Did you stab a rat during that one part of Battlefield 3?

by: Nathaniel - posted: 11/8/2011 1:41:00 PM

Because PETA's German arm has a problem with that.  They say the game treats animals in a sadistic manner.  For those who don't know, what they're on about is that during one little section of one of Battlefield 3's early single-player levels, you come across some apparently killable rats in a darkened hallway.  And if shooting one (I think that's what I did, just to see if they were killable) isn't bad enough, slaying one with your combat knife involves graphically picking the shanked rat up by its tail and flinging it away (I think when I shot it, it just exploded into gibs).  Naturally, German Peta is convinced this will drive impressionable youths to seek out real live rats just so they can be dispatched in the same method as the game.  According to bf3blog.com, the whole translated quote is this: 

The realistic computer game “Battlefield 3″ treats animals in a sadistic manner. The game gives players the option to kill a rat with a combat knife in the back in order to then lift it by its tail, then toss it away. Killing virtual animals can have a brutalizing effect on the young male target audience. There have been repeated cases of animal cruelty in Germany, where young people kill animals. Inspiration behind these acts often came from movies and computer games.  
 

I know Germany just seems to accepts out of hand that violent videogames directly produce violent children, but by now, it's such well-trodden territory that new reports claiming that connection almost come off as satire.  I hope at some point we can put a stop the whole violent videogames beget violent culture/violent culture begets violent videogames carousel, but it looks like it won't be today.

[via: gamesradar]
[source: bf3blog.com]