Fresh from the hacker's pantry, here are the
uncut scenes from Rockstar's controversy magnet/attention whore,
Manhunt 2. In all its bleak and bloodsoaked glory, this showreel of murder is taken from the hacked PSP version that I reported on in an
earlier post and that Nex
added to just a moment ago.
I've never been a fan of the term 'torture porn' when it comes to videogames, but if ever a game deserved such a label, this would be it. Watching these scenes, I feel like they're not meant for my eyes, like they were intended for more perverse minds to enjoy. I wasn't disgusted, nor was I shocked, I felt ... nothing watching this. No emotion whatsoever. The bleak and needlessly grim way with which these scenes are carried out just fills me with emptiness.
There's something about this nasty little showreel that makes me feel one thing, though -- an overwhelming urge to never buy
Manhunt 2 -- edited, hacked or otherwise. I also find myself filled with more words than a mainpage normally allows, so please hit the jump. I have a lot to say about this artistic vision of Rockstar's.
There is a reason why games like this aren't made, and it's a reason that disproves the entire 'violent games' argument from people like Thompson. We as gamers love violence, that is certainly true ... but not like this. This is too real. This is the closest to murder simulation that you can get. It's not over the top, crazy violence with explosions and un-natural fountains of blood -- that's fun. This isn't fun. It's dreary, it's drab and it's far too real. It's downright creepy.
I realize now what makes the Manhunt games different from violence in other games and movies. The content of the above video is no worse than the cult movie Ichi the Killer, or Peter Jackson's early splatter movies like Braindead, but it lacks something that those films had -- flare, class and entertainment value. The violence was stylized and well crafted and it had its place. I do not see this in the murders of Manhunt 2. Where the image of a man being beaten to death with a bag over his head could be made either funny or terrifying, or at least have a point, Manhunt 2's rendition of such an event is so devoid of feeling, panaché or amusement that it could easily be taken as something intended only for disturbed people to get off on.
I will uphold that Manhunt 2 should have been allowed a release in its true form, regardless of how tasteless it is, but I also want to maintain that, despite my beliefs of artistic freedom, I am not impressed with the crap in that video, and it is crap. You can make sawing into someone's skull fun, but that footage did not look fun to me. That's difficult to do, but Rockstar's unfeeling, psychopathic take on the scenario sucked out any enjoyment I could have had.
I don't think
Manhunt 2 is damaging to children, nor is it some great social evil -- that gives the content entirely too much credit. The reactionaries are still idiots for screaming about the sickening, outrageous violence, but at the same time, the BBFC had a point when it said the game's 'casual approach of sadism' was relevant. Certainly not grounds for banning or scaremongering, but foundation enough for gamers to make their own choice -- and to say with their dollars that they have no interest in shallow, meaningless bullsh*t that
doesn't even try to be enjoyable.
Perhaps this is some great and meaningful statement of Rockstar's, showing us that for all the hyper-real violence we love, the reality just isn't fun. In making a game that isn't entertaining in the least, Rockstar has shown that realistic violence is not what we enjoy, and proven that actual simulation of murder is horrible. Of course ... I am wary of giving Rockstar that kind of credit. Far more likely, all this time I've been campaigning for the uncensored release of an artistic vision that's just ... rubbish. It doesn't make my belief all the less zealous, but it certainly, fittingly, takes the fun out of it. If anything, I'm angry at the BBFC not because it robbed me of my choice to buy Manhunt 2, but because it robbed me of my choice NOT to buy Manhunt 2.
As I think about it, I guess I lied at the beginning when I said that this footage got no emotion from me. I do feel something as I watch this video ...
Disappointment.
Contest:
11:21 PM on 11.03.2007
| 
Well said man, I totally agree with you. This game is fucking messed up to the point where I think it just should be completely ignored.
However, it's still pretty brutal, though the blood and gore effects upon weapon contact don't vary too much.
I wish all this controversy could have been better spent on a violent game worth playing.
Really, I can see why some of that stuff would offend people, but most of it was so bland, such fake controvacy... like the whole hot coffee thing that I was led to believe for a long time was the addition of an actual sex scene, when really it was just two standard character models dry humping. Please correct me if I'm wrong about that.
It was basically more of the first game, which I was a fan of...I'm one of the seven or eight fans.
I hope the people that trash the game for being full of graphic violence for graphic violence's sake don't go into the Phantasmagoria post from a few days ago and cream their pants over the game.
For the record, being a big fan of video game violence, I thought both games were great at satisfying that...blood thirst? Whatever.
That said, I'm still uninterested in the game, considering I just spent six minutes watching what the whole point of the game is.
Manhunt 2 isn't out-there, it's just ... fucking shit.
"Torture porn" describes this very well. I hope it's just as you mentioned--that they're trying to make a point about surrealism vs. realism, because I just can't see myself ever wanting this game after seeing that. Maybe this is the videogame equivalent of "Supersize Me" or something.
