Ben-DutkaSega and Rebellion won a significant victory when Australia reversed their decision and finally handed out a rating for Aliens vs. Predator , thereby unbanning it from the region.
And to their credit, the developer never once backed down and will never offer to edit the game simply due to overly cautious ratings boards. Furthermore, they're currently working on a playable demo so we can all see the controversial title; perhaps once we've played it, we'll better understand Australia's initial reason for failing to rate the game. The guys at Rebellion are being awfully good sports about this whole thing, though, as evidenced by a recent interview with designers Martin Kennedy and Alex Moore over at AvP Galaxy . Said Kennedy:
"People who want the game will get [it] imported, it's not going to hurt us … if anything it's been a bit of decent publicity/ We're not going to water down the game for countries that can't treat adults like adults."
Good for you! Moore took the jab a step further by comparing Australia's strict rating rules to past experiences with Germany. After all, the first AvP was banned in Germany but once again, this isn't the type of thing to phase either developer or publisher. We can't wait to get our hands on the demo, just to see what all the hoopla is about. Interestingly enough, we still don't have an official release date for Aliens vs. Predator but we know it should arrive "early this year." We're looking towards next month and if that's the case, we should see the demo fairly soon.
Related Game(s): Aliens vs. Predator
I get the feeling of them wanting to release the game with all its intended gore and whatnot but they've gotta remember what the ratings from the ESRB can do to games sales… if you wanna play ball you gotta follow some of those unwritten rules of the industry. Although I would like to see one game not suffer from huge censored cuts.
Not when your dealing with the ratings board of Australia.
I live in australia so ive heard alot about it.
Our Attorney General refuses to give games an R18 rating, which harms alot of games.
Alot of games have been edited just for australia, funny how it doesnt happen anywhere els!
Loved the Jaguar one 😉
I bet this isn't even that gory compared to like GOWIII. Especially considering lots of that blood will be yellow and green.
But yeah it's nice to hear publishers actually speaking as though they have some power instead of cow-towing to entire boards of idiots. Vertigo must be peein his pants waitin for this game 🙂
Last edited by WorldEndsWithMe on 1/10/2010 10:34:26 PM
I played the God of War III demo, damn mashing that "O" to rip the guy's head off in HD is really disturbing. Took me a couple tries to do it, because I slowed down when i saw the dude straining.
GOW 3 has apparently been given a MA 15 plus rating off the bat.
i know go figure, ripping off a sun gods head is ok for MA but shooting off a zombies head is not.
WTF?
i when i picked up darksiders the checkout chick was trying to convince me to preorder GOW 3 ultimate edition, and i said only if you promise it wont get banned.
and she said its already been rated MA 15+
she better be right, because if it gets banned she owes me 150 bucks.
120 for the bet, 30 for the preorder.
The Jaguar one (while not too smooth and quite simplistic…and 'cheap' by today's standards) was certainly creepy/spooky, especially with the lights out.
Sometimes imports can be very expensive, but for Austrailia, I think it's actually cheaper for them.
Kudo's to Rebellion for not backing down!!!!
And for sticking to their guns too(pun intended)
Last edited by BikerSaint on 1/10/2010 10:37:07 PM
I love Australia, but their rating system is way too strict. If i lived there i'd be importing banned games without hesitating.
than you run the risk of either.
1 not getting the game you paid for (happened to me many times)
2 getting it confiscated by customs, happened to me when i bought dark sector package was inspected and held and i never received it.
3 getting a knock on the door from the cops, because its illegal to purchase and or import games that have been refused a rating.
to me its not worth the risk.
I think the police has better stuff to do than hunt down gamers .
true, but is it worth the risk?
It's always worth the risk
thats what i hate about the industry these days, everyone has to be loud mouths!
they cant show some respect and say we dont understand it but its their decision.
no they have to act like 8 year old fanboy idiots and pull out the punching gloves.
GROW UP!
thats the behavior i would expect from school kids, not a fully grown adult working for a highly respectable game company.
if i were to say something like that and my boss found out i would be fired on the spot!
as i said yesterday manners, customer service and just decent human dignity has gone down the drain latley.
ben, you seen any videos?
i think its pretty dam obvious why it got banned, ripping off a enemies head with the spine attached?
yea, i think thats quite self explanatory!
hopefully the demo is out next week im dying to play this.
its about time we got another horror game, last horror game released was dead space back in oct 08.
only if we had 1 horror game for every 1000 RPGs and shooters released, than i would be to scared to go to sleep at night 😉
That's just it, the Australian gaming authorities aren't the boss of any game company and it's about time people spoke up about it.
It was banned because we have a Natzi like attorney general here in Australia!
Who prefers to completely ignore things, rather then let Australian adults make informed decisions on them!
GIVE US OUR R18 RATING!
i kno it sucks.
but what i cant understand is
removing heads in ninja gaiden 2, ninja gaiden sigma 2, AVP, F.E.A.R 2, resistance 2, killzone 2, fallout 3, army of two the 40th day.
is ok for a MA rating.
but removing heads in dark sector, soldier of fortune payback, dark sector, silent hill homecoming, and L4D 2.
is not ok for a MA rating.
ive said it once, twice and ill say it again.
the inconsistency of the OFLC is baffling!
what gets a game a MA rating should be constant in all games.
so removing heads in fear 2 gets it a MA rating than removing heads in ANY game no matter what game should also give it a MA rating.
dark sector is nothing compare to FEAR 2 or other games yet others got passed and dark sector did not.
I support their audacity .
the audacity of support.
The supcity of audaport.
Or rather…..
Their lackticity of supportmanship
Last edited by BikerSaint on 1/11/2010 1:45:23 PM
I'm glad they fought for their game, unlike valve and left for dead 2.
Anyway, it's good to here a demo is coming out. I've been pretty skeptical of the gameplay being fun, especially the marines.
Unlike the Left 4 Dead 2 case, Australia reversed their decision on AvP. They didn't with Left 4 Dead 2. And Valve lost the appeal process as well.
As far as I'm concerned the only AvP game that was worth playing was Capcom's CPS2 AvP Arcade game.
Is this game going to be any good?
If it's anything at all like the previous ones, then yes it will be.
I really hope the demo rocks! I wanna buy that Collector's Edition so I can have a pet Facehugger!
my avp should hit the door mat on the 19th of feb! according to play.com
Interested in seeing a demo for this. Could be good, could be crap. The fact that the AvP movies suck doesn't fill me with confidence. Being able to play as a human, alien or predator sounds like it would add some replay value to it.
Of course I was pretty psyched about that last Terminator game as well. That didn't turn out well at all.