Manhunt 2 has,effectively, been banned in the UK after the British Board of Film Classification refused to give it a certificate. Story here: http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/06/19/manhunt_2_banned/

Now this isn't a game I was likely to buy anyway (and not just because there doesn't seem to be a PC release), but I'm not a fan of censorship. What does the forum think? Is this the start of a slippery slope?

"There is sustained and cumulative casual sadism in the way in which these killings are committed, and encouraged, in the game"

I thought it was real life for a second there.

lol yeah the 1st manhunt game was banned in the UK as well
so it seems that they have banned the 2nd one as well

edited on Jun. 19, 2007 10:56 am by addrake

The first one wasn't banned in the UK, it had an 18 certificate. It didn't sell particularly well at first, then was cited (wrongly as it turned out) as being the inspiration behind a murder and sales shot up.

hhhmmm i heard it was banned
i have never seen it on sale anywhere

Really annoys me... They never banned the original Manhunt over here in the UK so why would they ban the second? Makes no sense to me... It's fine to have brutally violent films such as SAW and Hostel, etc, but suddenly it becomes murder inspiration if it's in a game? Utter b*llocks if you ask me... No worries though i'll just buy it from another country that uses PAL tv encoding instead or get it from Amazon.com once it comes out on PC... The thing that really annoys me though is the fact that instead of getting the psychopaths who kill people off the streets people just blame the games & get them banned... No sane person would kill someone because they saw it on a game... Only a total nutcase would do that... People are just avoiding the real problems & trying to find somewhere to lay the blame & for some reason the blame always falls on computer games... I mean if a murderer said someone told them to do it the person who allegedly told them to isn't going to get prosecuted yet if a computer game is cited as an influence it gets banned... Makes no sense at all...

According to the BBC story, the game has been refused a rating effectively banning it from sales ... but it is not illegal to own a copy and neither is it illegal to import a copy from the continent.

I feel there is a double standard here though ... if Manhunt was made into a novel, it would still be available sale on store shelves, and would not even have a rating because books are not rated *at all* in the UK.

Take Two ought to make the game downloadable through their website with credit card payments.

I wonder how the wonderful JT is feeling right now?

Saw this on slashdot and it made me laugh - all the kneejerk reactions by people on there. I think one person even said he wasn't interested in the game, but would buy it on import just out of spite lol

I hear the game has got many good reviews so far, but so did Mortal Kombat, which i bought for all the gorey coolness, but in hindsight it's a pretty poor game that doesn't stand up anywhere near as well as Street Fighter 2. Wonder if people will feel the same about Man Hunt 2 a year or so from now

edited on Jun. 20, 2007 07:19 am by |DA|DarkDilbert

Never played the original and am not ever likely too, not my scence.

The difference between a game and films / books is the fact that YOU are in control of what happens, YOU make the descisions, YOU choose what to do and how YOU go about doing it (see my point), in a film / book all you are doing is watching or reading and not in control of what happens, so in effect it is simulating what you yourself could do in real life.

You've just successfully outlined the whole point of games... Just because the player is in control does not make a game inspiration or incentive for them to murder someone... The whole trend of blaming games for crime & murders is just pure scaremongering & avoiding the real issues...