Epic Games’ CliffyB “Don’t Call Him CliffyB” CliffyB (aka Cliff Bleszinski) has told the BBC that the company has a sort of “internal moral compass” when it comes to determining the levels of violence in any of their games, preferring fun over meaty chunks of gratuitous gore.

“When we create our games we use a slapstick type of violence, we poke each other in the eyes and hit each other with frying pans like the old Warner Brothers cartoons. It’s funny because the industry sometimes comes under fire from watchdog groups with regard to this sort of violence,” he says. “But we always believe that when we first see this muscular space marine beating down a lizard man and heads explode with water melon guts spewing out of them, you’re morally inclined to smile and giggle rather than be revolted.” 

Epic’s upcoming FPS, Bulletstorm, prominently features scrotal trauma. Apparently kicking men in the manly bits is funny, and because I don’t have any, I’m inclined to agree. 

“We have an internal moral compass where we will decide, ‘No that’s a little bit too much,’ or we need to cut the violence back a little bit. So there’s still ways of showing violence to an affecting user without showing too much” he adds. “The majority of what we implement into the game we do for feedback and interactivity, not because we’re strange sadistic people who want to see how much blood we can put on the screen when you shoot one of the lizard creatures. We do it to let the player know you did in fact succeed, that you are hitting a target and you need that kind of feedback in order to create what is a successful interactive experience.”

It’s also easier than talking things through with a Locust Berserker. Can you imagine? “Press X now to tell her she’s beautiful, and that bit of… is that loincloth made of human skin? Well, it totally doesn’t make her look fat.” It’s just not the same.