First of all let me start with how sorry i am for the Australian gamers for this bad news, it wold seem the Australian parliament has a real hate for games that don't look and play like Nintendo made it so they have yet again dropped the idea of adding an 18+ rating.
EDGE-online reports: Australia will remain the only developed nation not to use an 18+ rating for games after a planned public consultation on the matter was shelved this week.
The introduction of an R18+ content classification for videogames in Australia has been in the planning stages for several months. In March, the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General had called for a discussion paper and public consultation on the matter. And while the initiative’s strongest objector, South Australian Attorney-General Michael Atkinson, expressed his concerns with lifting the nation’s MA15+ rating, he had agreed in principal to debate the subject.
However it has emerged that Mr Atkinson has rejected plans to publish the results of the consultation, effectively ending the discussion process. MA15+ is now likely to remain Australia’s highest content classification bracket for videogames for some time. These restrictions mean that many adult-orientated games landing in Australia need to be toned down in order to be granted access into stores and supermarkets.
Recent titles such as GTAIV and Dark Sector have had to censor some of their content to be granted an MA15+ rating and find the shop shelves, whereas titles such as Fallout 3 have been entirely banned.
Mr Atkinson’s opinion on the matter is largely an isolated one. Most Australian Attorney-Generals, members of parliament and Senate members are in complete support of a new game rating. Yet the legislative process which could amend Australia's content classification system can only work with unanimous vote from all state and territory attorney-generals. Mr. Atkinson is therefore allowed to veto such an Act until his time as Attorney-General is over.
There is a building discontent within Australian parliament on the matter. Many politicians are simply embarrassed that they still need to be debating the issue. Hansard from the recent Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs shows a typical dispute in the upper echelons of Australian parliament, with deputy chair Senator Guy Barnett debating the issue with Assistant Secretary from the Classification Policy Branch Amanda Davies:
Senator Barnett: Some of us are dumbfounded as to why we do not have an R rating for video games. Can you share any argument as to why we do not?
Ms Davies: In order to make any changes to the classification code and guidelines, including introducing a new classification, you need to have unanimous agreement from all state and territory ministers and the Commonwealth minister. To date, that has not been obtained.
Senator Barnett: We have got a real problem here, haven’t we, because South Australia is opposing the position.
Ms Davies: The South Australian Attorney is on record on a number of occasions as opposing the introduction of an R18+ classification.
Senator Barnett: We have a real problem, and this is something the Senate and the parliament is going to have to address. If we have one state opposing this, South Australia, then clearly we are not going to have any R rating of video games. That simply cannot occur as a matter of course legally.
Heres a real shocker for are good friends down under but it looks like the OLFC has turned its back on one more game that it feels is fit for no one, not even the country's adults, this brings up the question of when in the hell will the OLFC get it together and see they are costing Australia a pile of money by blocking out some of the top selling games on the market?
xboxoz360gamer.com reports: Well it seems the long awaited Silent Hill Homecoming title has received the cold shoulder from Australia’s OLFC and Refused Classification.
This is yet another game to face the OLFC that has failed to pass due to their antiquated rating laws, where their highest rating for games is just MA15+, making many adult themed games, (no, not sexually based games) unable to gain classification.
Sure, some are then edited and then resubmitted, but why should they be. It’s as if the world developers must bend to the whims of ONE country to make their game fit into an antiquated system that believes it is protecting their children from irreparable mental harm.
Games such as Fallout 3, which has now had drug use softened to nondescript type from a prescribed Morphine reference. Which is ridiculous in the extreme, as it is not overly used as such games as Blitz, but simply as a way to deal with injuries. The lose of limbs and the like would be cause for concern, but the use of a prescribed drug . . . come one OLFC.
The oddity of the OLFC is that Dark Sector was refused classification due to excessive blood and dismemberment as well as characters wimpering due to being injured, yet it (OLFC) allowed Ninja Gaiden II through as MA15+ without the slightest fuss whatsoever. To me, Ninja Gaiden II had more gore and graphical dismemberment ahd beheading than the other game, yet it went through without a hitch.
I’m amazed that they have allowed Ubisofts’s Brothers In Arms: Hell’s Highway through actually, as it deplicts the death of soliders in slow motion with screams of agony and dismemberment, yet it receives a MA15+ rating.
The debacle with regards to how the media handle these things is in no way helpful, such as this mess on the ABC’s Q&A Debate Program recently, and absoute mess. Due mainly to their lack of knowledge on the matter, and simply following ideas that they are “protecting the chilren” . . which is affect they are not.
Buy not allowing the current R18+ rating to be used on “some” games, they are in fact allowing many games that have been designed with adult audiences in mind, not 15 yr olds. There is something VERY wrong with the system, and it needs to be discussed openly with the general public and industry alike.
Dark Sector demo is now available for download on XBL, this game blends finesse and brutality into a fast-action game. It mixes first-person shooter control schemes with a third-person perspective. Your suit can 'morph.' This morphing is central to creating the new possibilities for our combative and non-combative game mechanics. Enemy guard shows off effective, believable facial expressions. The polygon count on each character is incredibly high, and the texture work is gorgeous. The characters move with smooth motion, and the special effects, from the particles, smoke, and fire, are all top-quality.
In the midst of a quarantined town, a hunted man tries to come to terms with what he is becoming. Pursued by heavily-armed guards, Hayden Tenno is undergoing a series of physical changes that are endowing him with strange new powers and altering his mental state. As he struggles to hold on to his humanity, Dark Sector presents one of the most involving and ground-breaking next generation experiences you have seen…
Price: Free Availability: All Xbox LIVE regions Dash Text: [ESRB: M (Mature) BLOOD AND GORE,INTENSE VIOLENCE,STRONG LANGUAGE] Experience the intense action of Dark Sector with this playable demo.
When Australia's max age rating for a game is 15 you knew this wold happen sooner or later.
The OFLC has said that the sci-fi action game contains, “violence that is high in impact and is therefore unsuitable for persons aged under 18 years to play. The finishing moves and most violent game play includes decapitation, dismemberment of limbs accompanied by large blood spurts, neck breaking spurts, neck breaking twists and exploded bodies with post-action twitching body parts. These moves are relatively easy to accomplish and once the player has mastered the moves and is able to get close to his foes, these violent moves can be executed.”
"Successfully shooting an opponent results in the depiction of blood spray. When Hayden cuts off his opponent's limb with the glaive, large amounts of blood spray forth from the stump and the injured person screams in agony which increases the impact."
Dark Sector is the latest game to be banned in Australia due to its content. Last year, sports game Blitz: The League was banned due to depictions of drug use, while shooter Soldier of Fortune: Pay Back was banned for excessive violence (Soldier of Fortune was later reclassified after content changes by publisher Activision).
On 360-Hq.Com we do our best to provide you with the latest information, screenshots, trailers and achievements no matter which country/region you are from.
This time we have a full list of upcoming titles for release on the xbox 360 for our Australian members and readers.. Check it out below!
Aussie members, here is the release schedule for the next few months on Xbox 360.
June:
Call of Juarez
Fantastic Four Rise of Sil
Monster Madness: Battle for Suburbia
Tenchu Z
Ratatouille
Dirt
The Darkness
Harry Potter Order of the Phoenix
Hour of Victory
The Bigs
Transformers Cybertron
Transformers The Game
Overload
July:
NCAA Football 2008
Vampire Rain
Project Sylpheed
All Pro Football 2K8
Two Words
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