is repulsive and encourages the player not to perform such actions) - or would we rather nothing happened, they just died randomly with no injuries. I don't care for naughty dog, so I hope they're on the bad side of the fence.

The last of us trailer shows him ramming one guys head into a sideboard a couple of times so no different to Conviction then.Then when he gets the shotgun off another bloke and shoots him in the head while he is on the floor.No close up and just a bit of blood.Thing is ND have explained since that was because your character got heard by one of the blokes and the ensuing noise attracted those in other rooms.But point out you don't have to play it like that it's not scripted.Trouble is stealth is a niche genre now so they aren't going to show a boring vid. of sneaking around.The direction SC and AC have taken prove that.Plus is it coincidence that three of them are Ubi. games.

It depends on context, it doesn't seem right to be in blacklist or tomb raider, but if the last of us is more about the horrors of post-apocalypse then akin to the book of eli/mad max we can expect violence to be prevalent in the game, just like assassins creed as mentioned.

Yeah Bezza i agree it doesn't belong in Tomb Raider,but then we don't know the context that might be the only few mins. in the game. Plus Tomb Raider is usually about killing endangered species instead.

The way SC has gone is wrong i won't be buying it.But then what did we expect after Conviction.

I would just like to clarify that i didn't mean stealth was boring.

How so? The whole idea of the game is that the intense violence undergone by the protagonist is sending him insane (or not as the case may be, plot twists and spoilers etc), it's obviously a major plot point, it drives the game really assassins creed with the assassinations being brutal and you then talk to them whilst their throats are slit somehow, it's part of the game rather than gratuitously displayed for effect.

I think the parts that put me off were the close-up knife kills, they just seemed a little over the top. You can knife people in plenty of games but not many fill the screen with their face while you ram a knife through it. But like you say, perhaps the context justifies it. I think the article Cunning posted sums it up much better than I can, I'd recommend reading it.

The problem I (and a few others) had with The Last Of Us trailer was not so much the violence but heartless way in which it was done, the last guy begs for his life (I know its not real, but its doing a damn good job of portraying it) before the protagonist shoots him dead anyway. Apparently at that point the E3 crowd whooped and cheered, if you watch the trailer you'll see why that comes off a bit sour. But again perhaps context justifies it and there is the option in that game to sneak around everyone, hardly E3 trailer material.

I can't really comment on the Croft stuff because I never really played the others, but the platforming bits looked like much more fun than the shooting bits. And as for Blacklist I've completely given up hope with it and couldn't give a monkeys!

Its important that games keep moving forward and being able to tackle complicated issues is a big part of that (in The Last Of Us killing seemed to make you the bad guy) but most of what I've seen just comes off as gratuitous violence and that doesn't help anyone.

(I'm probably just reitterating a lot of what has already been said, just incase you feel like you've read all that before!)

Did you see that Skyrim gameplay video with the crowd begging people to kill one of the deer?

Did you see that Skyrim gameplay video with the crowd begging people to kill one of the deer?

Yeah but that is Yanks for you Wild West and all that.Brought up from an early age to kill anything that moves in the forest hence hunting season.That even includes school mates etc.Not normal really and their gun laws stink.

I think the parts that put me off were the close-up knife kills, they just seemed a little over the top. You can knife people in plenty of games but not many fill the screen with their face while you ram a knife through it. But like you say, perhaps the context justifies it. I think the article Cunning posted sums it up much better than I can, I'd recommend reading it.

The problem I (and a few others) had with The Last Of Us trailer was not so much the violence but heartless way in which it was done, the last guy begs for his life (I know its not real, but its doing a damn good job of portraying it) before the protagonist shoots him dead anyway. Apparently at that point the E3 crowd whooped and cheered, if you watch the trailer you'll see why that comes off a bit sour. But again perhaps context justifies it and there is the option in that game to sneak around everyone, hardly E3 trailer material.

Yeah I've read the article, it's about audience reactions and frankly, it's an american audience (mainly, 90% probably) - and if there is any audience who woop and holla at people doing anything, it's american audiences. I think if we're getting offended by audience reactions is a bit silly, it's not as if you're that person, you're just more ashamed to be labelled within the same group really (Royal we/you, not personally you). The fight or die thing I mentioned doesn't seem to be applicable for TLofUs, I'm sure 99% of people would chose not to shoot if the guy begged for his life (take fable, kotor, we're all good canonically and then evil for a laugh).

Personally, I see far cry as a story about the constantly challenged psyche the protagonist goes through killing in such brutish ways, his coping ability and the whole insanity thing are very much within the context, and like you I don't play the other games so can't comment, but if it's within context there's no problem. There's no context for splinter cell imo, they've ruined it.

I agree with him entirely. One of the things that really leapt out of me about E3 was regardless of context the violence seemed unrelenting even in franchises that had never been particularly about violence. Yes, many of the games show cased were expected to have a certain amount of combat but it was the constant focus that just seemed to elevate it to a fetish. And I know I'm not alone, one of GamesRadars writers did an entire opinion piece on how not only the amount of violence but the reaction to it left him needing a shower:

http://www.gamesradar.com/e3s-constant- ... irst-time/

Ummm these are about war and killing of course their suppose to be violent I believe every war game should have realistic gore. GOW is a little overboard & Halo & COD have no where near enough if you guys are to squeamish play crash Bandicut or Sports games.
And anyways Don't you watch violent movies

I agree with him entirely. One of the things that really leapt out of me about E3 was regardless of context the violence seemed unrelenting even in franchises that had never been particularly about violence. Yes, many of the games show cased were expected to have a certain amount of combat but it was the constant focus that just seemed to elevate it to a fetish. And I know I'm not alone, one of GamesRadars writers did an entire opinion piece on how not only the amount of violence but the reaction to it left him needing a shower:

http://www.gamesradar.com/e3s-constant- ... irst-time/

Ummm these are about war and killing of course their suppose to be violent I believe every war game should have realistic gore. GOW is a little overboard & Halo & COD have no where near enough if you guys are to squeamish play crash Bandicut or Sports games.
And anyways Don't you watch violent movies

You completely contradict your own point (I assume you were trying to make one) by saying that GoW was overboard. That's exactly what we are talking about, the level of violence at this years E3 was over done. It wasn't necessary and had been shoe horned into game franchises that had never been about violence before. Tomb Raider especially is a game about problem solving, not close ups of throating slitting in slow motion.

And violent movies are rarely blood thirsty. Leaving out torture porn like Hostel (and please god can we leave it out) violent movies rarely focus on the violence. Look at most of The Stath's films for example and tell me how much actual blood you see? Most people are shot and fall over with hardly any actual damage to their bodies.

More violence please. I wanna see someone get a gastric-bypass with a shopping cart full of rusty chainsaws!!!!!!