BBFC says no to Manhunt 2 again News

I think (unless I misread it somewhere), this has been passed in the Netherlands, so I'll be making a quick stop over at some point!

I probably wouldn't have if it wasn't in the news so much...

Import ftw :)

who cares.

It's not even that good.

I'm importing it then! I'm 20 years old, i want to play it. It's my life.

As far as I was aware the BBFC rating only stop the sale of the product in the UK but you are still entitaled to buy from abroad including online. So as long as there is a PAL region that has the game you can just import if you really want the game that badly.

Though I might be wrong can anyone confirm?

I'll just go and buy the dutch version then.

This is .. good news.

Manhunt 2 is exactly the sort of drivel that gives our industry a bad name. Woo I say!

Well personally I couldn't less that it's banned especially after reading the less than impressive reviews of the game.

The original was tedium on a disc which sold because it was extremely violent and nasty and it's a game I feel didn't deserve a sequel in the first place. It was definitely the low point of Rockstar's controversial games catalogue. And, yes, I was one of the unfortunates that bought the game and enjoyed it for all of... oooooo... an hour before I realised how mind-numbingly shallow, repetitive and dull it was.

whether the game is good or not is irrelevant. it isn't up to the bbfc to tell adults what is suitable for them and decide what they can and can't play

Obvioiusly our mature brains are not mature enough to decide for ourselves.

As long as the BBFC don't go the way of germany and start baning stuff left right and centre i'm fine with them blocking the odd game that just pushes the boundries that bit too far.

Though with "next gen" graphics we could see more stuff being band on the basis that it looks that bit more real.

It's like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre all over again.

And here was I thinking that the days of James Ferman had passed...

Er, actually, it is.

Also, I've got great respect for the BBFC and the decisions they make. These days, they aren't the Mary Whitehouse types, and are quite happy to pass a game or film as an 18 when its contents are on the whole pretty grotesque, without asking for cuts to be made. If they aren't prepared to certificate something, I'll accept their judgement.

The BBFC have got things the correct way around.
Strong on violence and laxer on sex. I would hate this country to be like the US where violence passes without a batted eyelid but the merest flash of a nipple causes a national crisis

Now all the other countries will take the piss out of us and rob our lunch money. Why did you make us wear plymsoles to school BBFC? Why?

Replace all the weapons with walkie talkies!

@ The_Inquisitor "Obvioiusly our mature brains are not mature enough to decide for ourselves"

Whilst I tend to agree generally in letting people make up there own minds (although recognise that we obviously do need censorship to a certain extent) I applaud the BBFCs desicion. It's more a point of stoping irresponsible developers who think they can do what they want to make money. Personally I think Rockstar are totally out of line releasing crap like Manhunt and Manhunt 2 and hope they lose huge amounts of money. Hitting them in the pocket is the only way they will listen.

The BBFC are not draconian - they are sensible for teh most part and I think that the tone of the game must have been pretty bleak for them to resort to an outright ban. Plus if it's anything like the original a steaming pile of toss as a game.

@Darren

I haven't played the original admittedly, but it did make Edge's top 100 games ever, so I'm guessing there must be something to it beyond tedium and violence.

Must get myself a copt of the original and find out.

'whether the game is good or not is irrelevant. it isn't up to the bbfc to tell adults what is suitable for them and decide what they can and can't play'

Perhaps it is time that someone did step up and tell adults what the hell is suitable for them and moreover, society in general.

With so many people growing up without good parental role models, and I include myself in that statement, we find ourselves with a generation or two of adults who have no idea what being adults is.

Just because somebody is aged 18 or more, does not automatically mean that they are fully compus mentis and that they have the wherewithal to decide for themselves what is right or wrong.

You and I may be of sound mind and have the ability to determine that a game like manhunt is just another form of entertainment, others may not be so logical.

I am quite happy with this decision and hope it helps reduce the number of pointlessly naff murder sim type games available on home consoles.

I have played it and finished it on PS2!

It’s a very good game, scary and atmospheric. The fashion in which I got hold of it I will not condone and would have happily have purchased it legit as I intended! as I feel Rockstar deserve it for making a decent product (FOR ADULTS).

