If you have the Collector’s Edition of Silent Hunter 5 you may have noticed some “offendeing World War II-related symbols” in the bonus content. This may seem fine and well considering the game is a submarine sim, but not in Germany. Ubisoft has issued a recall for the German version of this game due to the above mentioned problem and the fact that it violates German law.
While there was no mention of what exactly these symbols were we’re going to go out on a limb and assume they were swastikas.
via bluesnews
Having recently announced that the Xbox 360 Elite would be getting a price cut to $299, it would only make sense that Microsoft would then announce a new, higher end model.
Well, it seems that a recent listing on Amazon.de (Germany’s Amazon) has notified us of just that, an Xbox 360 with a 250GB hard drive, Forza Motorspot 3 and 2 wireless controllers all for the price of €280 or about $379.
While the listing has since been pulled, I think it’s safe to assume that Microsoft will announce an Xbox 360 Uber Elite leading up to Forza Motorsport 3‘s October 27th release date.
via engadget
Back in May we saw Braid dated for a Mac release but have yet to hear anything about it hitting the Playstation 3. Well today, it seems that the Xbox Live Arcade title will be getting a Playstation 3 release after all as it has recently been listed on German’s USK website.
As you can see above, the document clearly states that Hothead Games’ Braid will be made avaialble for Sony’s Playstation 3.
Unfortunately, this is all we have to go by for now, we won’t know an official release date or price point until Sony comes forth and gives us one.
via Joystiq
It’s no surprise that Germany’s recent banning of games such as World of Warcraft and Counterstrike would cause an uproar in the gaming community — It seems that a group of German gamers have banded together to form a formal protest against the government’s recent decision.
Said group formed a march 400 strong who paraded through Karlsurhe to show their hatred towards the government’s “war on videogames”. But that’s not all, Destructoid reports that 3 more protests are planned to happen simultaneously on July 25th.
Furthermore, there is an online petition that has formed that hopes to reach 5,000 signatures because if it does, officials are required by law to rethink their banning of such games. Will this be enough? Let’s hope so because I mean honestly, how can you ban Counterstrike?
Want to help out? The online petition is located here.
It seems Germany is at it again, this time setting their eyes upon Valve’s extremely popular Counter-Strike series. Legislation was recently passed that now makes it illegal to play Counter-Strike in public.
This has led to the cancelation of Germany’s Convention-X-Treme LAN event which is sure to discourage the mass of German gamers. Furthermore, Destructoid is reporting that World of Warcraft has also been banned from public play.
What’s next, Germany, Halo?
Though on occasion films like Valkyrie point out that there were some Nazis who opposed HItler’s racist ideology the fascist group is a popular punching bag for the media. Set a war movie in Vietnam or Korea and it’s impossible to escape the political and social ramifications of those conflicts, yet when you set a film in the European Theatre of World War II you’ve got an instant clean conscience for most viewers.
It seems the Nazi movement lives on to this day and not just in the thuggery and ignorance of Neo Nazi skinheads, but in a legitimate political party in Germany. Recently a German ex-politician was arrested for supposedly threatening the Nazis via a protest poster on a website. The poster depicts the classic hero Bomberman holding aloft a cake with a burning fuse and text that reads “No cakewalk for Nazis.”
While I doubt many people would lose sleep over actual violence being perpetrated against a group that still clings to such outmoded, racist beliefs which ultimately culminate in genocide, they still have legal rights and protections under the laws of civilized nations. Ironically if the sort of fascist government that Nazi Germany had was still in place violence against Nazis might go unpunished.
A Microsoft spokesperson told Edge Magazine that Microsoft has no plans of releasing Gears of War 2 in Japan or Germany. No clear reason was given as to why the game will not be released in Japan. The game performed very well in the East, selling over 33,000 copies in the first week alone. In addition to this, USK, Germany’s software rating organization, has declined to give the title a rating.
Read (Edge)
