Manhunt 2 was named the worst game of the year by the Associated
Press in an article by Lou Kesten. Manhunt 2 was said to be ugly, substandard
and unplayable, the other games to make the top 5 were Vampire Rain, Deal or
No Deal, Lair and Escape from Bug Island!:
The Associated Press wrote:
1. "Manhunt 2": Rockstar Games' strategy — offend the watchdogs,
reap the publicity, then sell a substandard product — reached its nadir
with this ugly, unplayable mess. It begins with a lunatic flinging human waste
at you; after about an hour, you'll want to fling "Manhunt 2."
It turns out the BBFC have been granted a judicial review for the Manhunt
2 VAC decision. The case is expected to be heard in January, according to Sky
News it was Mr Justice Wyn Williams at London's High Court who was to make
the decision to grant the case looks like he has agreed with the BBFC.
On the BBFC
website they said the following in a statement:
The BBFC was today given permission to judicially review the decision by
the Video Appeals Committee to overturn the Board’s rejection of the video
game Manhunt 2. The Board has also been granted a stay on the classification
of the game. It is expected that the case will be heard in January.
As I said before don't be expecting the game anytime soon this judicial review
means Manhunt 2 is on hold until the outcome of the case. My question is with
this now confirmed will Rockstar finally look at a European release of the game?
If not we could be waiting well into February for a decision to be made about
the games future.
More details have surfaced from the BBC
News website including a quote from the Judge Mr Justice Wyn Williams:
I have taken into account the high public interest in the possibility of
harm to children.
Apparently the BBFC have also said that they would pay damages to Rockstar
If they lose the case.
Manhunt 2 News | Manhunt Now Compatible with UK PS3 Consoles
Sony released firmware update 2.10 yesterday morning for the PlayStation 3;
nowhere in the press
release for said update does it mention anything about backwards compatibility
being updated. Out of curiosity (as I have done after all firmware updates)
I stuck Manhunt in to see if it would work, to my surprise it actually booted
up! Seeing as how Sony has down played backwards compatibility on their platform
for months now and several weeks ago they all but confirmed they were no longer
supporting it, I was beginning to think that Manhunt would never be compatible.
Unfortunately the game does not play without fault though. During the intro
to Born Again the game ceases to advance. It doesn’t freeze though; the game
just stays on a black screen displaying the camera time and static effects.
Which suggest it may be a streaming issue. I only let it sit for maybe 5-10
seconds so it is entirely possible that it may fix itself if left long enough,
Starkweather’s dialogue continues to play after all.
It is actually during the in-game cut scene where Starkweather is introducing
you to the Hoods that this issue arises. I found that the problem can be avoided
by skipping the pre-rendered cut-scene at the start of the scene; this is the
one where the journalist is speaking.
I played the first four scenes in the game, Born Again, Doorway into Hell,
Road to Ruin and White Trash and experienced no other issues, even through the
pre-rendered cut-scenes.
I had a quick flick through some of the various locations on Sony’s official
backwards compatibility list, but it hasn’t been updated since firmware
update 1.80 as such I am unable to confirm that the game works on all PAL systems.
To be more specific I tried the game with a UK launch day 60GB PlayStation 3
with the November 2003 release date copy of Manhunt. I mention this as Manhunt
was recently released as a platinum title in Europe and there are various PS3
units going around.
If you have a PAL PlayStation 3 system and a copy of the original Manhunt let
us know in the comments if you got the game to work or experienced any issues
while playing.
Manhunt 2 News | Take Two disappointed at the BBFC
After hearing that the BBFC have decided to take Manhunt 2 to the high court’s
Take-Two's Strauss Zelnick has made a statement saying that the company was
disappointed at the BBFC for deciding to appeal against the VAC's Manhunt 2
ruling which was in favour of the game.
Strauss Zelnick said:
We are disappointed that the BBFC has decided to appeal its own Video Appeals
Committee's judgment in favor of an 18-plus certificate for Manhunt 2. We
believe the VAC decision was correct and do not understand the BBFC's decision
to expend further public resources to censor a game that contains content
well within the bounds established by the BBFC's 18-plus ratings certification.
Quite understandable since the VAC case should have brought an end to the whole
thing, now you have to wonder why the appeal even took place in the first place
considering it might now be useless to both Rockstar and Take-Two.
Manhunt 2 News | BBFC want a Judicial Review of Manhunt 2
The BBFC
are now reporting that they have officially applied to take the Manhunt 2 appeal
case straight to the High Court as a judicial review. After hearing about this
the other day it was fairly obvious this was the approach they were going to
be taking. They must have received the VAC report over the weekend and decided
to go right ahead and ask for a review without wasting any time.
