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Take Two Vows To Publish Manhunt 2 116

Posted by Zonk from the they-will-survive dept.
Despite Manhunt 2's bad reception in both UK and US, Take Two has publicly announced that it will publish the game at some point. Backing the title as art, once again, the company vowed to see the game released in some capacity or another. "The chairman added that Take-Two subsidiary Rockstar Games, which publishes Manhunt and the Grand Theft Auto series, sees itself as a producer of games rated M for Mature. However, Zelman did say Take-Two would stand by its game, even if it bore the dreaded AO for Adults Only rating. 'We don't see ourselves in the Adults Only business,' he told analysts listening to the call. 'Having said that, if we find ourselves in the Adults Only business, it would be because we have a title that we consider art and entertainment, that we consider if appropriately labeled AO, and that we would like to bring to market.'"
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Take Two Vows To Publish Manhunt 2 More

Take Two Vows To Publish Manhunt 2

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  • In some capacity or another. (Score:5, Funny)

    by Digital Vomit ( 891734 ) on Tuesday July 10, 2007 @11:06AM (#19813483) Homepage Journal
    In some capacity or another, eh? Come on collectible card game!
  • I wish AO would be treated just like R ratings for movies. Wal mart et. al. don't refuse to sell R rated movies, but have this problem with AO?
    Anyway, I'll probably pick it up just to say hey, there is a market for this!

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by morari ( 1080535 )
      More so, Wal-Mart sells tons of unrated DVDs. Manhunt 2 just needs to be switched over to the PC and sold online. That would solve all issues, save for the lack of Wii controls. Which is a shame since I really wanted to use such a murder simulator to train myself to shoot up a school or something...
      • They could always release drivers for the wiimote for pc, or make it compatible with one of the many open source drivers already out.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Zencyde ( 850968 )
        The FBI has been contact. Your arrest is imminent. All your base are belong to us. ~NSA

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by skobar ( 890726 )
          hahaha yeah, he will never post again and tomorrow we should see an article in slashdot where another kid get arrested for threat vs his high-school.

    • Re:Good for them (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Volante3192 ( 953645 ) on Tuesday July 10, 2007 @11:18AM (#19813641)
      AO is more like the NC-17 rating. ESRB's M is equivalent, in theory, to MPAA's R even though they're not enforced the same.

      I'd like to see whoever it was that ran a sting operation and saw 69% of kids under 17 could buy M rated games do the same for R rated films like Hostel, Saving Private Ryan and Pulp Fiction. (Yes, I picked those films on purpose as examples)
      • ESRB vs. MPAA EC - Early Childhood (3yrs+) E - EVERYONE (6yrs+) E10+ - EVERYONE 10+ (10yrs+) T - TEEN (13yrs+) M - MATURE (17yrs+) AO - ADULTS ONLY (18yrs+) G - General Audiences (All Ages Admitted) PG - Parental Guidance Suggested (Some Material May Not Be Suitable For Children) PG-13 - Parents Strongly Cautioned (Some Material May Be Inappropriate For Children Under 13) R - Restricted (Under 17 Requires Accompanying Parent Or Adult Guardian) NC-17 - No Children 17 and under (No One 17 And Under Admitted

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by 7Prime ( 871679 )
        I can see Hostel and Saving Private Ryan... but Pulp Fiction? That's pretty tame as action-based movies go. It has about 2 gorey scenes in the whole thing, and what's more is that they're supposed to be funny (well, one of them, at least).
        • I picked PF for the amount of 'mature' language in the film.

          (And if anyone else out there is going, huh? at my picks, Hostel for gratuitous violence, SPR for historical violence)
      • All these retailers sell unrated director's cuts of R rated movies (movies like Hostel, etc.) that most likely would equate to an NC-17 rating if they were rated. No problem with unrated movies but games are for kids right?
    • Wal*Mart, Sam's Club, Best Buy etc, also don't neccessarily refuse to sell NC-17 movies. I bought Showgirls at a Wal*Mart about 7 years ago. (I was 17 hah!) So even comparing AO to NC-17 doesn't seem right, unless they've since stopped selling even NC-17.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by nickj6282 ( 896871 ) *

      I wish AO would be treated just like R ratings for movies. Wal mart et. al. don't refuse to sell R rated movies, but have this problem with AO?

