I would disagree that Manhunt 2 is "sub-par" True, its far from the greatest game made by Rockstar, but I find that they actualy understand the Wiimote, which is difficut to find in third party developers, just look at some of the cap out for the wii. I would also agree with Ninja-Z, the games vs movies double standard has been something of a pet-hate fo mine, ever seen Hostel? or Cannibal Holocaust? The disturbing images in oth of those films far exceeds that in Manhunt, its the concept of children being able to more freely purchase 18 certificate video games at retail, as Clerks. don't care who they sell "toys" to.

Kikou-Shou

Granted, we all agree that Manhunt 2 is a sub par game, but I think this decision will ultimately prevent future incidents of banning video games in the UK and, most likely, throughout the world. Whether you buy it or not doesn't matter. Sales don't matter. What does is that now the board won't be able to use double standards when rating games and movies.

Ninja-Z

I don't see why anyone can see this as a negative. It shows that the UK has an effective means of oversight to make sure entertainment is not censored for political purposes, which was at least in part the problem here (which I think is obvious, since the BBFC also rejected the edited USA version). The issue here wasn't whether the game was in poor taste - it's clearly schlock meant to appeal to snuff perverts. The issue is whether games can be held to a stricter standard than movies, which the BBFC attempted to do here (the Saw movies all passed BBFC certifications with 18+ ratings, no cuts).

RawSteelUT

@The Amazing Exploding-Man:

HA!

Seeing as the BBFC has only attempted to ban two games from sale, and that the first was passed without issue, the problem is not with the ratings board.

I believe a major part in the refusal of rating is due to the complete lack of ratings enforcement in stores and parents. The amount of children that take GTA to a counter and are told that their parent must be present to purchase the game is absurd.

If the game had any merit other than it's continuous graphic violence i have no doubt that it would have been given a 18 rating without any problems.

Accordion

ALSO

@The Amazing Exploding-Man: LOL!

Gambia

Finally I can crack some fucking skulls.

@Communist_Gamer: The BBFC came first. ESRB is a terrible system, no one pays the slightest bit of attention to it here.

Gambia

Manhunt 2 was wasted potential.

Well I have to say, grats on living in an oppressive government, ye peoples of the UK. At least here in America, the censorship comes from companies afraid of ruining their images and not the government itself.

The Amazing Exploding-Man

@Thinker: I agree, whether you agree with censorship or not the BBFC haven't exactly been 'trigger happy', and hopefully this doesn't threaten their position too much.

TearsandScreams

You can slap an 18 certificate on a turd, but it doesn't change it from being a pile a crap.

@Communist_Gamer:
Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and mine would be that you are an idiot.

ManiacFive

This has NOTHING to do with the game, if you're looking at why its so important. It is a landmark case that allows the good for nothing BBFC who completely ruin the already good ESRB-style rating system PEGI gives us and pegs them back a little. BBFC stands for British Board of FILM!!!!!!! Classification, obviously without all the exclamation marks.

Unless it is directly going against the law, or it is worse than some films, it should under no right be banned anywhere. Freedom of speech my fucking arse...

Communist_Gamer

i want the real version.

PHILOSOPHER541

Manhunt 2?
I wonder why anyone would want to play it...
Gameplay sucks monkey balls and is very repetitive, story is a "meh"...Well, you might want to watch those gruesome and kewl kills for few times, but except those cheap thrills, game has nothing to offer at all.

neojam

Does anybody actually give a shit about this game anymore? I played the first game and it was garbage. Rockstar should just stick to GTA games to be honest.

-MoarPlz-

@Thinker: Well, you either have an appeals body that can check the government or you don't. Personally, I'd love to see the ESRB appeals process actually do something like this. We might have gotten The Witcher uncensored in America were that the case.

RawSteelUT

Got No More Heroes today. I have no intention of buying this game. It looks terrible... no not the disturbing subject matter... it just looks like a lazily made game. Great that it has finally got release though. Hopefully this debacle won't happen again!

dannybuoy

@Mr.SithNinja:

Manhunt '09: Coming to Europe in 2012!

Thinker

They should have just rated it " C " for CRAP! This is probably the worst franchise ever. If E.T. had a sequel, Manhunt would give it a run for its money. The only point of these games is to see the death sequences. Thats it. The gameplay is lame, the story MIGHT make interesting movies, but the games are unforgivably awful.

Why can't the government be looking out for our best interest and start banning games on the basis of suck rather than content? We need an orginization similar to the ESRB but instead rates them on suck factor. If it sucks at an epic level it would be banned. Then maybe we could avoid this kind of crap all together.

If someone doesn't do something soon and EA could start churning these things out yearly (assuming they dump a truck load of money to re-up R* contract). I don't want to live in a world with Manhunt '09....

SOMEONE PLEASE STOP THE MADNESS!!

XD

Mr.SithNinja

Brilliant, the one sensible ratings board in Europe now stands a real chance of becoming toothless.

I don't understand the VAC. The BBFC were doing a fantastic job. ESRB and CERO are too shit-scared to ban anything (not to mention both having a ridiculous rating system in the first place), Germany's Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle (USK) is too shit-scared to allow anything with blood through and PEGI are pretty toothless when it comes to rating anything above 12 (11 in Portugal).

Now that the BBFC have been undermined, the Daily Mail crew will have more ammunition to use against ALL forms of violence in videogames. This will either lead to the end of the BBFC as a games-rating body, or else we'll end with a BBFC with USK-style sensitivities.