The BBFC have made a statement:
The BBFC is applying for a judicial review of the decision by the Video Appeals
Committee to overturn the Board’s rejection of the video game Manhunt
2. The Board’s challenge also seeks suspension of the Committee’s
decision that the game should be classified.
The BBFC is contesting the VAC judgement because in the Board's view, it
is based on an approach to harm which is an incorrect interpretation of the
Video Recordings Act. The VAC judgement, if allowed to stand, would have fundamental
implications with regard to all the Board’s decisions, including those
turning upon questions of unacceptable levels of violence. If the VAC’s
decision is suspended, then the game will not be classified before the outcome
of the Judicial Review.
Keep in mind they are only applying for this and that it is not set to happen
yet, they could still be refused by the high court which will hopefully happen.
We are looking at a very lengthy delay of the game if it does get accepted though,
which would be bad news for the UK, perhaps then Rockstar will look at a release
in the rest of Europe?
Over at Chud.com
they have a competition up to celebrate the release of Manhunt 2. They are giving
away 100 pieces of movie cash worth $10 each. Click the above link for more.
To celebrate the release of Manhunt 2, the fine folks at Rockstar Games have
teamed up with your favorite film site to provide you with a killer prize.
They've given us 100 pieces of Movie Cash, each worth $10, that can be used
pretty much at any theatre across the country. And we're giving ten of you
lucky bastards ten of these things each. That's $100 to spend at your local
theatre, just for reading CHUD.
MCV
are reporting that the BBFC might take the Manhunt 2 appeal straight to the
High Court as a judicial review if they see any problems with the successful
VAC case, they still don't have the report as of today according to MCV.
BBFC spokesperson Sue Clark had this to say on what might happen:
We need to see the judgement papers from the VAC case before we even consider
giving Manhunt 2 a rating. If we spot anything problematic, we may decide
to take our case to the High Court as a judicial review, which would lead
to Manhunt 2’s release being frozen in the UK. Our main concern is to
ensure a lawful outcome. It needs to be the right decision within the UK’s
legal framework – which will be the right decision in the public interest.
It isn't stated what is holding the report up or when the BBFC might receive
the details, it could be after Christmas that we hear word back from the BBFC
even when they do get the report. Hopefully the game is passed without restriction
this time as sending it to the high court could mean another lengthy delay on
the game.
MCV
is reporting that Rockstar's appeal to the Video Appeals Committee over the
BBFC’s refusal to rate Manhunt 2 has been successful. They say that Rockstar
won the appeal with 4 votes to 3 and that the BBFC is now considering its plan
of action.
Take- Two chairman Strauss
Zelnick said the following regarding the outcome:
We are committed to making great interactive entertainment, while also marketing
our products responsibly and supporting an effective rating system. We are
pleased that the decision of the VAC has recognized that Manhunt 2 is well
within the bounds established by other 18+ rated entertainment.
It still isn’t clear what version of the game it is that this appeal
was for. Back when Rockstar submitted the M rated U.S. version to the BBFC they
said that the (then) ongoing appeal was temporarily paused, which suggests it
was the version without the modified filters. It is probably best to assume
for now that the appeal was for the M rated version.
The latest GTA IV trailer has now been released the movie is entitled "Move
up, ladies", we have uploaded the video to youtube which can be viewed
below.
Manhunt 2 News | Game Head: Violence and Videogames
This week’s edition of Geoff Keighley's Game Head revolves around the
videogame violence documentary Moral Kombat and features guests attorney Jack
Thompson, developer Lorne Lanning and journalist N'gai Croal. I know this is
going to be a shock to the system but Manhunt 2 and other Rockstar titles are
mentioned. I know how you feel, I was astounded myself.
Thompson says he doesn't have time to play videogames but he makes time to
play Take-Two published titles. Wouldn't that mean that he has limited exposure?
Anyway, trying to work out the method to his madness is beyond logistics at
this point. He goes onto say that games like Grand Theft Auto and Manhunt exhibit
sociopathic messages and that the point of the games is to ‘kill as many
people as you can’. He follows by saying that Take-Two continue to make
such games for the money rather than artistic value. Jack also says that he
had ordered Manhunt 2 and was anxious to get back to Miami to play it. I wonder
if he liked the game. Just kidding, I know he loved it.
Keighley says that he is a fan of the original Manhunt (no mention of Manhunt
2) and asks N'gai Croal if he believes the coverage around the content of Manhunt
2 was justified, N'gai responds by saying that he wasn’t troubled by the
content of Manhunt 2 and that he felt that Rockstar took a more ambitious approach
than they did with the original, looks like we got some closure on N’gai’s
thoughts on the game.
