9. Hatred's Violence And Censorship
Every single part of the furor around 2014's Hatred culminated into an ugly, ugly mess of an argument about censorship and the limits of creative expression. The game itself caused such a fuss because of its depiction of a small-town mass murder, in which you weren't given control of a hero trying to prevent people from being hurt, but were actually supposed to assume the role of the genocidal maniac yourself, gutting and shooting your way through innocent civilians. The graphic content of the game would have been enough to secure this title a place on this list on its own, but Steam's knee-jerk reaction to pull the game from its store - effectively banning it from sale - only fuelled the fire around this controversial shooter. While it was later reinstated on Steam the damage had already been done, and neither party on either side this horrific experience managed to emerge unscathed.
Josh Brown
Josh has over 11 years of experience as a published writer, having worked nine of those years as a full-time content producer at WhatCulture. In that period he has created hundreds of articles, videos and podcast episodes for multiple WhatCulture channels, specialising in gaming, horror and film & TV. He now primarily works as a senior content producer and presenter on WhatCulture Gaming where he co-hosts the WhatCulture Gaming Podcast, a top 3 UK most listened to gaming podcast that he co-created in 2018. Over the years he has reviewed several high-profile gaming releases, covered industry events with on-site reporting, opined on breaking news, and even kicked off his interviewing career by chatting to childhood hero, Tommy Wiseau.
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