      Honestly I don't see this as a problem. So what if Walmart won't sell your game? The people who want to play Manhunt 2 are going to play Manhunt 2 regardless if they can get it at Walmart or not. Properly marketed (so far so good), Manhunt 2 will sell even if Walmart doesn't carry it. There's always Amazon or any number of other online stores, plus all the retail est

  • Just as there is a vast porn industry, there can be the same for grotesque violence and lewd sexual content. Take Two probably realizes this as well. I personally would try such games out of curiousity to see what kind of "Art" it really is.

    It kind of already exists in the form of Hentai games, except that I have never tried one. Perhaps if there were a way to find an english translated one...

    hmmm
    • I think they mean "art" in the sense that an "art" movie can get away with a lot more than a mainstream movie with the same rating.

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Volante3192 ( 953645 )
        Course, movies are rated by the MPAA, which is made up of the major movie studios. The ESRB was created out of an act of Congress.

        What the ESRB should be is headed by the big gaming publishers. If the movie studios can regulate themselves and put out Hostel, et. al., then game companies should be able to do the same. ...that or kill off the MPAA and make it a governmnt agency...which could have the added benefit of putting the brakes on Hostel Part 3.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by MeanMF ( 631837 )
          The ESRB is exactly what you're saying it should be: About the ESRB [esrb.org]
          • Feh...that's what I get for relying on Wiki.

            Damn you Wiki! I used to go straight to the sites! Need a 12 step recovery program...
          • The ESRB also has a bunch of clueless twats doing the rating. At least movie raters know how to watch a movie (you sit there and stair). The ESRB has some parents watch video clips of the game and rate that, when they're the last people who should rating anything when the rating can make or break a product. They're at best hysterical morons.

        • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

          by plague3106 ( 71849 )
          The ESRB was created out of an act of Congress.

          No, it was created in response to a threat of an act of Congress, by the industry itself.

          • Re: (Score:1)

            by Sly-Ry ( 1121577 )
            No, it was created in response to a threat of an act of Congress, by the industry itself.



            It was created by the industry; if the industry did not create a rating system then the government would have intervened and rated/censored games itself.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Faylone ( 880739 )
      Well, I've never actually gotten anything from them, but I know J-List [jlist.com]> has some that are translated into english

  • Uh, How Will This Work? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by blueZhift ( 652272 ) on Tuesday July 10, 2007 @11:16AM (#19813605) Homepage Journal
    It's nice that they're determined to get the game out, but how is this going to happen if the Sony and Nintendo won't approve the game for their consoles? And I don't recall there being a PC version of the game. Of course they could port it to the PC and then just sell it online, maybe even with Steam. But unless they were planning this contingency all along, it will take time to port the game. Another question is whether Microsoft would allow the game on the 360. If they have to take the time to do a PC port, then a 360 port almost comes for free. Manhunt 2 as an Xbox 360/Windows Vista exclusive might actually make sense. Not only that, if they're successful, it could put a whole new spin on the AO rating issue. It might just remove the curse.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by xtracto ( 837672 )
      They should deffinitely do it, they should port it to PC, sell it online (via STEAM or whatever) and then push a huge campaign about the game ("This is the game they DID NOT WANTED YOU TO PLAY" and all that) until they get millions and millions in revenue and then the three console makers will be salivating to get the exclusiveness and then give them two fingers... (most likely only to Microsoft and Sony, as usually Nintendo is not as desperate as these two)

      Fuck them, if it is a game, another type of game
    • It's possible to publish a game without Sony's approval. Junk TV [www.junk.tv] for instance is not approved by Sony. But this limits your manufacturing options and probably distribution. Nintendo on the other hand, since they control all manufacturing I don't think there is any way to sneak around their approval process. And since Xbox titles need to be digitally signed by Microsoft, even though they use a standard media and format, I'm not sure you can evade their approval process either. But I think Take Two could get
    • Or they could refuse to produce GTA IV for companies that won't license Manhunt. Offer Microsoft a deal to make GTA IV a 360 exclusive and I think they would take Manhunt along with it. I think Sony might be desperate enough to license it too if they were going to be denied GTA IV. They're dying for good games to sell PS3s.
  • Sell it direct. Take Two's problem isn't that it's banned. The problem is that they can't sell it at Target and Wal Mart with an AO rating. Going direct eliminates this problem.
    • Well, they'd have to port it to PC for starters. Further, Nintendo and Sony don't licence AO games for their consoles.

