For the uninitiated, the game was banned, not because of the gratuitous violence, extreme drug use, and themes involving fugue states, war crimes and cold war conspiracy,
But because of a scene depicting rape.
Except, the “depiction” was simply a character, from a pixelated top-down view, climbing onto the other character. No nudity, no thrusting - then…
The director yells “CUT!”
Turns out, it was a movie being filmed. So even within the context of the game, it wasn’t rape, it was an abstraction of an abstraction, WITHIN an abstraction.
Ratings board are morons.
As an Aussie, I was lucky to have a friend gift this to me on Steam.
This pretty much shows, that in all that time: noone cared
Noone always cares. He’s a great guy.
He’s a great guy
He’s the eighth guy, he is!
Tap for spoiler
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4OS17lqHiE (The singer’s real name is Peter Noone)
Yes! Thank you. I was going to look him up cuz I know who he is, but I was lazy
According to the article, it was only released on PS5 last October. So, took about an year.
Australia continues to treat its residents as criminals who cannot be trusted with naughty things.
We’ve had an R18+ rating for video games since 2013, so not sure why Hotline Miami 2 wouldn’t have been able to receive classification.
Funnily enough, I own the game on Steam, so at some point Valve also made the same mistake. But at least they won’t pull the game from my library.
The root problem is that not-being-classified counts as a ban, rather than defaulting to adults-only.
Oh, absolutely. I was only commenting on the weird timing, the game was released 2 years after an adult rating for video games was implemented.
We definitely have an odd and often archaic view on things here in Aus. Personally I think the classifications should be a purely informative system rather than something that decides whether or not something should be banned. Films are given much more artistic leeway than video games, and I could rant for hours on the government’s stance on gambling, which is much more harmful than most things you’d find portrayed in any artistic medium.
Australian government bans entertainment
The government: Why is everyone pirating?
Sharing is made a criminal offence
They are a prison colony after all
i’ve been clutching my pearls for the past 10 years but it’s nice to know i can rest easy tonight
Tonight, Australia sleeps for the first time in ten years.
And only pulled after some pearl clutching nanny noticed and decided to point out the original ruling.
Not the first time someone had a dummy spit over a game that is less problematic than the average M rated movie…
The fact that’s even possible is a crime.
What a downer ending
Finally I will not need my ambien
