UK authorities ban Manhunt 2 |
Rockstar Games just took a major hit: Manhunt 2 just got banned in UK by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC). "We took a lot of time in examining Manhunt 2. Banning is not something we take lightly," said BBFC's Sue Clark, who assures that they take video game censorship more seriously than in any other country.Clark also said that they had about six video game examiners play through the game for several hours, aided with cheat codes to access almost everything in the game, with some of them obviously not liking what they saw. They were also given a copy of the game's script, which just about hammered the final nail on the coffin of Manhunt 2's UK ban.
Said examiners submitted a unfavorable report of the game to a BBFC panel, comprised Sir Quentin Thomas, Lord Taylor Warwick, and Janet Lewis-Jones.
Manhunt, it's prequel, was blamed for the murder of a 14-year old boy and was already banned in several countries. The recent move to ban Manhunt 2 in the UK may also mean that the same may happen in both Germany and Australia.
The distributors of the game can still appeal the decision according to law, but UK gamers won't have any reason to hope for a reversal. BBFC Director David Cooke said the following in his statement regarding the issue:
Rejecting a work is a very serious action and one which we do not take lightly. Where possible we try to consider cuts or, in the case of games, modifications which remove the material which contravenes the Board's published Guidelines. In the case of Manhunt 2 this has not been possible.
Seems like what they saw in Manhunt 2 did not prompt only mere censorship, but an outright ban. UK gamers may still opt to import the game, however.
BBFC Director David Cooke had this to say about Manhunt 2, and what prompted them to ban it completely:
Rejecting a work is a very serious action and one which we do not take lightly. Where possible we try to consider cuts or, in the case of games, modifications which remove the material which contravenes the Board's published Guidelines. In the case of Manhunt 2 this has not been possible. Manhunt 2 is distinguishable from recent high-end video games by its unremitting bleakness and callousness of tone in an overall game context which constantly encourages visceral killing with exceptionally little alleviation or distancing. There is sustained and cumulative casual sadism in the way in which these killings are committed, and encouraged, in the game.
Although the difference should not be exaggerated the fact of the game's unrelenting focus on stalking and brutal slaying and the sheer lack of alternative pleasures on offer to the gamer, together with the different overall narrative context, contribute towards differentiating this submission from the original Manhunt game. That work was classified '18' in 2003, before the BBFC's recent games research had been undertaken, but was already at the very top end of what the Board judged to be acceptable at that category.
Against this background, the Board's carefully considered view is that to issue a certificate to Manhunt 2, on either platform, would involve a range of unjustifiable harm risks, to both adults and minors, within the terms of the Video Recordings Act, and accordingly that its availability, even if statutorily confined to adults, would be unacceptable to the public.
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Comments [refresh]
I'm pretty sure that censoring what people play, read, or see isn't going to stop all the worlds crisis.
im prety sure it wil be rated an 18 and personaly i dont know any 18 year olds that are influanced by a video game. people should be able to make up there own mind as to what they play and as for that 14 year old i blame the parents for leting a child play it!
remember remember the fifth of november, the gunpowder treason and plot. I know of no reason why the gunpowder treason should ever be forgot.
non influenced 18+. what world you living in?
and if it doesn't come out here in UK i think play-asia amongst other sites will be pretty busy
No Problem, I Can Get The US One, Fuuckers!!
OMG this sucks
If anything, this will just make the game appear more underground and badass to those who shouldn't have been buying it.
This game sounds awesome, it was tested by a Lord and Sir, la dee da.
the UK goverment is controlling all our live here, their choosing what we are allowed to watch and play, telling us we cant smoke (which i think is a good thing) and it is the worlds most watched country, cameras everywhere! the UK is big brother
What a Brave little New World the UK is coming out to be.
'Clark also said that they had about six video game examiners play through the game for several hours'
I smell nintendo *****s there...
OH *****! THIZ GAME HAS NO POKIMONZ AND IS NOT MADE FOR GAY ASS 12yr OLD KIDZ!!!!!!!1111111
LETS BAN THIS!!!!!!!!1111111111111
Whatever. American PC version for me.
You guys are slating this opinion, but as a person who's had to study the BBFC and other guidlines, the game must be *****ing brutal, remember these guys let the original one pass with an 18 Rating, but from what the report says, there are a few "Underage persons" who get killed, which means minors or unders 16s in the game, if that is true then no wonder it got banned, Killing Children in a game is a very serious thing.
Can lick my fat juicy balls!
Im studying censorship in media and this bbfc does my head in, why should one company be able to control what we do regards of watching films and playing games!
So much for free will in this country it does my head in!
im a nuke there headquarters now blame that on a f***ing game!!
I think they should ban games such as san andreas and 50cent fockproof.
Games in wich you operate in streetgangs and *****, Thats the problem nowadays isnt it ? Kids getting involved in gangs, robbing ***** and crap.
