Saturday, March 12, 2011

Bulletstorm: Worst Game in the World?

Over this past console generation, video games have been following a big budget trend. Millions of dollars are dumped into developing pretty graphics and a focused style while gameplay is becoming more scripted and cinematic. "Bulletstrom", released Feb, 22 by Epic Games and People Can Fly is a stylized gore feast for the eyes.

What separates "Bulletstorm" from the multitude of other linear action games is the creativity of the extreme violence the user is encouraged to partake in. The developers have implemented a "skillshot" system that rewards the player points based on the creativity of his shot placement and kills. If you shoot someone in the butt, the words "Fire in the Hole"cascade and you get extra points, if you kill multiple enemies in a single explosion, you are awarded with "Gangbang". You are basically awarded for playing with your prey. It almost feels as they want me to play the game as I would have played a shooter such as "Goldeneye" as a kid with my friends after getting out of class; immaturely. Frankly, it's an absolute blast.

"Bulletstorm" never once takes itself seriously and has been applauded for it's humorous, satirical story line and racy dialog. Not all critics have been happy though. The always "fair and balanced" Fox news went on to label "Bulletstorm" as "The Worst Game in the World". According to a resident expert, the tying of violent acts to sexual innuendo in the skillshot system influences children to rape people. Thats right, even in complete absence of any data or scientific studies the bold claim that video games increase chances of rape is made. On contrary, many scientific studies show little to no correlation between real life violence and violence in the virtual world.

Epic Games made no comment when Fox attempted to question them, but released a statement on their own blog shooting down Fox's claim. They also released sales data of "Bulletstorm", ironically revealing a major spike in sales after the controversy. I guess that according to Fox, we are all sadistic rapists in training.

1 comment:

  1. I think its funny that Fox news brought that up because when I saw "gangbang" I really thought it was pretty over the top that this game was using a sexual innuendo in that way. But thats the thing about Bulletstorm, its not meant to be taken seriously. Fox has sorta missed the joke here and doesnt see the total absurdity of this game. I mean, just look at the name of the game. Bulletstorm? They could have called it explosion typhoon or something crazy like that. This game was not supposed to be anything but absurd so I think Fox should loosen up.

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