It’s a rare time of life right now when I don’t have a million review codes to go through and I can just sit back and play the games I want to play. This, of course, means Oblivion, until I ran in to what could very well be a game-breaking bug.

I was merrily running through the Fighter’s Guild quests when you come to a level where you have to recover a holy artefact from some thieves. You find the only one of the thieves alive, and he confesses that ogres took the artefact. I hate ogres. They may be the only thing left in Oblivion that can kill me.

So, I wander off to this ruin where the ogres live and painstakingly progress through the ogres. I kill an ogre, rest up, kill another ogre, rest up and so on and so forth. I find the room with the McGuffin in, but the door can only be opened remotely. Bleh. So, I carry on through the ruin, slowly killing ogres and looking for a switch. Nothing.

I go back to the door and notice there’s a pressure pad I trod on. It’s down, it’s clearly meant to open the door, yet, the door is closed. I’m going to see if I have an earlier save later, but the thought that all my work in the guild could all be undone by this bug has put me right off playing for now. So, instead, I booted up Ninja Gaiden II.

I got through the first level fine. The second level’s mid-boss ate my revive item and the end-of-level boss raped me in seconds. Seconds!

It’s bloody awesome, though. The camera’s still all over the show, but this version contains the gore they left out last time. Poor EU: last Gaiden, we had to have a watered-down version because the Germans wouldn’t release the game without it and lazy Team Ninja decided to make the changes across the PAL board rather than just the German release. Now, I’m happily lopping off limbs and heads and covering rooms in a slick coat of gore.

Bought Valkyrie Profile 2, EverGrace and Blue Dragon. They’ll all probably collect dust FOREVER

Took a break to build a manly patio in the back yard. Did manly things like mix cement and carry big bags of sand after making token females try and lift them up then scoff when they failed.

Scoff scoff scoff.

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	honestgamer - June 15, 2008 (01:44 PM) I don't remember the original being anywhere close to gory. It paled in comparison even to Shinobi on the PS2, for example. I wonder what they would've cut for the UK version, exactly?
	EmP - June 15, 2008 (02:12 PM) Not the UK version, Jason. The EU one that encompases the UK strain. There was a de-cap attack that the German ESRB board disapproved of, so it was cut as well as some of the cut-scenes. This isn't new, but a lot of the time they just release a watered-down version for Germany (and, often, Austria as they share a board, I believe) and keep the game as it should be. EU classification is odd. No More Heros on EU took the goreless effect that the original Japan release had (enemies exploded into ash rather than buckets of blood) yet, look at Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy: here the EU version contained both nudey sex scenes that the US version saw cut. It's odd as hell and always havs been. Back in the seventies when the first Evil Dead was released, a lot of US States banned the film because a tree demon rapes a girl in a two-second cut. Here, the film was edited after someone kicked Campbell in the face while he was down because that went againt an unwritten code of honour we apperently have here.
	wolfqueen001 - June 15, 2008 (02:51 PM) Shame your Oblivion copy isn't PC. You could probably input a code that would give you that item automatically. Morrowind had a ton, anyway, that I've seen. And way to be a gentleman... <_< Any other man would've tried flirting with them, not laughing at them. "Let me carry that for you. =D =D =D =D" Hahaha. >_>; E: Hm... On second thought, if this person was family or someone, then maybe that'd be a little creepy. <_< Even so, though, you still could've been nice! Haha. >_>
	Genj - June 15, 2008 (02:54 PM) Typically US censors seem to be more uptight about nudity and sex. Remember, it was the hidden remains of a sex mini game that got San Andreas recalled!
	wolfqueen001 - June 15, 2008 (03:30 PM) >_> Is that why they had to castrate the cyclops in God of War?
	sashanan - June 16, 2008 (10:29 AM) Germany's the big one when it comes to censoring violence. Amusingly, US ratings (and, apparently, parents) completely ignored all violence and only bothered about anything remotely sexual until GTA finally linked the two together through the always-cited option to kill a prostitute that just serviced you. Sometimes I think that if GTA had never happened, even Manhunt would have passed by relatively unnoticed. It's GTA that made it hip again to complain about video game content and I don't think anything but sex could have provided the leverage in the States.
	wolfqueen001 - June 16, 2008 (01:32 PM) Heh. I think (one of) the only reasons sexual content is of any concern here is because the 70s and 80s were mostly Republican years. And, especially with Reagan, there was a huge emphasis on "family values" and the like, to which sexually explicit material was regarded as immoral. Least I think that's how it happened. It still doesn't really explain why violence gets off, though. It's all very strange.
	Halon - June 16, 2008 (08:29 PM) That lead to the censorship and family values for sure, but why sexual content instead of violence? I just think it's our culture in general; we tend to be a lot more acceptable towards violence than sexual content. On the other hand Europe is stricter about violence but way more lenient with sex/nudity.
	honestgamer - June 16, 2008 (09:56 PM) Sometimes, I'd rather live in Europe.
	darketernal - June 17, 2008 (09:48 AM) Austrians censoring...yes, makes sense. They make up for it by keeping daughters in their basements and spawning grandchildren with them since it is apparently much healthier. I heard of this Ninja Gaiden and it's legendary difficulty. I would have a hard time not to toss it and the Xlarge into the wall. Hell, the same thought came to me when playing Devil May Cry 3 and dying for the hundredth and I have a "Sony owns you" tattoo on the back of my neck so yes.