I don't see people murdering one another all over the place. I do see gangs busting eachotheres heads in.
Everybody all together now!
P-I-R-A-C-Y FTW!
All this means is piracy is gonna be there to fulfill the needs of gamers like it or not people are gonna own this game and just to top it off arent gonna kill anybody because of it (although people might kill for it since its banned... you cant win, heh)
For the sake of argument this IS A MURDER SIM.
Think of all the games that have been Branded as such Wrongly! to fit jackass tompsons agenda.
And where comes a true murder sim. did you think this one was going to slip under the radar with so many people screaming bloody murder about other less violent or more fantasy based games. ( COE claims you are killing people in the church in RFOM even though anyone who has played that part would consider the church retarded for calling those things people )
I don't wonna have to download the iso or anything, but there not leaving much choice, unless I can import it for cheap!
lol, thats awesome: banned before release :) I wait this game so much! :)
A lot of you people sound like little *****ing kids *****ing because momy took away your gameboy.
Its a *****ing snuff film-game
im all for freedom of speech, love my FPS GTAs and blah blah
But for christ sake why the ***** do WE REALLY NEED, an interactive snuff film with the ***** that happens in this world on a daily bases doesnt supprise me that people would try to stop the media from becomming saturated with sick ***** like this game
Good news to all you peole with 3.40 and above, a new LIBtiff exploit was found in the flash, check this out for more info Goats.cx/exploit
Heh, well if it's banned in the UK, it'll sure as hell be banned here in Australia. OFLC LOVES banning stuff :-(
Hehe, one more reason to thank Dax.
Thats why this game kicks ass...
Rockstar must be laughing their ass off right now, the game will get way more attn now that got banned, i didn't play the first one but im playing this one for sure....
Interwebs you know, just a few clicks and bang you have the US version, ***** UK, nobody gives a ***** if they are going to ban this *****, just go there and buy/download the US version....
is it me or are the brits getting dumber by the moment. first the knighting of rushdie... now this.
wow. stupid is as stupid does
hope this comes out on the 360,sure looks like a bad ass game,did you all get that....GAME.... its a game,like not real,if your gonna kill someone cause you saw it in a game or a film your a nutter who probably hits people over the head with a shovel cause you saw it being done on tom & jerry.pahh zoinks and all that
Not because I'm American, but because the game itself is not needed. No, it possibly won't create irl violence, I'm not that type of retard thinking the media is to blame for others actions... but this game really isn't needed.
I can understand and love GTA series, but Manhunt? What kind of sick ass crazy bastard would want to find ways to hunt and kill people? At least in GTA, it is more freewilled and not as brutal.
I'd say if you play this game, weither or not you want to do something in real life, there is something very wrong with you.
oh well, this means there will be more downloads for the game ;P
I agree with this. I've been an active gamer for over 26 years, and played right through the speccy years when developers were forced to use great ideas and true originality to make up for the lack of graphics an processing power. Nowadays, I have to say, im getting really pretty tired of seeing the kind of games that are being churned out just, 'because they can' for a quick buck. Rockstar's main type of games, are getting pretty old, tired, and frankly unoriginal. Its all been done before. And whats next in store? Same gameplay - New graphics engine. Seems to me that the stuff they're churning out is predominantly done for nothing more than shock value, knowing that that in itself will be perceived as cool by loads of little fanboys. They can explain away whatever they like to the media as well knowing fine well that even if a game gets banned, they'll have the same fanboys bleating 'oooh, i'll just download this!'. At the end of the day they really don't give a sh*t what you do because they'll be laughing all the way to the bank from sales generated elsewhere.
I studied the same thing years ago. I was even involved in a debate of the issue with James Ferman back in the 90's thanks to Channel 4.
The BBFC is nothing more than an unelected quango who's views are FORCED (by law) on the UK populace (unelcted being my main gripe.)
BBFC + Ball Bags (doing) Film Classification.. or.. Big Brothers (anti) Freedom Corp.
the plus sign is supposed to be the equal sign.. this thing changed it.
We don't need it, the fact we cant legally purchase it is the point. Its the whole reverse psychology thing of not being allowed something makes you desire it.
Either way people are going to obtain the game, its just gonna be like everything else smuggled around the globe except its easy as hell to obtain since its just data obtainable off the net and all this is really doing is pissing people off and promoting piracy to obtain something everyone else can just walk into a shop and buy.
You gotta feel sorry for Australia, their ban hammer is swung very often compared to the rest of the world. -.-
Sounds good to me....except the cameras
it seems the only ones saying that "these games don't affect us at all" are swearing like the proverbial... hmmm.. yeah, not affected at all...
Oh yeah said people are also probably kids as well.
Banning it won't help tho - too little too late if you ask me..
But i always say that if it does have an 18 rating on it, then the responsibility does lie with parents who buy their 8 year old it and expect him not to be influenced by the kids main focus of attention these days...
