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Australian AvP Ban Reversed
Earlier this month, we discussed news that Sega's new Aliens vs. Predator video game had been refused classification in Australia, effectively banning it. After a scathing response from the developer saying they wouldn't censor the game, and later news that the classification scheme may be updated to include an R18+ rating, it now seems that the Classification Board has seen fit to give the game a green light after all. Sega's Darren Macbeth told Kotaku, "We are particularly proud that the game will be released in its original entirety, with no content altered or removed whatsoever. This is a big win for Australian gamers. We applaud the Classification Review Board on making a decision that clearly considers the context of the game, and is in line with the modern expectations of reasonable Australians."
Hey, it took a lackluster title to refuse to water down their game, most likely because they have no more budget to do so and had no expected sales to lose, but if it results in real change for good games in the future, so be it.
How we know is more important than what we know.
The original AvP (in terms of PC fpses, I mean) was a pretty poor effort, yes. It suffered from having no real storyline to its (shockingly short) campaigns, and from the Alien and Predator campaigns being frustrating exercises in jump puzzles and "find the one piece of wall that's textured slightly differently, meaning you can break it".
I thought that despite running on what was a crummy engine even by the standards of the time, AvP2 was a good bit better. They pulled together a very solid and atmospheric Marine campaign for it, even if the Alien and Predator campaigns were still total rubbish. It did a lot of stuff right, though; creeping through a darkened colony as a Marine, while watching for the telltale pings on your motion tracker was really quite scary.
The upcoming game does have some potential, therefore, even if the previews haven't exactly been ecstatic. But what I really want is the (much delayed, possibly vaporware) "Aliens: Colonial Marines" squad-based shooter that's allegedly in the pipeline. Take the B-movie fodder Predator out of the picture, confine the game to the marine perspective and really focus on making the experience terrifying and, with a decent technology base, you could have a very effective game indeed.
First of all, this is just an example of the standard system in action, and not some amazing backflip. Any ratings decision is subject to an appeal by the publisher or any third party.
This is also an example of how misguided the people are who think that they are protecting the children by not having an R18+ rating. Nobody would have raised an eyebrow if this had been rated R, and it would have prevented kids from buying the game. But because we have forced the Classification Board to choose between two moronic choices (give it to kids or treat everyone like kids) for a popular, mainstream title then they have to end up letting kids see things that they arguably shouldn't.
The Classification Board would collectively jump for joy if an R18+ rating for games was finally added, as it would take enormous pressure off them.
We wont. Zombies look too much like humans. It's the doublestandards of our rating system. On the one hand a game where you kill zombies gets banhammer, but on the other hand a game you play as a terrorist (MW2) and can decapitate living humans, not zombies (AvP), get the MA15+ rating. Our country is so far behind the times with it's rating system and it's fast becoming a nanny state. Hopefully some kids get this game and parents see how violent it is and it causes some pissed off mums to get vocal. It might actually help us get our long awaited R18+ rating.
The original AvP was the first 3D game I played (I think). I absolutely loved the marine campaign, because it was scary as hell. I've never been that scared in a game before or after (or pretty much in any situation).
It might not be long, graphics may be poor, there may not be a story - but I will say that this game is still bounds better than most modern FPS, because what little is there just works so incredibly well. And the lack of story was quite ok really, because similar as in half life, the entire point of it is simply to get out of there, which increases immersion quite a lot (for me anyway).
Australian AvP Ban Reversed on Friday December 18, @10:51AM
Now they've banned Predator vs Alien.
I gather you wouldn't mind watching a movie where people disappear when shot to avoid showing corpses.
A action movie. With much shooting.
Or a CSI episode. All gathered around an invisible corpse, talking about an invisible footprint on the invisible blood.
Longest survivor wins
But shortest survivor can run on low roofed corridors.
I'm from the US, and I was under the assumption that this was the case already, with Australia following closely behind the UK with their banning of various games and censoring of the internet. It's that sort of nanny state mentality that has me looking at places like New Zealand and Canada for studying abroad, rather than AUS or the UK. Your government's totalitarian censorship isn't just hurting your citizens; it's actively creating mental roadblocks in future businessmen/women who might consider doing business with your country in the future.
moox. for a new generation.
