Dark Sector re-classified in Australia

PS3 News | No longer refused classification.

It's never good to be the bearer of bad news, so often the case when words like 'OFLC' and 'videogames' make it into the same article. Therefore, it's a good change to bring the news that Dark Sector, refused classification by the OFLC (Australian Office of Film and Literature Classification) in February has now been re-rated and awarded an MA15+ classification.

The game was originally considered by the OFLC to be too strong for our shores, as a "violent and sometimes gruesome game with a sinister storyline and ominous outcome. The violence and aggression inflicted upon the protagonist is of a high level, naturalistic and not stylised at all." Unfazed, Dark Sector's local distributor, AFA Interactive, confirmed in April that an altered version of the game, based on the Japanese release was being prepped for another shot at classification.

It appears that this version of Dark Sector will be hitting Australian shelves shortly. This version features no decapitation and "toned down ... limb severing on humans [only]", which according to the OFLC classification database was still strong enough to earn an MA15+ and a warning against 'Strong Violence'.

Thanks to Daniel Vuckovic for the tip.

Related Dark Sector Content

Australia to receive 'toned down' Dark Sector
01 Apr, 2008 Domestic version to be based on Japanese build.

Dark Sector Preview
27 Feb, 2008 We go hands on with the RC version. Should you care about the ban?

Dark Sector refused classification in Australia
14 Feb, 2008 Game not dead in Australia yet.

24 Comments

ret the roman

1 year ago

Its about bloody time.

mipac

1 year ago

I have the uncensored version on PS3. It is a great game, but I wouldn't want it with all those cuts.

RAMPAGE

1 year ago

Meh im not gonna get the game anyway.

ZNMS

1 year ago

Ninja Gaiden II passed all the tests by the OFLC and there's decapitation and limb severing, left, right and center all throughout the game. That does not make sense.

pdaddy

1 year ago

I agree.. I've played both Ninja Gaiden 2 and the uncensored Dark Sector and I must admit, I thought NG2 was a LOT more bloody than DS. I mean, even Conan, despite being a pretty average game had heaps of beheading and limbs flying off..

DS is so damn dark you can't even see anything that happens while with NG2, I felt like I needed a bucket under the TV to catch all the blood spraying everywhere..

The OFLC don't make sense, but I guess it's all in how you present to them.

Anthony

1 year ago

An overreaction?

Eyce

1 year ago

ZNMS wrote

Ninja Gaiden II passed all the tests by the OFLC and there's decapitation and limb severing, left, right and center all throughout the game. That does not make sense.

Yeah but if it's over the top and artsy, the OFLC lets it go on through because it's so surreal. If you're going for the legit-looking decapitation and whatnot, then you'll likely get an RC.

mipac

1 year ago

I have both Ninja Gaiden 2 and Dark Sector uncensored, and I presume the reason Dark Sector was banned was not because of the decapitations/dismemberment, but rather the way that human enemies would scream in pain for minutes after having a limb removed. That's a big no-no from the OFLC, and I'm sure it has been removed.

African Aussie

1 year ago

mipac wrote

I myself presume that the reason Dark Sector was banned but not Ninja Gaiden simply because of INCONSISTANCY from the OFLC.

I mean another great example that comes to mind is the banning of Marc Eckō's Getting Up because it had graffiti tagging. Yet The Warriors has graffiti tagging as well but it was never banned.

Now that I didnt understand.

mipac

1 year ago

^I think that the major theme of Marc Ecko's Getting Up was graffiti tagging, while games like The Warriors and GTA San Andreas only had minor sections with graffiti. It's all the way that it is portrayed.

el_rezzo

1 year ago

ZNMS wrote

Ninja Gaiden II passed all the tests by the OFLC and there's decapitation and limb severing, left, right and center all throughout the game. That does not make sense.

I think it was more that NGII was a big 360 title with a lot more money behind it than Dark Sector. I've always thought that smaller publishers had a hard time getting stuff past the OFLC.

Shorty

1 year ago

mipac wrote

Getting Up had actually been awarded an MA15+ a couple of months before it was banned and its classification was only reviewed after appeals by the Queensland Local Government Association. Even worse was that one of the classifiers was quoted as saying that they only needed to have "thought" the game would promote crime, not if it actually did. Meanwhile, Need for Speed: Most Wanted had illegal street racing as its major theme and it passed with a G rating.

