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Agony Arrives on Consoles in May

  • punkyliarpunkyliar289,607
    Posted on 23 April 18 at 10:04
    A horror title determined to justify its PEGI rating

    Please click here to read the story: Agony Arrives on Consoles in May

    Credit goes to PsychicChicken for this story
  • Darklord1899Darklord1899537,316
    Posted on 23 April 18 at 10:15
    I am sure Maximum games produced the terrible Dead Alliance. Also the produced the terrible road rash rip off. I would wait for a review before parting with any cash for this game. This game could be the one that breaks the mold or it could be disappointing.

    I am in the wait and see camp.
  • Posted on 23 April 18 at 10:22
    Meh also learned that the console versions are a bit censored for getting in line with pg ratings. Pc version is completely uncesored. 😑
  • fabick7fabick7868,075
    Posted on 23 April 18 at 10:26
    Sure you can wait to spend your money, but with maximum only being the publisher, not the Developer it looks great tho
  • Necromorph11Necromorph111,312,165
    Posted on 23 April 18 at 10:39
    GsA Dragonheart said:
    Meh also learned that the console versions are a bit censored for getting in line with pg ratings. Pc version is completely uncesored. 😑
    this is really sad.from what I've seen so far the game looks great
  • Posted on 23 April 18 at 10:49
    Necromorph11 said:
    GsA Dragonheart said:
    Meh also learned that the console versions are a bit censored for getting in line with pg ratings. Pc version is completely uncesored. 😑
    this is really sad.from what I've seen so far the game looks great
    Apparently they've censored out babies being eaten and some of the nudity and sex.
  • Posted on 23 April 18 at 12:39
    The game looks pretty scary. I remember someone playing a demo or something a year ago and I thought it looked really good.
  • BloodGodAlucardBloodGodAlucard2,361,756
    Posted on 23 April 18 at 12:41, Edited on 23 April 18 at 13:19 by BloodGodAlucard
    HuwCW87 said:
    Necromorph11 said:
    GsA Dragonheart said:
    Meh also learned that the console versions are a bit censored for getting in line with pg ratings. Pc version is completely uncesored. 😑
    this is really sad.from what I've seen so far the game looks great
    Apparently they've censored out babies being eaten and some of the nudity and sex.
    If true, this is unforgivable. Censorship of any kind, especially in a game like this, ruins the experience. The entire point of the game is that it's in Hell. It's meant to be base, vile, and horrific. I hate that overly sensitive children masquerading as adults get to dictate what I experience. Hopefully it's not censored everywhere in the world and only in overly uptight countries like Australia with super strict ratings boards.

    Better for it not to be censored at all. It's a game for adults with a suitable rating indicating such. How pathetic is it that artistic integrity gets stomped on because of the rampant PC movement that is plaguing modern culture.
  • Darklord1899Darklord1899537,316
    Posted on 23 April 18 at 13:45
    Excellent a game to get for a quarter of its price in the Steam sales at Christmas.
  • elhocidelhocid478,492
    Posted on 23 April 18 at 14:26
    The news about censorship are complete failure of the developers marketing.
    Lot of games need to adjust some content to meet the rating requirement. But their developrs don't boast about being so hardcore that they had to be censored. And the fact that they decided to provide a patch to undo these changes is very unprofessional of them. Especially because they admitted that the censored parts never appeared in any promotional material they published.
    I seriously wanted to buy the game, but after such amateurish mishandling of communications I have no confidence in their competence.
  • Shiny PidgeyShiny Pidgey341,928
    Posted on 23 April 18 at 16:46
    Some people here have it twisted. The game had to be edited because the ESRB gave it an AO rating. While selling games with that rating is perfectly legal, all three major console manufacturers refuse to host AO content on their storefronts, and so does Steam. The reason for this is that the rating is almost exclusively used for games that are straight-up pornographic. Only a small handful of games recieve the rating for violence, and it has to be very extreme over-the-top violence. That's not even what happened here, the developer clearly says they had to remove some sex and nudity. In other words, there was (what the ESRB decided was) essentially porn in the game, beyond regular nudity. Apparently there was some violence against babies that was removed as well, but this is the crux of it.