      Which makes me wonder, can you sell games direct for a game console and avoid the licencing fees? I remember that whole Licenced For Nintendo fiasco a while back in the NES days but not sure how much would apply.
      • I'm sure the DMCA gives plenty of ammunition for preventing a legitimate company from publishing unlicensed games.

        Then again, manufacturers of cheat devices (game shark, action replay, etc) are unlicensed so... how are they getting away with it?
      • Even before the NES, there was an Acclaim vs Atari lawsuit that ended in a settlement. At the time it pretty much opened the doors for third-party, unlicensed games on a system.

        However, I've learned that in recent years console makers have been using digital signatures in order to validate their licensed games. The game won't run without the signature, and forging the signature is a violation of the DMCA. That leaves unlicensed developers without any real options for releasing their game.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Erpo ( 237853 )
        Which makes me wonder, can you sell games direct for a game console and avoid the licencing fees?

        Legally or technically? I have no idea about the legal aspect.

        As for the technical aspect, the original NES used a special manufactured-by-Nintendo chip in the cartridge to verify that the game was licensed. Various non-approved game publishers would cannibalize those chips from unpopular games and stick them in their own. Presto! Instant authorized cartridge! I remember hearing about one game manufacturer where
    • Wrong. It is currently "banned," in the sense that none of the 3 console manufacturers will permit AO games on their systems. This means that without evading whatever "DRM" is present in the big consoles, a company can't sell an AO game. There are also probably legal questions in terms of licensing, but I don't know what sorts of contracts have to be signed in order to get development kits and the like. As others note, the game could be released for PC as an AO game, though they'd still have the same re

  • Stop the presses! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Control Group ( 105494 ) * on Tuesday July 10, 2007 @11:20AM (#19813667) Homepage
    Take 2 vows to try and eke some income out of a product they've already spent money on!
    • A product that was given the kiss of death by the ESRB. Remember, the console market won't sell an AO game and you can't by AO games in stores. So that leaves self-distribution (or online-distribution like Steam) for the PC... But wait, they weren't developing Manhunt 2 for the PC. I'd be kinda miffed if this happened to me.

      So yeah, this kind of is news. I'd like to play it, but who the hell knows when I will be able to or how toned down it will be. I'm actually curious if it's even that bad, if anyone has

  • Could be the best thing (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ihatewinXP ( 638000 ) on Tuesday July 10, 2007 @11:28AM (#19813767)
    Think of it....

      I think I speak for a lot of people that would _love_ to see the AO rating go from "the dreaded" to the "hells yeah!" rating. I mean we all want these kinds of titles - we are growing up but dammit as much as I love nintendo I want my games to grow up with me. Honestly I cant figure out where the real problem is. Distributors refuse to carry it - why? I know the fact that Wal-Mart wont carry it is a real problem when you are looking at your bottom line - but thankfully they looked at a bottom line of zero and are deciding to go ahead.

    What I could see this as doing for the future is this being remembered as that first title that said 'the hell with it' and went through with the AO rating and made the Nintendo/Sony/Microsoft's realize that there is a market here and it is worth expanding our definition of games. Take Two is an utter mess at this point - but that desperation is great for doing something crazy that just might work. Dont tone down the game - throw in those few bits you were scared would originally garner an AO rating and just sell the damn thing.

    • Re:Could be the best thing (Score:5, Insightful)

      by BMonger ( 68213 ) on Tuesday July 10, 2007 @11:44AM (#19813989)
      As I grow up I didn't stop saving the princess and start killing people in brutal ways. Just because my age changes doesn't mean I want more violence in my life.