I loved AvP back in 1999. Sure, the campaign was short, but there was one for each race, remember? Besides, the *real* fun was to play multiplayer via Gamespy or MPlayer. I used to play 1 vs 7 team deathmatch against my buddies with me as alien and the other team as whatever race they wanted. I won single-handedly every time because the alien was so fast. Hit'n'run tactics for the win.
Sadly, they nerfed the alien in AvP2. That game *really* sucked. Instead of decent jumping, they added a pounce attack, which made your enemy explode, leaving no body to let you regain health. And yeah, I do agree with the franchise mix. The Alien and Predator universes are better separated than combined. I really look forward to Colonial Marines.
Books contain some pretty graphic descriptions of scenes without showing them, and they're just as emotive.
And you wouldn't mind reading a book knowing that the graphic descriptions have been censored?
My point is that the game doesn't change; It's still a mad zombie-fest survival piece. It's not like they turned the zombies into marionettes and had the words "YOU ARE NOT SHOOTING REAL PEOPLE." emblazoned across the screen. Nor did they make it into Barbie Fun House of Horse Riding Escapades.
It's the same game, with the same mechanics, the same plot. Gore shouldn't even be an issue.
It's not the same game. It's the censored version of the game.
If I remove all references to violence from a book, it's not the same book. If I censor all violence on a movie, it's not the same movie. If I censor any part of a work, it's not the same work.
You can argue you like the censored version as much as the complete game, but that doesn't make them equal.
It has nothing to do with whether you consider the censored part to be important or not. If I censor away all references to death in a zombie book, it can still be an interesting book, but it won't be the same book.
From my understanding, the lack of an F18+ rating is entirely the fault of a single legislator.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
The US is far ahead of the UK in banning games and censoring the Internet. "Hot Coffee" wasn't an issue in the UK, only in the puritanical and prudish US.
AvP is one of the worst games I've had the displeasure of playing. Through dumb luck Australians have been able to avoid direct exposure to it, but now with its full scale release in Oz that utopia is gone.
Save your money. Get a better game.
There have been a number of AvP games now... And while I can certainly make a guess as to which one you're referring... You seem to think there's only one out there.
There was Alien vs Predator on the Atari Jaguar - which I never played.
Then there was Aliens versus Predator - which was developed by Rebellion for the PC. This game was pretty rough for an FPS at the time... But you need to realize that it was not a standard FPS title. The game introduced different vision modes for the Predator and Alien, as well as the Alien's wall-climbing ability, which were all fairly revolutionary at the time. The storyline was pretty crap. The graphics were chunky. The campaigns were pretty short. But it still managed to deliver some real thrills in the Marine campaign.
Next up was Aliens versus Predator 2 - again developed for the PC. This was a genuinely good game. The graphics were roughly on-par with other contemporary titles... The individual campaigns were much longer... And the storyline wove between the three campaigns nicely. I don't know that this title really did anything new and interesting - the vision modes and wall-climbing was already established... But it did everything better than the first PC game did. I had many hours of fun with this title.
And now we've got Aliens vs. Predator on the way from SEGA for the PC. The visuals look as good as any other FPS I've seen recently. The visual modes look better than before, and they appear to have done a better job of capturing the brutality of the old movies. Ultimately I doubt if it'll be some epic feat of video game engineering... But it looks like it'll be a fun ride.
"Work is the curse of the drinking classes." -Oscar Wilde
Well there's your problem.
Australia is just taking a more mature way of dealing with our problems.
Right, Australia's warrantless wiretapping and "rights free" zones around our airports where TSA^H^H^H AQIS can operate with carte blanc and detain anyone for any reason is absolutely the act of a totalitarian government.
No...
Wait...
That isn't my (Australian) government.
