The game will be released in North America on October 31 following the submission of a modified version of Manhunt 2. What's been cut we don't know yet. Nor do we know what the deal is in Europe but we're on at Rockstar to find out.
"Manhunt 2 is important to us, and we're glad it can finally be appreciated as a gaming experience," said Sam Houser, founder and executive producer of Rockstar Games. "We love the horror genre. Manhunt 2 is a powerful piece of interactive story telling that is a unique video game experience. We think horror fans will love it."
Take Two chairman Strauss Zelnick, added, "Manhunt 2 is an extraordinary game, and we eagerly anticipate its release in North America."
Manhunt 2 is the debut title from the newly formed Rockstar London studio, which is developing the game in conjunction with series creator Rockstar North. The Wii version is being developed by Rockstar Toronto.
Along with the Mature rating, the ESRB also assigned the following content descriptors to Manhunt 2: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content and Use of Drugs.
You can read the Wii review here. And keep checking back for news on a European launch later this afternoon.
Good news. But I hope we, in Europe, will win the appeal without modifacations. It'll be great if we get the undiluted version. I get the impression the changes to the game will be that you're not just murdering the characters, they'll now either attack you, so your attacks are in self defence, or you'll be given the choice to avoid combat altogether.
I bet it's been carebear'd to hell and back. I imagine everything that actually made it unique and interesting has been removed or watered down so much it may as well not be there at all.
Not really too bothered about MH2 anyway to be honest...and if I was a cynic I'd say that the game getting banned was exactly what R* wanted anyway to fuel the desire to see if it deserves its reputation, even if it has been "toned down" for us delicate gamers!
Good news for the games industry, and the players.
No, the games industry doesnt need overrated horror games like these to survive..bout time Rockstar stopped trying to make 'shocking' games (bully, manhunt, gta to name a few) to get more press coverage.
Good news for the games industry, and the players.
No, the games industry doesnt need overrated horror games like these to survive..bout time Rockstar stopped trying to make 'shocking' games (bully, manhunt, gta to name a few) to get more press coverage.
Bully isn't the least bit "shocking", it's very tame. It's just the title that got the Daily Mail and the like up in arms.
I won't be buying Manhunt 2 unless in its edited form it gets really good reviews. There's no point buying it now to see if it was as bad as the censors said because it's been toned down.
Good news for the games industry, and the players.
No, the games industry doesnt need overrated horror games like these to survive..bout time Rockstar stopped trying to make 'shocking' games (bully, manhunt, gta to name a few) to get more press coverage.
Lol @ Y0U What the game industry doesn't need are people like you who aren't open minded. Wonder if you have played God of war and Gears of war because this is about the same level of gore.
I'm very open minded thank you...I've played Gears Of War and other 18 rated games in the past, its not the fact it has gore, no one is really bothered about the gore part, its the game content that bothers people, they could easily tone it down a bit...like i said Rockstar like to push the boundary of what is acceptable and throw their rattles out their prams when they get banned... And the same for 'Bully' they just made that game to get press coverage...it worked and people buy these crap games because of it....the games industry can easily do without these two titles that give this industry a bad name.
It's not just 'right wing newspapers', or their readers that have concerns about Manhunt. I think anyone with an element of maturity MUST be concerned about the pattern of extreme violence we are seeing, even this week. There has already been a murder where the disturbed offender used a method he took from the original Manhunt games.
Banning games like Manhunt is not going to stop violence, youth or otherwise, but there might be a few cases where it would otherwise contribute to a tipping point.
In any case, we don't allow films that show torture or rape for the sheer pleasure of it - there has to be some dramatic purpose. A few of you sickos might think this impinges on your 'human rights'. Well we live in a democratic society, and most of us don't want it - so tough s**t.
The two unpleasant things about Manhunt (and I did play the first and found it pretty repetitive) is that it sells itself on violence as a source of pleasure and entertainment, rather than as a means to an end. And secondly, that the company behind it seems to have a product and marketing strategy designed to appeal to this market. With all the scruples of a tobacco company in the 1950s. Then to defend it as some sort of artistic enterprise is the real hypocrisy you should be going on about.
It's not just 'right wing newspapers', or their readers that have concerns about Manhunt. I think anyone with an element of maturity MUST be concerned about the pattern of extreme violence we are seeing, even this week. There has already been a murder where the disturbed offender used a method he took from the original Manhunt games.
