EveryonePlays: Games Refused Classification in Australia

[Jeremy]

EveryonePlays: Games Refused Classification in Australia by Jeremy

PALGN Feature: Did the Classification Board get it 'right'?

[View Article]

[Kaiden]

i think some would have made it through r18+ but most of it no. i dont think many people would want postal or manhunt as the violence in those games seems overdone.
_________________
Buy Left 4 Dead 2 (Uncut X360) at Play-Asia.com

[Esposch]

Yes, I want my Leisure Suit Larry goddammit!
I want to see how absolutely over the top hilarious it is.
_________________

[Adam]

Personally, I'm still fuming we missed out on Immoral Cumbat.
_________________

[Symo]

Seems like our adult freedom to choose offers us the choices of sex and/ or drugs and/ or violence. Decisions, decisions...

[oomlot]

[Cyph]

It's not just games that were banned, what about those that were censored?

[He need to cut the ego.]

[djrussell]

A lot of those were crappy games (because I made it a point to play most of them lol) but some were also really good. The fact of the matter is an R18+ rating would mean that adults would be entitled to view ADULT material. Thats the idea. Unfortunately our government doesnt think it appropriate for a grown man to play Manhunt... but American Psycho is cool!
_________________

[defcon420]

I've seen worse violence in American History X, yet its okay to show that in full on TV.

Just goes to show that the standards for what they allow the public to see on TV is not equal with the games rating system.

[NegativeZero]

How does the 'sexual activity as incentive or reward' issue not result in Bioware games like Mass Effect or Dragon Age? They have achievements attached to them and everything. Is it just that they're not explicit?

What about the sex minigames in God of War?

I've never understood why Getting Up got banned for vandalism, but both Jet Set Radio and Jet Set Radio Future were only given PG ratings in Australia - they had graffiti as a major gameplay mechanic.

I know that our ratings board is incredibly inconsistent, but they should at least get given some more concrete guidelines and/or actually enforce their rules properly.


I can think of other games that have been refused classification that aren't listed. Soldier of Fortune 3 (postmortem dismemberment), Dark Sector (postmortem dismemberment, decapitations), BMX XXX (gratuitous nudity), Silent Hill: Homecoming (inappropriate use of drills)... Just about every mass-market game to have been refused classification in the last 5-10 years, not counting stupid sex games etc, has been banned for things which have sailed under the radar in other games. There's a heck of a lot of games with dismemberment in them. Decapitation is possible in most of them. I can think of several games where topless women were thrown in for the sake of it - God of War topping the list. Heck, even the drill issue: The Darkness has a similar scene.

[He need to cut the ego.]

[renegadesx]

[skrob73]

It's always confused me as to why I can walk up to someone in a game such as GTA and unload a shot straight to the head and game is released with an MA15+ rating but then is banned for simulated sex??? Weird huh ?? SEX worse than MURDER ???
_________________

[Cham]

An extensive list, but not a very exhaustive list. Unless the other articles are going to just continue to list off banned games.

[Newland]

Vida X! Haha, I played that by accident when my uncle gave me a heap of old DOS games and it was mistakenly burnt onto the disc.

Manhunt 2. Meh, was pretty terrible gameplay and controls.

Postal 2 was a brilliant game, use cats as silencers, throw scissors at people, kick around dismembered heads, make trails of petrol and set things on fire, and so on.
_________________

[Jeremy]

[Fly]

[JP2daMC]

While most of these games should be banned under the MA, I can't believe that Manhunt was ever allowed to go through. That game was ridiculous. A game about a killer killing crazies for a snuff film? An R rated game if ever I saw one. I was scarred for life, and I was in my late 20s when I played it It's the perfect example of why the system is flawed with the R rating. Still, as an adult I could handle its content and that's the decision I can make as an adult.

Some of these games are also quite old and standards change over time, especially in the last few years where violence is the new black.
_________________

“Committed to gaming mediocrity and no platinum trophies.”

[Jellyfish]

[mikezilla2]

pemier peter banned it in QLD if i recall .
_________________

[JP2daMC]

Jet Set Radio is clearly fiction, whereas those involved in Getting Up are actually real graffiti activists...or whatever vandals with a social agenda call themselves. It offered something of a "how to" for that sort of graffiti activism. That was the main difference. It would be a bit like a real serial killer being involved in making a game about killing people.

Well okay, that's a stretch.
_________________

“Committed to gaming mediocrity and no platinum trophies.”

[Fetidchimp]

Pity about blitz, good game that. I managed to finish both blitz 1 and 2 without using the steroids once anyway.
_________________
kill, kill, kill.....the white man. Kill the white man, kill

[sobriquet835]

Besides maybe Getting Up, Blitz and Single (plenty of MA rated movies with full nudity, let alone cemsored nudity) there is not a game here that should've been rated less than R, and therefore banned under the current system. Probably 4-5 games on this list that should be RC'd, R rating or not: the Manhunt games, Postal games and maybe Reservoir dogs (I haven't seen gameplay of this, but the description is pretty brutal). I'd love to play a video game based on a Tarantino movie though... imagine Kill Bill: The Video Game.

[Kurupt]