TBH, the re-classification of Dark Sector is a mixed blessing because the game that was submitted for reclassification wasn't the original version.

el_rezzo wrote

I think it was more that NGII was a big 360 title with a lot more money behind it than Dark Sector. I've always thought that smaller publishers had a hard time getting stuff past the OFLC.

The GTA4 fiasco seems to indicate that the big publishers don't really get off scot-free, either.

el_rezzo

1 year ago

Shorty wrote

el_rezzo wrote

I think it was more that NGII was a big 360 title with a lot more money behind it than Dark Sector. I've always thought that smaller publishers had a hard time getting stuff past the OFLC.

The GTA4 fiasco seems to indicate that the big publishers don't really get off scot-free, either.

Very true, maybe there isn't a way to know what the OFLC will let through. In any case Dark Sector isn't all that great of a game (in my opinion), and hasn't gotten rave reviews or anything so I wonder if it will be worth all the extra effort (and money) to get this game onto Australian shelves.

Fetidchimp

1 year ago

The OFLC had absolutely 0 to do with what happened with GTA IV, the original version was not submitted by Rockstar only the edited version, so i have no idea what the OFLC are meant to have done there.

And once again, the point isn't if the game is **** or not, the point is STOP BANNING STUFF SO I CAN DECIDE FOR MYSELF IF IT IS **** OR NOT!!

MrAndyPuppy

1 year ago

Quote

The violence and aggression inflicted upon the protagonist is of a high level, naturalistic and not stylised at all

Well, as naturalistic as is possible when you're talking about hurling fire and lightning around, have an arm that looks like you were testing the temperature of an acid bath up to your elbow and are being constantly swarmed by aliens.

I actually believe Marc Ecko was taken down, not because of the game but because of the interviews with well known graffiti artists who would often throw in tidbits on how to graffiti effectively. It certainly showed gamers how to graffiti which was the first part of what got the Queensland councils upset.

The second was that the main protagonist was encouraged to rise up against the corrupt governing institution in the game - something the council members were concerned would somehow translate into reality with graffiti artists suddenly becoming urban terrorists.

Of course, their own actions of working together to get such a game banned made them closer to the corruption and unfairly controlling power depicted in the game.

Sin Ogaris

1 year ago

Queensland would know, they're certainly known for their corrupt governments.

MrAndyPuppy is right though, Marc Echo was banned due to the card thingies you acquire during the game which give you insight into actual graffiti techniques and terms, information which has absolutely no bearing on the game whatsoever. Stuff like, spray techniques and how to minimise drips, etc, which doesn't factor into the gameplay but can only be useful information to someone who is actually graffitiing.

MikeZombie777

1 year ago

It amazes me that people don't generally seem to notice how blatantly inconsistent the OFLC is. I mean as stated, Ninja Gaiden 2, Condemned 2, Gears of War, San Andreas, God of War 1 & 2, the original Shellshock game (eventually released uncut) are ALL far more violent/disturbing than Dark Sector. I've played the uncut version of Dark Sector and come on, it's so damn tame in comparison to many other games currently on Australian shelves (not just the ones I listed either). There are dozens upon dozens of games were enemies scream in pain after being killed which are available to aussies. Shellshock for example........Gears of War (after being chainsawed).....And many others.

The classification system is just a complete **** joke. San Andreas and The Warriors blatantly promote crime, much more so than Marc Eckos game (which I have played). I mean it's okay to deal drugs, murder people/cops, steal cars, graffiti the city and undertake every illegal activity in the book if it's all bunched into one game but if you take ONE of these elements and build ONE game around it the OFLC bans it. WTF? What level headed person would find a game based around graffiti more inappropriate than a game based around encouraging murder (Hitman BloodMoney, Hitman Contracts) which are available uncut in Australia? More so, San Andreas was eventually banned because of the one perfectly LEGAL thing you could do in the game....Have sex with your girlfriend. How messed up is the OFLC that they'll allow all sorts of crime to be encouraged and promoted yet they automatically ban the perfectly legal, consensual act of sex?

