Russia Offended by Modern Warfare 2, Game Offended Many Others too

In one of Modern Warfare 2’s earlier missions, the player was recruited by the CIA and along with the ultra nationalists, walked into an airport, undercover, and helped gun down innocent civilians. The mission was called “No Russian”.

It was so nice, I played it twice!

Well, Russia didn’t like it so much, and reports claim that at least the console versions of the game have been pulled from store shelves until this level is removed in a patch for the Russian version of the game, for the PC retail and Steam versions. I guess it’s not enough that you are actually given the option of skipping the level when you first start the game, which most people probably didn’t.

Not sure what they'll do with the console versions.

Of course, it doesn’t help that the singleplayer campaign seems to involve a lot of killing of Russians anyway, so some are saying the whole game might have to be rewritten and censored especially for them.

Remember that a similar thing happened in Germany over a single swastika symbol located in Wolfenstein? Compared to that, this is pretty big.

So, what could be done to appease the Russians? Besides taking out the offensive level in question, perhaps all the enemies in the game should be replaced with bears or something?

Modern Warfare 2 has caused a fuss on the other side as well, as Americans, especially Religious leaders and such have slammed the game, probably in no small part due to the missions in the American campaign which detail Washington DC being invaded and reduced to rubble by the Russians in retaliation for the events of the airport mission after it was discovered that an American was involved.

I guess it’s still too soon after 9/11.

Well, you never know, it could happen. Perhaps this little game will spark a resurgence of the Cold War. I doubt it though.

Update: Well, it turns out that the whole story was bull$h1t, but that's not my fault. Activision has set the record straight and disclosed to Eurogamer that they voluntarily removed the "No Russian" mission from Modern Warfare 2 before sending it over there. And only the PC version was ever retailed in Russia, not the console versions as was previously said.

"Other countries have formal ratings boards that we regularly work with. However, Russia does not have a formal ratings entity. As a result, we chose to block the scene after seeking the advice of local counsel,"

"Reports that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has been banned in Russia are erroneous. Activision only released a PC version of the game in Russia which went on sale on Tuesday, 10th November,"

So the game isn't banned there.

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http://www.gotps3.ru/article/vsjo_pravda_call_of_duty_modern_warfare_2_podvergnuta_tsenzure/
http://hellforge.gameriot.com/blogs/Hellforge/Console-Versions-of-Modern-Warfare-2-Banned-in-Russia
Religious leaders slam Modern Warfare
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/activision-chose-to-censor-russian-mw2

Russia Offended by Modern Warfare 2, Game Offended Many Others too