The British Board of Film Classification has refused to rate the upcoming horror/action game Manhunt 2. Without a rating, the game can’t be sold in the United Kingdom. The ruling only appliesto the Nintendo Wii and PlayStation 2 versions while the PSP version hasn’t been submitted for a rating yet.
David Cooke, BBFC director, said, "Rejecting a work is a very serious action and one which we do not take lightly…In the case of Manhunt 2 this has not been possible. 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."
Back in 2003, Manhunt was rated 18 by the BBFC so it looks like Manhunt 2 reached further trespasses than the first game to not get rated. The last game the BBFC refused to rate was 1997’s Carmaggedon. The ban was eventually appealed when a patch was released to change the in-game blood color and add a parental lock.
Manhunt 2 has garnered quite a lot of controversy, and most of it has been coming from the infamous video game irritant Jack Thompson. Last month, Thompson opposed Wendy’s support of the Nintendo Wii because Manhunt 2 will be released for the console.
I guess this makes sense in Thompson’s crazy sense of reality.