      I'm not saying they shouldn't publish the game at all... Publish away, I don't have to buy it. I just don't think the majority of adults even really care about AO games.
      • As I grow up I didn't stop saving the princess and start killing people in brutal ways. Just because my age changes doesn't mean I want more violence in my life.

        Wow really, so you still watch the CareBears too? You don't think it was violent to dump a living being (deemed "evil", by the book that came with the game) into a pool of lava? Hmm.

        I'm not saying they shouldn't publish the game at all... Publish away, I don't have to buy it. I just don't think the majority of adults even really care about AO game

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by BMonger ( 68213 )
          Wow really, so you still watch the CareBears too? You don't think it was violent to dump a living being (deemed "evil", by the book that came with the game) into a pool of lava? Hmm.

          No I don't watch the Care Bears. But that wasn't my point. My point was that growing older does not equal an increased need for violence. I'm not sure what you're talking about with the lava and such as I don't think I've ever played a Care Bears game and I don't remember the cartoon much.

          There is a difference between a carto

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Khaed ( 544779 )
            While I agree with you that age doesn't necessarily mean "suddenly desirous of much gore!" I think the GP's lava comment was referencing the first Super Mario Bros. game. At the end of every world, you could get past the boss one of two ways: Fire power, or hitting the axe-like thing to cause the bridge to fall out from under him. In the latter case, he fell into the lava.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by 7Prime ( 871679 )
          You realize that there are other options besides CareBears and Hostel, right? Growing up is about finding a balance in life, in every aspect. Youth is about exploring the bounderies, and CareBears and Hostel are definitely that.

          I see the ultra-violent games as being the LEAST mature, actually. Because a lot of the simple, innocent games appeal to older gamers who grew up with Mario and Tetris... games started out innocent and simple, it's called nostolgia.

          For the most part, I know very few people outside of

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by mqduck ( 232646 )

          I would buy them for a console system, if any existed. But with Sony, MS and Nintendo saying "no AO games period," I don't really have that option.

          For the record, Microsoft has not said it won't publish AO games, or Manhunt 2 in particular.

          • For the record, Microsoft has not said it won't publish AO games, or Manhunt 2 in particular.

            Yes, they have.

            Though Manhunt 2 isn't slated for any of Microsoft's systems, the company has also confirmed that it does not allow AO-rated titles on the Xbox or Xbox 360.
            gamespot.com [gamespot.com]

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by LKM ( 227954 )

          Wow really, so you still watch the CareBears too?

          Let me guess, you're 15 years old and desperately trying to pretend to be an adult.

          It's not working, by the way.

      • Kicking a turtle shell in an alien's gave, making him fall over a ledge and die is still plenty violent ;)
      • Honestly, If this came out AO, I'd buy it on principle.

        Currently, titles need to be overwhelmingly violent before they are labelled AO.
        Maybe if an AO rating doesn't turn out to be the kiss of death, companies will stop trying to market games that barely qualify for M.
        Maybe they would make games aimed squarely at the AO demographic.
        Which in turn could result in less violent M games.
        Meaning that there may be a clear line for determining the severity of the content.

        Besides, I don't shop at Walmart, and I don't

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by jythie ( 914043 )
        People will care about AO games if companies start producing good AO games.

        Right now because being rated AO makes selling a game so difficult the only ones that bother are 'shock' games that do nothing but focus on sex or super-bloody-violent. There is no point in making a game that _touches_ on sex for instance.

        If there was a good channel for distributing AO games and a console allowed them, I could easily see attractive games being produced that integrated topics such as sexually in a mild way rather th

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Tim C ( 15259 )

        I just don't think the majority of adults even really care about AO games.

        Personally, I couldn't care less what the game is rated, I just care that it looks like something I'd enjoy. My daughter has a DS, and I love Super Princess Peach. I also love games like Oblivion, and actually thought that Postal 2 was really good fun. Same with films - the certificate is the last thing I look at when deciding what to watch (in fact, I only look at it when deciding what to watch with my 7 year old daughter)

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by *weasel ( 174362 )
      While I definitely want titles that appeal to me on a more adult level, I somehow doubt that Manhunt 2 is what I have in mind.

