Perhaps unsurprisingly, Call of Juarez: The Cartel has angered officials in Mexico. State legislators in the border town of Ciudad Juarez (located in the state of Chihuahua) have asked the Mexican government to impose a ban, arguing that the game's content could potentially make light of recent drug violence across the region and cause children to grow up with a "lack of values."
"It is true there is a serious crime situation, which we are not trying to hide," Ricardo Boone Salmon, a congressman for Chihuahua state, told MSNBC. "But we also should not expose children to this kind of scenarios so that they are going to grow up with this kind of image and lack of values." A rating with the ESRB has yet to surface, though the two prior installments both garnered a Mature rating -- the official site's promised "bloody road trip from Los Angeles to Juarez, Mexico" certainly suggests it'll follow suit.
State congress leader Enrique Serrano reiterated the needs of the children. "They believe so much blood and death is normal," he said. "Children wind up being easily involved in criminal acts over time, because among other things, during their childhood not enough care has been taken about what they see on television and playing video games." Of course, all of this is predicated upon children playing the game and, aside from the usual argument that parents should be active in their kids' lives, we'd have to say that -- actually, that's about it.
#controversy
After officials in El Paso, Texas, made their discomfort over Call of Juarez: The Cartel last week, the Mexican state of Chihuahua is asking Federal authorities for an outright ban on the video game that hits too close to home. More »
#controversy
"Call of Juarez" wasn't a provocative title, when it referred to the Mexican border town during the Old West. As the modern-day scene of more than 3,000 murders in the past year, it's a touchier subject. More »
