Piss Filter

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About

Piss Filter is a slang name given to the golden (yellow) filter that frequently appeared in video games released during the period of seventh generation consoles between 2005 and 2013, most notably Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Fallout 3, Resident Evil 5 and Metal Gear Solid 4. Posts mentioning the "piss filter" appeared online since 2011, with the term regaining popularity in early 2020s.

Origin

While the exact first game to employ a yellow filter is unknown, some of the earliest notable video games to apply the filter are Resistance: Fall of Man (2006), Metal Fear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (2008) and Gears of War 2 (2008) (gameplay footage from Resistance: Fall of Man and Gears of War 2 shown below, left and right).

The earliest documented uses of the expression "piss filter" all belong to discussions of the 2011 video game Deus Ex: Human Revolution, in which the use of the filter is apparent. On August 9th, 2011, two weeks ahead of the game's release, Neogaf forum^[1] user Foliorum Viridum made the earliest found use of the phrase (shown below).

Spread

The phrase saw active use in discussions pertaining to Deus Ex: Human Revolution in the months following its release.^[2] On September 23rd, 2011, news website CinemaBlend^[3] posted an article about a visual enhancement for the game titled, "Deus Ex: Human Revolution ENB Mod Enhances Graphics, Removes Piss Filter" (snippet shown below).

Until 2020, the expression saw moderate use online, primarily on gaming forums and boards, being used in discussions related to Deus Ex: Human Revolution and its sequel and Resident Evil 5.

On April 2nd, 2015, Neogaf^[4] user Mineshaft_Gap made a thread titled "Color filters that shit up a games aesthetic," posting several images from the 2009 video game Resident Evil 5 with and without the yellow filter (shown below, left). The thread garnered over 200 replies in eight years. On August 15th, 2018, ResetEra forum^[5] user Prolepro posted comparison images from Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Battlefield 3, opening a thread that garnered over 50 replies (shown below, right).

On January 7th, 2020, an anonymous 4chan user posted an image comparing Resident Evil 5 with and without the filter, with the /v/^[5] thread gaining over 450 replies before reaching post limit (image and screenshot shown below, left and right).

On January 8th, 2020, Redditor beethy posted the image in the /r/gaming^[6] subreddit, commenting, "Resident Evil 5 without the piss filter that plagued almost every last gen game." The post received over 100,000 likes in tfour years.

In the early 2022, this and other images of "piss filter" in video games belonging to the 7th generation console era were circulated online, with multiple posts going viral and sparking discussions.

Mexican Filter

Mexican Filter or Mexico Filter refers to parodies of a trope in American film and television in which scenes taking place in Mexico are often shown through a sepia or yellow-colored filter. The cliche began garnering attention in the early 2000s, increasing over the following years through associations with prominent TV shows like Breaking Bad, among others.