The player controls Danny, who escapes from an asylum No figures are available for games but Manhunt 2 is certainly the most contested title in UK history.Īs games become ever more photo-real and as developers start tackling ever more adult themes the BBFC could find itself at the centre of more disputes if it continues to be the body which classifies games in the UK. Last year it asked for cuts in just five films, compared with almost 60 in 1989. The BBFC has been the UK's "censor" for more than 90 years but in the last 20 years it has asked for fewer and fewer cuts in films, reflecting both a modernised certification system and a more liberal attitude. The BBFC successful argued that the VAC had been guilty of "a very serious misdirection of law" on the question of harm. After the BBFC was told to issue the title with a certificate by its own Video Appeals Committee, the organisation sought and won a judicial review which forces the VAC to look again at the game. The deaths play out as mini-scenes reminiscent of action in the current crop of horror movies that are doing so well at the box office, such as Hostel, Cabin Fever and the two titles I had watched.Īnd the amount of killing in the game is no greater than in any number of titles that have been released in the last 12 months - from Call of Duty 4 to Bioshock.
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In actual fact, the player's role was to challenge the bullies.īut its highly successful Grand Theft Auto series has come in for regular criticism that the titles glorify crime, especially violence.īut the violence is stylised - and not particularly real. "There is sustained and cumulative casual sadism in the way in which these killings are committed, and encouraged, in the game."ĭeveloper Rockstar is no stranger to controversy - it faced criticism over last year's title Bully, mainly from a press which mis-understood the game and assumed the player took on the role of a bully. When it was first banned in June last year, David Cooke, director of the BBFC, said: "Manhunt 2 is distinguishable from recent high-end video games by its unremitting bleakness and callousness of tone. But in order to play it I had to visit the developer's London offices in person and be shown the US copy of the title. But in the UK the game is not available for sale and developers Rockstar are not even legally able to share the game with journalists.Ĭopies of the game can be bought on eBay from US sellers. In the US adult gamers have been able to buy and play Manhunt 2 since last year. But what makes this game so objectionable? Banned last June by the British Board of Film Classification, it is at the centre of a legal row that is defining what is and what is not acceptable in video games. Manhunt 2 is the most controversial video game in history.
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