Comments on: Nudity can't make a bad game good

Don Reisinger recently played a game on the PS3 containing nudity. It didn't do much for him.

[JonathonStriker]

I think that was already realized. It's something thrown in a game to attract people until they realize it was a big mistake. Like games that feature guns and blood, Nudity is an excuse to attract sales to specific kind of people who have issues with having to look at naked fictional women in video games. Even for just a brief and short lasting moment, it gets attentions, whether or not it makes sales. Look at God of War, Leisure Suit Larry, Grand Theft Auto, and not this article about Godfather II. Doesn't this prove the point? Attention grabber.

[unc0nn3ct3d]

First off I'll agree full heartedly with you that nudity or anything for that matter shouldn't be used to offset an absolutely horrible game. If you are someone like EA you know what a great game is and how to make it, if you aren't going to do that then don't bother trying in the first place.

However, your whole articles screams out the hypocrisy of our wester culture. What in the hell are you making such a big deal about with the whole nudity bit? Your main qualms aren't that the game is crap, it is that there are naked women in the game and that offends you or you feel it should be kept from our children. Since when did depicting a pixelated picture of a natural female body part that should be celebrated become more dangerous than allowing a child to virtually pick up a shotgun, walk up to a stranger and unload 2 rounds of shot in their face? What is wrong with our world where Boobs will create this insane uproar(lest us not forget Hot Coffee) and yes gruesome and brutal murder spree's don't create a peep at all.

You, and all of our society for that matter seriously need to shake your head and get your priorities straight here especially when you choose to spend the time you did on this article, arousing fear over breasts instead of something far more dangerous and destructive.

[Magicland]

Last time I checked, the original Godfather had gratuitous explicit sexual scenes (2 of them if I recall correctly from junior high). They had nothing to do with plot or character development (except to reveal to us the relative size of Sonny's *****), but they sure sold a lot of copies for Mario Puzo. However, if the rest of the book had been terrible, I doubt folks would have bought it just for the sex scenes.

[sting7k]

I think chicks walking around top less in a strip club are not the same level as the "Hot Coffee" mini game that landed GTA:San Andreas in hot water and had it's rating revised to AO after the release. This game is just like all the other GTA wannabees out there, they just put in stuff for the shock value; naked chicks, excessive swearing, graphic violence, etc. Or maybe EA has more pull with the ESRB than Take Two and Rockstar did.

You should be happy Don, at least you didn't pay for this game and got to see some top less CGI chicks.

[tikoro]

I realize with any type of review, you're going to have at best, shadows of subjectivity, but this kind of goes beyond that.

Mention the lack of consistency between the ESRB's rating system and the rating given to the game. Mention that it contains nudity with only an M rating. Mention that there are design aspects and immersement issues with following the storyline of the movies. Don't repeat, "they have boobs they have boobs they have boobs" throughout the article. We get it, and obviously it is your moral standpoint that it should not. Give us the facts, maybe a little color commentary. But if the game stinks otherwise than the "boob" issue, let's back that up shall we? With some examples from actual gameplay where it made it difficult or impossible to complete something due to the lack of proper controlling on the programmatic side.

Any idiot can write a review that says "it has boobs, and it sucks".

[brownpw]

Dude, get a grip ... they are just trying to produce a GTA4 like game.

I bet you didn't have a problem with all the nudity in GTA4.

[mitchell2percent]

As of right now, I'm enjoying Godfather II way more than GTA4.

It's everything GTA shouldve been

[aztec92154]

Excellent comments from the readers - that's why this is the only blog on CNET I read every day. Keep up the excellent work Don!

[rnaoncfixd]

I'm not sure if this was intentional or not, but Don, are you implying some sort of conspiracy that EA might have been able to pay off the ERSB judges who were supposed to review this game and made them give it an M rating so that they could still sell it in stores?

If that's the case, then this case is far more than just seeing nudity in video games, it's about EA having so much power behind them that they can do whatever they want without consequence.

[TaxmanCDN]

So all the violence in the game is ok and doesn't deserve an AO rating, but a few boobs do? Yeah, that's much more harmful to our kids. Boobs in a brothel - certainly doesn't fit the story-line. Excuse me while I go play some Gears of War and chainsaw people to death in a game that doesn't deserve an AO-rating.

[rnaoncfixd]

Yeah, but all those people your chainsaw-ing probably deserve it because they were shooting at you or something. Boobs are just comical because it's like... OOOOOO we're in a brothel... and... yeah.

Unlike real life, I can actually go to a Brothel and technically see real boobs for about the same price as this game, where as I couldn't chainsaw a guy in half (at least not without an audience) in real life. Speaking of which...

[humorbot]

CNET, I'll bet a shiny nickel that if you indicated this was a Don Reisinger article in the homepage link you'd lose about 100% of your clicks, not to mention save your readership from this staggeringly banal, uninformed and poorly written column. I've read better infomercial disclaimers.

