Silent Hill: Homecoming Banned In Australia

[Andy Chalk]

Silent Hill: Homecoming Banned In Australia

This is getting a little repetitive: Silent Hill: Homecoming [http://silenthillhomecoming.net/] is the latest game to fall victim to Australia's ban-happy censors.

Atari [http://www.gamespot.com/news/6198219.html?part=rss&tag=gs_news&subj=6198219] spokesman said the censors took issue with "the high impact of Silent Hill's violence," citing examples such as "copious blood spray in the game, decapitations, partially dismembered corpses, numerous scenes of attacks, fights, torture and death." Previous Silent Hill titles released in Australia have been rated MA15+, the country's highest available rating for videogames.

Silent Hill: Homecoming was originally set for release in Australia in November, but the spokesman said those plans are now on hold "until early next year" while the publisher has discussions with Konami [http://www.konami.com/] about possible changes that could be made to the game in order to satisfy Australian law. The game is coming out on September 30 in North America and October 30 in Europe for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC.

2008 hasn't been the best year ever for gamers Down Under; Silent Hill: Origins is just the latest in a long and silly line of games to fall afoul of government censors. Other banned titles include Grand Theft Auto IV [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/84900].


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[maxusy3k]

Wow. Yahtzee will be pleased, huh?

 

[TheWickerPopstar]

I'm amazed that the highest rating available is MA15+. Maybe raising the highest rating would help. Developmentally, there's a big difference between a 15 year old and a 17 year old, and even a 21 year old. The fact that they think material for an adult is also appropriate for a 21 year old shows how ineffective this system is. And why they have to ban everything.

 

[rougeknife]

^

Hasn't got a bloody clue.

 

[smallharmlesskitten]

Sucks..... This means tyhat I will get the shitty version as well

 

[stompy]

Again...? Seriously, do the idiots in the OFLC have no life? Have they no sympathy?!

 

[SenseOfTumour]

And as ever, its not to accomodate 'the delicate, ladylike sensibilities of Australian gamers' but the stupid backwoods sensibilities of NON gamers, who wouldn't know the difference between Ping and Manhunt if it crept up behind them and jammed a crowbar into their eyesocket.

Find me a gamer demanding that games rated higher than 15 should not get released at all, just one, in Australia.

Also, as above...15??? Come on, at least bring a sensible 18 or 21, I'm not sure of the legal state of things over there, but an aussie guy can drink, smoke, have sex, drive, (not all at once), join the army and kill people, but he can't play Fallout 3? in case his delicate mind snaps and he shoots up a school?

Bah, and indeed, humbug.

 

[Phoenix Arrow]

Please let's have a repeat of the Fallout fiasco.
Uncensored SH in the UK please. I would pay double and I'm broke.

 

[ShadeOfRed]

GO DAMMIT AUSTRALIA! WHY MUST YOU BAN EVERYTHING?

 

[stompy]

GO DAMMIT AUSTRALIA! WHY MUST YOU BAN EVERYTHING?

Michael Atkinson [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Atkinson]. Yep, just one man... one man has the power to halt a nation's progress.

 

[Andy Chalk]

Anyone tried submitting Michael Atkinson for review by the OFLC, just for the heck of it? Maybe he'll be found too adult for Australia, and be banned.

 

[ElephantGuts]

Is there, like, a rule in Australia that 1 in 5 videogames has to be banned? Someone should look that up, you never know what you can find in the lawbooks of your country.

...Are laws recorded in lawbooks? Or did I just make that up? I'm really, really tired, I'm going to bed.

 

[Phoenix Arrow]

Heh Im guessing one of yahtzees next videos will be a brutal stab at the censors. *cant wait*
He will probably spend the entire week thinking up new insults for them.

There is probably more to his life than that... doesn't he work at Pandemic? Remember him saying something like that on AustralianGamer.

