UK five-O want Reservoir Dogs deep-sixed

Eidos Interactive's Reservoir Dogs is set for release this October but not down under in Australia. The game has been banned by the Aussie ratings board because it has been deemed "ultra-violent."

"Yes, I wish to register a complaint about one of these confounded 'video games.'"
Now the game is causing another ruckus, this time across a different pond. Like the well-dressed bank robbers in the game, Reservoir Dogs is coming under attack by the police. The Yorkshire Post is reporting that several British police chiefs have condemned the game because of its violence toward police officers.

"Players can take police officers hostage and go on to burn out their eyes with a lit cigar, chop off their fingers with a cigar cutter, and hack off their ears using a scalpel, while [the police officers] plead for their lives and scream in pain," says the Post.

West Yorkshire Police Federation chairman Tom McGhie called the game a "sickening glorification of violence against police officers," according to the Post. "It's impossible to see how such a game can have anything other than a highly damaging effect on how people perceive and react to police officers."

Nevertheless, the Post says that the British Board of Film Classification has OK'd the game's release in the UK, and copies of the game are expected to hit store shelves in late August. Reservoir Dogs is scheduled for a US release on the PC, Xbox, and PlayStation 2 in October.

It seems that only Nazis and aliens are free to be blasted away in games these days. Another Eidos game, 25 to Life, was lambasted by politicians and peace officers for being antipolice, and a group of sex workers called for a ban on the Grand Theft Auto games, claiming gamers were rewarded for the "rape and murder of prostitutes."