Banning games like Manhunt is not going to stop violence, youth or otherwise, but there might be a few cases where it would otherwise contribute to a tipping point.
In any case, we don't allow films that show torture or rape for the sheer pleasure of it - there has to be some dramatic purpose. A few of you sickos might think this impinges on your 'human rights'. Well we live in a democratic society, and most of us don't want it - so tough s**t.
The two unpleasant things about Manhunt (and I did play the first and found it pretty repetitive) is that it sells itself on violence as a source of pleasure and entertainment, rather than as a means to an end. And secondly, that the company behind it seems to have a product and marketing strategy designed to appeal to this market. With all the scruples of a tobacco company in the 1950s. Then to defend it as some sort of artistic enterprise is the real hypocrisy you should be going on about.
okey dokey...to this guy up top and the other 'daily mail' readers... lest we forget the 1984 recordings act imposed via our good ol' aunty maggie (f**k off!)thatcher banning such (admittedly cult classics) as 'the exorcist','evil dead','straw dogs'...etc...not to mention timeless classics such as 'freaks','last house on the left'and 'the texas chainsaw massacre' IT IS PEOPLE LIKE YOU RUINING THE ART OF EXPESSIVITY! f**king hell...i frigging hate you middle england tossers,bandying around terms as 'it makes our children monsters' have a look in the f**kin mirror...
There has already been a murder where the disturbed offender used a method he took from the original Manhunt games.
Apart from this classic piece of cliché (the victim had the game, not the murderer), you made some good points.
I feel the reason we gamers defend Manhunt is not because it's a great game or even because of artistic expression. It's because once a game is banned due to the hysterical reactions of the press, who knows where they will stop? We could probably kiss goodbye to Resident Evil, Gears of War et al.
It's not just 'right wing newspapers', or their readers that have concerns about Manhunt. I think anyone with an element of maturity MUST be concerned about the pattern of extreme violence we are seeing, even this week. There has already been a murder where the disturbed offender used a method he took from the original Manhunt games.
Banning games like Manhunt is not going to stop violence, youth or otherwise, but there might be a few cases where it would otherwise contribute to a tipping point.
In any case, we don't allow films that show torture or rape for the sheer pleasure of it - there has to be some dramatic purpose. A few of you sickos might think this impinges on your 'human rights'. Well we live in a democratic society, and most of us don't want it - so tough s**t.
The two unpleasant things about Manhunt (and I did play the first and found it pretty repetitive) is that it sells itself on violence as a source of pleasure and entertainment, rather than as a means to an end. And secondly, that the company behind it seems to have a product and marketing strategy designed to appeal to this market. With all the scruples of a tobacco company in the 1950s. Then to defend it as some sort of artistic enterprise is the real hypocrisy you should be going on about.
okey dokey...to this guy up top and the other 'daily mail' readers... lest we forget the 1984 recordings act imposed via our good ol' aunty maggie (f**k off!)thatcher banning such (admittedly cult classics) as 'the exorcist','evil dead','straw dogs'...etc...not to mention timeless classics such as 'freaks','last house on the left'and 'the texas chainsaw massacre' IT IS PEOPLE LIKE YOU RUINING THE ART OF EXPESSIVITY! f**king hell...i frigging hate you middle england tossers,bandying around terms as 'it makes our children monsters' have a look in the f**kin mirror...
See - you've demonstrated exactly why this whole debate is a bad thing for gaming and the reputation of gamers. Rather than putting forward a well reasoned argument for why this game should be released you resort to juvenile name-calling and expletives...
It also strikes me that the eagerness people are showing for this game, seemingly on the sole basis that it contains extremely violent content (I've certainly seen little else suggested to justify the level of interest), is also a poor reflection on gamers... Sure gaming can be about artistic expression, but ultimately it's about enjoyment - are we saying that the only way we can enjoy ourselves is if there's extreme violence involved? I just don't think this game is going to be so good as to justify the damage it's going to do to the reputation of gaming...
As for the recordings act, yes it was a mistake, but it's been clearly acknowledged as such and the BBFC have expressed a desire to avoid such mistakes in future. At the same time the argument that there should be absolutely no censorship (because it stifles artistic expression... sob!) is both facile and naive.