      It's not like Take Two is making a game like Requiem for a Dream, Bad Lieutenant or American Psycho (all originally NC-17).
      All signs point to them making another snuff game, that just happens to be more offensive than the last. I mean, I played Manhunt. There's not alot going on there. Tissue-thin story, characterization and themes. Worst of all, the gameplay was a fairly uninspi
      • Turns out, though, according to a recent leak [gamesradar.com] from a gaming mag... there IS a moral dilemma in this game. That is to say, you only get the good ending if, counter to all expectations, you play the game relatively honorably. Just something that I thought deserved mentioning in the whole "is this game REALLY art?" debate.

      • Re:Could be the best thing (Score:4, Insightful)

        by HTH NE1 ( 675604 ) on Tuesday July 10, 2007 @12:56PM (#19815013)

        Nintendo/Microsoft/Sony should be able to bar whatever they want
        Would you extend Microsoft's right to being able to prevent playing AO games on XP or Vista?

        What if all the major record labels decided they would no longer publish songs with profanity in them? Or even CD players refused to play certain CDs based on their content?

        How about the DVDCCA deciding to amend their license to require DVD players to refuse to play anything above R?

        Yeah, I disagree that the makers of a game console can restrict what types of games I can play based on their content. That console is in the privacy of my own home; I should get to decide what gets played on it. Once I buy it, it isn't their console anymore; it's mine! If they want control, they should lease the console, not sell it.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by *weasel ( 174362 )
          If they maintained a closed development ecosystem, more like Apple, the question would make more sense.
          But if they did: sure. Why not? It's their platform and they already have all sorts of qualifications in their licensing terms.

          That's one of the things consumers need to be aware of and consider when they buy into a closed platform.
          And then they can vote with their dollars on platforms that don't allow the content they want.
          E.g. no porn on betamax, laserdisc, divx(the bad one)

          • And then they can vote with their dollars on platforms that don't allow the content they want.
            Which set-top or handheld gaming platform does allow AO rated games?

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by HTH NE1 ( 675604 )

              Which set-top or handheld gaming platform does allow AO rated games?
              The Atari 2600 [wikipedia.org]?

              • Re: (Score:1)

                by tepples ( 727027 )

                Which set-top or handheld gaming platform does allow AO rated games?
                The Atari 2600 [wikipedia.org]?
                Your answer is correct but two decades too late. Which set-top or handheld gaming platform that is widely deployed as of 2007 allows AO rated games?

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by 7Prime ( 871679 )
          They're sorta trying to. The 360 doesn't allow AO games (people seem to have failed to mention this, simply because MH2 is not for that system), also, Microsoft is TRYING to start the "Games for Windows" campaign, which basically tries to build a console-style infrastructure in the PC world, although it's not catching on very quickly.

          If the "Games for Windows" campaign (which won't accept AO games) takes off, you'll see exactly that.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Khaed ( 544779 )
          What if all the major record labels decided they would no longer publish songs with profanity in them?

          Please, let them. The more they alienate customers, the sooner they'll lose power.
      • > Maybe it turned around after the first three hours or so, but I'll never know.

        It did.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Phroggy ( 441 )
      I completely agree. It doesn't sound like this is a game that should be played by minors without good parental supervision, so labeling it "Adults Only" sounds perfectly reasonable to me; i don't believe the rating should be reduced. The problem is that at this point "Adults Only" is seen by many (including WalMart et al) as a euphemism for "pr0n", and that's what needs to change.
    • Frankly I don't think you do speak for a lot of gamers. I'm not going to claim to either. Frankly though, I haven't looked at the ESRB rating on a game in years. All I want is a good, quality game that plays well. A game can have all the gore it wants, if it plays terribly why would I want to play it?