As a resident of Northern Ireland who was highly anticipating this for the Wii, I must say I am livid about this decision. I am 17 years old, I played the original manhunt when it was released, and I haven't went out and killed people. I've also played all the grand theft auto's, from 1 to San Andres, and the PSP versions, and I still haven't killed anyone. These stupid god damn British boards can't seem to realise that a ban will do nothing but increase it's popularity. It has just got massive news coverage on UK news channels, and I'm sure I'm not the only one DETERMINED to get this game no matter what. Kudos to you BBFC, but you lost the battle. Importers will be rich from you, and torrents will be shooting up in no time
Torrents, my UK brothers.
lol, that's what I was about to post. Lucky for UK there is torrent
It wouldn't be Swearing by any chance would it........LOL
what the ***** do any of U know about being in a gang? In my area of Tottenham, London U need 2 have a few man dem with U. U will feel more comfortable. I have been stabbed in the hip without, when they were not there.
Congratulation to UK authorities for ban this game because it is pervert and very sick heartless! GROSS!
At least Britain is against murder simulators!
Learn to fight like Jackie Chan.
you cant play the ntsc US version in the UK
Don't download this. I've got a modded wii and I am buying this game to support rockstar. they have the balls to say ***** U UK authorities. rockstar gets my $
boo BBFC
Hooray Beer!
I loved that country! I visited it on vacations and went to London, I wish I lived there. Also, it seems a toourist is now knowing more than a resident cause whil watching BBC on the hotel (great news btw, better than CNN or Fox) I saw that they are banning smoking indoors (not including private houses) so I think it's great (although they did that like 6 months ago here in Puerto Rico although since the 70's or 80's it was only valid in smoking ares to smoke indoors). Also I loved that there are Cameras everywhere, here in Puerto Rico is very rare, in fact it has practically just a few more cameras per city than the US so you can guess it's almost as unsafe as the US (which it is, but the crime statistics there are very low). As to Manhunt I also agreed it should be ban (plz read the following paragrapgh)
This game should be banned because like someone said, who would buy this game other than people with messed up minds? Most you will say "Oh why not ban movies like Saw 2 blah blah blah" well you watch movies that are scary (which actually none of the SAW mvies are scary) to be thrilled buy only a messed up someone would buy Manhunt and start killing in very grotesque ways and whoever takes pleasure in playing Manhunt would also take pleasure in torturing in real life and doing messed up things. I am against banning games like GTA or Doom (or other games attacked by Thompson) cause they're not grotesque, they're fun and very mild but Manhunt is not. I played that game and it's really boring yet exageratedly grotesque, if someone would love playing that game then he has mental illness or something and should go to a psychiatrist cause that person is probably depressed and is near committing homicide or suicide.
MAN vs MAN you F*ckin creatively stunted moron. Its been used in hundreds of plot lines in literature and movies (ie the 1924 short story "The most dangerous game", the movies The Running man and Battle Royale..THE BIBLE! I can keep going). Obviously they found that type of story interesting maybe these great writers and directors were just Sick crazy bastards? yea I dont think so I think that the conflict of Man vs Man has interested people for centurys. So NO! your not morally superior to anyone, your just stale and dense.
It must be pretty *****ing ridiculous if its been banned in the UK. I can't remember the last time a game was banned there. I just hope it doesn't have an influence on the Irish release. Not that I'll buy it. Manhunt was a ***** game.
haha
manhunt 2 sux and i'm in australia so suck it
1. it sux
2. it sux
3. it sux
4. it sux
5. it sux
6. it sux
7. it sux
8. it sux
9. it sux
i fkn love this game and i live in australia this games fkn kicks ass fkn newbs i will DDL it
download the illegal version usin torrents i know thats what im gunna do as soon as they release it in the usa guna download it !!!! !
Lol, does anyone play manhunt 2 anymore?
Just keep chanting it. God loves violence. God created video games and video game designers.
There is only one place you can obtain the game in the (UK) and that is from play.com this is because the company is based in jersey which has it own goverment and law as it is a seperate island which broke free from the UK and forming its own law and goverment which means that any game banned in UK they can sell legally as the goverment over ther states whether they want to follow the law applied over here. I'm keeping an eye out just in case they decide to with draw it.
EARTH!!!!
Pathetic,
Hope Rockstar can get the desicion overturned,
The first Manhunt was great, not because of the "gory kills",
they got boring after just a few times,
but the atmosphere and the sneakin around was great fun,
I was going to download this for my ps2, but now i will buy it to show my support of Rockstar, we need more adult psychological horror games!
nerds pls join a christian rockband
do you not remember at christmas time the bbfc were wanting to ban the game bully and made rockstar change its name to canis canem edit or something like that,its up to the person if they want to play the game or not if you put it on and dont like the game dont play it its simple dont go banning it because 6 ppl didnt like it what about the other millions of ppl that want to play it ????