Germanic Half-life

[Adrien C]

Hey guys, I was reading the Valve answers section and I noticed that some german fellow said that the Half-Life German version had yellow blood and robots instead of Humans, is this true? Could someone explain about the robots please?

 

[Mechagodzilla]

Germany has some sort of law against showing violence against humanity in games, so they have to be non-human. Hence the robots.

 

[Adrien C]

I figures that, but it takes the originality of the game if you ask me, does any-one have pics?

 

[Raziaar]

Stupid if you ask me. Just because they have hitler in their past doesn't mean they shouldn't have video games. OMG, hitler had a prototype version of mechanical pong and it fried his brain and made him violent!

 

[MultiVaC]

I wonder if they're allowed to play Wolfenstien? It has blood and stuff, but you kill Nazis which sorta redeems the violence.

 

[Tommmo]

Cant be as bad as some of the Chinese censorship laws being brought in, they're pretty funny!

"There are concerns among Chinese officials that the contents of such games are too often related to sex, violence and superstition. Such content could adversely affect young people's mental health, says Tuo Zuhai, an official with the Ministry of Culture. "

"The Ministry of Culture will import some foreign online games whose contents accord with Chinese national conditions and bring positive effects to young people's mentality."

hehe, gotta love censorship.

I'd be interested to see some screens of the german version, only ever heard about the edited version in writing.

 

[Adrien C]

I really want to see those robots. Has any one any info?

 

[Reaperman]

basicly the combine are going to be changed to robots or alians, instead of being humans...

 

[Farrowlesparrow]

So my game about a group of Jewish Zealots going crazy broadway style and having to be stopped by a man on the egde, who also has a shotgun....won't be coming out in Germany?


Shame...could have abeen a big hit.

 

[MultiVaC]

The German robots that replaced the Marines are available in HLDM as player models, and you can censor the blood and guts yourself with the content lock. That's basically all it was I think, except for the Barneys and Scientist sitting down instead of a death animation. Or so I heard.

 

[Sushi]

I assume Germans could easily convert their copies of HL2 back to normal with a couple of model, skin, and sprite downloads?

 

[Ozmodiar]

I wonder if they're allowed to play Wolfenstien? It has blood and stuff, but you kill Nazis which sorta redeems the violence.

From what I understand, any Nazi symbols (even if you're killing them in a game) are forbidden in Germany. So Wolfenstein would have to have re-done artwork in order to be played there.

You can try the German version of HL yourself if you're using Steam - just go to Properties/language and set it to German, and it will use the German localized content. As long as you remember which buttons & menus are which (or if you can read German), you should be okay. The main changes to gameplay (aside from the language stuff) seemed to be that the military grunts are robots, there was no blood, and if you attacked a scientist or barney they would sit down and fade away (instead of dying and gibbing).

 

[MultiVaC]

Wouldn't the German censor people be pissed of about Steam? It allows Germans to easily obtain the normal versions of the game.

 

[Mad Dog]

All depictions of violence will be replaced with images of poop-porno, which is A-OK in Germany.

Ironically, this will also lower the rating to a 16+ certification.

:afro:

 

[Impulse147]

They don't allow violence in thier games, yet when it comes to riots those european cops can beat a rioteer to a bloody pulp in seconds.

 

[kaf11]

yeah, i read that post about the robots and was curious about it myself. i feel bad for the good german people who will have to have valves product modified in order to play it. i think changing grunts to robots not only changes the looks of the game, it alters the effect that valve set out to achieve in the first place. that would completely ruin the game for me, once again i feel bad for the germans and any other country which has to censor HL2.

 

[Dead Head]

your all missing the point....... wait, no you arent...

I actually want to see the german robots too.

 

[DvS]

You can't purchase a copy that portrays violence in it's default setting, after you're home, you can mod it or change it in steam, I'm not sure, but I think german police need a warrant to inspect people's computers on a whim.

 

[RoguePsi]

I don't wish to be offensive or controversial, but does anyone else find it ironic that the main instigator* of violent death (namely war) in the last century currently censors virtual violence?



* Perhaps not statistically correct but you get what I mean...

