Major changes include blurring out execution scenes so that the violence was only insinuated but not actually seen. Project Manhunt, a website devoted to the series, has chronicled all the different ways Manhunt 2 was censored before its release. Rockstar Games now has six weeks to submit an appeal.In order to achieve an M rating, Rockstar had to go back and censor the game. The last game to be refused classification was Carmageddon in 1997 but the BBFC's decision was later overturned on appeal. He said of the video game industry: "It's important that people understand there is a wider social responsibility as well as simply responsibility for profit." Last week, Tony Blair spoke out against another violent video game, Resistance: Fall of Man, which features a shoot-out in Manchester cathedral. Leicester MP Keith Vaz, who campaigned with Mrs Pakeerah against the sale of the game, said: "This is an excellent decision by the BBFC, showing that game publishers cannot expect to get interactive games where players take the part of killers engaged in 'casual sadism' and murder." Paul Jackson, director general of the Entertainment Leisure Software Publishers Association, which represents the computer and video games industry, said: "A decision from the BBFC such as this demonstrates that we have a games ratings system in the UK that is effective." "To issue a certificate to Manhunt 2 on either platform would involve a range of unjustifiable harm risks within the terms of the Video Recordings Act," said Mr Cooke. Manhunt 2, made by Rockstar Games, is designed for PS2 and Nintendo Wii consoles. "The game's unrelenting focus on stalking and brutal slaying and the sheer lack of alternative pleasures on offer to the gamer, together with the different overall narrative context, contribute towards differentiating this submission from the original Manhunt game." "There is sustained and cumulative casual sadism in the way in which these killings are committed, and encouraged, in the game. "Manhunt 2 is distinguishable from recent high-end video games by its unremitting bleakness and callousness of tone in an overall game context which constantly encourages visceral killing with exceptionally little alleviation or distancing," said Mr Cooke. Issuing a certificate to Manhunt 2 would risk the possibility of "unjustifiable harm" to adults and minors, the BBFC concluded. Why don't these companies invest their energies into creating material that is helpful to society?" "We have been campaigning against these games for a long time and the BBFC made the right decision. "Manhunt represents a genre of games that are not, in my view and the views of many other people, fit for public consumption," she said. Mr Pakeerah's mother, Giselle, said today she was "absolutely elated" that the game had been banned. Stefan Pakeerah was stabbed and beaten to death in Leicester in February 2004 and his parents claimed the killer, Warren LeBlanc, 17, was inspired by the game.Īt the time, the BBFC described the game as being "at the very top end of what the board judged to be acceptable at that category". The original Manhunt game was given an 18 classification in 2003 and was later blamed for the murder of a 14-year-old boy. In the case of Manhunt 2, this has not been possible." "Where possible we try to consider cuts or, in the case of games, modifications which remove the material which contravenes the board's published guidelines. The ruling means the game cannot be legally supplied anywhere in the UK.ĭavid Cooke, director of the BBFC, said: "Rejecting a work is a very serious action and one which we do not take lightly. The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) rejected the game after finding it "constantly encourages visceral killing".
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