like i'm 12 again, and all hiding under the duvet at my mates house watching banned video nasties. BBFC Ban it...I sooooooo want to play it now!!!!!

'only covers physical products.'

yet make a copy and its theft.

Bunch of hypocritical idiots.

or maybe if its a copy of a download???

It's a feature and needs to be safeguarded.

The BBFC should stick to the function implied in their title - Classification. not ban, restrict, censor or attempt to control.

( classification as unsuitable is not allowed )

Reg - where's the download link ?

Surely, since this game could teach a person how to commit a crime or, worse, make them contemplate one, it's illegal to link to it or own it?

Heck, if you were to download a "stolen" copy of this you could expect to be sent down for 25 years, couldn't you?

Does the Obscene Publications Act cover digital media?

If so this can be used to restrict its ownership in England and Wales; it's the Civic Government (Scotland) Act (1982), for those who live north of the border.

"he claimed the company may choose not to exploit the opportunity because the likes of Sony and Nintendo are likely only to allow onto their consoles games that carry a BBFC rating."

Well, that and the fact that there's no way of downloading games and playing them on the PS2 or Wii without using mod chips etc

...that it doesn't have any hidden sex scenes. Wouldn't want to damage impressionable minds.

Seems like a perfect opportunity to sell it on Valve's game delivery system, aka Steam.

I don't see why the BBFC is saying that selling games physically is more profitable. Valve went down the Steam online game delivery route because they were so pissed about losing all their money by using a publisher to sell it physically.

Get it on Steam, surely that's more profitable than not selling it at all.

I doubt that I'll ever play the game, but if the Nanny State wants to keep me from having it, I damn well *WILL* go buy it now.

I didn't spend 23 years in the Army (11 of them in the Mech Infantry) to be told that I am not permitted to view gore and violence.

Bugger the censors (preferably with a hedgehog on a stick)!

and if it has scenes of Paris Hilton nude, I definitely won't play it. But I will DAMN sure own a copy!

Funny really. In England it's fisticuffs and in the US it's nekkidness.

And yet in each country, the opposite bugbear is celebrated.

For the US readers, imagine the Superbowl with a full frontal streaker running onto the pitch during a live broadcast. Now consider the scandal if the TV cameras actually zoomed in and made sure you got every detail permanently burnt into your retinas, ignoring the game completely for a good 10-15 minutes. That's British tv for you - with a healthy sprinkling of sarcasm and anti-political correctness. But should even the title of the show include a violent word, say Ninja, then it would have to be renamed forthwith.

For the UK imagine a world where no matter what the violent content, nobody raised an eyebrow until a naked toon having sex entered the equation. Then the matter would be elevated to Parliament, a debate in the House of Lords and the Prime Minister promising something would be done to make sure our children were protected from cartoons having sex. The best way forward would probably be a campaign that advocates celibacy targeted at everyone under the age of 33.

What truly puzzles me is everyone is fully aware that hyping the violence or nudity of a product will escalate sales a million fold, so why would they be so stupid as to do it?

If you were a game publisher, sunk millions into a mediocre piece of shite, and desperately needed a winner to boost stock prices - what would this sort of reaction teach you? I would cheerfully expect all future releases from these guys to include unadulterated violence, and if they're wise enough to want to cash in on the US market - a liberal sprinking of toon sex whereever possible.

> I didn't spend 23 years in the Army

Me neither.

I remember when they tried to ban Grand Theft Auto thinking that people will start highkjacking cars, drive-by shootings, running people over and hiring prostitutes then killing them to get your money back.

GTA is still going strong and where are the bleeding hearts now? Picking on another computer game.

Violence in video games make people violent in real life. We know this to be a fact because there was absolutely no record of any violence at all anywhere in the world before the first video game was invented.

>Bugger the censors (preferably with a hedgehog on a stick)!

Now there's a scene to bring both side of the Atlantic.

And to top it off, you get the cruelty to animals hysteria into it as well.

I just wanted to add my comment on this matter.

I feel that this country is too soft and left wing...

If a company make a game that is for 18+, then what is the problem? 99% of 18 year old + members of society wouldn't even think twice about it and certainly wouldn't go around mindlessly killing people because they saw it on a game or even a film.

If the BBFC are concerned about teenagers being infulenced by such games, then why aren't they actually prosecuting the parents of those teenagers for allowing their child to play such a game (and most likely would have bought it for them). the same should go for alcohol and other things. (but it doesn't)

And seriously - if a teenager is going around with a gun, why wouldn't the parents be responsible??? Oh no - surely the developers are to blame for their out-of-control kid and should be punished. How dare they push the boundaries....on a game!!! It's just a game dudes!!

Also - I wasn't intereted in this game until all this cafuffal (however it's spelt) but now I seriously want it - I bet it's fantastic "Fantasy" game play!

is that we actually have a legally enforced ratings system here in the UK. That means if its rated 18 shops can't legally sell it to anyone under that age. So why not just give it an 18 rating and be done with it? Every safeguard is already in place to prevents kids getting hold of it.

Although the game looks pretty crappy and i wouldn't bother with it. i still don't think the BBFC should be dictating what sort of games can and can't be played by adults. They should stick to dictating what games can and can't be played by children without their parents consent. (if a parent buys an 18 game for a child it should be assumed by the law that they have fully reviewed it and decided it is suitable for their child - one well publicised slap down of an outraged parent using this would stop them all calling for 'murder simulators' to be banned)

"Surely, since this game could teach a person how to commit a crime or, worse, make them contemplate one, it's illegal to link to it or own it?"

Does reading Harry Potter teach you to cast spells too?

Did watching Hotel Rwanda teach you how to and make you consider committing genocide?

No, thought not.

I know the PS2 wouldn't be able to download it, but I thought the Wii had the capability to download games through Wii's online network thingemy? If not, could be a shift to an upscaled PS2 version for 360 / PS3 at a budget price through the PSN & Xbox-Live. Plus, the PSP version could be downloaded through the PSN on your PS3 too.

>> I didn't spend 23 years in the Army

> Me neither.

SNAP! PMSL

Now lets all grab our axes and go chop someone up like the picture in the article is obviously making us want to do...

"I remember when they tried to ban Grand Theft Auto thinking that people will start highkjacking cars"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/gloucestershire/7056843.stm

"...drive-by shootings",

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7055814.stm

"...running people over"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/nottinghamshire/7006712.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cambridgeshire/7037325.stm

"hiring prostitutes then killing them to get your money back."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6166635.stm

At least with the traffic nowerdays there are no town centres that you can scream round at high speed...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/6991597.stm

oh..

ROFL!! Nice Neil!

You really are the number one person today to make me spit out my drink.

I think i'll fish out my copy of GTA Vice City now :/

"I didn't spend 23 years in the Army (11 of them in the Mech Infantry) to be told that I am not permitted to view gore and violence."

One would think that after 23 years in the army you had seen enough gore and violence.

Neil I can find meaningless correlations too.

For instance people called Neil are nasty, here is the evidence.:

Murder

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/5408688.stm

Rape

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wiltshire/6897645.stm

Shootings

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/staffordshire/3573595.stm