Despite promises back in February that GTA IV would not be censored in Australia, Rockstar has now said that because of the lack of an R18+ rating that they have had to censor parts of the game. Just what has been censored? Who knows, they aren’t saying.

-Sydney Morning Herald
-Somebody think of the Children! - discussing censorship and moral panic in Australia (cool site I found while looking for information on this)

“A Rockstar spokesperson confirmed to Screen Play yesterday that the company had produced a special version of GTA IV to comply with the Australian classification system, which does not currently contain an R18+ rating, but declined to reveal what material had been cut.

The game has been rated R18+ by the British Board of Film Classification, New Zealand's OFLC and the German Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle. It has been rated M17+ by the Entertainment Software Rating board in North America.”

This comes after Soldier of Fortune 2 was banned, Manhunt 2 being censored, Vice city being censored, GTA3 being banned but later allowed with censorship, Reservoir Dogs banned, 50 Cent: Bulletproof banned, Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under banned (because it features graffiti...yet Jet Set Radio was allowed..ok?). Of course these are just the recent ones.

God bless Australia and its ability to put its hands over its ears and go “LA LA LA LA” for more than 10 years. The result of this will naturally be everyone importing the game, hurting the local industry as a result. Bravo OFLC you pack of retard fucking monkeys, bravo.