      Take God of War 2 for instance. Pretty graphic, definitely mature. Every review brought this up. But how many reviewers gave it a great score because within 5 minutes of starting you were gouging out a someo
      • The rating is for two people: Parents and retail clerks. Parents can gauge the violence a child is exposed to depending on how far the child has developed his sense of reality vs. fantasy, and retail clerks can prevent sales of M and AO rated games to children to prevent his employer from being sued. It's pretty much pointless to the rest of us, including the children themselves.
        • I realize what the rating is for. What the GP implied (or at least how I interpreted it) was that instead of merely dropping Bowser into the lava, he wanted to watch him burn alive, and then go ravage the princess.
    • I mean we all want these kinds of titles - we are growing up but dammit as much as I love nintendo I want my games to grow up with me.

      When you do grow up, you may discover that the real "adult" game play is to be found in Planescape:Torment while Manhunt 2 remains adolescent high-tech "torture porn."

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by 4D6963 ( 933028 )

      Imagine how things would be if that whole "OMG WAL*MART WON'T SELL IT" thing applied to porn! Well we'd have no porn!

      I mean yeah, nobody cares. My point is, it's as if you considered that films are made for families to view, that porn movies cannot be watched in family (please if you have an anecdote to prove it can I don't wanna hear it), so that therefore porn movies shouldn't be made/distributed. It should go the same way for adult video games, let's assume this category the way we assume porn.

  • Two vows? What's wrong with the first one? (Score:3, Funny)

    by mark-t ( 151149 ) <markt.nerdflat@com> on Tuesday July 10, 2007 @11:33AM (#19813831) Journal
    Did anyone else read the headline and misconstrue it that way, implying that the company that was going to publish the game had previously vowed to publish a particular game and then suddenly did so again, as if pledging the first time wasn't sufficient?
  • There is a market demand for savagely violent games such as yours. I will buy it, and I promise not to go Postal at work.
    • Sony and Nintendo are refusing to even license it for release so it's not as though Take Two has much choice about releasing it in its current form. Which is really too bad.

      I wish they could release an AO and a M version and see let the market determine the outcome - rather than Sony and Nintendo stepping and making that choice for the customers.

      Of course, that's the problem with closed systems like the consoles...

    • Sure, you say that now, but what happens with all the violence gets into your head? You'll have no choice!
  • Go ahead and remove the ultra-violence so the consoles will license it, all the while porting the original version to the PC to rebrand as "Manhunt 2: Director's Cut"

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by harryk ( 17509 )
      I actually like this idea, and would offer to take it a bit further. Sale the game uber cheap. I mean dirt cheap. And then offer the 'directors cut' update as a for sale download that gets installed to the harddrive. The base game is now $10 - $20, and the directors cut, which can only be bought with a CC is another $30 .. or something.

      What do you think?
      • All the same to me. I wouldn't be playing it either way, and not just because I don't own a console. I hate extremely graphically violent games, but I hate censorship even more.

    • Go ahead and remove the ultra-violence so the consoles will license it...

      You must not be familiar with Manhunt. If they removed the ultra-violence, you'd have nothing left but the loading and options screen. Here's a gameplay trailer if you're not familiar with the original Manhunt: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sG06AVnla5c [youtube.com] Supposedly Manhunt 2 was supposed to have even more violent "kill animations".

  • RWS (Score:1)

    by Jaysyn ( 203771 )
    Running With Scissors has made a nice niche market for itself with it's Postal series, which I love. They are so in your face in everything they do that the media all but ignores them now. So what if you can't sell them at Wal-Mart or Target, if your target demographic knows about the game & it doesn't out & out suck, people will buy it.
  • I wasn't aware that graphic murder was an art form. I'm curious as to who they believe will buy this? Usually over the top violent games appeal to angst ridden teens more than any other segment and removing that from the equation leaves either the fractional market that is "hardcore" buy anything controversial adults, the overly curious (who will most likely rent) and maybe the already psychologically disturbed (which will just lead to the next Jack Thompson lawsuit). I could be wrong but I would guess t
    • Quite frankly, how would you know it's not an art form. The first game was ugly and brutal, it also had a ugly and brutal storyline. But it was a very very good storyline, far better than maybe all but about 3 films I've ever seen and atmosphere that the game created was one of the finest (or worst/scariest) I've ever experienced.

