Duke Nukem Gets Through Classification Unscathed

13 years ago

February 10, 2011 at 11:15 am

Phew. I don’t think we’re alone when we say we had some doubts about this one – but rest easy folks, the Duke is coming to Australian shores, and it’s looking like he’s made it unscathed.

After some neat investigation work by Gamepron it was discovered that game ‘000A’, a 2K published title classified on February 7, featured “strong violence, sexual references, crude humour and drug references”. Sound familiar?

After contacting the Classification Board, Gamepron managed to confirm that game 000A was indeed the upcoming Duke Nukem Forever.

On the whole it’s good news – but we do wonder, however, if the fact that games like Duke Nukem Forever and Bulletstorm making it past the Australian censors, fitting snugly into our MA15 category, is an indication of just how fundamentally broken our classification system is.

Duke Nukem Forever escapes Australian censors [Gamepron]

Comments

38 responses to “Duke Nukem Gets Through Classification Unscathed”

READ THE COMMENTS

Daniel Bower

February 10, 2011 at 11:22 am

But….. doesn’t it have steroids usage in it? Isn’t that a instaban here?

Reply
1. popcultured
  
  February 10, 2011 at 11:28 am
  
  SHhh!
  And besides, it was Morphine in Fallout 3, and MJ in Gothic 3 that got those banned.
  
  Reply
2. MrBS
  
  February 10, 2011 at 11:37 am
  
  Indeed I would have thought that would have been a deal breaker.
  
  Reply
Ross Moir

February 10, 2011 at 11:23 am

Woohoo!

I think it got through by being unrealistic and over-the-top, which is also how Bulletstorm may have got through.

Despite over-the-top violence, they are both so clearly not real there is a clear distinction between the game and reality.

I’m just guessing though.

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1. ♣TadMod♣
  
  February 10, 2011 at 11:27 am
  
  But L4D2 is over-the-top as well, and that got censored to the extreme! 🙁
  
  Reply
  1. Ross Moir
    
    February 10, 2011 at 11:54 am
    
    Yeah, L4D2 is a weird one, it maybe the increased melee element that put it over the edge. What we need is to talk to a classification board member about what are the warning signs a game may be RCed for.
    
    Reply
  2. Corteks
    
    February 10, 2011 at 12:01 pm
    
    Yeah but they may have seen L4D2 as more realistic as it wasn’t so blatantly ridiculous. After all it was more the graphics in L4D2 that made it unrealistic, honestly everything looks a bit cartoony.
    
    Conversely the concept itself of Duke Nukem is unrealistic however, honestly it’s just damn silly looking. Just how it should be 😛
    
    Reply
    1. Tailblazers
      
      February 10, 2011 at 9:40 pm
      
      On L4D2 the reasons for being banned was the use of language when putting the application through for ratings. When doing it they referred to the zombies as ‘infected humans’ which the OFLC at the time frowned upon due to the ability to burn, decapaitate, remove limbs and kill in large numbers in what appeared to be a ‘realistic’ world. This puts it into objection with the ratings breakdown in place! it was the use of ‘infected human’ that caused problems because Dead Rising 2 passed perfectly due to it referring to the enemies as ‘zombies’. The OFLC or whatever doesn’t like video games to allow people to dismember or burn human-like entities in a realistic looking game. Normally the person writing the application would know this and alter it to pass but it didnt occur this way and it costs around $2000 to put through ratings again where it would most likely still get banned. This is all taken from an interview Game Informer did a while ago bout the ratings issues and the spoke to one of the reviewers
      
      Reply
      1. Max Johnson
        
        July 4, 2011 at 11:29 am
        
        “The OFLC or whatever doesn’t like video games to allow people to dismember or burn human-like entities in a realistic looking game”
        
        I find that a little hard to swallow. Black Ops, Fallout 3, New Vegas, etc all allow you to do that, to actual human characters, and have better graphics than L4D2.
The Cracks

February 10, 2011 at 11:24 am

The Duke made it through unscathed?!?

Hail to the king, baby!

Reply
Qumulys

February 10, 2011 at 11:29 am

Duke…pffft, he doesn’t waste time with nandy-pandy clasification nonsense! He has ass kicking to do!

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Scared

February 10, 2011 at 11:40 am

I….I don’t know what to say….

We need to get an R18+ rating and get it 5 years ago. It’s great that I will be able to play DNF unedited but this is an R18+ game for sure.

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Robert

February 10, 2011 at 11:47 am

I had serious doubts it was going to make it, but there you go. Always bet on Duke, it seems.

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Alex Rogan

February 10, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Of course I havent played the game, but Duke Nukem passes with its adult themes and will be played by 15 yr olds yet Marc Ecko gets banned for rewarding Graffiti.

If I were a parent I’m pretty sure I know which game I would prefer them to play.

fundamentally broken +1

Reply
1. Choc
  
  February 10, 2011 at 12:33 pm
  
  To be fair the censors have to classify games and movies based on what is considered societal acceptability and trend of the time of release. A lot has changed since then. Nudity is no longer insta-ban like it once was (yep, the old guidelines said this) to give an example.
  
  Its been a LONG time since getting up was banned and it originally passed and passed easily. Some local council member had a hissy fit that a game with graffiti is allowed when they spend bajillions on fixing it yearly and it went to the review board
  
  The review board rejected it.
  