I’m over 18 years old and do not or have ever suffered from any mental illness or feel that by completing this game has changed that in any way.

The terms “bleakness and callousness of tone” needs serious clarification as I find it astonishing that games are being rejected on emotional words rather than content!

Bleakness from the dictionary refers to - a bleak and desolate atmosphere; "the nakedness of the landscape" & callousness - devoid of passion or feeling; hardheartedness.

All sounds fine to me!

To use those terms as the failure (if it was!) sounds like the sort of language a high court judge would use to reason the passing of a sentence and impose their god like status over us the human beings.

BBFC give a clear fucking list to Rockstar and tell what to remove to pass the bloody thing rather than talk high & mighty shit to do with what you think the atmosphere is.

PEACE i guess!!!

@ Moz - you are correct, this decision by the BBFC means it cannot be sold anywhere in the UK, but you can still legally import it and own it.


In the article where it says "after it was initially banned last June" makes it sound like June 2006.

For christ sake BBFC, you have been fantastic for a good decade, now suddenly yielding to pressure, i mean its M in the US and they are more sensitive than us.

"they are more sensitive than us"

... on the subject of sex. Stick an exposed female nipple into Manhunt and watch that M rating disappear.

Why don't Rockstar simply open an online store based in a region it isn't banned?...and then promote the crap out of it on UK/other European gaming sites.

It's sales will obvious be limited..but it's better than nothing..and at least then it would be easily available for those who want it.

Now I see why this country is going downhill so quickly...too many sheeple accepting whatever controls are forced upon them "for the public good". To those of you applauding the BBFC, grow up. This is the thin end of the wedge and as soon as they start realising people like you are happy to accept censorship because you can't make your own minds up or think these benevolent public institutions are infallible, it will only get worse. Nanny statism at it's worst.

Yeah well done BBFC, for making yourselves irrelevent.

oh joy, this old chestnut, cue 200 posts of,

"ooh you BBFC, stop telling me what to do, youre not my real dad anyway! I hate you! Its a conspiracy to make us all into clones, quick hand my tinfoil hat."

vs.

"Rockstar are sick and wrong and they are probably all pedos and you have to draw the line otherwise people will all go bonkers and start smashing grannies in the face with dualshock pads and going around with their nuts hanging out"

@Prolific8

Bollocks. The BBFC are one of the (very) few "public institutions" in this country that I do have any respect for. If parliament had as light a touch on its remit as the BBFC does we'd all be able to buy heroin over the counter at Boots.

Seperate the bodies doing good work from bad and you'll be able to turn your ire on far more deserving targets.

@prolific8
Now I see why this country is going downhill so quickly... People like you who are so damn paranoid everything limits their freedom and is seen as "nannying".

For gods sake, you want to live in a society without rules, go live on a desert island. If you want to have some boundaries, it really could be an awful lot worse (eg Singapore, where people get paid to sift through magazines manually to censor magazines like FHM).

Two video game bans in about 10 years, one of which was eventually passed. Grow up yourself.

@ GiarcYekrub


Surely they'd be only be irrelevant if they didn't actually bother to make an informed decision about the material in front of them in the first place?

Something along the lines of "well, it's still casually sadistic and without any merit or redeeming features whatsoever, but let's slap an 18 on it anyway and go back to sleep."

I didnt agree with the BBFCs original judgement but I'm not suprised by their refusal to change it, blurring out the finishing moves does not change the tone of the game.

Still thou, why they refuse manhunt but allow movies like Saw to be released is beyond me.

@prolific8
The BBFC actually went to court to defend it's right to be more lax with porn ratings. and it won!.

The original uncensored version did indeed pass in the Netherlands, that doesn't mean however that we will get that version. Since it's still Pal territory and making a special version of the game for such a small market is never going to happen.
We'll get the same version as the rest of Europe.

Okay then, give me one good reason for banning this game, beyond "it's violent". If you're going to give that answer, at least back it up with some good reasoning, lest you start sounding like Jack Thompson.

All the BBFC have done is show themselves to be utter hypocrites, by allowing films like Hostel and games like the original Manhunt to pass and then banning the this game because it's "a step too far". Well, we should all be glad that these grey old men sitting in a room in London can decide this for us. Here I was thinking that as an adult I should be able to decide that for myself. Silly me.

