You wouldn't be able to tell it from looking at her, but my girlfriend's tougher -- and more disturbed -- than most.

She cheered during Sony's E3 press conference when Kratos gutted open a centaur in God of War 3. She sits through disturbing foreign movies like Irreversible and Frontiers (American films are almost too tame for her) as if she's watching the latest from Pixar. And she shows her affection toward me not with random kisses, but with a series of pretend punches to my face, complete with sound effects.

She's tough -- I've never seen a violent videogame that she couldn't handle. She's even a Manhunt fan. Yet, when it came to the Overlord 2 demo, she turned into a total girlie girl, whimpering and almost crying because she reached a point where she couldn't continue any further....

She couldn't beat the cute, fuzzy seal cubs.

She was so upset, thinking she wouldn't be able to play the full game (she was a huge fan of the original because of the "bad guy" theme and Pikmin-style gameplay). She commiserated with Twitter, where someone suggested that she have me play through those parts for her. Problem solved, girlfriend's happy again.

I didn't particularly enjoy having our minions club those baby seals to death -- but it didn't bother me, either. We all know the deal surrounding videogame violence: It's just a videogame.

But it got me thinking. Perhaps Overlord 2 reached a new level of no-no for games -- something someone who's normally not fazed by gaming gore couldn't handle.

We've all seen plenty of protests surrounding our hobby, and Overlord 2 has already gotten itself into some heat with animal-rights activists. But I have a feeling this going to be way worse. My girlfriend's not protesting Overlord 2 -- she's very content now knowing she can hand the controller to me for certain scenes, and she can return later from her happy place, blissfully unaware of the atrocities I've just committed. But other hardcore gamer animal lovers aren't going to like this too much. Especially because baby-seal-clubbing is totally unnecessary to the gameplay other than just to push your buttons and cause a bit of controversy.

I still wish Overlord 2 good luck, though. I don't care much for it as a game (the controls and graphics are too rough for me -- hire a few more animators, dammit!), but I care even less for censorship and banishment in our business.

Keep on fighting the good fight, Overlord 2, and maybe someday we'll look back and see how you helped pave the way for games with nine-minute rape scenes in them.

(I don't really mean that last bit, by the way -- it's an Irreversible reference.)

I don't think my girlfriend's going to dig this part very much, either.