South Park: The Stick of Truth may be censored on PC afterall

[VanQ]

So, I went to the Australian Steam Store page for South Park: The Stick of Truth to pre-load it and noticed that in the last 48 hours it has popped up with the "Low Violence: Low Violence Version" tag. I am sorely disappointed that I preordered a game and they put up the censorship warning 48 hours before the game was released. The same thing happened with Saints Row IV and I asked for a refund because of it. The truly annoying thing, Steam refuses to give me a refund for this game now, because as some people may know, it's exceedingly difficult to get Steam Support to give you a refund for a second game, ever.

I'm extremely tempted to just pirate the uncensored version now. I've already paid for the game, and paid for it expecting the full, uncut version of the game. Then they went and pulled a fast one on me. Again. I've already paid the money so I'm supporting the developers, thus I see no reason why I shouldn't just torrent the full version. As usual, it'll be the pirates that deliver the best product.

But really, I just am sick of being told what I can and can't consume by my conservative government and ACB that's made up of primarily 40+ year old men and women (you can go to the ACB site and see the board members) that probably don't even play games. It's extremely sad. I heard that Japan pulled the game from their store completely, so I'd recommend you guys check to see what you're getting.

 

[Supernova1138]

Apparently the game is getting censored just about everywhere outside of North America. Yet another reason to not pre-order anything, just in case they decide to throw some last minute censorship onto the game.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

jeez that blows, and it's kinda utter shite they can do that considering how soon it is coming out, it's utter bullshit if they try and say "oh, we didn't know that you would be getting that version, whoops!"

If you are an adult, you should be able to buy whatever the fuck version you want, government be damned.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

Apparently the game is getting censored just about everywhere outside of North America. Yet another reason to not pre-order anything, just in case they decide to throw some last minute censorship onto the game.

Can you confirm that? I'm looking at the Steam Store page (New Zealand) and see nothing about a 'low violence version.'

 

[lachlan4567]

This whole situation just reminds me of the south park movie.
One small group makes a big deal over almost anything.
I seriously suspect Kyle's mom being behind all of this.

Sheila Broslofski: I was just trying to make the world a better place for children!

Saddam Hussein: Yeah, and brought enough intolerance in the world to allow my coming. Now everyone bow down to me!

 

[karloss01]

UK isn't censored either from the looks of it. didn't see any info saying otherwise.

 

[Scorched_Cascade]

So, I went to the Australian Steam Store page for South Park: The Stick of Truth to pre-load it and noticed that in the last 48 hours it has popped up with the "Low Violence: Low Violence Version" tag. I am sorely disappointed that I preordered a game and they put up the censorship warning 48 hours before the game was released.

I'm sorry to say that the news sources I read stated that both versions would be censored in Australia while only in the Europe, Middle East and African regions would the console version would be censored and the pc version be unaffected.

http://www.polygon.com/2013/12/19/5227532/south-park-the-stick-of-truth-censored-in-australia-features-a-crying

http://uk.ign.com/articles/2014/02/25/south-park-the-stick-of-truth-censored-in-europe

Reputedly the uncensored scenes aren't even in the Australian files at all in order to avoid anyone modding them in (though the source for that is reddit so...)

http://www.videogamer.com/xbox360/south_park_the_game/news/south_parks_censored_scenes_removed_from_disc_to_avoid_hot_coffee_situation.html

Apparently the game is getting censored just about everywhere outside of North America. Yet another reason to not pre-order anything, just in case they decide to throw some last minute censorship onto the game.

Can you confirm that? I'm looking at the Steam Store page (New Zealand) and see nothing about a 'low violence version.'

Which region does NZ come under? See above source.

 

[JacksonDemolition]

I really hate being an Australian gamer.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

By all means pirate it, fuck them. (Pay for it through some service though, and try to buy it from another country's store or using a foreign IP first). I'm hardly surprised, we are run by a bunch of squares who still think children are the only people who play videogames. Which should change once the majority 30-year olds become 50-year olds and some are in charge of places.

 

[JacksonDemolition]

By all means pirate it, fuck them. (Pay for it through some service though, and try to buy it from another country's store or using a foreign IP first). I'm hardly surprised, we are run by a bunch of squares who still think children are the only people who play videogames. Which should change once the majority 30-year olds become 50-year olds and some are in charge of places.

Spot on. But the people in charge just won't die, quickly.

 

[Ubiquitous Duck]

Its Australia, what did you expect? Doesn't Australia censor just about everything? Pre-order or not, I doubt you would be able to buy a non-censored version in AU...

I second what cloroxbb says.

Also, it really begs the question of why you preordered the game, especially on Steam. It's not like you are preordering so it is delivered to your house on the day of release.

I know it is great to have the power of hindsight, but I hope this shows another reason not to preorder games, especially when there is no real advantage to doing it on Steam. Unless you got a reduced pricing for preordering?

Hopefully someone will make a mod that uncensors it for you!

 

[Hazy992]

According to Destructoid "The PC version of The Stick of Truth will be censored in the following regions: Germany, Austria, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan"

http://www.destructoid.com/south-park-the-stick-of-truth-will-be-censored-in-europe-271128.phtml

It doesn't affect me in the UK (although the console version is still affected) but it sucks for gamers in those countries. The game is rated 18, why don't you let adults decide for themselves if they want to view that content? You're not my fucking nanny.

 

[Shim3d]

According to Yahtzee's podcast, the censored version features an alien probing (a joke nearly as old as I am, the first episode being called "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe") described in graphic detail in text form rather than displayed, which to be honest is much funnier.

when there is no real advantage to doing it on Steam.

Some games are cheaper if you pre-order. Others like SP and the recent RE4 port give you free DLC/bonuses.

 

[Shinkicker444]

I dunno if it works that way or not, but couldn't you use a VPN to order it through the US steam store and DL it from there to, so you get the uncensored version to play?

 

[DarkhoIlow]

I got the game on PC and it doesn't seem to be censored (Romania) so maybe it's just a few countries after all (Germany, Australia etc).

They should of just put an off/on option like they did in CoD MW2 if you wanted to skip the scene rather than force it onto others.

 

[KungFuJazzHands]

I dunno if it works that way or not, but couldn't you use a VPN to order it through the US steam store and DL it from there to, so you get the uncensored version to play?

Using a VPN to order a game directly through Steam is just begging for your account to be disabled. If you absolutely must get the uncensored version of Stick of Truth, you'd be better off buying the game via VPN through another digital retailer like Green Man Gaming.