I'm amazed that the highest rating available is MA15+. Maybe raising the highest rating would help. Developmentally, there's a big difference between a 15 year old and a 17 year old, and even a 21 year old. The fact that they think material for an adult is also appropriate for a 21 year old shows how ineffective this system is. And why they have to ban everything.

No. The thinking behind it is that games are only played by people aged 12-18. Therefore, anything produced for an older demographic (ie Condemned and Fallout) isn't suitable for any gamers because they're not old enough to see blood. But GTA got released in Australia when that's probably worst influencially, when you look at that murder in... Thailand was it?
The only game that they banned for good reason is Manhunt really.

 

[gothic_dragon]

This is an outrage, im becoming very pissed off with the way Australia is banning games because they cant classify them. God damit Australia bring the ratings up to 18 and 21 and everyone will be happy.

If the rating were brought up to 18 and 21 then store personal should be able to refuse purchase of games if the buyer is clearly to young or if the brat standing next to the person buying is to young. If they look like they are of age then id should be called into play in both situations. If these suggestions was put into play then i think that Australia would be well on its way to success and a lot less gamers would be pissed off, well other than those preteens whining about how they cant get the game but they can get the hell over it.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

Yeah, over here, now (UK), a lot of stores have an 'over 21/over 25' policy, meaning that even if you look about 25, they're still gonna ask for ID. I think it makes sense, everyone knows that if they want smokes or alcohol, they've gotta be bringing some ID.

We also have an official national ID you can apply for, so you don't have to carry passports, driving licences etc around.

Just apply the same to games, if they look early 20s, card em.

Personally , when I was behind the counter, I'd even talk it over with parents who were getting whined into buying stuff that was innappropriate, sometimes losing the sale or them buying something else. I do think half the time the kid didn't even know what they wanted, just saw guns n cars and wanted one.

 

[SunoffaBeach]

copious blood spray in the game? boring
decapitations? boring
partially dismembered corpses? boring
numerous scenes of attacks? boring
fights? boring
torture and death? boring

banned in Australia? /pre-orders game

 

[Kyriptonite]

Yatzee's gona be pissed. Cant wait to hear what he has to say thou lol

 

[Typecast]

ENOUGH! Ok, I don't give a shit about Silent Hill, but this has really got to stop. This is not even remotely funny any more. Australians spend $2million per DAY on games(That's AUD). We have ratings on everything. Personally, when I was a child, I don't know about the rest of you, but it was culturally expected by my peers that I'd seen Murderous Rapist Zombies from Outer Space 6 and not been scared by it. When I was 9. This current generation is all oh noes lets protect the children from all the horrible things in the world! And you know what, it's making your kids batshit stupid. Sure they have Christian 'values' but they're brain dead, and you know what natural selection does to the brain dead? It gets them drunk and wraps them around telephone poles after high speed collisions when they're 18.

I remember watching scary movies and being scared, hell the intro music to Doctor Who freaked me the most out when I was four. But now, NOW the average age of the 'gamer'(as in the person most likely to be making up the $2million dollar a day statistic) is 29. TWENTY FUCKING NINE!!!!!!!!!!! AND ALL WE'VE GOT LEFT IS FUCKING ANIMAL CROSSING AND BARBIES FUN TIME BIBLE CAMP ON THE SHELVES???? AND THERE'S NOTHING TO DO IN AUSTRALIA, BELIEVE ME!

Ahem... without the cathartic release that so many games give us, especially me, I think I would be a danger to society. So instead of bumping a ridiculously large portion of the "A" list titles coming out this season, lets have us a good, old fashioned, grown up rating for games that children will play anyway because the internet exists. And hell, if we can't get it legally then all that's being encouraged is piracy. Yes, prudery and Christian values causes criminal activity... I wish I was being facetious.

The other day I found a copy of Bully, as a trade in at EB and snatched it up. It was a pre-censored release version, I think. In any case, I have found virtually kicking people in the balls when they're down utterly hilarious. Arrest me.