Manhunt 2 Revision Denied UK Release

Wii

October 8, 2007, 7:18 am EDT
Total comments: 9

The BBFC required more changes to Manhunt 2 than Rockstar implemented so the game has been rejected again. Rockstar may appeal the decision.

BBFC Rejects Revised Verison Of Manhunt 2

The BBFC has rejected a revised version of the video game Manhunt 2. This follows the rejection of the original version of the game in June. The distributor had set in motion an appeal to the Video Appeals Committee against that decision, and this was suspended while the revised version was considered for classification.

David Cooke, Director of the BBFC said:

“We recognise that the distributor has made changes to the game, but we do not consider that these go far enough to address our concerns about the original version. The impact of the revisions on the bleakness and callousness of tone, or the essential nature of the gameplay, is clearly insufficient. There has been a reduction in the visual detail in some of the ‘execution kills’, but in others they retain their original visceral and casually sadistic nature.

“We did make suggestions for further changes to the game, but the distributor has chosen not to make them, and as a result we have rejected the game on both platforms. The decision on whether or not an appeal goes ahead lies with the distributor."

Talkback

Jonnyboy117Jonathan Metts, Associate EditorOctober 08, 2007

This should be a warning to everyone who says the ESRB should die. The alternative is government censorship. Shame on the British government.

stedamanOctober 08, 2007

This has the smell of political influence all over it....
Strange because I thought America was big on censorship over the U.K

EnnerOctober 08, 2007

Ouch for Manhunt 2. Isn't the rumor/report around the game that the Saw movies are more violent then some Manhunt 2 scenarios? Though, being able to control the character is an important difference to consider.

ThePermOctober 08, 2007

Censorship is fascism.

MorariOctober 08, 2007

CENSORED FOR YOUR PROTECTION

CrimmJames Jones, Associate EditorOctober 08, 2007

Once again Europe makes me feel better about the American system.

KDR_11kOctober 08, 2007

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Originally posted by: stedaman
This has the smell of political influence all over it....
Strange because I thought America was big on censorship over the U.K

Nope, America is only more active in censorship when it comes to nudity (ZOMG exposed nipple! AO! AO! AO!), violence is rated much less severely in the US than most European authorities. Manhunt 1 was banned in Germany for promoting violence (usually that dubious honour is reserved for the likes of Nazi propaganda, generally bans are only placed when a medium is judged by a court to be a threat to society or peace). For an example in the reverse, Singles was rated 16 here (rated AO in the US for nudity).

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This should be a warning to everyone who says the ESRB should die. The alternative is government censorship. Shame on the British government.

No, the US law does not permit censorship (hell, restricting porn is only possible through a loophole). We had an industry group doing ratings here in Germany, one day the govt came and said "nice system, we'll take it" so suddently the industry group became a government agency.

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Ouch for Manhunt 2. Isn't the rumor/report around the game that the Saw movies are more violent then some Manhunt 2 scenarios? Though, being able to control the character is an important difference to consider.

I don't know about the BBFC but the USK considers intent as well. Manhunt has the character kill enemies more brutally than necessary and with its multiple levels of kill animations made more violent kills seem desirable, this was considered enough to make the game count as inciting violence. Meanwhile Counterstrike was targetted by politicians because they thought it makes people shoot up schools, the USK said since killing is not the goal of the game (rescuing the hostages or planting the bomb is, enemies are only killed because they are in the way) they won't consider it that bad.

IceColdOctober 08, 2007

Wait, was the first Manhunt banned in the UK? And was #2 banned because of Wii controls?

Shift KeyOctober 08, 2007

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Originally posted by: IceCold
Wait, was the first Manhunt banned in the UK? And was #2 banned because of Wii controls?

The first Manhunt was banned after controversy due to it being linked to a murder.
And #2 has been banned because of the content rather than the Wii control schema (it is (was?) in development for the PS2 as well)

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