Posts like these are a few seppo's over reacting to soundbites from some uninformed news agency and have no knowledge of what has actually happened. This is a sign of change, change that occurred through civil action, by being mature and going through the proper diplomatic channels. Wait, isn't that the hallmark of a representative government?
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
Absolutely, one attorney general has stopped the F18 Hornet from being made available in Australia.
/. but when a politician becomes as powerful as Mr Atkinson then he has done so with the support of certain smaller groups, occasionally these groups call in favours. Atkinson is known to have a lot of support from extremist Christian groups in SA, whether it is or isn't Mr Atkinson's view he has to obey his masters.
Jokes aside (The RAAF now consist of 70 odd F18 strike fighters) yes, one state attorney general prevents the "Restricted" (R18+) rating that exists for movies and literature from being legislated for video games. The system evolved from each state wanting control over the ratings system, so it was made that each vote had to be unanimous. Right now the South Australian Attorney General Michael Atkinson (the "legislator" in question) is being dragged through the mud buy almost everyone (media, internet, his own party) over allegations of corruption. It seems unlikely Mr Atkinson will survive but will keep his* views to the bitter end.
* I'm certain that I don't have to explain politics to
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
Bear in mind this is the third PC iteration of Alien Vs Predator. The first was a good few years ago but (despite relatively primitive graphics by the standards of the day) was a superb FPS game. Piss scary and bastard hard in places too.
The sequel was a bit more mainstream, so not as hard but had a few innovations in too, such as the Alien game starting you out as a facehugger looking for an appropriate victim, then giving it the chestburster bit and so on.
Anyway, the first game came from the same dev house as this one, and I for one am really looking forward to it, not matter how fecking awful the movies one (although as somone else mentioned at least the sequel was appropriately violent :)
The controversy in america was that the game was rated less than 'Mature 17+' and contained the racy content. In the UK it was rated for adults only, so the racy content didn't matter.
BTW, the governmental reaction to Hot Coffee was not to 'ban' video games. Hillary Clinton and Joe Lieberman (yes, they used to be pals) tried to pass legislation that would have added governmental oversight to the voluntary rating system in the video game industry.
Unlike the UK, entertainment such as films, are not banned by the federal government. Check this Wikipedia explanation:
The British Board of Film Classification has the legal authority to ban films and video games in the UK. In the US, video game classification is voluntary. Clinton and Lieberman tried to create a BBFC in America as a result of Hot Coffee.
Seth
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
You don't? (I suggest you look into that, you might find out why Hustler must be kept behind the counter)
You know that literature is another word for books, magazines, newspapers, comics and printed material. Kind of easier then saying books, magazines, newspapers, comics and printed material, Shiva knows that legal codes are long enough as they are.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
Get of your high horse yank. At least in other parts of the world you can show a nipple without the entire country throwing a hissy fit.
Rather typical you make no mention of that. A country where the word fuck is not just bleeped but the mouth of the person saying it hidden behind a mosaic, lecturing the rest of the world on censorship.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
In the great documentary on the United States' MPAA film review board, This Film is Not Yet Rated , one of the talking heads makes the argument that - in a fully functional democracy at least - government review boards may actually be preferable to private industry review boards (which are usually created to preempt the creation of government review boards in the first place.)
The argument is that although government review boards have the law on their side, they are at least accountable, either to the will of the people (legislative) or the country's constitution (judicial). You could in theory force the review board to make or alter their decisions or decision-making process through legislation or judicial review. Government review boards can be required to have a certain level of openess on the review process, who does the reviews, and so on.
Private review boards, on the other hand, are accountable to no one, aside from the industry that sponsors them. They can have byzantine rules, secretive and subjective review processes, anonymous review boards, and no one can say boo about it. You can go unrated of course, but your product can effectively be stonewalled by the industry or the third parties that support it. In the case of films, unrated or NC-17 films have trouble getting into theaters, getting newspaper or TV ads, and may not get the full backing of the studio that produced it.
Regarding video games, can you even legitimately release a game in the US for any of the the big consoles without an ESRB rating?
Prisencolinensinainciusol. Ol Rait!