Oh, please, by all means, click for larger, clearer, more violent, grosser.
I love this company. With just a rusty-bladed screwdriver, a Niagara of Mean-Spiritedness, a few million lines of C++ code, and, as a special treat to the hack crowd, some naked sex-crazed young women, they've gouged a niche for themselves out of the soft, bleeding flesh of the adolescent and young-adult video game market.
In their new game, Manhunt 2, ready to leap from your Wii or Sony Playstation in July 2007, you murder human being after human being after human being with either a nail gun or a baseball bat -- oh, and here's a fellow with a big fire axe. There's a lot of blood all over the place.
It's been more than a year since governments or industry trade associations or Hillary Rodham Clinton have threatened to censor or ban a Rockstar game. Obviously they were feeling neglected and ignored.
Where the hell can I buy this Carmageddon game? That sounds cool. Like Frogger, but with squashed humans in the roadway instead of cute frogs.
The world really did end six years ago but everybody forgot to tell me. Well, I'm safe for the moment, I only have an original format X-Box.
Rockstar makes games that make the Reality of Planet Earth 2007 seem like a summer picnic on Bunny Island. That's another big difference between Vietnam and Iraq. Vietnam had no video game versions.
**********
Reuters
Tuesday 19 June 2007
British censor bans
first video game in 10 years
LONDON (Reuters) -- British censors on Tuesday banned a video game for the first time in 10 years, rejecting U.S.-published "Manhunt 2" for what they described as an unrelenting focus on sadism and brutal slaying.
The decision by the British Board of Film Classification, or BBFC, means the game, from publisher Take-Two Interactive Software, which made the controversial "Grand Theft Auto" series, cannot be legally supplied anywhere in Britain.
[Bummer. Looks like nobody in Britain will ever get their hands on it and play it. Too bad, Brit guys. Sucks to be you.]
The ban prompted one U.S. family group to start lobbying for a rating to ensure major American retailers cannot sell the game in which players become an insane asylum escapee sneaking up on enemies and killing them in gruesome ways.
In a statement on the board's Web site, BBFC director David Cooke said rejecting a work was a very serious action and not taken lightly. He said the board preferred to consider cuts or changes but that was not possible in this case.
"'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," he said.
"There is sustained and cumulative casual sadism in the way in which these killings are committed, and encouraged, in the game," Cooke said.
Take-Two could not immediately be reached for comment.
The BBFC noted it was the first game to be denied a classification since 1997, when "Carmageddon" was rejected for having players run down pedestrians. That decision was overturned on appeal.
The BBFC said the Take-Two label Rockstar Games that created "Manhunt" had the right to appeal the decision.
"Manhunt 2" is a follow-up to the 2003 original, which was classified in Britain for people aged 18 and over.
The original game created a storm in Britain in 2004 when the parents of a 14-year-old boy who was stabbed to death blamed the game for inspiring his 17-year-old killer.
The U.S. nongovernmental organization that evaluates games, the Entertainment Software Rating Board, has not yet given a rating for "Manhunt 2," which is slated for a July 10 release.
The Boston-based Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood urged people to write the ESRB and demand an "Adults Only" rating, which means it could not be sold by major retailers.
"An "Adults Only" rating is the only way to limit children's exposure to this unique combination of horrific violence and interactivity," group co-founder Susan Linn said in a statement.
(Additional reporting by Belinda Goldsmith in New York)
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© Reuters 2007. All rights reserved.
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from Wikipedia:
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Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO) is an American publisher, developer, and distributor of video and computer games and video game peripherals. The company's headquarters are in New York City, United States, with international headquarters in Windsor, England. Development studio locations include San Diego, Vancouver, Toronto and Austin, Texas.
Take-Two's subsidiary Rockstar Games created the Grand Theft Auto series, which includes Grand Theft Auto, Grand Theft Auto 2, Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories. There are also lesser-known expansions to the original GTA on PlayStation and PC, Grand Theft Auto: London, 1969 and the PC only Grand Theft Auto: London, 1961.
As well as GTA, Rockstar developed several other action games, including Manhunt and State of Emergency. In other genres, Rockstar creations include Midnight Club and its sequels, the Western-themed Red Dead Revolver (originally developed by Capcom), and Bully.
Take-Two's other subsidiaries include Global Star Software, Gathering (formerly Gathering of Developers aka GoD Games), 2K Games, 2K Sports, Gotham Games, TalonSoft, Jack of All Games (its distribution arm), Frog City Software (developer of the famous Imperialism game) and video game peripheral manufacturer Joytech. Gathering will be publishing the oft-delayed Duke Nukem Forever, though it is currently considered vaporware by many in the gaming community. Notable titles from Global Star include the Conflict series (the most recent game in which is Conflict: Vietnam); Sega's ESPN sports titles, for which 2K Sports was the publisher; and the Outlaw sports series, which includes Outlaw Golf and Outlaw Volleyball.
In 2004 Take 2 formed two new publishing companies called 2K Games and 2K Sports to manage a group of newly acquired development studios as well as publishing deals with a variety of other well known studios. Take 2 acquired the rights to the ESPN 2K sports games (When EA announced the ESPN deal, they dropped "ESPN" from their games), created by Visual Concepts (football and basketball) and Kush Games (baseball and hockey), from Sega as part of the creation of 2K Sports.
In March 2007 Take Two filed a lawsuit against Jack Thompson, to prevent him from filing a public nuisance complaint in Florida court like he did with Bully.
At the annual meeting on March 29, 2007, Take-Two investors ousted five of six board members, including the chief executive, Paul Eibeler, who was replaced by Ben Feder[1]
In June the UFC filed a lawsuit against the company over the video game they created for the organization.[2]
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