UK Conservative leader, occasional video game violence critic, and potential prime minister David Cameron has been invited by Eidos Interactive to visit a July 23rd media event unveiling Tomb Raider: Underworld, according to MCVUK.
The invitation was extended following an interview with UK newspaper The Guardian in which Cameron compared his political fortunes to playing Tomb Raider:
There is an element to politics that is a bit like Tomb Raider. Until you have cleared level one, which I have incidentally never done, you cannot get on to level two. Level one is: are you a reasonable, decent, non-discriminating, sensible, practical person who understands the world as it is lived today, who wants to live in a modern world and who accepts what that means? If so, then you can move on to level two, where you can talk about some of the difficult issues about families and about responsibilities which can lead to trouble.
Jon Brooke, Eidos' UK marketing boss, seized the opportunity to invite Cameron:
We’re delighted to hear that David Cameron is talking to today’s voters using Tomb Raider as an analogy. As we build up towards launch, we’d be really pleased to offer him an exclusive look at the latest Lara Croft adventure, so he can see for himself how the series has evolved– and maybe come up with some high definition political parallels. Of course, both [current prime minister] Gordon Brown and [Liberal Democrat] Nick Clegg are equally welcome, provided they all sit together nicely.
GameSpot reports that the upcoming Shellshock 2: Blood Trails has been refused classification by Australia's Office of Film and Literature classification over concerns about violent content:
Shellshock 2 is an Eidos game slated for the PS3, Xbox 360, and PC platforms, and was due for release in 2009. The game places players in Vietnam War-era Cambodia, where a mysterious chemical dropped into the jungle has had some strange effects on people. An [Australian distributor] Atari spokesperson said there were currently no plans to appeal the banning decision.
The last game to be RC'd by the OFLC was D3's Dark Sector.