Dead Island Collection

Anytime something shocking or awful is done by the video game industry, you'll have people chiming in that we should leave it alone because it's actually art and so it has a right to exist (because apparently being art means the ability to exist without criticism and any criticism is actually the equivalent of censorship!) It seems apparent that Deep Silver had similar thinking—looking at how the controversial special edition of Dead Island: Riptide is marketed, they say that it's an "an iconic Roman marble torso sculpture."

Which is to say, they wanted us to consider their torso like this art, which to me, seems absurd. They're not equivalent at all. One is good art, the other, not so much.

But, let's bite—so proposes Gameological in their write up, "It Belongs In A Museum." They consider the Dead Island torso as art that could be in a museum—but not just any art type of art. Shock art.

Shock art is a type of art that, according to Wikipedia, "incorporates disturbing imagery, sound or scents to create a shocking experience. It is a way to disturb 'smugs, complacent and hypocrital' people."

But if we actually stop and analyze the Riptide torso as a work of art, things get kid of ridiculous.

Note the spinal column that juts out of the neck. The way your eye is drawn to an insouciant bit of bone on the arm. These are important cues in the visual vocabulary of Modern Game Studio artworks. They symbolize worship of the deities Dark and Gritty. According to lore, anyone who gazes upon these gods-and isn't too much of a pussy to handle it-is granted the power of being a badass who nobody should mess with. On account of the darkness. And grit.

One might note that the breasts, however, are intact. There's a good, artistic reason for that.

This is in keeping with the long game-industry tradition of honoring huge bazongas above all (and honoring the ass, too, if there's any development time left over after programming the huge bazongas). Even in the early years of 3D games, when female characters had faces that looked like bulging hexagons with lipstick, developers managed to give video game breasts hyper-real motion and buoyancy. Game women benefited from an experimental field of game science known as "boob physics" or "teat-jigglies." This piece is a salute to that heritage.

The best part comes when John Teti, the author of the post, explains the gore:

The gore serves as a complement to the misogyny, because without that face and those limbs to distract the viewer, a clear point of focus-boobs-can emerge. It's so elegant how it all fits together. You know in A Beautiful Mind when all those numbers and equations are connecting together around Russell Crowe's head, like a dazzling crystal? This is like that, except with hating women instead of math.

Ouuuuch. But, there you have it, defenders of Severed Torso As Art. It's art now; we've considered it as such. What that art says may not exactly be good—but hey! Art.

It Belongs In A Museum [Gameological ]

Anytime something shocking or awful is done by the video game industry, you'll have people chiming in that we should leave it alone because it's actually art and so it has a right to exist (because apparently being art means the ability to exist without criticism and any criticism is actually the equivalent of censorship!) It seems apparent that Deep Silver had similar thinking—looking at how the controversial special edition of Dead Island: Riptide is marketed, they say that it's an "an iconic Roman marble torso sculpture."

Which is to say, they wanted us to consider their torso like this art, which to me, seems absurd. They're not equivalent at all. One is good art, the other, not so much.

But, let's bite—so proposes Gameological in their write up, "It Belongs In A Museum." They consider the Dead Island torso as art that could be in a museum—but not just any art type of art. Shock art.

Shock art is a type of art that, according to Wikipedia, "incorporates disturbing imagery, sound or scents to create a shocking experience. It is a way to disturb 'smugs, complacent and hypocrital' people."

But if we actually stop and analyze the Riptide torso as a work of art, things get kid of ridiculous.

Note the spinal column that juts out of the neck. The way your eye is drawn to an insouciant bit of bone on the arm. These are important cues in the visual vocabulary of Modern Game Studio artworks. They symbolize worship of the deities Dark and Gritty. According to lore, anyone who gazes upon these gods—and isn't too much of a pussy to handle it—is granted the power of being a badass who nobody should mess with. On account of the darkness. And grit.

One might note that the breasts, however, are intact. There's a good, artistic reason for that.

This is in keeping with the long game-industry tradition of honoring huge bazongas above all (and honoring the ass, too, if there's any development time left over after programming the huge bazongas). Even in the early years of 3D games, when female characters had faces that looked like bulging hexagons with lipstick, developers managed to give video game breasts hyper-real motion and buoyancy. Game women benefited from an experimental field of game science known as "boob physics" or "teat-jigglies." This piece is a salute to that heritage.

The best part comes when John Teti, the author of the post, explains the gore:

The gore serves as a complement to the misogyny, because without that face and those limbs to distract the viewer, a clear point of focus-boobs can emerge. It's so elegant how it all fits together. You know in A Beautiful Mind when all those numbers and equations are connecting together around Russell Crowe's head, like a dazzling crystal? This is like that, except with hating women instead of math.

