Christ and His X-Box.

[LostAngeles]

Story at Gamespot

You may or may not have to watch a short ad before being taken to the story. I'm not sure how outside linking goes with them.

These games have come a long way since Bible Adventures for the NES.

...

For example, in Eternal War: Shadows of Light from Two Guy's Software, players are sent by God to clear out the demons in the mind of a suicidal teenager. Instead of killing the demons, however, main character Mike banishes them in a burst of light. Even more explicit in its religious leanings is Ominous Horizons from developer N'Lightning. The game's story follows a paladin who must recover Gutenberg's Bible and repair his printing press so, as the game's Web site puts it, "the Word of God will be made available to all." The player never kills anybody--smitten forces of evil fall to their knees and pray. Quite a bit different from slaughtering hordes of hell spawn in Painkiller, isn't it?

...

Even so, Bean believes that they all fall under the same umbrella. There are varying levels of Christian games, according to Bean. At one end of the spectrum are "soft" games, or games anybody might have played in elementary school that teach Christian morals without any religious references. At the other end are the "strong" games, games such at Catechumen, which sometimes feature overt violence against nonbelievers. Digital Praise's games would fall somewhere in the middle under "subtle," as they include references to scripture and Jesus, but they focus more on a positive message.

...

Huh... "...overt violence against nonbelievers..."

...
The opponents cite new research that they say suggests strong links between violent games and aggressive behavior. They are disturbed by games' cultural ubiquity and the always-improving technology that makes virtual gore more realistic than ever.
...

The Catechumen makers' website.

OK, so either n-lightning doesn't consider hurting unbelievers violence, or Gamespot simply picked a bad example and phrased it so it could be taken as that particular game has that feature.

Either way, I say, "OK, what the %$@#?"

 

[AtheistArchon]

- Oy. If you're going to have a white magic / black magic fantasy story like Christianity made into a game, why not make it interesting instead of lame? The pathetic part about this is that you know that the developers, or the producers, or someone involved actually believes this nonsense: demons infest minds, the bible needs to be shoved in the face of the world, evil nonbelievers will fall to their knees in prayer if smitten hard enough.

- With Diablo, you play the game while suspending your disbelief. You defeat a demon... but you don't actually believe in the fantasy or the magic. You don't go to church and rub up on a Horodric Sage. You don't wear pentagonal amulets of the viper. (And even if you do, you don't really believe they provide a benefit against being poisoned. Unless you're insane.)

- Making fantasy games out of something that looks, talks, and quacks like fantasy, yet is supposed to be believed in by millions of people worldwide? Kinda brings out the pity.

 

[whim]

Ooooo.... Think of the possibilities. RELIGION - the game (tm). It will come with 20 instruction manuals. Each will contradict the others in addition to contradicting itself. As you play the game, your score will not be displayed. So you will have no way of knowing if you are following the correct instruction manual. Your final score will be tallied at the end just before the game self-destructs (taking your XBox with it). Of course, this will happen before it actually displays your score, so you won't know if you won or lost... you will just have to take it on faith.

 

[Yahzi]

RELIGION - the game (tm).

Pure genius!