    The developers are releasing a patch for the PC version that restores the missing content. This is the same workaround used for porn games on Steam. You can't get it on console because unofficial patches and fan-created content isn't allowed on consoles, partly to prevent exactly this.

    It's a shame when art is censored, but I have a feeling this is a publicity stunt. Most developers would have never explained the problem and just quietly tweaked the content. Instead, these guys are being very loud and public about it to spark a debate about censorship and get a buzz going with their game at the center. It's similar to what the Hatred devs did. Hopefully, this game ends up being more entertaining than that boring edgy-for-edginess's-sake pile of garbage.
  • BloodGodAlucardBloodGodAlucard2,361,756
    Posted on 23 April 18 at 17:24
    But that's an issue that needs discussing in the gaming industry. It's stupid to have an adults only rating if it's never utilized. I can understand the argument why Microsoft and Sony wouldn't want to have games with those ratings when you had to go to stores to buy games physically. But with digital distribution now so widely used, there's no logical reason why AO games shouldn't be allowed on the platforms. They allow the sell of unrated directors cuts of movies. They don't outright sell porn on the marketplace. But they could.

    If you're confident in your age restriction settings on your console it's dumb to exclude a potential market because some of the public is overly sensitive. Or you're concerned about negligent parents buying adult content for minors. Adults should have the right to have access to this content on their consoles if they choose. Just my opinion.

    I realize I'm probably in the minority, but I'm strongly against censorship. It doesn't matter the reasoning. So it's annoying to see things like this happen. Not just with this game but in general.
  • Facial La FleurFacial La Fleur1,647,016
    Posted on 23 April 18 at 19:11
    BloodGodAlucard said:
    If true, this is unforgivable. Censorship of any kind, especially in a game like this, ruins the experience. The entire point of the game is that it's in Hell. It's meant to be base, vile, and horrific. I hate that overly sensitive children masquerading as adults get to dictate what I experience. Hopefully it's not censored everywhere in the world and only in overly uptight countries like Australia with super strict ratings boards.

    Better for it not to be censored at all. It's a game for adults with a suitable rating indicating such. How pathetic is it that artistic integrity gets stomped on because of the rampant PC movement that is plaguing modern culture.
    This.
  • HerrKätzchenHerrKätzchen1,085,593
    Posted on 23 April 18 at 20:45
    HuwCW87 said:
    Necromorph11 said:
    GsA Dragonheart said:
    Meh also learned that the console versions are a bit censored for getting in line with pg ratings. Pc version is completely uncesored. 😑
    this is really sad.from what I've seen so far the game looks great
    Apparently they've censored out babies being eaten and some of the nudity and sex.
    Fvck that then.
  • CPCrookedManCPCrookedMan921,942
    Posted on 23 April 18 at 20:45
    BloodGodAlucard said:
    But that's an issue that needs discussing in the gaming industry. It's stupid to have an adults only rating if it's never utilized. I can understand the argument why Microsoft and Sony wouldn't want to have games with those ratings when you had to go to stores to buy games physically. But with digital distribution now so widely used, there's no logical reason why AO games shouldn't be allowed on the platforms. They allow the sell of unrated directors cuts of movies. They don't outright sell porn on the marketplace. But they could.

    If you're confident in your age restriction settings on your console it's dumb to exclude a potential market because some of the public is overly sensitive. Or you're concerned about negligent parents buying adult content for minors. Adults should have the right to have access to this content on their consoles if they choose. Just my opinion.

    I realize I'm probably in the minority, but I'm strongly against censorship. It doesn't matter the reasoning. So it's annoying to see things like this happen. Not just with this game but in general.
    The current political climate of "my poor feelings" must suck for you then. laugh Though I agree wholeheartedly, I will be picking this up regardless. Better to have loved and lost...
    "Only when you allow someone else to define your success do you truly experience failure."
  • Shiny PidgeyShiny Pidgey341,928
    Posted on 23 April 18 at 21:29
    BloodGodAlucard said:
    But that's an issue that needs discussing in the gaming industry. It's stupid to have an adults only rating if it's never utilized. I can understand the argument why Microsoft and Sony wouldn't want to have games with those ratings when you had to go to stores to buy games physically. But with digital distribution now so widely used, there's no logical reason why AO games shouldn't be allowed on the platforms. They allow the sell of unrated directors cuts of movies. They don't outright sell porn on the marketplace. But they could.