Ouuuuch. But, there you have it, defenders of Severed Torso As Art. It's art now; we've considered it as such. What that art says may not exactly be good—but hey! Art.

It Belongs In A Museum [Gameological ]

By now you've probably seen the ridiculous bikini-clad severed torso that publisher Deep Silver is packaging with the European/Australian special edition of zombie action-RPG Dead Island: Riptide.

It is gross and awful—to the point where Deep Silver just issued an apology for the statue—but hey, why let them have all the fun? We've put together some Severed Torso Special Editions for a handful of other deserving video games.

Above: the Portal turret gets the torso treatment.

Torso Mario isn't quite as useful as Raccoon Mario or even Frog Mario, but he's still an integral part of any statue collector's inventory.

There's nothing like cuddling up with a Cortana torso after a long night of shooting space aliens and getting called racial slurs on Xbox Live.

Dante from Devil May Cry apparently has no penis. Now he also has no arms or legs or head.

"Reach for the sky!" says Sheriff Woody in Disney Infinity. "Unless you have no arms!"

This lovely Princess Peach torso ain't gonna save itself.

Your turn, Kotaku Photoshoppers. What other games do you think need special torso editions?

Following today's firestorm of negative reactions, game publisher Deep Silver has apologized for the ridiculously tasteless zombie torso statue that they planned to include in one of the collector's editions for Dead Island Riptide.

Deep Silver posted the apology on Twitter:

A statement on the Zombie Bait Edition:

We deeply apologize for any offense caused by the Dead Island Riptide "Zombie Bait Edition", the collector's edition announced for Europe and Australia. Like many gaming companies, Deep Silver has many offices in different countries, which is why sometimes different versions of Collector's Editions come into being for North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia.

For the limited run of the Zombie Bait Edition for Europe and Australia, a decision was made to include a gruesome statue of a zombie torso, which was cut up like many of our fans had done to the undead enemies in the original Dead Island.

We sincerely regret this choice. We are collecting feedback continuously from the Dead Island community, as well as the international gaming community at large, for ongoing internal meetings with Deep Silver's entire international team today. For now, we want to reiterate to the community, fans and industry how deeply sorry we are, and that we are committed to making sure this will never happen again.

It's not clear whether Deep Silver will still sell the statue. I've reached out to ask and will update should I hear back.

If you are a severed torso fetishist or serial killer, you will undoubtedly be ecstatic to know that one special edition of Dead Island: Riptide comes with the above statue.

Fans of bloody female torsos clad in UK flag bikinis can go out and pre-order the "Zombie Bait" edition of Deep Silver's upcoming open-world action role-playing game right now, assuming they live in Australia or select European countries. Sorry, U.S. torso aficionados. You guys can get the "Rigor Mortis" edition, which comes with a zombie hula girl bobble figurine, a zombie arm bottle opener, and a wooden keychain. No torso.

I'm not sure exactly what one does with a bikini-clad, severed female torso, but at least it makes a good conversation piece. Put this on your mantle and everyone'll be talking.

Really though, this is disgusting. It's the sort of marketing misstep that can make it feel really embarrassing to like video games.

I've reached out to Deep Silver's UK office to ask what the deal is. Deep Silver's American PR rep says the company's U.S. branch was not involved here. Dead Island: Riptide is out on April 23 for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.

Like the original Dead Island, the sequel, Dead Island: Riptide won't have a German release, because that country is really weird about depictions of killing video game zombies, who technically are not even human and literally are not real. The game's creative director was asked if he thinks Germans are still getting their hands on the game.

"I hope so," Sebastien Reichert told PCGamesN.

Reichert barely contains his scorn for German law, which forbids violence against humanlike characters. He points out that Gears of War 3 had no problem getting past German prudes, even though it contains graphically violent finishing moves against humanlike enemies.

"It feels fucking awkward to have one of the most successful games in years and nobody in your country knows it," said Reichert. Techland is based in Poland but Dead Island was partially developed in Germany.

Apparently the ability to mutilate corpses is what pushes censors' buttons, but Reichert points out the game actually punishes you by breaking or degrading weapons used to do that. Doesn't matter, the fact the means are there is enough to get the thumb from Germany.

Dead Island: Riptide dev: "You can buy Gears of War in Germany, but not Dead Island. What's the difference?" [PCGamesN]

Sleeping Dogs for $30! Dead Island for $10! Kingdom Hearts 3D for $20!

Like everyone else in the world, Square Enix is holding a Black Friday sale this weekend. From tomorrow through Monday, you'll be able to buy a bunch of their games online at some decent discounts. Here's the promo image (looking super pixelated because for some reason Square sent it to us really small):