San Andreas banned down under!

[wraggster]

In the wake of the "Hot Coffee" scandal, debate is raging in the United States on whether to regulate the sale of sexually explicit and/or violent games. However, there is no such discussion in Australia, where the government's Office of Film and Literature Classification can ban games outright.


And banned it has, forbidding sales of Leisure Suit Larry: Magna $#@! Laude, BMX XXX, and Manhunt in the past. While a heavily edited version of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City was approved by the OFLC in 2002, Grand Theft Auto III was banned in Australia when it was released in 2001.

Today, that same fate befell its successor, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Though it has been on sale in the antipodean nation for months, recent revelations about the Hot Coffee sex minigames hidden in the game's code prompted the OFLC to revoke the game's original MA15+ classification, which lets it be purchase by persons aged 15 and over. It received the classification for "Medium level animated violence, Medium level coarse language."

"Businesses that sell or hire computer games should remove existing stocks of this game from their shelves immediately," said Des Clark, director of the OFLC. "Parents are strongly advised to exercise caution in allowing children continued access to the game, particularly if they might have access to the 'Hot Coffee' modification."

[Cap'n 1time]

And banned it has, forbidding sales of Leisure Suit Larry: Magna $#@! Laude, BMX XXX, and Manhunt in the past. While a heavily edited version of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City was approved by the OFLC in 2002, Grand Theft Auto III was banned in Australia when it was released in 2001.

dont forget postal 2... that was big news back in the day (about 2 years ago)

[thegreatgonads]

I hate it when games get banned, it's not so bad in england.

I can only remember a few games getting banned over here, Thrill kill and postal 2.

Manhunt got pulled off the shelf in some stores but not banned over here

[Revolt26]

Yea San andreas is 10x worse than vice city....I went through hell and back to get the prima book and the game

[chronoswing]

I hate it when games get banned, it's not so bad in england.

I can only remember a few games getting banned over here, Thrill kill and postal 2.

Manhunt got pulled off the shelf in some stores but not banned over here

Eh? Thrill Kill was never released, it wasn't banned. I do however have a leaked beta copy of it somewhere in my psx collection. Yah but thrill kill was being made by virgin I'm pretty sure, and I think EA bought them and decided Thrill Kill was just to violent and stopped production on it. In my opinnion playing the game first hand, it doesn't seem very violent at all, I mean sure there is blood, and some really odd looking characters. But I've seen much much much worse games than Thrill Kill.