 

[kaf11]

You can't purchase a copy that portrays violence in it's default setting, after you're home, you can mod it or change it in steam, I'm not sure, but I think german police need a warrant to inspect people's computers on a whim.

not to poke fun, but you could be playing in germany with your remodified version. as you get to the scene in the apartments with the combine kicking in doors, a squad of german police wearing full gear and gasmasks bust in the room giving you a heart attack.

 

[evil^milk]

Does somebody have screenshots?

 

[Moto]

Does somebody have screenshots?

Robot.......

 

[Kazuki_Fuse]

Yeah i remember when I was a kid the original Wolfenstein was banned in Germany, and I also remember in Carmageddon you didn't knock over pedestrians, but dinosaurs instead, no shit.

 

[Reaperman]

thats a crappy screenshot :-p

heres mine...

 

[evil^milk]

so if you have a copy of normal HL over in Germany... it's illegal to play it?

 

[evil^milk]

Anyway I think I've seen some of the things in Sven Co op, there are robots that yell "alert" and other phrases

 

[Anthraxxx]

Wow. That sucks. No portrayal of violence in videogames? So how did Soldier of Fortune turn out then?

 

[lonefox]

well, I do give Valve some credit... they actually made the robots look cool.

Unlike this Carmageddon you run over dinosaurs. Thats actually kind of funny to think about. hehehe.

 

[Flyingdebris]

i thought euro versions of carmageddon had zombies.

Its weird, over in the states violence is featured in the media with little to no problems. But show a bit o nudity and BAM the censors come down weilding sledge hammers. Over in a lot of European countries its reversed. Nudity is common and violence is scarce.

personally i'd move to whatever country had plenty of both

 

[Marijn]

So first they had a nazi leader trying to kill al jews and now they have a fun-removal-nazi destroying all fun video games.

 

[Marijn]

i thought euro versions of carmageddon had zombies.

Its weird, over in the states violence is featured in the media with little to no problems. But show a bit o nudity and BAM the censors come down weilding sledge hammers. Over in a lot of European countries its reversed. Nudity is common and violence is scarce.

personally i'd move to whatever country had plenty of both

welcome in the netherlands. yes amsterdam is our capital.

 

[Varsity]

Sad thing is, if this does anything it's going to be to teach the younger players of the games that shooting people produces green stuff and isn't so bad after all.

 

[Dr. Freeman]

I figures that, but it takes the originality of the game if you ask me, does any-one have pics?

if u go into Half Life's multi-player and go into options to choose a model u should notice the "robo" model there.. and thats the "robots" u are asking about

 

[Mr-Fusion]

No violence against humans in computer games? That's the most fascist law i've ever heard of!!

Oh....

 

[Dougy]

This is why you should live in the Uk.

Were down with pron and violence in pretty much everything apart from Kids TV.....

why just last night i was watching the SeX files.....

 

[PrivatePanic]

Well there ARE blood patches for HL1, so you can play HL with the correct Models and red blood...

but I just wondered how it will be in HL2, because I can imagine that a blood patch would be a lot more difficult to do if not impossible (Because the modifying of files and such... would most probably be assessed as a cheat by Steam)

Hence, I would have to play with the English dialogue to not see the robots... d'oh.


(fyi, I was the one who asked them about this topic )

 

[sk1llfatal]

well valve said that you will be able to have subtitles in all different languages, so most of us germans will buy the english version, as i did with hl1. and yes, these robots were annoying and destroyed the atmosphere.

 

[A.I.]

Well, these German laws just show us how grown ups don't have a slightest idea what means to kill somebody in a game. It's a crime, just like you would kill somebody in a real life. Ridiculous.

P.S. I wonder what happens in Germany with MOHAA and CoD (and the rest of WWII stuff)....

 

[sk1llfatal]

in such "war style games", it is allowed to show such gore, because its part of the games story, youre allowed to play it when youre 18+

 

[Wsh]

i thought euro versions of carmageddon had zombies.

Going back off topic, afaik that was just the German version, not euro in general </useless remark>

And I 100% understand why&how the 'official' side of Germany feels about these kind of games, but the good thing is that you don't have to play the cencored versions (if you don't want to) ;/ there will always be a way around it...