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Bethesda has altered the presence of certain drug-related content in Fallout 3, as a result of complaints filed by the Australian Office of Film and Literature Classification earlier this year.
The post-nuclear role-player was originally refused classification in Oz, due to the inclusion of “material promoting or encouraging proscribed drug use,” – in particular the in-game use of morphine. The game was finally granted a license in August, once these drugs had been given new, fictional names.
While it was assumed that these edits would only apply to the Australian release of the game, Bethesda vice president of PR Peter Hines has told Edge online that there will now be just one version of the title for all geographic regions.
“We want to make sure folks understand that the Australian version of Fallout 3 is identical to both the UK and North American versions in every way, on every platform,” said Hines.
“An issue was raised concerning references to real world, proscribed drugs in the game, and we subsequently removed those references and replaced them with fictional names. To avoid confusion among people in different territories, we decided to make those substitutions in all versions of the game, in all territories.”
It is perhaps worth pointing out that in previous Fallout titles, all drugs have been given fictional names such as Buffout or Mentats. These chems will return in the forthcoming game.
Amusingly, some Australian news sites are reporting that Hines spoke to The Edge. We had no idea that Peter was close friends with U2’s pointy-skulled guitarist.
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