From Postal 2 to Grand Theft Auto: The top 10 most controversial games ever

Let's face it - a lot of the world just doesn't get gaming, and over the years the whole industry has garnered plenty of unneeded attention for all the wrong reasons.

We'll be frank though - sometimes it was pretty deserving, and we'll be looking through some of those instances.

10. Battlefront 2

Let's kick things off with something recent and close to home. It's no doubt that EA has been the heart of controversy and sparked many an outrage from gamers - but nothing quite took the biscuit like some of the stunts they pulled with Star Wars Battlefront 2.

In a time where loot boxes were coming under a great deal of scrutiny and considering being banned in certain countries, EA decided to leap over that moral line.

You've just bought the game, and you're looking forward to mowing down some rebels as Darth Vader - that should be simple enough, right? No - EA were charging players to unlock iconic characters that had been a staple to the series.

If you didn't want to pay the charge, you'd be expected to grind for around 40 hours to unlock each character organically.

This absolutely didn't set well with gamers of course - along with earning themselves a World Record for the most downvoted Reddit comment of all time with over 600,000 downvotes.

They lost 2.5% of their share value on release date - which resulted in a loss off over $3 billion in shares by the end of the year. Let's hope they learned their lesson.

9. Duke Nukem

Sexism, jokes about rape, killing innocents... This game has it all (Picture: 3D Realms, Sega)

With a character like Duke Nukem, you know you're going to be causing quite a stir - but for 3D realms, the abundance of violence, sex and crass language may have been taken a step too far.

The game was originally refused classification in Australia and not allowed to be advertised in Germany, so the team behind it scrambled to tone it all down to allow for a release. Although whilst it was allowed within Australia, it soon got banned in Brazil.

The team found themselves neck deep in controversy once more following the development of their forth game.

Some games take time to make, that's just how it goes - but Forever spent a ridiculous 15 years in development, only to be released as a half-baked, buggy, offensive mess - it seems fitting that a game so ready to offend the masses ended up being a slap in the face for its dedicated fan base.

8. Silent Hill: Homecoming

The Silent Hill games have always been pretty gruesome at their core - but they left a lot to the imagination and focused more on the psychological aspects - but Konami toed that line a bit too much in Homecoming, making it the most brutal and graphic title in the series - and the world certainly noticed.

It was initially refused classification in Germany and Australia - and the game had to be heavily altered to even be allowed the most mature classification in those countries.

However, it became clear to the authorities in Germany that gamers were smuggling over uncensored UK copies of the game, which resulted in a large-scale mass-confiscation of all uncensored versions.

That's right, if the police break down your door in Germany, your best bet is to hide all those horror games or you'll face a pretty hefty fine.

7. Postal 2

This was made by a guy who used to produce children's games (Picture: Running With Scissors)

Not as big a fine, however, as you'll receive if you're found in possession of a copy of Postal 2 in New Zealand. Having any ties to that game could bag you a 50,000 dollar fine, and up to 10 years in prison - and we're going to tell you now. It ain't worth it.

As we're sure you can imagine, the game is pretty grotesque, and features pretty much everything any possible human could frown upon.

The company behind the game, Running with Scissors, defended their choice to implement these features in the game stating that they're entirely optional, and you can complete a playthrough without doing any of the controversial acts.

It's a strange footnote that one of the world's most controversial games came from the minds of a developer who prior to the series, solely produced games aimed at children. Go figure.

6. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Now we've got a controversy we're sure many of you will remember. To this day, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was a game changer, and provided many of us countless hours of multiplayer fun.

But one single player mission caused a huge stir around the world.

The level 'No Russian' essentially revolved around causing a terrorist attack in a Russian airport - and you can immediately see why this would cause the game some issues.

Maybe not the smartest move. It goes without saying - this mode was heavily censored in a lot of releases, and removed entirely from the Russian version.

Even following that, Infinity Ward still found themselves in hot water - and had to hide the mission behind a 'Disturbing Content' warning - and players could only play mission if they agreed to not be offended. I mean, you can't fault that logic.

5. Mass Effect

So far, we can absolutely see why these controversies have been stirred up - but now lets look at something where we are absolutely on the side of the developers - and a rare instance of us thinking EA did the correct and moral thing.

Of all the things to draw heat from Mass Effect, the media was going crazy about its romance options. Fox news shone a light on the game vilifying it, and scores of organisations called for it to be banned.

Amidst a debate on TV calling the game immoral and disgusting, self-proclaimed Psychology specialist and advocate for getting the game banned 'Cooper Lawrence' was asked by game journalist Geoff Knightley if she ever actually played the game - and to no surprise she hadn't.

After watching someone play the game for a couple of hours, Lawrence retracted her statement and said it wasn't the hardcore pornographic content which had been described to her.

