![]() “Manhunt 2 is important to us, and we’re glad it can finally be appreciated as a gaming experience,” said Sam Houser, founder of Rockstar Games, the development team within Take-Two that created “Manhunt” and is behind other popular but controversial titles like “Grand Theft Auto” and “Bully. They have been censored in order to merit an M rating, but they are still very graphic. It was the second bit of recent good news for Take-Two after the strong debut of its spooky underwater shooting game “BioShock,” and the company’s shares rose as much as 3.3 percent on Friday, when it announced the “Manhunt 2” news. The executions are extremely violent and disturbing. While its decisions carry no legal weight, Microsoft Corp MSFT.O, Sony Corp 6758.T and Nintendo Co Ltd 7974.OS do not allow such titles on their game consoles. The ratings board had previously slapped an "Adults Only" rating on the game. Entertainment Software Ratings Board, meaning it is meant for players aged 17 and over. ![]() Take-Two Interactive Software Inc TTWO.O said a new version of the game, which features an insane asylum escapee killing enemies in gruesome ways, had won a "Mature" rating from the U.S. "Manhunt 2," a brutally violent video game that was effectively banned in the United States, has risen from the grave in a modified form and will go on sale for Halloween, its publisher said. ![]() displays the company's next-generation game console "Wii" (L) and it's control unit before their corporate strategy meeting in Tokyo June 7, 2006. "It was not easy to understand, and the conversations were vague.Japanese game software and console maker Nintendo Co. That left Rockstar without a clear understanding of what pushed the game over the edge into AO territory, Walker says. ESRB president Patricia Vance says it was based on "several factors, including not only the content itself and the context in which it is presented, but also elements such as the reward system and degree of player control." That rating effectively bans games because Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony will not approve AO titles for their game systems, and retailers won't stock them.īut the ESRB had already given the game an AO, a decision announced the next day. That same day, advocacy groups in the USA pressured the Entertainment Software Ratings Board to rate the game AO, focusing on the Wii's interactive nature in the killing. The board banned the game on June 19, citing "sustained and cumulative casual sadism in the way in which these killings are committed, and encouraged, in the game." (Rockstar is appealing the decision.) The last game the board banned was pedestrian hit-and-run Carmageddon in 1997. The first hint of trouble for Manhunt 2 came from the British Board of Film Classification (which also handles games). Late last year - about the time the Wii game system was being launched - Rockstar contacted Nintendo about designing Manhunt 2 for the Wii, because its motion-sensitive controller system promised unparalleled immersion into the game as compared with the usual button-based controllers. His quest to uncover his identity then leads to encounters with sadistic killers and sexual deviants. He's an amnesiac who has been experimented on and must go on a killing spree - using weapons, from hypodermic needles to an ax - to get out of the ward. Manhunt 2's story line has psychiatric patient Daniel Lamb escaping during a power outage. That game, which sold about 1 million copies, put players in the role of a death row escapee hunted in a gruesome contest, orchestrated by an unseen director, in which the methods of murder escalated. After the changes, "it's still Manhunt," he says. ![]() "We were planning an M-rated game," says Rockstar's Rodney Walker. 31, $30-$40) along with some insight into the approval process. Recently, a three-man team from Rockstar offered a preview of the finished game, now rated Mature for ages 17-up (due Oct. So the developer's dilemma became how to change it enough to satisfy the board but retain its (literal) cutting edge. With its new Manhunt 2, Rockstar Games wanted instead to make players wince in horror.īut the industry's rating board winced first: Manhunt 2 received a dreaded AO - Adults Only - in June, equivalent to an X-rating for a movie. — - The Holy Grail of video games has been to create an experience that, like the best movies, can make you cry.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |