Manhunt 2 Receives AO Rating

[Yuna_Firerose 0]

Yuna is on a Miho/Sin City kick, I see.

 

Oh yeah...Manhunt...yay for R*. I'm surprised they got it edited, resubmitted, and approved all quick. That was all so sudden.

My sig/avatar changes with my moods. ^.^ Not sure what will be next. Prolly something Heroes-related.

[dubq 0]

From IGN: http://wii.ign.com/articles/816/816378p1.html

 

ESRB Refuses to Disclose Manhunt Details

Some want reassurance that the game's content has been suitably altered.

by Daemon Hatfield

 

August 28, 2007 - Last week the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) quietly announced it had re-rated Rockstar's controversial game Manhunt 2 from an Adults Only (AO) rating to a Mature (M) after the developer resubmitted the title for review. The ESRB did not disclose any details about what content had been changed in the new version that warranted a lower rating. Early previews of the game had shown us Manhunt 2 was the goriest game we'd ever seen, including sequences of castration with a pair of pliers, sawing into an enemy's groin and buttocks, and stabbing their neck with a pen.

 

Yesterday California Senator Leland Yee from San Francisco issued a statement calling on the ESRB to reveal how it had made the decision to reduce the rating of Manhunt 2.

 

Senator Leland Yee

"Parents can't trust a rating system that doesn't even disclose how they come to a particular rating," said Yee. "The ESRB and Rockstar should end this game of secrecy by immediately unveiling what content has been changed to grant the new rating and what correspondence occurred between the ESRB and Rockstar to come to this conclusion. Unfortunately, history shows that we must be quite skeptical of these two entities."

 

Yee is the author of a California game regulation that was recently struck down by a United States District Court judge. He has called on the FTC to investigate the ESRB's decision.

 

Just moments ago, the ESRB issued a statement from its President Patricia Vance standing by its policy to not disclose specific information on how a rating is determined.

 

"Publishers submit game content to the ESRB on a confidential basis," says Vance. "It is simply not our place to reveal specific details about the content we have reviewed, particularly when it involves a product yet to be released. What can be said is that the changes that were made to the game, including the depictions themselves and the context in which those depictions were presented, were sufficient to warrant the assignment of an M (Mature 17+) rating by our raters."

 

The Motion Picture Association of America has a similar policy not to disclose details on how its raters determine a film rating.

[Yuna_Firerose 0]

From yahoo: http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070829/netherlands...nhunt.html?.v=1

 

Quote:

Dutch Won't Ban Video Game Manhunt II

Wednesday August 29, 2:24 pm ET

Justice Minister Says No Ban on Video Game Manhunt II Possible Under Dutch Law

 

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) -- The Dutch Justice Ministry declined to intervene Wednesday to prevent the Dutch release of "Manhunt 2" -- a video game that caused a flap in the United States and has effectively been banned in several European countries for excessive violence.

 

In a letter to parliament, Justice Minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin said there was no way to ban the game under Dutch law, but it would theoretically be possible to prosecute people who distribute it to youth under 16 if its images were violent enough. No such case has yet been tried in the Netherlands.

 

In the game, players perform a series of killing moves as an amnesiac scientist who escapes from an asylum.

 

The game had been scheduled for an international release in July, but that was put on hold after the British Board of Film Classification refused to rate the game, making it impossible to distribute in Britain. Germany banned it outright.

 

In the U.S., the Entertainment Software Rating Board, an industry group, slapped it with an adults-only rating, for consumers 18 and older. That would have prevented it from being distributed in the largest U.S. chains, and the game's maker, New York-based Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., is now toning down the initial version.

 

Unlike in Britain or Germany, there is no authoritative ratings board or law in the Netherlands banning games purely for violent content, Hirsch Ballin wrote.

 

"The current law is based on the principle that every adult is considered capable of deciding for himself which games he wants to play, unless it contains illegal material," he said. That would include racist propaganda or images appealing to pedophiles.

 

Deciding on whether children should be allowed to play a game is currently "the joint responsibility of parents, the audiovisual industry and the government," he said. His ministry was now examining whether new laws or policies were needed "to better protect the youth," he said.

 

He pleaded for a unified EU standard for video game ratings. "A joint approach could lead to a ban on the most violent games," he wrote.

[dubq 0]

"The current law is based on the principle that every adult is considered capable of deciding for himself which games he wants to play, unless it contains illegal material," he said. That would include racist propaganda or images appealing to pedophiles.

 

Deciding on whether children should be allowed to play a game is currently "the joint responsibility of parents, the audiovisual industry and the government," he said. His ministry was now examining whether new laws or policies were needed "to better protect the youth," he said.

 

What a novel concept..

[Yuna_Firerose 0]

If you knew certain sites, which specialize in certain...sharing, you could already be playing MH2, PAL beta, AO.

 

Not that I would know or anything.

 

0:)

[Sideburnious 0]

Come on. It would be a bigger shock if holland did ban this game.

