GAMING DRUGS GIVE CENSORS JITTERS

Happy Few is a game I didn’t expect to be interested in. Then it got rejected by the Australian Classification Board. Even with their broken version of an R rating, they still couldn’t sort it out.

Since then, however, they had another look and it’s good to go.

We Happy Few is an unusual firstperson game, set in alternative 1960s England. Like many towns, Wellington Wells was rebuilt after a terrible war by some unusually optimistic people. The town is now light and colourful, and the people are just so darn enthused now thanks to Joy. In the game Joy is a drug that makes the citizens happy. As you walk the streets you are constantly reminded to take your joy by an omnipresent television personality, Uncle Jack. Everything is wonderful, unless you choose not to conform. All who don’t are branded downers, and no friend of the city. Of course there is no game without conflict, so you play as one of three characters with their own intertwining agendas. To explore, you’ll need to either fight or blend in with the drug- addled inhabitants, who don’t take kindly to downers ruining their good time.

This fantastical drug- use is likely what caused the classification board to choke on their cigars and drop their monocles. Naturally the classification drama piqued my interest, so kudos to Gearbox Publishing for the huge amount of free press it’s generated for their game. We Happy Few releases August 10 for consoles and PC.

4.30pm Cricket. 6.30 Kick & Chase. 7.30 FIBA World Basketball. 8.00 UFC Fight Week. 8.30 UFC Special. 9.30 Motorcycle Racing. 10.30 Motor Racing. 11.00 Transworld Sport. 2.40pm 2 Barry. 3.15 Ballers. B 3.50 The Leftovers. 4.55 Sherlock Holmes:...

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We Happy Few.

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