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House of the Dead: Overkill stirs up trouble down under

by David Hinkle on Mar 19th 2009 5:10PM

We all know how much swearing there is in House of the Dead: Overkill. There's a world record-setting amount. For some reason, though, the game has no warning about said language in its Australian classification of "MA15+ Strong Horror Violence" -- and some people are understandably upset. Do the people responsible for classifying games down under even play them?

Pro Family Perspective director, Angela Conway, is leading the charge against Sega's game, calling for research into the impact of violent video games on players. She says players will be affected by the amount of "sexually aggressive violence and aggressively violent language" found in the game. Wait, what? We think she got her adjectives mixed up. Shouldn't it be sexually aggressive language and aggressively violent violence? That doesn't sound right either ...

Source - House of the Dead: Overkill lacks language warning
Source - Australian watchdog group protests House of the Dead: Overkill rating

Tags: australia, cursing, cussing, foul-language, headstrong-games, house-of-the-dead-overkill, Nintendo, oz, sega, shooter, Wii

Reader Comments (30)

Advanced adjective use should be reserved for professionals only.

http://photos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-snc1/v1835/183/81/57137226160/n57137226160_1575313_4249.jpg

that pic was epic win

I cant get enough of that pic.

BxGT, thank you for sharing that. I was about to post a curse laden and hate filled rant directed at the prudes in Australia, but that made me laugh so hard I forgot why I was so mad in the first place!

Ugh. Would someone honestly say "Fudge you zombie!"? These people who complain to protect kids need to grow up themselves.

I'm not sure why anyone would cuss AT a zombie, really.
Not like they'd understand anything other than "Uhhhh Uhhhh" and possibly "Uhhhhhhhhhh"...

Just like people curse at inanimate objects and pets.

I scream obscenities at them all the time, particularly when one of those little bastards sneaks up behind me and starts chomping at my neck.

And really, I'm too busy screaming to think about whether or not my obscenities are directed at the zombie, or just my natural reaction to becoming a snack.

"sexually aggressive violence"

so, after you shoot the zombies, you rape them?

I read a zombie love story once. It had a bittersweet ending.

Ay mate, Mop! This Angela is quite a dag, ain't she? Sounds as cross as a frog in a sock she does! She's a real crank whacka, but who knows she might just make me crack a fat!

"sexually aggressive violence" is when you kill those fucking zombies.

Maybe you have a boner when you kill them.

man people need to grow up.
the way i see it there is a age rating on a game for a good reason.
if a game is a 18 that means no one under 18 must play it and if kids happen to there hands on a 18 game blame the parents end off.
or if parents are so worried about kids and videos games dont buy them a gaming system endoff.
rant over. =]

This problem pops up in Australia all the time though, as their highest rating for a games is MA15 (appropriate for those aged 15 and over). If the Aussies would just add one more age range (18+), 90 percent of these stories would disappear.

But no, Attorney-General Atkinson has this bizarre idea that because video games are so dangerous, anything rated over 15 shouldn't even be allowed in the country, let alone sold to meticulously checked adults.

"Do the people responsible for classifying games down under even play them?"

Kinda of an ironic statement, considering that the people responsible for classifying games up over here don't.

Their mom's are classy ladys!

God, how I HATE oversensitive people regarding games.

I think the real victims here are the zombies. They shouldn't be exposed to this kind language at such an early age in their afterlives.

My question is, who are these people that are saying "Oh strong horror violence and an MA-15+ rated game are fine for me/my child, but the "fuck"-word is just taking it too darned far!"

This is pretty much exactly what I thought.

It'd be one thing if it were a PG rated game that didn't mention that it had swearing, but a game with zombies, boasting about horrendous violence, blood and death, with a BIG RED STICKER on the front that says it's inappropriate for children?

Harden the fuck up, Australia.

So fucking what? Fucking words are going to fuck up your kids?

And the game isn't aimed at kids, anyway, so these parents truly have nothing to complain about.

I think it's halarious

I also like the automatic shotgun.

I heard Justin McElroy talking about how great this game was on the most recent podcast and it got me interested. Seems like a good shoot-em-up party type of game.

Yeah, I'm getting bold enough to pick it up despite my backlog. Have a zapper and a perfect shot via a few xmas gifts and need to put them to good use. I was amazingly surprised that RE:UC actually turned the zapper into a compelling experience, but it did. Not enough for me to buy the game, but I keep hearing even better things about Overkill. Probably only a matter of time, but you'll have to let me know. Haven't played anything on my Wii, so this might be a fun change of pace.

Motha FUCKAS! Or should it be done like SLJ in the Spirit? "Motha F-*BOOOOOM*

Seriously, they should just have an adult rating and be done with it. Instead of restricting the adult games to adults, they tweak them slightly so they can be sold to kids. It's ridiculous.

Whoever wrote the caption for the zombie pic is a genius.
ROFL

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House of the Dead: Overkill stirs up trouble down under

Reader Comments (30)

Posted: Mar 19th 2009 5:16PM Courtney said

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