[dubq 0]

If you knew certain sites, which specialize in certain...sharing, you could already be playing MH2, PAL beta, AO.

 

Not that I would know or anything.

 

0:)

 

How about you just tell us the site?

[haws bah gawd 0]

Since R* was able to get the game edited and approved so quickly I'm a little skeptical. I'm just hoping we dont have a repeat of 2005's "Hot Coffee" debacle. R* simply "commented-out" the code for the AO stuff in San Andreas, and people discovered it via hack or cheat device later.

[Angles Broken Fricken Neck 0]

well for those who download ps2 games, the games uncut beta has been leaked to the world

[Yuna_Firerose 0]

If you knew certain sites, which specialize in certain...sharing, you could already be playing MH2, PAL beta, AO.

 

Not that I would know or anything.

 

0:)

 

How about you just tell us the site?

I get all my games from Blackcats. Exclusive torrent tracker.

 

 

But I first heard about the release here, from what else, ReleaseLog: http://www.rlslog.net/manhunt-2-pal-ps2dvd...#comment-102689

[Cartman 0]

I too get all my games from Blackcats. Great site if you are able to keep your share ratios up.

[dubq 0]

Oh so this is a downloadable PS2 version? Not a PC version? I don't have a modded PS2.

[dubq 0]

From IGN - http://wii.ign.com/articles/819/819465p1.html

 

Manhunt 2 Wii Update

We played the AO-rated version and now we've played the M-rated one. What's the difference? New screens, too.

by Matt Casamassina

 

September 11, 2007 - Mega-publisher Rockstar Games has created a name for itself by releasing videogame software whose content pushes the boundaries of the ESRB's M rating. Titles like Grand Theft Auto regularly feature violent gunfights and profanity, but even these are child's play next to the company's Manhunt franchise, known for its grotesque scenes of murder - the type of stuff that'd make a content-policing lawyer like Jack Thompson leap to his feet and howl at the moon. Even with its buckets of blood and dismembered gore, the original Manhunt released to the masses with a coveted M label, but its sequel was not so lucky. The game, which follows a sometimes-delusional anti-hero as he treks through an ugly, shadowy experiment gone awry, recently came down with an Adults Only rating, a virtual brick wall for publishers. While first parties like Nintendo and Sony will license M-rated games, they won't touch AO-rated ones, but even if they would, most retailers wouldn't carry them. As a result, Rockstar was forced to make some changes to Manhunt 2. We recently had the chance to play the now-M-rated Wii build of the game, and while it's mechanically identical to its earlier self, some cosmetic differences have been introduced.

 

Rockstar demoed two levels from the latest version of Manhunt 2 - one we had seen before and another completely new to us. The first stage, titled Sexual Deviants, follows main character Danny and his only ally Leo as they make their way through The Project, which can best be described as a conglomerate of freakish thugs and run-down top-secret facilities. Somehow, the duo has gotten itself imprisoned within the compound and must escape, but to do that Danny will need to get his hands bloody… very bloody, actually. As the character travels through dilapidated warehouses, gruesome S&M clubs and ruined hospital wings, he'll encounter hunters - leather-bound killers, mask-wearing psychos, corrupt policemen, etc. - and he'll have to murder them. Clearly, these hunters aren't mankind's best, but they are nevertheless human, and they do bleed quite a lot. The game rejoices in gore, no doubt, but there's more to it than blood and guts - a truth demonstrated early into Sexual Deviants, as Danny and Leo sneak through corridors, hide in the shadows, climb atop trucks, and use a variety of different weapons and items to lure and dispose of enemies.

 

The content may be too much for some to stomach, but the presentation is well done regardless. Manhunt 2's storyline is made more believable with realistic voice acting, atmospheric camera angles and pans, and moody transitional effects. There's even some comedy thrown in for good measure. Take, for example, a scene in which Danny decapitates a hunter and then uses his severed head to gain entry through a security door. A guard on the other side opens a peephole and sees the decapitated head staring back at him. "Georgie Boy!" he exclaims. "Come on in." When the door opens and the mutilation is revealed, he screams, "What did you do to Georgie Boyyyyyyy!?" before attacking. The scene is simultaneously disturbing and comical. When Danny uses a baseball beat to pummel a leather-faced opponent, the opposition whines, "I don't like being dominated!" before collapsing to the pavement with a thud.

 

Eventually, Danny and Leo make their way through the ground-level S&M club complete with naked pole-dancers and a variety of total freaks to an underground section where the real debauchery unfolds. In locked rooms that blanked a long corridor, psychopaths mutilate and murder victims in a number of disgusting fashions. In one cut-scene, a masked killer uses a power saw to slice into a man's bulging belly, as the victim lies helplessly strapped to a table. In another, a hunter prepares to electrocute a separate prisoner. Manhunt 2's new M rating does not appear to have any bearing on these sequences, as they look and play exactly as they did when we first saw them so many months ago. Indeed, the majority of main gameplay functions are intact, violence, gore and all. If Danny beats a hunter with a mace, the carnage will play out uncensored, and blood will splatter onto the main character's clothes.

