Manhunt 2 Banned

United States and British governments banned sales of the new video game Manhunt 2 on Tuesday due to an "unremitting bleakness and callousness of tone". The upcoming video game from Rockstar Games, the makers of the Grand Theft Auto series, was set to come out on July 10.

Players of the game assume the role of an escaped mental institution patient who goes on a killing spree as he fights his way to freedom. Set for release on Nintendo Wii consoles and Sony PlayStation 2, players can perform special death moves by moving the Wii wireless controller at certain points in the game.

Manhunt 2 is the first game to be banned by the British Board of Film Classification since 1997, when it banned the sale of Carmageddon, a game where players drive vehicles over pedestrians. The board claimed Manhunt 2 "encourages visceral killing with exceptionally little alleviation or distancing".

Rockstar spokesman Rodney Walker said Manhunt 2 was meant to be a horror game, and that the decision was a form of censorship. "When you ban a game, you're putting a limit on what sort of creative choices people can make," he said.

Rockstar Games has six weeks to appeal the board's decision.

Information from Starpulse was used in this article.