So it's fine to teach kids to become criminals but god forbid their precious little eyes see the act of giving life and erotic pleasure. How can this be justified? Well it's easy....The government is dominated by Christian zealots and as we all know in the bible extreme violence is absolutely fine but sex is the ULTIMATE SIN! It's great living in a de-facto theocracy eh?

Fetidchimp

1 year ago

^

i have always found that odd, you can go and murder everyone in the city, just don't have sex, just another arse about face aspect of life.

also GTA IV has got people writhing in pain, pleading with you not to kill them, they crawl away from you dying and they tell you they have got a wife and kids. Either someone wasn't paying attention or some companies just can go get stuffed.

ugh the boot

1 year ago

haha how funny, i've always stopped myself from buying this game off play-asia but recently it's been getting harder and harder to, anyways mate had a demo on his Ps3 and I had a go of it last friday.....boy it sucked HARD!! I love how the main character just kinda 'glides' over whatever surface he's walking on. It's absolutely hilarious watching devs trying to 'get it right' but in the end it just ends up being the funniest and stupidest thing you've ever seen....kinda like The Happening movie.

This game should've been banned for being ****.

Sin Ogaris

1 year ago

MikeZombie777 wrote

I can't really think of any other way of saying this than you're an idiot.

Marc Echo: This title gives real-life information on how to graffiti, information that has absolutely nothing to do with playing the game and is solely there to teach people how to deface public property, that's a far cry from whipping out a bazooka in a game and blowing up helicopters. Besides the titles you listed aren't promoting crime, they are showing the adverse effects of the activities (albeit in such a way that it is beneficial to the gameplay) Marc Echo, while it offers a deterrent, the deterrent is a corrupt institution thus the implication is that graffiti is a-ok and that it is an unjust Government that dares defy the rights of artists. Regardless of who gets hurt.

San Andreas: "Hot Coffee" was never shown to the OFLC as a result the game was pulled from shelves, whether it would have originally passed had the content been made known to the ratings board, we'll never know, but the fact is Rockstar lied about what was in their game so it got pulled. Fahrenheit had two sex scenes and a number of other suggestive scenes as well and didn't have issues. My guess is GTA would have passed.

In terms of Dark Sector I can't comment as I haven't played it however if it is true that people can be dismembered and still writhe around screaming while depleting their blood supply it doesn't surprise me that this action took place.

Fetidchimp

1 year ago

^
unlike, as i said GTA IV where they just writhe and beg you not to kill them and tell you they have a wife and kids.

I reckon i could work out how to deface public property without a game telling me how........

MikeZombie777

1 year ago

Quote

you're an idiot.

Stopped reading there. I don't have the time to argue childishly on a forum with freedom hating zealots.

Shorty

1 year ago

Speaking of who gets "hurt", who actually does get hurt in the game? Trane doesn't go around beating the crap out of random innocents and the only people that end up actually getting hurt are people that attack Trane directly, such as the VaNR, government officials and the CCK. So it's possible to argue that Getting Up is actually more moral than GTA.

But arguing over minor technicalities like that would, IMO, be largely missing the point - which is that the OFLC has been at best inconsistent in the games it has deemed "unsuitable" for Australian citizens. Need for Speed: Most Wanted was released in the same year and the street racing genre has for years been heavily if not primarily based around illegal activities without any political interference from the OFLC whatsoever (and the interference usually is political, since many high-profile reclassifications and bannings have been at the request of politicans and not the community).

Additionally, as I outlined before, the game was banned not in response to any actual increase in graffiti crime (which, funnily enough, existed long before anyone decided to make a game about it) but only to the perceived possibility of increasing crime. That's called "prior restraint" and it's not something that, IMO, should be an accepted underlying principle of our classification system. It's just too dangerous.

It's a bit rich to accept the idea that watching a movie of people being tortured and dismembered is OK for adults but a game where people can be dismemebered in a much less realistic fashion is not.

suction

1 year ago

i'll probably import this one you need the blood otherwise it ruins the experience.

View as forum topic

Add Comment

Like this news?

Share it with this tiny url: http://palg.nu/oy

| More

Dark Sector

Pre-order or buy:
PALGN recommends: www.Play-Asia.com

Australian Release Date:
  10/10/2008 (Confirmed)
Standard Retail Price:
  $99.95 AU
Publisher:
  AFA Interactive
Genre:
  Shooter
Year Made:
  2007

Read more...