OXCGN:
"The offending game Risen, by Gothic developers Piranha Bytes, is a third person Role Playing Game (RPG) that apparently contains "sexual activity and drug use related to incentives or rewards."
I've said it before, but the fact is that the average age for the Australian gamer is now 30 years old, according to a recent study by Bond University, Queensland. Yet we live in the dark ages where, while film is rated with R-ratings for content inappropriate for younger viewers, games are not.
Besides the issue of censorship and an adult's right to choice, there is simply the issue that the current antiquated system is too inflexible to properly classify games by content."
Here's why Risen might be one of the best RPGs you probably haven't played. We'll consider various aspects of Risen and discuss its strengths.
I played it a bit, but it's one of those games I just forgot about. Same with the two worlds games, gothic 3 and Arcania: Gothic 4. It sounds and looks nice (for the time) but it just doesn't scratch that itch quite right.
Idk why but I usually like their games , risens, elex etc. I've only played risen 2 risen 3, elex and elex 2. I'm gonna get the risen 1 at some point
Their games have a certain level of jank and wouldn’t hurt to be more difficult but I still had a good time with Two Worlds 2 and would have bought a 3.
Shit elex took me a minute to stop being killed but once I learned a few tricks , etc I was doing good
Paul writes: "Risen is a game from 2009, in all its faded glory, but yet, there is something about the world that will keep you trying."
These games "look" good from video clips/screenshots, but apparently they're pretty buggy and gameplay is wonky.. like developers had a great concept but with the scope, it was hard to deliver.. and that's for 3 games..
WTMG's Aaron Price: "The long and short of it is that Risen is a fun action-adventure RPG. It is very rough around the edges, not to the extent of some other games in the genre that came out around the same time (looking at you, Two Worlds), but it has charm. If you’re a fan of Oblivion, or Skyrim, and want to see another game that has a similar style, this might be a good pickup.
Risen 2 is still available for digital download meaning you can easily get lost in this world but hours upon hours if you found yourself enjoying it. I don’t personally find this re-release to be a massive improvement over the original, as little to nothing in it has been actually revamped, but it’s still great to see the game get a release on more consoles than just the Xbox, or even just a way to experience the start of the series if you maybe played the sequel on PS3."
Too right! We are the only system I know of to not have an R18 rating on games.
If this is anything like the Dark Sector debacle this game probably has nothing wrong with it that isn't worse in some other game already passed.
Interesting to see what some of the industry heads are saying in the article. They are all in favour of the higher rating, yet "some" State Attory Generals in an Australian State that shall remain nameless, still refuse to budge on giving adults access to content they are entitled to, and also, to stop sub 18 yr olds getting access to games that dev build specifically for 18 plus age groups.
These politicians have no idea as to what they are actually doing when it comes to this medium, yet continue to say they do. They STILL refuse to believe "adults" can play "GAMES", as the mere word - games- to them, denotes "childs play" . .
It's still the issue of 'protect the children', as TV shows such as Current Affairs and Today Tonight still run stories of 'o noes, 8 year old child shows increased aggression after playing GTA' and blames it on the developer, not the idiotic parents who buy the MA 15+ games for their kids.
So then, the ignorant people in high places who don't play games then think 'imagine what games with even MORE violence / explicit content could do to these kids?!' instead of the correct train of thought which would be 'how can we better stop children under the rating limits having access to these games?'.
They need to start working on educating parents about the rating system so kids can't get hold of MA 15+ games, and then there's no reason left to hold back R 18+ since the same knowledge would apply to R ratings.
It's not like adding the R rating will suddenly make every game more violent or something. =S Games equivalent to the R rating are still very small compared to the other ratings, it's not like allowing R will flood the market with rape and torture games or something. =S
If I were a citizen of Australia I would want to know who sits on this board and how they are appointed. The lack of a rating for mature content means that your political officials still look at gaming as a childish activity that should be discouraged. And the discrepancy between games and movies, and even GTA IV and Risen, is hypocrisy at its finest.
More and more games are going to banned as they become more realistic...