here at scouting for games we find ourselves getting increasingly frustrated with violence in video games. don’t misunderstand us, we’re not jumping on the “blame video games for real world violence” band wagon. what we’re against is violence being shoe-horned into games for the sake of it.

case in point, uncharted: drakes fortune. this is a fantastic game on the ps3 with some of the most interesting game environments we have seen in any game. Its predominantly an exploration, adventure game with mild puzzle elements; puntuated by what can only be described as mindless, jarring violence - for the sake of violence! and here’s the thing, is it actually for the sake of violence? or does it stem from a fear that developers have of creating games where you don’t at some point have to fire a projectile at something and see it destroyed. perhaps thats the issue here, when did you last play a game that didnt contain an element of destruction in one form or another?

even games that are touted as being refreshingly “intellectual” contain these elements. take portal for instance. another excellent game with some unique puzzle elements and, in a possible breakthrough, whilst you have a gun shaped device, it doesnt fire anything destructive per se. unfortunately 3 quarters of the way through the game and we have little turrets firing at us and are ultimately tasked with destroying something.

so perhaps this is actually some important ingredient that all games are required to have. after all, early games such as space invaders revolved around this very concept of destruction. all we know is that we would love to see developers taking more risks… creating games that don’t involve guns. what do you think?