I absolutely loved games like GTA and Carmageddon and such, but this... I just can't put it into words. No. Just no. I guess if anyone's got the cash to waste on development just for the sake of making a statement, though, it's gonna be Rockstar.
"Manhunt 2 isn't out-there, it's just ... fucking shit."
Agreed.
The only person who controls avatars around here is you. Try editing your profile.
On the topic of the post, I have to agree with what Dexter345 said. There's no real reason to buy the game now that I've seen what was cut out of it, and that's a shame because the original Manhunt was the very first game that I bought for the PS2 and I liked it.
Phantasmagoria is misogynistic violence for misogynistic violence's sake.
Manhunt 2 is deplorable violence for deplorable violence's sake.
They're both likely offensive to the majority of people out there, though what we view as offensive is purely objective. Personally, if I had to choose to be more offended by one, Phantasmagoria would get the nod, simply for the use of FMVs. I'm not offended by either at all, though. Go go desensitizing.
It's late.
It's a very subjective matter.
The footage just seems lack of anything what-so-ever to make it entertaining.
It does my heart good to see that the majority of people here also feel the same way.
This kind of shit shouldn't be able to garner as much attention as it has, simply because it doesn't represent what games are meant to be. Which, to me, is entertainment. And that...
Is just god awful.
Rockstar's New motto: "Creating controversey for controversey's sake, since GTA."
Different strokes, I suppose.
It's different in grand theft auto because you don't feel a sense of...torture and it's all in a cartoony fashion but this...I don't know. I would never have fun with this. I still don't think it should be banned, but why would you want this?
It seems as if they sat in a room and said, "how can we kill people in the most sickening and horrifying way for no reason at all?"
"I know! We'll shovel a guy's head off!"
...I feel bad for saying that this game is too much for no reason, but it's true. And I'd sound like a hypocrite for playing games like Mortal Kombat and Gears of War, to other people, but I know as gamers you guys understand the difference between a good spirited fatality and ripping someone's testicles off with some pliers just for the fuck of it.
I think that the brutality has a purpose. It's letting us, the player, take a glimpse at the sadism of Leo Kasper, and how he has influenced Daniel Lamb into becoming a violent serial killer. The brutality could also be a form of outlet for the personality of "Leo". A way of letting "it all out" at those he feels has wronged him somehow.
That's my way of seeing, anyway
...
That's the problem with snuff in general I suppose. You go into it already knowing the ending. At least throw out some witty (or even cringe-worthy) one liners! Hand saw a guy from anus to neck? Make a comment on how he shouldn't be constipated anymore. Smother him with a shopping bag? Drop the classic "paper of plastic" line.
...
On a related note, how exactly does one who isn't an little child die from a plastic bag choking? I mean, it a friggen' plastic bag, just rip it. Maybe I just haven't explored it enough, but it seems pretty simple to me. :p
ITS FICTION! so its fun...
It's just for showing off, not actually enjoying it or anything.
Lame comparison, i know.
What the hell?
I don't have a lot more to say besides agreeing with Jim.
By the way, if you guys think Manhunt is 100% devoid of any sort of artistic quality or merit, you need to educate yourself on a series called "August Underground".
That's the real deplorable shit that has no place on this planet.
I found it hilarious, that corporate actually approved this and hired full time developers to make this. People are fucking stupid and demented. Sure, I can reason that coders and animators need jobs, and they'll do whatever they need to keep said jobs, but someone had to make the decision that "This is the direction we want to move in".
And what a great direction it is. I just roofled at the different amount of ways that were animated to kill. Someone was being very creative there. What a crying shame - they couldve focused at a more productive direction and maybe accentuate the better things about Grand Theft Auto instead of taking the hooker beating simulator and expanding on it.
If you haven't, then...
It's empty because you haven't invested any time actually playing the part that comes before these. The tension of finding a proper hiding place, the thrill of inching your way towards your target, the uneasiness you get when you decide to leave the safety of the shadows, the suspense you get when hear those far-off noises, the satisfaction you get when finally manage to bring down your would-be killer. Without these prior moments, your right, these are just acts without emotion, without "heart". Not entertaining at all.
umm...back to hello kitty island adventure for me.
Seriously it's true, Rockstar can't do anything but make a GTA game, everything else they do is undeserving of any attention no matter how retarded/violent the subject matter is.
Also, someone should superimpose Jack Thompson's head onto all of the victims and have that Benny Hill song playing in the background :)
I know the feeling i would get watching any of those scenes while playing the game would be different, but still, the lack of emotion is a turn off, at least to me.
I admit that I haven't played Manhunt, but you mention being tense, feeling satisfaction and all that while playing, why is that not reflected in the character in those vids? I could be missing something critical for not playing the game or maybe they just cut out some stuff, but is that how the character is supposed to act?