More Fallout 3 advertising dramas! First it was subway adverts being pulled, now it's a bunch of online trailers, Bethesda politely requesting that a number of websites, including Shacknews (though, it must be noted, not us), remove any and all Fallout 3 trailers they'd ever posted, saying only the request was being made "in connection with ESRB's advertising guidelines". Guess there's something in those trailers that's not supposed to be in there. Good thing the ESRB acted so swiftly, and locked this down before the game was released, and...oh.

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The Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle, or USK, are Germany's classification board. And as you may already be aware, they're a conservative bunch, banning games that even Australia let slide. But this, this is new. Witness Germany's box art for Valve's upcoming zombie co-op shooter, Left 4 Dead. Notice anything, uh, different?

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Predictable. And in more ways than one. According to Epic, Gears of War 2 won't be seeing a release in either Germany or Japan, thanks to the game's level of violence and gore. Seeing as the first one wasn't released in Germany, that's no surprise. But Japan? Why isn't it being released in Japan? The first one was, despite its "Z" (adults only) rating, and it did pretty well for a Western game, selling over 30k units. Heck, Microsoft even held a Z-rated party last year celebrating the fact they release adults-only games. So what gives?

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Seems Pete Hines is quite talkative now! First the news that the Aussie-edited version of Fallout 3 is the only version, and now the one (yes, single) change made to the game to conform with classification guidelines. First, some background from Pete:

The chems in the original Fallout used fictional names...Buffout, Jet, Rad-X, etc. Those all appear in Fallout 3 in exactly the same way as before. We had added a new chem to Fallout 3 and had given it a real-world name, Morphine. Questions were raised about the use of that real-world drug, not only in Australia, but other territories as well.

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Dead Space might have been banned elsewhere, but in Australia, it's free and clear with not one, but two MA15+ ratings - one granted on April 21, and another on August 29.

A few readers touched base about the anomaly, with concerns that something might have been altered, given how touchy our classification laws are. Turns out there's no need to worry - EA Australia has happily confirmed that nothing's been changed, and that the later submission was just a courtesy. How kind of it!

Dead Space search results [Classification Board]

Australia's getting an edited version of Fallout 3? According to Bethesda's Pete Hines, that's technically not true. Turns out the version we're getting is the same as the rest of the world's.

How can this be, you ask? It's simple - the edited build of the game is the only build. Yes, everyone will now get to see the reduced incentives and rewards for drug use. Here's the reasoning behind the decision, from Pete:

"To avoid confusion among people in different territories, we decided to make those substitutions in all versions of the game, in all territories."

Fair enough. I suppose if Bethesda's confident enough to make it the default build, then the alterations can't be too bad.

I did find the following comment a little bizarre, however:

Calling the idea of an Australia-specific version of the game a "misconception," Hines told us, "We want to make sure folks understand that the Australian version of Fallout 3 is identical to both the UK and North American versions in every way, on every platform."

Well Pete, I hate to say it, but having a company policy where you don't answer questions about the topic is going to lead to this sort of thing. Sorry!

Censors Force Fallout 3 Changes [Edge Online]

Adobe InDesign* is damn hard to use, especially if you have no idea what you're doing. Though I expect the art guys and gals at Ubisoft have a fairly decent grasp of the software.

Or maybe not, judging by this rating sticker whoopsie on the Collector's Edition box art for Australia. I imagine the mistake is only on this promo image, and not the actual retail package. Well, for Ubi's sake I hope it isn't!

*I'm assuming it's InDesign. It could be plain old Photoshop, or even QuarkXPress (*shudder*).

Far Cry 2 Collectors Edition Image Blooper [The Computer Game]

Politicians and games classification. Like a bag of jelly babies, you get all sorts. There are those that can't see beyond their own ideals, others who should be shot, a few who believe games are some kind of mystical contraption that can't be monitored and the educated rebels who are fighting for reform.

Now, the Greens has weighed in with its thoughts and sadly, they're not in our favour:

According to WAvotes.org.au, a website run by the Australian Christian Lobby where parties respond to questions likely to be raised by Christian voters, the Greens oppose the introduction of R18+ computer games 'because of the levels of violent content, sexual objectification of women and drug references that provoke this rating.'

WA Greens oppose R18+ game rating, so which party supports it? [Somebody think of the children, thanks Michael]

Bethesda's PR man Pete Hines won't talk specifics when it comes to classification and its titles, but give him a more general angle, and he's all over it:

"The frustrating thing for us is that the standards and rules can be so varied across territories, that we work with five or six ratings agencies and each one has different 'hot buttons'." ... "In one place nudity is a big deal but violence is fine, and in another place drugs are a problem but nudity is fine.

On a related note, I recently asked the Classification Board a bunch of questions, if you'd like to take a look.

Bethesda: Multiple censorship laws 'frustrating' [CVG, via PALGN] [Pic]

And that's all we know! Because all we know is that a rating for the game has turned up on the website of the Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle (ie the USK, ie Germany's classification board), it's got a 12 rating, it's only for the PS3, and it is, apparently, a military strategy game. Seeing as we've never heard of this before, odds are good that it's a PSN title. Odds are equally good that we'll be seeing it at some stage during Sony's lone ranger press conference at Leipzig next week.

Savage Moon [USK, thanks everyone who sent this in!]