Those who are not in on the joke regarding The Onion's satirical game Close Range will no doubt be alarmed by its shameless style and graphic content. That said, those who will be offended by Close Range will likely not play video games anyway, which shows why there are so many anti video game individuals who talk as if every game is like this.
And it's the thought that every game is like Close Range which I think is most disturbing. Being a satirical product at birth, Close Range is, of course, more of a piss take than a video game. The main cover shows a head midway through being blown off because that's all it has to show - that's all it WANTS to show. Everything else is as bare as a used wishbone.
Gameplay consists of pressing Spacebar to shoot. There's no aiming. All you need to do is press the spacebar when required. When you're not shooting, you're skipping dialogue boxes, telling the story which in reality is just a series of poor excuses to shoot more faces. The dialogue is funny though. Not two minutes after meeting a mystery woman, she 'dies', to which our hero responds, 'Noooooooooo!!!!! I loved her!!!'. Classic.
A report has suggested that Close Range was submitted for review on the iPhone, a product known for if its strict guidelines, and of course the result was a rejection due to its violence. The company has since re-submitted a 'revised' version, though what exactly has been revised has yet to surface. Has the blood been omitted? Are the guns now water pistols? Have heads been replaced by balloons with funny faces drawn on?
I described Close Range as a satirical game earlier, but the truth is you won't fully appreciate it until you've seen it placed within the context of the video where it was originally shown. The existence of Close Range, as a playable demo on its own website, is a strange one. Does this mean there's a full version in the pipeline? Perhaps the demo's rather 'meaningful' ending can answer that one...
Play it: [A shame the cutscenes aren't as flashy as they were in the video...]