GamesCom 2009: One of the first previews we saw today at GamesCom 2009 here in Cologne was with Sega and Rebellion to check out how the new Alien versus Predator is coming along and to get a look at the Alien campaign, which Rebellion is only just unveiling. It was during this sneak peak that we got a chance to see a game feature that some people might object to – some rather gory suicides.
The event happened during a hands-off presentation of the game, where we saw a developer play as an Alien and try to harvest some civilians for the Alien Queen, which is done by dragging their living bodies to nearby facehuggers. One slippery civvie spotted the approaching Alien however and ran off to a nearby weapons store, which the player entered just in time to see the civilian shout some swearwords at the Alien before blowing his brains out very graphically.
“Civilians will commit suicide with whatever comes to hand,” said a Sony producer who was on hand during the private presentation. “That includes guns and even grenades. The idea is they are scared and they know that fighting you is useless.”
Suicide is just one of the more brutal and gory elements of the new Alien versus Predator it seems and we got a chance to see some incredibly gross and bloody fatalities too, with fountains of blood gushing out of Marine as they got their throats torn out. We’re not normally the squeamish sort of course, but even to us the level of blood seemed excessive.
We caught up with Rebellion’s Head of Art and Design, Tim Jones, a bit afterwards and quickly put the question of tastefulness to him when it comes to such gory suicides and he explained that it was something that just came with the territory of the franchise.
“People would do anything to avoid going through the Alien birth ritual,” said Jones – and you can catch the rest of our interview with him in the near future.
The level of violence did bring an element of irony to the presentation though, with a Sega spokesperson saying that there were no current plans to tone down the gore and that, though Sega would present AVP to the famously strict German USK rating body, they weren’t confident that the game would be given the all-clear for a German release. Just as well all the German journalists got a chance to see it today, we suppose.
What’s your opinion on suicide and gore in games? Let us know your thoughts in the forums.
The event happened during a hands-off presentation of the game, where we saw a developer play as an Alien and try to harvest some civilians for the Alien Queen, which is done by dragging their living bodies to nearby facehuggers. One slippery civvie spotted the approaching Alien however and ran off to a nearby weapons store, which the player entered just in time to see the civilian shout some swearwords at the Alien before blowing his brains out very graphically.
“Civilians will commit suicide with whatever comes to hand,” said a Sony producer who was on hand during the private presentation. “That includes guns and even grenades. The idea is they are scared and they know that fighting you is useless.”
Suicide is just one of the more brutal and gory elements of the new Alien versus Predator it seems and we got a chance to see some incredibly gross and bloody fatalities too, with fountains of blood gushing out of Marine as they got their throats torn out. We’re not normally the squeamish sort of course, but even to us the level of blood seemed excessive.
We caught up with Rebellion’s Head of Art and Design, Tim Jones, a bit afterwards and quickly put the question of tastefulness to him when it comes to such gory suicides and he explained that it was something that just came with the territory of the franchise.
“People would do anything to avoid going through the Alien birth ritual,” said Jones – and you can catch the rest of our interview with him in the near future.
The level of violence did bring an element of irony to the presentation though, with a Sega spokesperson saying that there were no current plans to tone down the gore and that, though Sega would present AVP to the famously strict German USK rating body, they weren’t confident that the game would be given the all-clear for a German release. Just as well all the German journalists got a chance to see it today, we suppose.
What’s your opinion on suicide and gore in games? Let us know your thoughts in the forums.
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