8 Controversial Video Games The Industry Was FORCED To Change

It's common knowledge that video games don't always come out the way they were first imagined. Whether it's minor storyline tweaks to suit a broader audience or a graphical overhaul with the latest technology, sometimes the worlds we're meant to see just aren't what we get.

There are some games out there, however, that are so downright dangerous, the industry had to pull rank and call when developers have gone too far. They decide for our own good that no one wants the experience on offer, no matter how enticing gameplay might sound or how beautiful visuals might be, avoiding controversy and burying the evidence deep underneath releases with far tamer subject matters.

This can totally work out, or it can be a severe overreach on what's upsetting to the mass populous. "Won't someone think of the children!?" feeling like the overriding sentiment.

Either way, who are we to be told what to do? Whilst these titles may never see the light of day how they were intended - if they even made it out at all - we can still take a look at what might have been.

Often forgotten as a relic of the Commodore 64 age, Weird Dreams is a title that never really made a lasting impression, initially releasing in 1988 to some mixed reviews. The game features a man named Steve who begins to have the titular Weird Dreams, as unbeknownst to him, the woman he loves is actually a demon called Zelloripus trying to works its way into his mind.

Easy enough mistake to make, we've all been there.

Since his psychiatrist can't figure out the problem, he's sent to a neurosurgeon, put under anaesthetic and operated on, resulting in one last weird-ass dream that you then play through. Dying in the dream results in dying in real life, but the game wasn't always designed that way.

Weird Dreams was supposed to punish the player's death by revealing you wake up in your own surgery and have to endure a brain operation, whilst fully capable of seeing and feeling everything going on. Coming at a time when people were genuinely quite scared of being awake during medical procedures, as well as just being a generally horrifying premise to begin with, the ending was altered to being simple death instead.

It's not a big change, but we might as well start off light here before the next entries...