@zuljin - allowing adults to buy a computer game is not "living in a society without rules". It's called freedom of choice, and this decision is yet another indication that the concept is dying a death in the UK.

@Fitzmogwai & Zuljin

I know this is an old story but both sides of my family who’ve managed to get through wars that involved leaving countries that always seemed to start with a slow loss of civil rights with eventual lock down and then persecution, appears to be happening again, with people like Fitzmogwai & Zuljin defending long standing intuition that up until *now* have obviously stepped out off line!

We must not stand by and watch our ideals of freedom be disolved!!!

That has fuck all to do with paranoia!

I think guy Fawkes had the right idea and selling heroin in Boots would solve a lot of problems!

For a star the BBFC is independent from the government so any can't technically be part of a "nanny state" or any other type of "state" for that matter.

Secondly the BBFC has had a great reputation until now. They haven't changed their rules for Manhunt 2 they've judged it in exactly the same way they would judge any other piece of media.

Thirdly the BBFC, unlike most classification/censorship bodies do not just tick a box every time there is a bit of blood/nudity on the screen. Context is taken more seriously than content. Sex is OK. Rape is looked at very closly to ensure it is in no way shown to be unconsequential or glorified.

Finally anyone can look at the BBFC guides it's not like R* didn't know their game would fall foul of the guidlines and the BBFC made it clear in their original judgement that it was not the content of the game but the context it was set in.

I remember the good old days, when it was optional to submit a game for a BBFC classification, and the only reason to do it was to get a 'cool' official ratings tag on the cover, like in the grownup world of films.

@RexRunti

"For a star the BBFC is independent from the government so any can't technically be part of a "nanny state" or any other type of "state" for that matter. "

However, the Video Recordings Act 1984 makes it compulsory for certain types of releases to be submitted to the BBFC, so independent or not it absolutely can be considered part of a "nanny state".

"Statutory powers on film remain with the local councils, which may overrule any of the Board's decisions, passing films we reject, banning films we have passed, and even waiving cuts, instituting new ones, or altering categories for films exhibited under their own licensing jurisdiction".

Lobby. The BBFC don't have real powers

Thirdly the BBFC, unlike most classification/censorship bodies do not just tick a box every time there is a bit of blood/nudity on the screen. Context is taken more seriously than content. Sex is OK. Rape is looked at very closly to ensure it is in no way shown to be unconsequential or glorified.


Hills have eyes remake says "Bollocks". ;)

BBFC video game stats.

In 2006 and 2007 to date. 3 of the 496 games submitted required cuts (and they were games that wanted a 15 or PG rating)

Another reason the UK sucks. That and the thousand of CCTV's everywhere.

So much for games being ART

Don't care.

Next news item please.

Its just the slippery slope argument that comes to my mind. However crap Manhunt2 is or isnt, it sets the scene for more bannings etc. IMO, anyone likely to be unhinged enough to act out anything from a game is likely to find something else to trigger them into action. While films like Saw are shown when they are little more than "torture porn" with fuck all story or worth (my opinion again), it strikes me as a double standard.

@malteaserhead

Hills remake did not "glorified and unconsequentialized" an act of rape.

Wombat, I thought the same thing -- the Manhunt series seems a close parallel to the glut of gore-nography sluicing through cinemas these days.

I respect the BBFC's decision, but it's hard to see where the element of interactivity really separates Manhunt from the likes of Hostel, Saw, Devil's Rejects etc. Smacks a bit of "you can show whatever you like, so long as it's not triggered by pressing X".

@ SEVQU

I absolutely appreciate that the loss of civil rights is an extremely important subject. On that note, I think that the restrictive legislation passed in the last several years by the government which restricts the right to public protest, and the concurrent increase in police powers under the terrorism and serious organised crime acts are significant threats to the freedoms of our society, the security of which wars have been fought to defend.

However, I don't agree that it is right or reasonable to equate the non-certification of a game by a body who are, by any standard, extremely liberal in their guidelines, to the concerted effort by an elected government to restrict the freedoms of its citizens.

Shame it's not better, then I could brag about how I would import it to plan on my US Wii.

\brags anyway

how about an import review, EG?