MANHUNT NOW UNBANNED IN AUSTRALIA. WAIT, WHAT? 

This is Manhunt for the Playstation 2. It was released uncensored at the end of 2003 with a minimum of fuss and I purchased it the week it was released. Now, it’s not a brilliant game. It’s very good but not great. It’s atmosphere is the key thing. Playing as a convict, you make your way through slum after slum in Carcer City, being hunted by gang members sent by a sadistic snuff film director who taunts you as you try to survive a single night of terror. The tension is palpable in the game. Hugging the corners of buildings, you try your best to be as quiet as a mouse while staying in the shadows, lest the hunters track you down and brutally attack you. It’s kill or be killed in Carcer City and most of the time, the sweat develops on your brow quicker than you can say “Oh shit, run!” 

The Australian Classification Board passed it uncut in Australia in 2003. For ten months, everything was fine. But then a 17 year old kid killed a 14 year old kid in the UK. And the victim’s mother blamed Manhunt, saying her son’s attacker was ‘obsessed’ with the game. Eventually, the case was thrown out of court when it was discovered the attacker didn’t own a copy of the game, but in fact the victim was the owner. And no evidence was found to put the blame on Manhunt’s door. Both the judge and the police decided the crime was drug-related. 

The point is, the Classification Board reacted in the worst way possible to this media story. In September 2004, it decided to pull the game from Australian shelves and ban it. Instead of standing by their initial decision in 2003, the Board bowed to media and political pressure (which was unfounded) and changed their minds.

I’m not defending this game when it comes to children. Manhunt features wave after wave of death. But it is a game for adults. Much like violent films, books or anything else.

 
So now, seven years after they banned the game you would expect it to be still banned right?

 
Wrong. 

Today, January 7th 2011, Rockstar Games have released a selection of their back catalogue on the PC digital download site Steam. And Manhunt is one of them. Freely available for Australians to download for the reasonable price of $9.99. 

The Classification Board must classify every video game for sale on Australian shores. Steam is no different. The completely legal PC download site is one of the leaders in the digital distribution area, with brand new release games ready for sale day-and-date with their in-store counterparts. But because our classification system is inherently broken, the review board act like gibbering old senior citizens when presented with this new-fangled distribution technology, thus creating a grey area in their position. Manhunt was horrible enough to be banned in 2004. But apparently it is no longer objectionable. 

The Review Board continues to be a joke in 2011. Their classifications are overturned at a whim, simply because enough time has passed. They already have form in this regard, classifying the uncut version of Grand Theft Auto IV on PC  in December 2008 when the edited version was initially released in April. In turn, it proves their initial rulings were nothing more than knee jerk reactions to outside influences. Which even weren’t correct in the first place. 

After all the damage that the Australian video industry has suffered, these idiotic and baseless decisions only add insult to injury. With this kind of madness and stupidity firmly in place in our government and review board, it makes it makes even more difficult for the interactive entertainment industry in this country to climb out of the ignorant past and join the rest of the world in a sensible, evolving future for video games and the Classification Board should be ashamed of themselves.