Reservoir Dogs (the game) banned in Australia

27 June 2006

2 Comments

Posted by:Josh

Looks like the upcoming video game for Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs was too violent for the Aussies, who have now banned the game in their country.

Late last week, Australia’s Office of Film and Literature Classification refused classification on Eidos’ upcoming film-based shooter, making the game illegal to sell in the country. Now the board has explained why.

In a release dated June 28, the office explained its reasoning for the ban. Citing the game’s “frequent depictions of violence that have a high impact,” the board determined that it exceeded the allowable content to receive an MA 15+ rating, the highest rating applicable to games. Specifically, the office noted the following as reasons for denying the game a classification:

• Players (participants in a bank heist) can literally blow the heads off hostages and police as well as execute hostages at point blank range with a gunshot to the head;

• Using a series of so-called signature torture moves, players can use different means to torture hostages and thereby cause police to lay down their weapons, such as repeated pistol whipping the side of the head with blood spray evident, burning the eyes of a hostage with a cigar until they scream and die, cutting the fingers off a hostage with blood bursts as the victim screams in pain;

• In lieu of taking a hostage the player can opt for a more violent scenario where a slow motion shootout occurs, accentuating the violence.

Eidos has not returned requests for comment on the matter, but Atari Australia has been reported as saying it will not try to resubmit the game for approval. The game is scheduled for release in 3rd quarter ’06 on the PC, PS2 and Xbox.

View a video of the game in action below. After seeing it, and reading the above, I can understand the ruling. Too much violence for my tastes. Then again, you see much worse stuff in movies all the time, and they ban a game? I guess cause it’s playable . . . . What do YOU think. Sound off in the comment box below.