Thinker

Wow, now I've been given the choice to pass over a crap game

Geckosan

This news might be worth celebrating if it wasn't for the fact that the game is crap... I played the Wii version and thought it was bloody awful quite frankly!! But this whole furore has just been a waste of time anyway- I can't work out why this one got turned down for so long when the first one didn't have all these problems?

dannyb0y

According to the BBC:

!The British Board of Film Classification had taken the fight to ban the game to the High Court, saying the game "went too far".

An edited version of the title will be released with an 18 certificate.

The game was first banned in June 2007 and an edited version of the game was later rejected by the BBFC."

So it looks like it's the edited version.

CanaryWundaboy

I played the edited and unedited game it's nothing special really. the news just blasted the Wii version cause of the motion controls i just hope that they still use this game as a scapegoat so that way they GTA can be sold with out all of this bullshit. But even if it does get that media attention it's just free advertising for R* on the news anyways. LOL

MURDERFACE

I wonder if this has anything to do with Take 2's inevitable EA assimilation and the BBFC not wanting to deal with them.

mysteryboy2k

See. We arent that bad when it comes to banning games.

Woylez

Wow... I'm shocked this just got resolved. Now, how do you tell all those people who fought so hard for the game to clear retail that it's only worth a rental at best(censored or uncensored)?

I went as far as manually patching the US version, so I saw it and completed it in all its brutal 'glory'... several months ago.

I guess it was always a battle of principle more than a push for the content. Score 1 more for the gamers! >_<

ChaoticInfinityX

Just put on the box twice banned, and profits will soar...

arstal

@liquid_kore: Not yet, it's out at the beginning of next month.

My opinion of Manhunt 2 is that they should have just released it in the first place, but given it an R18 rating (the rating above 18) and then it would only be allowed in licenced sex shops

brooza

Surely it doesn't matter which it is as long as you're willing to do the crack to get that sweet sweet gore. You pathetic excuse for a human being. :-)

NunianVonFuch

Pffft. If Rockstar spent some time making an actualy game and less on their over-inflated love of hype, this might have been worth all the fuss it generated. I'm not anticipating a Manhunt 3 anytime in the future, and I would hope that a lot of people behind this project at Rockstar are engaged in a rollicking game of Jobhunt.

TitillatedOcelot

Woohoo! Soon I can walk past it and think "Wow I'm so non-excited its here! I can not spend all my money on it and not play it when I get home." Of course, I get to not play it now, but now i can I can choose.

PaddyStardust

I find that funny that no one cared when Saw came out with another yearly sequel, yet any game that gets an 18 rating is demonized in the general media. I'll always remember the pork slaughterhouse in Saw 3, but shooters, meh once you've killed your millionth opponent it's pretty much the same. I mean who's surprised at all with head shots anymore? Yet witnessing that in real life would be probably one of your worst traumas. SEX, now that's something we don't see very often in games, ahh the Stripers from Duke Nukem 3D, yep I'm sure half of those awaiting Duke Nukem Forever are eager to see Next Gen strippers.

FredQC

@excel_excel: While the screenshots and vids I've seen are annoying with the dust and in some later scenes would make little sense, the violence and cleaving in half and sexual entendre and awesome dialogue all make that game well worth it.

This game on the other hand, ghei. I owned it for a short while.

Setzer IIDX

@liquid_kore:

It isn't really the violence that has been looked at with Manhunt, it is the way you go about killing people.

Condemned has what? Melee, shooting and the occational Head meets brick wall/TV/etc. Manhunt goes far and beyond that, that is what the Gov't is looking at.

Oh and giving Take Two and Rockstar one hell of a time.

charliescene187

Original submission or modified submission?

NameYourCharacter

Is the version to be released the original, or the somewhat edited one? I recall the BBFC mentioning that the cuts and edits made no difference to their (lack of) rating, so surely now the original could be released...

WalkOnWater

Wow!! this game still exists!! hmm yeah I think I'll buy no more heroes first.....but late then never@Setzer IIDX: Don't forget in europe NMH is bloodless

excel_excel

Just got Condemned 2, it is way worse violence than what I've seen of Manhunt 2 (only played the first Manhunt a bit, seen videos of the second) and also doesn't look like a cartoon. Does anyone know if it came out in UK/Germany/Australia yet?

Condemned 2 is actually a good game though... (except the awful online modes)

liquid_kore

This game could have been awesome if they let you SEE what you were doing to the people.

But they pussed out and NMH took the glory.

STRAWBERRY ON THE SHORTCAKE!!!!1

Setzer IIDX

lol Manhunt 2. IF you are going to buy a game from 2007 might I recommend Call of Duty 4, Mass Effect, Orange Box, Super Mario Galaxy, Ratchet and Clank Future, Uncharted: Drakes Fortune, Motorstorm, Virtua Fighter 5, Ninja Gaiden Sigma, Bioshock. Hell even Madden? They are all better choices than Manhunt 2

SolidOni_ds

I wonder how much money Rockstar/T2 spent on all of this, and if they will ever see it back ;__;

Kamizzle

Meh, not good news in my opinion. The BBFC generally do a good job these days and over-ruling them undermines their position.

NecronomiconUK

so has it gone through uncut or what?
Not that im bothered like.

theTOMSTA666

What? People are still interested? :P

Cchrist