Just thought my fellow Australians (and those in other countries who may be interested to know) God of War: Ascension will be the first video game to release in Australia with our new 18+ rating on March 14th. Yes those of you who haven't been following this over the years the rating was approved last year and finally put in to practice January 1st 2013, all but one of our states can now legally stock and sell 18+ games.

Who knows how many years it's been of us adult aus gamers waiting for this day to happen but it's finally upon us, the legacy of Michael Atkinson's (the idiot politician who had been the primary cause of the long out of date rating system) stupidity laid to rest .

And while yes importing has been available and easy for a while and yes plenty of games that are 17+ or 18+ in US and UK etc did get tossed in to our 15+ rating category prior to now; thus putting things like GTA in the hands of way more children here than anywhere else yay logic, this has always been more a matter of principle and freedom of choice than simple technicalities. At last we have people running this country who clearly don't just view games "for kids" anymore who do understand how important the full range of content ratings are as I've long believed in them myself to a degree.

If you dislike God of War obviously whatever who cares to own something you'll never play but as someone who does enjoy the series I look forward to having another reason to pick up a copy now. Still confused as fuck as to when exactly this game occurs canon wise tho, fucking GoW.

I live in Queensland. Are they just gonna not sell the R18+ games in Queensland at all? So all the games that would previously have just been downgraded to a MA15+ (Like God of War) will just be totally unavailable to us Qeenslanders. Lame.

I buy almost everything on Steam so it's not really an issue for me most of the time but if The Last Of Us gets R18+ and I have to drive to NSW to buy it I am gonna be insanely pissed.

Ascension is the first game, chronologically, after Kratos kills his family. He's trying to break his bond to Ares.

Chains of Olympus is next, where he is serving the gods, hoping they will grant him redemption.

God of War is when the gods have had enough of Ares, and they sic Kratos on him.

Then comes Betrayal, and I don't know what the fuck happens in that game. Who the hell plays games on their phone?

Then there is Ghost of Sparta, which takes place while Kratos is the god of war, and he tries to find his lost brother.

God of War 2, wherein Zeus tries to kill Kratos.

God of War 3, which continues the God of War 2 story.

Can't you just Amazon that shit to your house? There is an Austalian Amazon isn't there? At least there's got to be some equivalent, right?

Wow, I didn't realize Oz was so backwards. Upside down, yeah, but backwards too?

Congrats on your government growing up a little bit.

As far as I know no, there's no Amazon Australia. Also Queensland has just passed the legislation so I'm sure they will be allowed to see Ascension in all states of Australia.

@lazyaza: Wasn't Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge the first R18+ game to be released in Australia?

Release got delayed here so it's coming out after Ascension now, but yes technically it was the first "rated" but even if it were the first released I'd prefer pretending it weren't since that game is baaaaad lol.

@face15 Yep sadly Queensland is still getting shafted until the state's politicians stop being idiots. I forget the guys name but the key representative still aposes the rating even now though like all things it'll be just a matter of time until his control over the decision is released or I dunno, someone gives him a good slap lol.

Unlike Ninja Gaiden 3, Razor's Edge is pretty alright due to a ton of gameplay improvements and included DLC.

Congrats! And whatta way to kick it off, you really can't get a more fitting release to start the trend of 18+ games than God of War (!!!) I have to imagine that this could potentially give a handsome bump to its sales, courtesy of all the potential new customers flocking to (officially) get dat mature rated gaming.

@spoonman671: There's no Amazon or Amazon equivalent in Australia. Being a consumer here sucks, everything is ridiculously overpriced compared to the USA and we don't have all the awesome services you guys have like Amazon or Netflix.

Looks like you're right. Damn, that's good news.

Michael Atkinson is striving for more power at the moment.