As you may recall, F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origins was recently banned in Australia for containing high level violence that could not be accommodated at an MA15+ rating. Two days ago however, it was reported that the Australian Review Board had, on appeal by the game’s publishers, overturned the ban on the game and that it would now be available, unedited, to the Australian public under an MA15+ rating.

“We’ve always believed in the merit of the game as an MA15+ title, and we’re pleased that the Review Board saw it our way,” the Warner Bros. spokesman said. The appeal process involved Warner Bros. representatives performing a live game demonstration with the Review Board members, as well as taking questions from the Board. The Warner Bros. spokesman said the appeals process allowed them to better explain the “detail, context, and storyline behind the game.”

Although it would be nice to label this as a victory for common sense, all that this ridiculous process has proved is that the Australian Classification System is confused and inconsistent. As long as Australia lacks the framework necessary to restrict adult-content games to an adult audience, this sort of farcical, “make-it-up-as-you-go” sort of result is going to continue to be the norm.

Source: F.E.A.R. unbanned in Australia (Randolph Ramsay, Gamespot AU)

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 18th, 2008 at 11:02 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

2 Comments on F.E.A.R. 2 Ban Overturned

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   Daveh says:

   Im glad to see that this game got through, although being passed doesn’t solve the problems of all future titles within the same boat.

   First off i would like to point out, that as an adult within Australia, i have the right to personal autonomy and should be allowed to view any materials that i deem fit.

   On a second note, i just wanted to point out an ‘ironic’ sideline that has appeared within the governments CleanFeed project. Sen Conroy has appeared saying anyone opposed to internet censorship is clearly FOR child pornography, i would pose then, using this SAME logic that anyone opposed to R and X ratings on media is FOR media piracy.

   Perhaps we should inspect Michael Atkinson’s house, see what he has stashed away there, you never know he may even run a DVD counterfeiting ring.

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   JAce says:

   I agree with Daveh, this doesn’t solve the problem of Australia not having an R18 game rating. Giving such games an MA rating shows how inconsistent the ratings relly are.

   Its a darn shame that we as adults do not get the freedom of what we can and can’t view.