As always with highly anticipated games, fans will seek out any little bits of information they can ahead of time, and they’re usually successful. An interesting discovery has been made examining Battlefield 3’s ESRB listing, the age restriction system for video games.<\/p>\n
While the game has received a Mature rating, which is to be expected, the notes accompanying the rating mention that in one particular sequence you will be required to shoot police officers in order to complete a mission objective. If you listen really carefully, you can already hear the sound of the Fox News Special Report.<\/p>\n
The ESRB provides some more details about the game, although most are probably not too much of a surprise: “The frequent combat is highlighted by realistic gunfire and large explosions; characters sometimes scream and emit large splashes of blood when shot. Players can also engage in hand-to-hand combat: repeatedly punching enemies in the face; stabbing soldiers to death with knives.<\/p>\n
“In one sequence, a restrained character’s throat is slit (off-screen); in another, players shoot police officers to complete a mission objective. The words ‘f***’ and ‘s***’ can be heard frequently in the dialogue.”<\/p>\n
War simulators are no strangers to this kind of controversy, with Modern Warfare 2’s airport shooting scene causing quite the uproar. What is interesting is that just over a month ago, we reported<\/a> comments made by producer Patrick Back that there wouldn’t be any shooting of civilians in Battlefield 3, on account of the fact that, “If you put the player in front of a choice where they can do good things or bad things, they will do bad things, go dark side.”<\/p>\n While objectively, this sequence does sound a little tamer than gunning down hordes of unarmed civilians in an airport, it’s sure to spark some controversy.<\/p>\n