14 DAY TRIAL // Brutal Legend is one of the most interesting games to appear at the end of this year and one of the very few that aren't sequels and which are based on a more unusual premise in terms of story and design. Created by famous designer Tim Schafer, it will tell the story of a heavy-metal odyssey in which symbols of the famous music genre will be plentiful.
But, as most of you know, heavy metal isn't exactly the best thing you can expose a small child to, so the team at Double Fine, which is developing the title, has revealed that a profanity filter will be emplaced so that parents and children can play the game together and enjoy the great experience that is Brutal Legend.
Tim Schafer revealed that the profanity filters would bleep out all the swearing and that the whole idea was inspired from a previous Tim Schafer game, Psychonauts, which was registered T, while Brutal Legend is M. “I got a lot of letters after Psychonauts saying 'I really like playing this game with my kids', and so the next thing that we thought about was that people liked to do that,” Schafer said.
“But there's a certain age where - there are certain players who are old enough, but just don't really like playing with all that stuff. So we actually put two things up: there's a profanity filter in the game, where you can actually turn it on and it'll actually bleep all the language out, and it'll actually cover certain profane things with the 'parental advisory' sign, which is in itself is a reference to the PMRC, right, which is part of the history of heavy metal. It's optional, so you can turn it on if you want. There's also a gore filter, which you can turn off, and you won't be dismembered and there won't be blood. It's for those people who like playing with their kids, or who just don't like it.”
But don't go thinking that with all the bleeping, the game's dialog won't even be comprehensible, as Schafer added, “With the bleeping, you can't hear half the words, and your imagination runs away with it. The jokes are funnier. So when you hear "You Beeeeep", in some ways it makes a better joke. So you can turn it on in the game, and it says if you think it's funnier, then you can keep it in the game. And it is actually in some ways funnier. With Jack and Ozzie, you don't want to have them to strain in any way, saying, "freaking", because that doesn't feel right. It feels insincere.”
With Brutal Legend promising to be a great title for every music and game fan, this profanity filter will certainly make it even more attractive for those of us who like playing games with our children but don't want to expose them to too much violence or foul words at a young age.