      So yes it's brutal, but you could not have made the game if it was based on jumping on koopa troopa's (not that there's nothing wrong with Mario games either).
      • Are we talking about the same game? The one where the guy gets executed for apparently no reason at all only they just knock him out so some insane movie director can make snuff films by having the killer slaughter a town? I played about 30 minutes of it, I wouldnt ban it, but it was crap. I really recommend you see more movies if thats in the top 3 storylines for you.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Sly-Ry ( 1121577 )
          What, only the games/movies you like qualify as art? Who are you to say what is worthy of being "art" or not? The fact of the matter is that any media produced (e.g. music, movies, games) can be interpreted artistically to some degree. Just because it isn't your cup of tea doesn't mean it isn't someone else's.
    • I wasn't aware that graphic murder was an art form.

      Many works of art have included graphic killing. The classic Goya painting Tres de Mayo [google.com] is incredibly graphic. You can argue if this is murder or mere killing depending on your point of view. The same can be said of the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan, which was intensely graphic and disturbing to many people.

      Of course, I'm going for the easy points here because these two works dealt with war, or "justified killing". How about we take a look at a
    • The problem stems from the slew of recent ultra-gore "horror" movies that slide by with "R" ratings and a game like manhunt comes up and gets the equivalent of an NC-17. It's treating games as inherently more evil or immoral that bothers me and, I suspect, the rest of the slashdot crowd. I won't be buying the game either, or even paying attention to it as a game, but it's doing a good job of showing inequality in media restraints.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Sly-Ry ( 1121577 )
      "AO does not mean the game is banned, it means that it has to carry an Adults Only rating....The bigger hurdle is that Sony and Nintendo refuse to carry AO titles, they are the ones being the nanny here not the ESRB."

      "Banned" no, but effectively banned. Just because there's a technicality involved doesn't really mean the game isn't banned. Now, I'm no expert, but I'd wager a few dollar that the ESRB knows and understands that AO titles will not play on any consoles. The only way Manhunt 2 hasn't been

  • They should release the damn game with full content on PC, AO games can actually be bought on PC.

    Sell an edited version to the Wii and PS2 crowd and be done with it.

    I want my murder simulator, yes I said it. I want to brutally murder people for fun in a video game.

    Someone quick call the cops! I'm a pixel splatter junkie!

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by tepples ( 727027 )

      They should release the damn game with full content on PC, AO games can actually be bought on PC.
      But can PCs be played on an affordable monitor larger than 19 inches? Nobody I've met has the money for a second PC to put on top of the TV.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Xiaran ( 836924 )
        Nobody I've met has the money for a second PC to put on top of the TV.

        I know two people off the top of my head that have what you describe. One is a contractor with far more money than sense and the other has no girlfriend. The cdontractor friend also owns and original Star Wars vector game console. And a Ferrari.
  • If target, walmart, etc. won't carry AO games or porn, why not sell AO rated games at porn stores?
  • There's always the Steam option for PC's. If Take Two wants to really start putting the hurt on GameStop and EBGames who're letting themselves get pushed into the censorship game, they can just take them out of the loop entirely. Then again, not like you can get PC games there anyhow.
  • I was thinking of an Aqua Teen episode where someone was decapitated and a rainbow poured out of their neck, because blood would have been "f***ing offensive." If they did this to Manhunt 2, it would eliminate all the gore from the game (and play into the insanity theme), despite making the violence even more casual. This would be similar to UK's Carmageddon having zombies instead of humans. I'd be interested in seeing what rating the game got then. For that matter, I'm interested in seeing what rating Gras
  • What do we consider art [wikipedia.org] now, anything that we deem to be art. So does this mean that pr0n is art to, so why not mass murder is all stimulates the mind, right?
  • Is the distinctions between M games (for 17+) and AO games (18+), i mean c'mon, what happens in that year.
  • very nice game.. :)
  • Couldn't they just release it toned down but make the original available as an "easter egg" or something?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Sly-Ry ( 1121577 )
      That would be the hot coffee incident. Have you heard of it? It caused GTA San Andreas to be pulled off shelves and re-rated as AO. So hiding AO content will only mean that once it's found the game will be pulled and re-rated anyway.

      I wonder if there are any laws about "hiding" content in games...

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