With the torture-porn of Saw IV drumming up over $30 million at this weekend's box office, what's all the fuss over "Manhunt 2"?
Child advocates are looking to stir up boycotts of the video game title, which goes on sale Wednesday. The "mature" rated game (appropriate for people 17 and up), is a first-person take on the role of a man escaping from an insane asylum. Characters in the game can kill and torture using implements ranging from glass and shovels to a fuse box and a toilet.
Made for the Nintendo Wii, Sony PlayStation Portable and PlayStation 2, the Entertainment Software Rating Board originally gave it a rating of "adult only" that would have excluded it from some big-box retailers, including Wal-Mart. A modified version of "Manhunt 2" later got the "mature" rating.
"This is a very clear and firm warning to parents that the game is in no way intended for children," the ESRB said in a statement. Great, problem solved...except folks are still looking to keep adults from making the choice to play the game.
The British Board of Film Classifications banned the title and maintained the ban on the modified version. It said the changes don't "go far enough."
"The impact of the revisions on the bleakness and callousness of tone, or the essential nature of the gameplay, is clearly insufficient," they wrote. "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."
And why are English film raters looking at a video game?
"In my opinion, it's the most senselessly violent and offensive thing I've ever watched," said James Steyer, CEO of Common Sense Media.
I'm guessing he had no problem with the virtual snuff film about Jesus from Mel Gibson, or never saw it if he's making that statement.
"It's disgusting," Steyer said. "It's so violent, it struck me personally as pornographic violence."
Well, now we know he hasn't seen any of the Saw or Hostel films.
Professional gamers who reviewed the original and modified titles, say a scene in which a character pummels someone's neck with a shovel doesn't appear to have made the official cut, as well as a pliers-and-genitalia scene. Of course, players may still use shovels as instruments of torture as well as pliers as weapons -- just not specifically on the neck and genitals.
Ultimately, the company "believes in freedom of creative expression. We also believe in social responsibility. Not all of our products are intended for all consumers and we responsibly market our mature products to adults. We firmly believe that informed adults should be able to make their own choices about entertainment products for themselves and their families." And damn it, they're right.
Once you get to the point that the game was meant "specifically for those players mature enough to appreciate it," you have to realize that either it's your cup of tea or it ain't.
Child advocates are looking to stir up boycotts of the video game title, which goes on sale Wednesday. The "mature" rated game (appropriate for people 17 and up), is a first-person take on the role of a man escaping from an insane asylum. Characters in the game can kill and torture using implements ranging from glass and shovels to a fuse box and a toilet.
Made for the Nintendo Wii, Sony PlayStation Portable and PlayStation 2, the Entertainment Software Rating Board originally gave it a rating of "adult only" that would have excluded it from some big-box retailers, including Wal-Mart. A modified version of "Manhunt 2" later got the "mature" rating.
"This is a very clear and firm warning to parents that the game is in no way intended for children," the ESRB said in a statement. Great, problem solved...except folks are still looking to keep adults from making the choice to play the game.
The British Board of Film Classifications banned the title and maintained the ban on the modified version. It said the changes don't "go far enough."
"The impact of the revisions on the bleakness and callousness of tone, or the essential nature of the gameplay, is clearly insufficient," they wrote. "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."
And why are English film raters looking at a video game?
"In my opinion, it's the most senselessly violent and offensive thing I've ever watched," said James Steyer, CEO of Common Sense Media.
I'm guessing he had no problem with the virtual snuff film about Jesus from Mel Gibson, or never saw it if he's making that statement.
"It's disgusting," Steyer said. "It's so violent, it struck me personally as pornographic violence."
Well, now we know he hasn't seen any of the Saw or Hostel films.
Professional gamers who reviewed the original and modified titles, say a scene in which a character pummels someone's neck with a shovel doesn't appear to have made the official cut, as well as a pliers-and-genitalia scene. Of course, players may still use shovels as instruments of torture as well as pliers as weapons -- just not specifically on the neck and genitals.
Ultimately, the company "believes in freedom of creative expression. We also believe in social responsibility. Not all of our products are intended for all consumers and we responsibly market our mature products to adults. We firmly believe that informed adults should be able to make their own choices about entertainment products for themselves and their families." And damn it, they're right.
Once you get to the point that the game was meant "specifically for those players mature enough to appreciate it," you have to realize that either it's your cup of tea or it ain't.
The kind of tea where you pull out somebody’s vertebrae and shoot them point blank with a shotgun.
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