Fox News Denounces Bulletstorm For It’s Extreme Violence And Sexual Insinuation, EA And Epic Responds

FoxNews.com has expressed their strong censure against Bulletstorm by deploring it in a scathing article Titled “Is Bulletstorm the Worst Video Game in the World?”

It criticized the game for linking sex and violence via innuendo-laden awards in its skillshot system and the award names for feats of in-game carnage including Gag Reflex, Rear Entry, Drilldo, Mile High Club, Gang Bang, and Topless.

The article also went on to quote two experts who decry the game as being potentially harmful.

Dr. Jerry Weichman, a psychologist at the Hoag Neurosciences Institute in Southern California, told FoxNews.com that Bulletstorm’s explicit language and violence could significantly make great damages to the younger kids who experience it, “If a younger kid experiences Bulletstorm’s explicit language and violence, the damage could be significant.”

Carol Lieberman, a psychologist and book author, went even one step further by linking sexual content in games to a spike in sexual assaults. “The increase in rapes can be attributed in large part to the playing out of [sexual] scenes in video games,”

The article eventually got EA’s Vice president of public relations, Tammy Schachter’s attention and he caught up and responded to the accusations made by Fox News and issued the following response via GameInformer insisting that Bulletstorm is indeed a fictitious sci-fi entertainment that’s only aimed towards adults, not children, “As you know, Bulletstorm is a work of entertainment fiction that takes place in the 26th century on the abandoned fictitious paradise planet Stygia, where our heroes fight mutants, monsters, flesh-eating plants and gigantic dinosaurs.

“Epic, People Can Fly and EA are avid supporters of the ESA and believe in the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) rating system. We believe in and abide by the policies put in place by the ESRB.

“Bulletstorm is rated M for Mature for blood and gore, intense violence, partial nudity, sexual themes, strong language and use of alcohol. The game and its marketing adhere to all guidelines set forth by the ESRB; both are designed for people 17+. Never is the game marketed to children.

“Epic, People Can Fly and EA support the right of artists to create works of entertainment fiction for consumers of all ages, including adults who enjoy action adventures like Bulletstorm. Much like Tarantino’s Kill Bill or Rodriguez’s Sin City, this game is an expression of creative entertainment for adults.”

Aside from EA’s response, Epic’s Cliff Bleszinski also reiterated the same thing later in an interview with CVG, once again trying to drive home the fact that Bulletstorm’s over-the-top violence is “all in the name of fun”,

“You know the violence in games, the language and all those issues are issues… on one hand I’ve always found [that] very scary, that people are attacking the industry,” he said.

“But on the other hand, I have found it somewhat flattering because it’s one of those situations where the fact that people think ‘ooh, big scary video games are ruining the world’, I guess, means that we’re the new rock and roll, the new Elvis, the new Dungeons and Dragons, the new moving pictures.

“It means we’re clearly hitting a nerve somewhere. I could talk all day about the tone of the violence in [Bulletstorm]. It’s very tongue in cheek.

“There wasn’t any sort of process [during the game’s creation] where we considered ripping off someone’s head and shitting down the neck or something like that. It was all in the name of fun.”

Now, no matter how you slice it, this controversy indeed has led Bulletstorm into the cross-hairs of news media’s scrutiny and this would definitely effect the game once it releases this February 22 (US) and February 25 (EU) for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.