    If you're confident in your age restriction settings on your console it's dumb to exclude a potential market because some of the public is overly sensitive. Or you're concerned about negligent parents buying adult content for minors. Adults should have the right to have access to this content on their consoles if they choose. Just my opinion.

    I realize I'm probably in the minority, but I'm strongly against censorship. It doesn't matter the reasoning. So it's annoying to see things like this happen. Not just with this game but in general.
    I am strongly against censorship as well, but what's happening here is not censorship. Nobody has forced the developer to change anything in their game, and the game wasn't refused classification or banned from sale. The ESRB does not differentiate between porn and very extreme content, which is a failing in their rating system, but an understandable one considering how often it comes up (almost never).

    Every store, physical or digital, has an undeniable right to choose what they do and do not sell. Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, and Valve all have decided not to sell games rated AO by the ESRB becauase they don't want to sell pornography, which is what most titles given that rating are. They've also decided not to sell content not rated by the ESRB for similar reasons (though I believe Valve is more open about this). The developers understood this going in, and understood how the ESRB works, and since they still arrived at this outcome, the only options are that they did it on purpose and aimed for an AO rating, or they disagree with the ESRB about how extreme the content is. They made the decision to change the content because they wanted to sell the game on platforms that otherwise wouldn't allow it. No government decision was involved in this, nobody stopped them from selling the game independently on PC, and nobody is stopping them from offering the decensor patch either. We don't consider our music censored because places like Walmart choose to sell the edited versions of albums, or our movies because TBS airs an edited version or some theaters refuse to show specific films.

    We're lucky in the US because the ESRB is not a government agency, and the they are more lenient with their ratings than other countries' ratings boards. Consider that games in Australia are rated more harshly, or that games in Germany are actually truly censored by the government.
  • BloodGodAlucardBloodGodAlucard2,361,756
    Posted on 23 April 18 at 21:41
    You can call it what you want, it's still censorship if an artist's creative vision is to present one thing and then has to alter it in any way for any reason. It's stupid that it works that way. But at least the PC version will be authentic. It just sucks we have to accept a neutered version on Xbox.

    I still want to play the game. I think it looks fantastic. But going in with this information will negatively stain what will likely be a very enjoyable experience.
  • Posted on 23 April 18 at 21:44
    Normally I would not say much on the subject of game censorship (because in the past things rarely affected how they were made overall in my opinion). However, depending on how "Extreme" the items in question were, can they really be considered worse than what was shown in Dante's Inferno? I thoroughly enjoyed Dante's Inferno for what it offered at the time, did not think it need to be censored and feel this one should have been fine as it was in that regard as well.

    Again, this is not knowing to what "extreme" this game was in terms of comparison to DI.
  • Shiny PidgeyShiny Pidgey341,928
    Posted on 23 April 18 at 21:46
    The creators didn't have to alter it, that's the point. They chose to.

    For what it's worth, I also wish we had the unedited version on Xbox, and I do agree that there should be some consideration for games like this, which recieve an AO rating for reasons other than being smut (at least presumably, I haven't seen the cut content myself but given the aesthetic of this game I highly doubt its particularly sexy).
  • Shiny PidgeyShiny Pidgey341,928
    Posted on 23 April 18 at 21:51
    Faithful Freak said:
    Normally I would not say much on the subject of game censorship (because in the past things rarely affected how they were made overall in my opinion). However, depending on how "Extreme" the items in question were, can they really be considered worse than what was shown in Dante's Inferno? I thoroughly enjoyed Dante's Inferno for what it offered at the time, did not think it need to be censored and feel this one should have been fine as it was in that regard as well.

    Again, this is not knowing to what "extreme" this game was in terms of comparison to DI.
    Supposedly the cut content included "sex" and "eating babies." No idea how the latter stacks up to what's in Dante's Inferno, but I do think tone and realism are a factor as well, this game is much less action-y and more realistic looking

    With regards to "sex" in thr cut content, I can only assume this means erect penises and/or on-screen vaginal penetration. The shown content already includes some visible oral sex, breasts, and unpenetrated vaginas.
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