 

But there have been some unfortunate content omissions, too. When we first wrote about Manhunt 2, we referenced a particularly nasty death sequence, in which Danny could use a pair of pliers to literally rip the testicles off a hunter. That murder has been completed removed from the updated build of the game. Not a big deal for us, as it only amounts to one kill out of dozens. Danny can still saw into the heads of enemies, or bludgeon them with a blunt object, or stab them, or use a syringe on them, or even use the environments to take them out. In one sequence, Danny uses a sewer cap to decapitate a hunter, at which point the enemy's body fell into the sewer hole.

 

The biggest and most disappointing change relates to the major death strikes. When Danny sneaks up on an enemy, gamers can hold the A button down, at which point they will be given the option to pick from three different murder animations (on Wii, they get to act them out with Nintendo's motion-sensitive controllers). In the AO-rated build of Manhunt 2, we could clearly see these over-the-top and horrific animations. In the M-rated version, Rockstar has added both an extreme blur effect and in most cases darkened the graphics so that it is nearly impossible to make any sense of what is going on. Players will be able to see character movement, blood splatters, and sometimes they may catch a glimpse of an identifiable action (for example, Danny jamming nails into the legs of a chair-bound opponent), but mostly it's guesswork - a garbled, motiony mess that's far less satisfying. This truth is doubly unfortunate because both everything else is unchanged and because these death strikes are what gamers will want to work toward; they're the pay off for a job well done, but now the pay off is not nearly as rewarding.

Our reactions to these maneuvers really speak volumes. The first time we played Manhunt 2, everybody in the office was very outspoken one way or the other about the grotesque Wii-motion-enhanced kills. (On-screen cues tell players to jab left or right with the Wii remote, to pull up or down with both controllers, etc., and only after the gestures are made does the animation continue.) Onlookers were crying out and laughing and several people were in awe of the game's brutality. But with the updated build, we couldn't fully identify what was going on. We could see movement and hear disgusting noises, but if Rockstar had told us Danny had just decapitated a hunter or strangled him instead, we'd have to take its word for it. Not to suggest that these sequences are completely ruined - they aren't. They're still fun to perform and some of the animations - especially when they're in well-lit rooms where more of the movement can be recognized - are still satisfying and entertaining.

 

Manhunt 2 is scheduled for an October 31 release date on Wii, PlayStation 2 and PSP. The Wii build of the game will feature a few extras, including some unique weapons and more blood splatter, not to mention the gesture-based controls (which generally work very well), but otherwise the content is the same. Rockstar's title may have dropped the AO label and toned down the presentation of death strikes for an M rating, but this blood-soaked effort is still one of the grossest and most disturbing titles we've ever seen. It's also fun, thanks to usually-tight control and an abundance of dark atmosphere. We're going to join the hunt this Halloween and with the handful of extras on Nintendo's system, we're going to do it on Wii.

 

We've posted five new screenshots in our media section.

 

Wierd that they'd have to "censor" the death strikes. Those in the first game were pretty gruesome as well, complete with decapitations, yet it got an M rating in the end.

[AndrewTS 0]

Manhunt 2 to bomb in sales confirmed.

[dubq 0]

It's too bad too. I mean aside from advancing toward the end of the game.. the kills are the main goal. To take this away.. or blur it out.. seems senseless. =\

[AndrewTS 0]

It's too bad too. I mean aside from advancing toward the end of the game.. the kills are the main goal. To take this away.. or blur it out.. seems senseless. =\

 

Also, they mention that the neutering is gone completely. Ironic.

 

Plus, look at precedent--they can't even have the original uncensored scenes in the game code for action replay hackers to uncover, lest the wrath of the ESRB and other rating agencies come down upon them.

[dubq 0]

True enough. I'm still going to purchase the game, but I guess it's just a case of "I don't know what I'm missing" since I've never played the beta or viewed any media for it. Sad, but true. *sigh*

[AndrewTS 0]

Manhunt 2 has been refused classification...yes, AGAIN...by the BBFC...yes, again.

 

http://kotaku.com/gaming/new-cut-rejected/...gain-308072.php

 

Rockstar is appealing: http://kotaku.com/gaming/manhunt-2/rocksta...sion-308357.php

 

By the time this thing comes out in the UK, it's going to be Sneak King 2.

[The Flamboyance 0]

Almost picked this game up yesterday because it's only 30 bucks but I held out. I know it's gotten average reviews from most websites and magazines. Anyone here play it?

[dubq 0]

I think it's fine. The gameplay is pretty cool, IMO. I like that they used the remote to control any gun weapon, and you can actually move at the same time you shoot - something RE4 lacked.

 

The censoring of the kills isn't that big of a deal in the end. I would love to be able to play it how it was meant to be played, but you get used to the wierd filter effect pretty quickly.