  Reply
Karl Smart

February 10, 2011 at 12:00 pm

000A…. If they put it through as Duke Nukem Forever, then it would have been chopped up. Sneaky, but I like it

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MrTaco

February 10, 2011 at 12:08 pm

Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth hey?

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Cameron

February 10, 2011 at 12:12 pm

Pffft don’t want it now. Pansy ass game cant even get RC’d.

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Michael Pannunzio

February 10, 2011 at 12:21 pm

Can see why Atkinson got angry.

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Choc

February 10, 2011 at 12:24 pm

interesting. Take 2 obviously sent that application in with the codename (like nintendo did with Game 1 2 3 for 3DS etc) to hide the fact its that game

the Classification Board outing that might piss Take 2 off a tad. They might have wanted to keep it under the radar until just before release as to not get media crazyness going.

Reply
James

February 10, 2011 at 12:54 pm

Of course, they could still release a modified version. All this says is that the original version submitted by the publisher to the classification board got an MA15+ rating.

If the publisher self-censored and submitted a modified version, you’d see exactly the same information in the classification database.

Reply
Denaz

February 10, 2011 at 12:56 pm

AWESOME!!!!

Now its time to kick ass and chew bubble gum!

Reply
1. WiseHacker
  
  February 10, 2011 at 1:57 pm
  
  *Takes all of Denaz’s gum.*
  
  Back to work, 😛
  
  Reply
  1. Denaz
    
    February 10, 2011 at 2:20 pm
    
    No anything but the gum! 😛
    
    Reply
Stevorooni

February 10, 2011 at 1:13 pm

woohoo! Hopefully they didn’t do what Rockstar originally did for GTA4 and pre-emptively edit the game to pass the aussie censors.

Reply
James Mac

February 10, 2011 at 1:29 pm

I think it’s been edited…

Gearbox was saying there’s uncensored nudity in the game, the trailers show censored nudity… but the classification board makes no mention of it?

Seems odd.

Reply
1. MrTaco
  
  February 10, 2011 at 2:03 pm
  
  It does seem odd. But it’s happened before. House of the Dead: Overkill. You know what it says on the classification thing? Strong horror violence. That’s it. Not even the slightest mention of the copious amounts of profanity sprinkled throughout the game.
  
  Reply
  1. steven
    
    February 10, 2011 at 3:05 pm
    
    If it has been modified we won’t really find out to last minute (if they have censored the nudity or not considering its not mentioned in the OFLC’s rating).
    
    Reply
  2. Jason Oliver
    
    February 10, 2011 at 10:36 pm
    
    A lot of games have that – I’m looking at the box for Bad Company 2: Strong Violence, every second word is f–k but they don’t bother to mention it on the box! Maybe Sexual References covers the nudity aspect in this case?
    
    Reply
2. Luke
  
  February 10, 2011 at 3:15 pm
  
  I think the rating would say “modified” but as it says “original” i am still highly sure that this is the demo which i dont think it would have any nudity in it.
  
  Reply
Sar Selack

February 10, 2011 at 2:12 pm

Duke making it past the censors … a sure sign the game still isn’t real, and won’t actually be coming out. Biggest joke eva!

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Jackson Thurtle

February 10, 2011 at 2:19 pm

I… I don’t believe it. H-hail to the king. *prostrates in awe*

Now, the only game still worrying me is Metal Gear Solid Rising… :S

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Luke

February 10, 2011 at 2:38 pm

You arseholes i found posted this yesterday in the Ask Me Stuff section by asking if demos were rated different names and i posted the link aswell.

Reply
1. Luke
  
  February 10, 2011 at 2:40 pm
  
  I forget to mention that i think this is the demo’s classification hence the oooA title, by looking at vids of the demo from PAX there doesnt seem to be any nudity in it.
  
  Reply
2. Mark Serrels
  
  February 10, 2011 at 2:40 pm
  
  Shiiiiiiiiit.
  
  Reply
Michael Barnes

February 10, 2011 at 3:16 pm

Awesome. Can’t wait to play some Duke!

Reply
STENDEC

February 10, 2011 at 6:20 pm

Forgive me if I’m not immediately optimistic about this decision, but let’s not forget that all this proves is that the VERSION that Take2 submitted got through, not necessarily that the game in its entirely uncensored form got through. At this stage there’s no way to know, but it’s entirely possible that – forseeing the potential problems they’d have with our f*cked up system – Take2 and Gearbox pre-censored the game to get it in without an appeal/resubmission (and avoid the additional fees associated with that), just like Rockstar did with GTAIV. I hope I’m wrong, but if there’s one thing that’s remained constant in the Australian Ratings System vs Video Games issue, it’s that there’s always room for disappointment and that gamers are always the ones to lose out.

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Luke

February 10, 2011 at 8:33 pm

Its been changed to Duke Nukem Forever now, i think the oooA code was just an internal code used by the OFLC to identify DNF.

Although i over the moon that we wont get a cut down, butchered version but to me something smells rotten.

Reply

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Duke Nukem Gets Through Classification Unscathed

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38 responses to “Duke Nukem Gets Through Classification Unscathed”

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