[Commander_Kang]

"...save your readership from this staggeringly banal, uninformed and poorly written column. I've read better infomercial disclaimers."

That's one of the most hilarious things I've ever read. Thanks for giving me my first good laugh today.

[jafarm66]

The mvovie Godfather II had no nudity in it. I could understand a very brief nude scene in Godfather I (if there is one I haven't played my copy of the game yet) since there was a brief topless woman scene in the movie when Michael first got married to the Itailian lady. I am reading the review for what it is and apparently this game is just not good.

I personally think all the uproar over nudity is a joke , There are so many so called "Evangelicals" in my good ole USA who try to force their values on everyone that I put most of the nudity uproar to them. The nudity won't make anyone change their values. Come on don't you remember when you were a teenager and/or 20 something and wanted to see naked wonen. A bad review is not going to stop some teenage or 20 something nerd who wants to see T&A be it in film or video games,

[leganx]

This is a non-issue. I would agree if the game had been inproperly rated, but it is got an M rating.
That is good enough for me.

the body is a beautiful thing, it is expressed in painting, books, etc. So games are no different even if it is fortuitous or just to get some ***** men to buy the game.

[jjmaxwel]

The real joke here is the Don Reisinger trying to give us an unbiased impression of a video game. You strike me as an out of touch and very prudish man Don, and of course as someone who should probably not be reviewing any creative medium whatsoever. It's fairly clear to me that you have no business even discussing a video game in any context if you do absolutely litttle to no research on it. While they have some of the same events, the Godfather games are not the movies translated to games. Your character isn't even in the movies. It's called a license, they are not claiming to remake the movies in video game form, not at all. So the game should reflect the game developer's sense of that universe not the sense of a director or producer in a different medium from over two decades ago. So perhaps we can end that part of the discussion there.

It's not like the nudity is out of context either, I mean who's ever heard of nudity in a brothel... I mean that's totally out of place right? Or who ever heard of mobsters using profanity, I'm sure that never happened either. I hardly think it's even a logical assumption to place what's seen here to a movie that is literally a classic. It's probably true they were pushing the envelope a bit, but even by modern movie standards what I saw/heard in Godfather 2 was not at all unusual. They haven't marketed with that idea either. I hven't seen an ad that said "Godfather 2, now with more boobies."

Your opinions of the gameplay, story (though as I said it isn't suppoed to be the same story), controls, etc. are you own. But it's clearly your less than logical attitude regarding the society we are in leaves with view points that paint you as bias. Do us all a favor and stick to giving us your opinion on soulness technologies like TVs and haircutting gizmos and lay off the creative medium reviews so we don't have to hear you skewed social commentary every time you see some skin or hear someone drop the F-bomb.

[raywkirk]

I don't understand how nudity can be degrading to women and not to dogs and cats. What a bunch of prudes! And, what about men? You never hear anything about men being degraded by nudity. What I find wrong with games and TV is violence. How a responsible parent can allow their children to watch countless murders, abuses and other horrors, and then complain about the depiction of a simple human form in the nude is beyond me. And, I'm pretty sure it's a symptom of our American Puritan roots. In Italy, for example, virgin girls touch the ******* of statues in order to have "good luck" with their future husband's endowment when they marry. And in Britain it's not unusual to see topless women on bus posters and television. What is the harm in it? I don't get it.

[raywkirk]

And just look at my previous comment. They replaced the correct word for the male genitals with stars!
Geez. Sophomoric morality run amok!

[ratm247]

sounds like your struggling to find a blog topic. i think you should write about how you went into a business and smashed an innocent clerks store and beat him half to death to force him to pay protection money, but it was the bare breasts in a brothel that offended you.

[MrMurder]

Porn is negative. It makes the Internet unsafe for children, wastes paper (there are those stupid magazines) and land (buildings that sell the books), and is just wrong to talk about.

[Heathie89]

When do we get to see some nude men?

[llricll]

Nude man boobies? Go to the beach! Is that what you really want? Most of the men in video games need bras too!

[trgdr777]

Personally, I agree that the excess of gratuitous sexual content and unnecessary abundance of f-bombs in video games is uncalled for. It doesn't make the game any better, and as much as they try to justify it as "part of the creative vision" it's really only a distraction for people like me that just want to enjoy a game. The only reason it's in there is because it sells titles. Teenage boys think boobs, sex, and f-bombs make something "mature", but it's actually the opposite. The same thing happens in movies. People use sex to sell crappy products all the time. The problem is... it actually works on people.

[niko_osokin]

Boobies? I read boobies and thought there'd BE boobies. You disappointed me Don.

By the way, quit ******** about everything. It's getting less cool by the second.