The story does have a happy ending though - a few years later when Lawrence released a book, gamers around the world review bombed it on Amazon stating 'We didn't read it, but we heard it was really awful stuff'. What goes around, comes around.

4. Wolfenstein

As the grandfather of FPS games, a genre that seems to always find itself in the midst of one controversy after another, it's not wonder that Wolfenstein has had its fair share of bad press.

The depiction of blood in the game didn't fly with Nintendo and had to be removed along with the attack dogs before it could be ported to the SNES. It's also no surprise to hear that the game was banned in Germany, and is the principle reason why any future games would be flagged for containing any Nazi Symbols.

The team behind the game also drew the attention of the mainstream media once more in recent years during Donald's Trump presidential campaign, where they twisted slogans to promote their title about a US in the Third Reich - using taglines such as 'Make America Nazi-free again', and 'Not my America'.

Let's face it - that's some pretty low hanging fruit, and sure enough many of his supporters were pretty upset by this comparison. However, a select few even seemed proud of the comparison, but that's a whole barrel of worms we don't want to open up right now.

3. Doom

The Doom guy just can't get a rest, can he? (Picture: Bethesda)

With the spotlight shining on id Software following Wolfenstein, and several outlets tentative about their depiction of violence so far, the team could choose one of two paths when developing their next title. Tone it down, or dive head first into the controversy.

They did the second thing.

Hailed as quite possibly the most important FPS games of all time, Doom was truly in the public eye - and it was driving certain organisations crazy to see something so popular whilst being violent, gory, and featuring a whole array of Satanic tropes.

It was blamed for a rise in violence, and condemned for its graphic nature. There were even worries that with emerging VR technology, children would be able to emulate 'hyper-realistic killing'. Bear in mind this was 1993. We think they had much higher expectations of VR and future tech back then.

It's safe to say this controversy caused a stir - but this lead to more and more people wanting to play the cause of this hot topic.

Doom famously sold more copies than Microsoft's newest flagship operating system 'Windows 95', and drew the attention of Bill Gates. The Microsoft founder went on to promote the game, along with his operating system, and used it to showcase the potential of his new software.

2. Mortal Kombat

Ah, Mortal Kombat - the series that has surprised the world time and time again by showing just how many different ways a game character can have their limbs removed from their body. Sure enough, it's made those of us with the strongest of stomachs feel a tad uneasy at times.

Despite it being graphically the most realistic it's ever been - the heat of controversy has died down a great deal. Sure - people will always still try and pull the games from stores, but it isn't as big a stir as was caused by the series' first game.

So far we've seen some games have some pretty notable records for being criminalized, censored, or just being hated by Reddit - but no game has caused a nationwide regulatory body to be formed.

After the ultra-violent first game was released to the public and available to anyone to play - heated debates were held across America and senators took it upon themselves to see action taken. They were worried mainly that the graphics in the first game were 'almost TV realistic'. Oh if only they'd known where the series was heading.

Sure enough, the ESRB was formed because of Mortal Kombat, and became the regulatory body which would classify each and every future game to come.

1. Grand Theft Auto

With a series revolving around felonious activity in every imaginable form - from petty vandalism to acts that jeapordise national security - it's no wonder at all that Grand Theft Auto has taken no end of flak, and been the cause of controversy after controversy.

Whether it's the worry of copycat crimes, the glorification of criminality, abundance of violence or the depictions of sex, GTA has ticked each and every box for taboo topics in games.

They've even shown full frontal nudity and had characters break the Geneva conventions with some pretty abhorrent actions.

Since its early days it's been caught up in scandal after scandal, been the recipient of numerous lawsuits and had numerous organisations campaign against the games - even trying to declare them a public nuisance which would make Rockstar break the law if they attempted to sell the games. None of these attempts were ever successful however.

Despite years of heat, the series continues to push every boundary and keep doing what it does - and it really doesn't show any signs of slowing down.

Honorable Mention: Bully and Manhunt

It's a very tricky subject to make a video game about (Picture: Rockstar Vancouver)

And as if the controversy from GTA wasn't enough for Rockstar, they've also come under a lot of fire for their other games.

Bully was campaigned against as it seemed to glorify bullying - but one thing that really got people rattled was the option for your character to kiss other boys.

Upon discovering this one campaigner brought it to the public light and believed they'd never be able to get a teen rating for their game. ESRB replied that they obviously already knew that was a feature and it didn't change their rating.

Furthermore - the developer's Manhunt series was condemned far and wide. Even Rockstar employees felt they were crossing a line with this game.

There was almost a mutiny when they were designing the levels of gratuitous violence. If even the employees were uncomfortable - it's no wonder the rest of the world was, and it is banned in several countries around the world, and in some cases, its even a criminal offence to own a copy.