Half-Life 2 may be banned in Australia

[Sonic 295]

Damn! Some bad news for Aussie Half-Life 2 fans...

Rumours abound in the last few days that the year's most highly anticipated PC game, Half-Life 2, could end up being banned in Australia.

 

The Australian Office of Film & Literature Classification (OFLC) has yet to examine or classify Half-Life 2, so this is purely speculation, although not without some grounding in fact.

 

The game has been rated 'R' in Europe by the Pan European Games Information (PEGI) ratings body, meaning that people under the age of 18 years are unable to purchase the game in many European countries.

 

The Australian rating system currently makes no provision for games rated above 'M15+', meaning that any title deemed unsuitable for people aged 15 must be banned from sale entirely, as has previously been demonstrated with Grand Theft Auto 3 and GTA: Vice City and more recently Manhunt.

 

It's not yet clear what led the PEGI to issue its 'R' rating, but if the Australian OFLC follows suit with its European counterparts, finding the game too violent for an 'M15+' rating, Half-Life 2 would be banned from sale in Australia.

 

Australian gamers are hoping this won't happen, but if it does it should only serve to intensify the debate over Australia's rating system. Many see the ommission of any higher age ratings, and the implied assumption that games are only played by children, as a serious flaw.

 

Others point out that the game's availability through Valve's Steam download platform mean that any attempts at censorship are doomed to failure, as anybody can legally purchase and download the game over the Internet.

[apocolyp4 0]

They should still be able to order it through (I dread to say it) Steamwhich will they migh benifit by getting it cheaper as it will be the US price and not the lets convert the price by just changing the dollar sign to the pound sign (as most companies do in The uk and europe).

[chickendippers 1]

That is very stupid. They really need to introduce a higer rating.

[fox34343 1]

That is very stupid. They really need to introduce a higer rating.

 

yeh i think that is stupid 2

[Gazdude 0]

So the Aussies missed out on GTA 3 and Vice City lol !

[Hans5849 0]

hahahahha, oh well they can get it thru steam.

 

in my country you will be able to do anything short of killing some one. kind of like amsterdam

[Luk3us 63]

Typical Aussies.. Always thinking of more stupid things to do...

[General Leang 0]

Actually, Grand Theft Auto and Manhunt is avalible in Australia. Also interesting to note is how the original Grand Theft Auto was rater R in America, while in Australia it is rated MA. Even Spycraft, which allowed you to torture a woman, was released. I do expect Australian censors, however, to be jumping up and down like an organ grinder's monkey if and when some of the more sexually explicit titles such as Singles and Leasure Suit Larry are up for review. Although if they allow a movie that looks at the seedy underbelly of the pornography industry then they will probably allow anything.

[Warmatt16 0]

I agree with the last statement. If they allow a film like that, they could not justify not releasing this great game. I loved Austrailia when I went there to compete in the DownUnder Games (A U.S./Austrailia high school sports competition, sort of a mini Olympics) on the North Eastern U.S. Cross Country team. And I hope to move there some day. But if they banned games like that, I'd completely reconcider. To bad you missed GTA 3 and Vice City, you have my sympathy.

[Warmatt16 0]

Yes, I know I misspelled Australia. It's 5:00 A.M. here and I'm tired so screwed up. Don't hold it against me.

[General Leang 0]

No, Australia have GTA3 and Vice City, albeit with the hookers and some of the naughier aspects cut out, such as the movie studio. But there are patches out there that fix that.

[Warmatt16 0]

Good, I can still servive there!

[Luk3us 63]

No, Australia have GTA3 and Vice City, albeit with the hookers and some of the naughier aspects cut out, such as the movie studio. But there are patches out there that fix that.

 

I hate it when games or movies get bits cut out because they're too "nasty".

 

In anycase any Australian can just import the game from here anyway. With all the nasty bits there.

[DeadEye 0]

Its not banned in Australia, just been given the highest rating it can be given - MA 15+.

 

Also, the Aussies are getting the uncut version / have it allready of San Andreas too

[chickendippers 1]

Uncut version? What's the difference between the uncut and erm... cut versions?

[apparitionnz 0]

:lol: Well they re-elected john (the kolala) howard.

 

I remember downloading patches for Carmageddon 2 and seeing that the UK version had zombies with green blood...

[Luk3us 63]

Uncut version? What's the difference between the uncut and erm... cut versions?

 

For Vice City I think they just dropped the hookers and the decaipations and stuff.

[chickendippers 1]

OK, glad I got the uncut version then

[Mario 0]

i get tired of that **** that video games influence ppl kill ppl bull**** videogames dont influence ppl kill ppl its bollocks it doesnt work i mean **** we all play violent video games here but we dont go out killing ppl just because we played violent video games and just because some stupid kid cant tell the differance between a game and rl why shuld the rest of us have 2 go without just because of 1 or more stupid kids i just get tired of ppl saying video games influence ppl 2 kill not they do not its bull****

[Hans5849 0]

I know people don't kill because of video games, they kill because its fun

[chickendippers 1]

In the UK, a boy was murdered allegedly under the influence of Manhunt (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/leicestershire/3934277.stm) but infact the murdered kid had the game, not the murderer. I'm also pretty sure the murderer was a phyco neway.

Rockstar just said that neither of them should have had the game as they were below the rating age - so it was the parent's fault for buying him the game

 

Also: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/3553352.stm - get told soccer mums!

[Sonic 295]

All this crap about linking the violence in real life to violence in video games makes me sick. I read about, I see it on TV, these experts saying its a really bad problem. I've been playings games for years and I'm fine. After blowing away demons from hell in Doom 3 or fighting the Combine in HL2 do feel like re-enacting what happens in the game world in real life..... of course not..... I'm not insane to begin with.

 

What these "experts" should be looking at first is finding out if these kids (or adults) were total wack-jobs before they starting playing games. And what sort of drugs there pumping in their bodies and screwing up their brains.

[chickendippers 1]

I gave a presentation on the subject of Violent Video Games about 4 years ago, and that's the basic argument I used.

[General Leang 0]

The perpetraters of the Columbine High massecre are perhaps mostly to blame for the link that games lead to violence. This was a clear case of the gunmen taking their love of Doom and using it to commit acts of violence, as the video they made prior to the shootings demonstrated. But on the other hand games, movies, they are played and seen by millions of people and out of that there is maybe one nut who might try something. So everyone goes and say that games are bad because they are concerned about how all these people might react to playing the game. They cannot seem to do anything about the one nut, which is really what they should be doing.

[Cygnus X-1 12]

Why dont these "experts" go play the games and see how messed up they get.

 

Oh. Whats that? You're not messed up trying to kill and rape people, Mr. Expert? Too bad. Your job just got screwed.