Fallout 3, Dark Sector, GTA III/San Andreas, Reservoir Dogs, Manhunt 2 and Postal, along with it's sequel, all have one thing in common. They have all been banned, or were at one time, from the horrible place I live, Monster Island... err, Australia. Whether it's blood spurts, dismemberment, drug use or even the old doggystyle performed by fully clothed 3D models, Australia is right there to tell us that we are not capable of processing this information without being harmed in some way.



Australia's most recent foray in to the subjugation of expression... er, sorry, family friendly censorship, sees the third installment in a much beloved franchise, Fallout, finding it's way under the ban hammer. Why? Because the player apparently uses vials of morphine to heal themselves. That's right, the game is BANNED because you can heal yourself with an item that exists in today's society, an item that is not meant for use outside of dire medical occurrences, an item that is, apparently, not meant to be used if the Earth happens to slip in to a post apocalyptic state, what if our children happen to get their hands on morphine, they could be killed if they take too much!



Before this, however, was Dark Sector; a game that features a completely made up state, with completely made up characters, companies, weapons and enemies. You can make a giant, circular, 3 pronged blade extrude from your hand with which you can bind elements to and then guide around the stage with your motion sensitive controller; this game was banned because you could decapitate and dismember human beings. Heads, arms, legs, torsos and even mustaches cannot escape the fury of the magical elemental blade.

HOWEVER! Severing the limbs and necks of mutant humans? No problems there, the ratings board saw nothing wrong with that; it was the decapitation of humans they weren't fond of, [pictured below], and it was ultimately that issue that got the game banned.




Which leads me to my main point. Gears of War 2, will obviously be one of the most frantic, gooey, entrails filled 3rd person shooters we have seen to date. Heads are crushed in a plethora of ways; feet, gun butts, fists, bullets and more are used to finish off your opponent. Not only that but now you are able to decapitate, mutilate, burn and pulverize a human being in the game; you see where I am going with this?

The OFLC banned Dark Sector simply for being able to dismember humans with a small amount of blood spurting out, beside the fact that in Gears of War you could chainsaw a person in half with blood smearing all over the screen [pictured below].



EPIC certainly can't edit the game. What, are they going to take out the finishing moves, the chainsaw deaths, the dismembered torsos? Of course they wont. And even if by some insane turn of events they did edit the game, how would online work? Would they segregate servers for the awesome version and the bitch version? Editing the game just would not work.

And so the questions start to pile up...

Will Australia kick itself in the ass by allowing Gears of War 2 through the doors, thereby making way for much more adult games to come in to our country, and with them, a lot more arguments? Will previously banned games be reclassified to fit with the new level of violence that can appear in a game? Will the game spark another debate for an R18+ rating? Or will it simply be banned, denying Australians a chance at one of the most anticipated games since the release of the original game and simultaneously locking EPIC out of millions of dollars worth of sales?


I certainly do not know, but have since sent EPIC and the OFLC an email regarding this issue. I don't expect any kind of response, but right now it's about all I can do.