Time to Make Giblets in Germany with Half-Life X-RATED
You know what we take for granted in North America? Giblets. Half-Life broke the mold for the first person shooter in storytelling, graphics, and watching someone get sucked up into a Barnacle and then spew his meaty bones all over the place. The rest of the world was laughing and enjoying shooting peaceful scientists in the face in 1998 – except for one little industrious country – Germany.
After 19 years, Half-Life‘s entry in the list of censored games in Germany has been “prematurely” removed according to German reports, allowing the publisher to release uncensored versions of the shooter in the country’s region and language. We’re sure Valve is thrilled to finally release this long-awaited 1998 game.
Germany has been known for heavily censoring video games, including creating a “banned” list of games. Fines and jail time have been enforced on games that violate these rules. For example, Germany outlaws the use of symbols of unconstitutional organizations (read Nazis, sorry Call of Duty: WWII fans). In the official lists, these three sections are always bundled, so any game that contains swastika flags and/or any depiction of Adolf Hitler is listed alongside racist propaganda pieces. Half-Life doesn’t have to worry about that, they just have to worry about realistic people getting smashed up into giblets. But Germany fixed that! Changes made for the German version include human enemies being replaced by robot soldiers, Barnacles spewing bolts and screws (from the robot soldiers – smart, Germany), and friendly NPCs sitting down on the floor with a disappointed look on their face upon being shot. You would be sad too if you were shot in the face.
Germany has censored other popular franchises, even banning certain games such as Call of Duty: Black Ops and Fallout 3. But thank God they finally recognized that Half-Life is a good game 19 years later and were kind enough to allow their gamers the full experience.
Now they just have to work on lifting the censorship on Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One and Half-Life 2: Episode Two and probably by that time, Half-Life 3 will have a release date.