Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number reworking sexual assault scene included in game’s current demo
Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number no longer contains the sexual assault scene included in game’s current demo as the developer Dennaton Games is re-working it.
Speaking with RPS, the scene in question was part a demo shown to the press and has received criticism over the playable character Pig Butcher tossing a woman down before dropping his pants.
According to the RPS interview, the female in question was the only one shown in the demo, and after the pants dropping bit, a “director” came onto the screen telling her to act “utterly horrified in a more girly way,” – insinuating the scene was a fake one.
“We were really sad that some people were so affected by it, because maybe they had been through something like that of their own,” said the firm’s Dennis Wedin. “Maybe they had a terrible experience of their own that was triggered by the game. That was not intentional at all. We didn’t add the scene just to be controversial. There is a meaning to these two characters. There’s a lot more to them than just this scene.
“We removed it for the demo. We’re going to work with it, see if we can fix it. You get a bigger picture when you play the whole game, which is lost in the demo of course.”
Wedin said these two characters come back later in the game and the player will learn more about them.
“There’s also gonna be playable female characters – a lot more of them in the final game,” he said. “She’s the only one in this demo, so I understand why people got so upset. But there’s gonna be a lot more to these characters.
“The idea for the opening Pig Butcher scene came from a friend who played the original Hotline Miami and saw it as a horror game. That isn’t really how we see it, but we thought it was pretty cool. We wanted to explore the idea that people can see the game different ways – what it’s all about.
“So for this game, we thought it would be cool to examine that idea. Show how some other people saw the game, like if we gave them the ability to do a remake of the first game. That’s why we did the whole movie director [angle].”
Wedin went on to say that the developer’s reasoning behind the assault scene was due to it being a “trend in horror movies,” which tend to take the next step up with sequels.
“So almost doing that with the illusion of an assault but then having the game stop you, that’s us saying we’re not going to go the whole way,” eh said. “That’s not Hotline Miami. That’s not what we’re about. So instead, it just stops.”
Wedin said the team will see how people react to the reworked scene when the whole game is tested, when it can be presented in full and “in a good way,” instead of provocative.
http://www.vg247.com/2013/09/05/hotline-miami-2-wrong-number-reworking-sexual-assault-scene-included-in-games-current-demo/
AI War, Shattered Haven and more in latest Humble Weekly Sale
The latest Humble Weekly Sale stars Arcen Games, and includes four pieces of the developer’s back catalogue for whatever you care to pay: Tidalis, A Valley Without Wind, A Valley Without Wind 2, and AI War: Fleet Command, which includes all five DLC packs. If you cough up more than $5.80, you’ll also score newer released Shattered Haven and the brain-melting Skyward Collapse along with its brand new expansion Nihon no Mura. All titles come with soundtracks, and all are cross-platform for Mac and PC. As ever, proceeds are split at your discretion between developer, charity and organisers.
http://www.vg247.com/2013/09/06/ai-war-shattered-haven-and-more-in-latest-humble-weekly-sale/
Stoic On Using Kickstarter Again, TBS Factions’ Future
Viking caravans might be slow, methodical machines, but they make their arrival worth the wait. By mercilessly slaughtering all who oppose them. I’m mostly certain that won’t be the outcome of The Banner Saga‘s impending arrival, but I don’t like to make assumptions. What I know for sure, however, is that Stoic isn’t just tossing chapter one out in the cold and leaving it in permafrost while time passes it by. The series will continue marching onward, and another go at Kickstarter definitely isn’t out of the question.
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/09/05/stoic-on-using-kickstarter-again-tbs-factions-future/
StarCraft 2 Project Blackstone files released for public eyes
Back earlier in the year around the launch of Heart of the Swarm, something strange was going on in the depths of Blizzard’s website. Something called Project Blackstone appeared, but required a password to access. Finally, what was going on behind closed doors has been revealed to public eyes, as the files for Blackstone have been declassified.
I should probably point out about now that Blackstone isn’t a new game, but an in-universe story about Mengsk and his experiments on Zerg and Protoss. The story is told through a variety of logs, notes and Twitter conversations (apparently the social network is still very popular in the year 2505, at least among Dominion science teams). All 41 logs have now been ‘declassified’ by the Dominion and are now available for public viewing. In other words: Blizzard have made the whole story available on the Blackstone website, no password needed.
If you’d rather not play along and search through the Twitter feeds of the entire science team, you can read a concise summary of the events on the StarCraft Wiki. But where’s the fun in that, eh?
http://www.pcgamesn.com/starcraft/starcraft-2-project-blackstone-files-released-public-eyes
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