Mar 17, 2009

PC World: the most violent video games ever made

The list starts here.

The smorgasbord of titles is massively unsurprising (and thus, uninspired), driven largely by the amount of gory crimson bits to be found in the given game. The author inexplicably left out Condemned: Criminal Origins in favor of Condemned 2: Bloodshot, even though he cited a number of other games with all the sequels included. The omission is especially galling since the first game lacked all the queer magic-hurling of the second.

The original Condemned was unquestionably the most violent game I have ever played, even if it lacked the uber-gibs of a game like Doom 3. The timing-is-everything control system, the emphasis on melee combat with improvised weapons, and the audio feedback garnered from cranial impacts made every toe-to-toe encounter with a snarling crackhead stressful. Few other games have done so much to personalize every single instance of violence (I can't comment on Manhunt; I never bothered with it).

I never recall the visual bloodiness of a game once I've left it. It's the intensity of the dance that burns images in my brain.

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