10 Video Games Changed After Real-World Events
4. Grand Theft Auto 3 - Darkel, The Revolutionary
Grand Theft Auto is a series which doesn't shy away from controversy, seemingly drinking from the dissension fountain like a beagle with diabetes.
Yet even Rockstar couldn't ignore the significance of the September 11th terrorist attacks, which seemed to place the whole world on high alert. At the time, they were working on Grand Theft Auto 3 (the game which would catapult the series into the third dimension and take the gaming world by storm), and up until the tragic destruction of the twin towers, that game would have included a controversial side character named Darkel.
Though details are limited, Darkel's character was said to have been "a radical" and "seeking a terrorist-like uprising" which Clyde, the Jimmy Carr-faced protagonist, would have helped him in achieving. Quite how in-depth or lengthy his portion of the game would have been is unknown, but clearly the danger of being too insensitive or close to real-world events was enough to can him entirely.
For a game series which literally has you attach car batteries to a waterboarded hostage, or plough through a chanting procession of Hare Krishnas to the delight of the announcer (who shouts "gouranga!" gleefully), it would have seemed nothing was off the table... until Darkel.