It's not just 'right wing newspapers', or their readers that have concerns about Manhunt. I think anyone with an element of maturity MUST be concerned about the pattern of extreme violence we are seeing, even this week. There has already been a murder where the disturbed offender used a method he took from the original Manhunt games.
Banning games like Manhunt is not going to stop violence, youth or otherwise, but there might be a few cases where it would otherwise contribute to a tipping point.
In any case, we don't allow films that show torture or rape for the sheer pleasure of it - there has to be some dramatic purpose. A few of you sickos might think this impinges on your 'human rights'. Well we live in a democratic society, and most of us don't want it - so tough s**t.
The two unpleasant things about Manhunt (and I did play the first and found it pretty repetitive) is that it sells itself on violence as a source of pleasure and entertainment, rather than as a means to an end. And secondly, that the company behind it seems to have a product and marketing strategy designed to appeal to this market. With all the scruples of a tobacco company in the 1950s. Then to defend it as some sort of artistic enterprise is the real hypocrisy you should be going on about.
okey dokey...to this guy up top and the other 'daily mail' readers... lest we forget the 1984 recordings act imposed via our good ol' aunty maggie (f**k off!)thatcher banning such (admittedly cult classics) as 'the exorcist','evil dead','straw dogs'...etc...not to mention timeless classics such as 'freaks','last house on the left'and 'the texas chainsaw massacre' IT IS PEOPLE LIKE YOU RUINING THE ART OF EXPESSIVITY! f**king hell...i frigging hate you middle england tossers,bandying around terms as 'it makes our children monsters' have a look in the f**kin mirror...
See - you've demonstrated exactly why this whole debate is a bad thing for gaming and the reputation of gamers. Rather than putting forward a well reasoned argument for why this game should be released you resort to juvenile name-calling and expletives...
It also strikes me that the eagerness people are showing for this game, seemingly on the sole basis that it contains extremely violent content (I've certainly seen little else suggested to justify the level of interest), is also a poor reflection on gamers... Sure gaming can be about artistic expression, but ultimately it's about enjoyment - are we saying that the only way we can enjoy ourselves is if there's extreme violence involved? I just don't think this game is going to be so good as to justify the damage it's going to do to the reputation of gaming...
As for the recordings act, yes it was a mistake, but it's been clearly acknowledged as such and the BBFC have expressed a desire to avoid such mistakes in future. At the same time the argument that there should be absolutely no censorship (because it stifles artistic expression... sob!) is both facile and naive.
OK I think you need to get to the back of the human rights que and defend some more terrorist scum, its people like you who make society a bad place by refusing to blame the culprits and instead blame games, movies, magazines etc. Get a life and get real, individuals are the only ones to blame for their own actions and no else.
OK I think you need to get to the back of the human rights que and defend some more terrorist scum, its people like you who make society a bad place by refusing to blame the culprits and instead blame games, movies, magazines etc. Get a life and get real, individuals are the only ones to blame for their own actions and no else.
WTF? At what point did I blame the world's ills on games, movies or magazines? What do you know: I didn't...
At no point did I try and absolve people of personal responsibility. At no point did I suggest games turn people into killers... because I certainly don't believe that's true: I'll leave that absurd argument to ignorant tabloid journalists.
All I was saying is that the eagerness some people showed for playing this game, often on the sole basis of its violent content, and the often juvenile responses to its not getting a certificate were a poor reflection on the gaming community.
Believe it or not this world isn't quite the black & white, good versus evil, vision you seem to have of it... Life really isn't that simple. Just because I don't agree with you doesn't automatically mean I agree with what you consider to be the 'other side'.
I think this should stay banned. Along with Burnout cos it makes me want to drive fast, and Mario cos it makes me want to kick tortoises around the house.
/sarcasm
FFS, really.... The ONLY problem I see with these sort of games is the fact that, for some unknown reason, many people seem to think that the fat '18' slapped on the front cover really doesn't mean anything, and little Timmy (age 9) is perfectly fine playing it. You wouldn't let your child watch porn or the Texas Chainsaw Massacre*, why should this be any different?
*At least you shouldn't - and if you do, do yourselves a favour and call up social services and state that you aren't a fit parent. Then castrate yourself.
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