News: According to the Guinness Book of World Records, it uses more f-bombs than any other game.
Some people feel that swearing and vulgar language is the crutch of the unrefined. Others see a kind of poetry in a perfectly laid out string of profanity. The developers of House of the Dead: Overkill must be in the latter category.
Today, the Gamer's Edition of the Guinness World Records book has awarded Overkill's writer Jonathan Burroughs, and the rest of the team at Headstrong, the award for creating the most profane video game in history. According to the Guinness folks, the game features 189 uses of "the F-word" in just over three hours of gameplay. That averages out to about one F-bomb per minutes and "three percent of all words spoken in the game."
Video Games Records Manager for Guinness World Records, Gaz Deaves, said: "This record category pre-existed for movies, music and television, but The House of the Dead: Overkill is the first video game to be awarded the title in the Gamer's Edition. It's a mark of the times."
Jonathan Burroughs, writer of The House of the Dead: Overkill, stated: "It is a dubious honour to receive such an accolade working in an industry where so often the fruits of your labours are derided and dismissed for being puerile or irresponsible, but in the case of The House of the Dead: Overkill a little puerility was the order of business. Parodying the profane excess of grindhouse cinema was Headstrong Games' objective and I am flattered that this record acknowledges that we not only rose to that challenge, but entirely exceeded it."
Written recognition of this accomplishment will appear in the 2010 update to the Guinness World Records: Gamer's Edition. I'm sure their friends and family are very proud.