It's been a long time coming, but Manhunt 2 has finally received a rating from the British Board of Film Classification, ending its de facto ban in the UK.
David Cooke, Director of the BBFC clearly wasn't happy about this latest chapter in the Manhunt 2 saga when he said, "We twice rejected Manhunt 2, and then pursued a judicial review challenge, because we considered, after exceptionally thorough examination, that it posed a real potential harm risk."
Cooke went on to say that the Video Appeal's Committee's decision to reject the BBFC's ruling against Manhunt 2 left the BBFC with "no alternative but to issue an '18" certificate to the game." The VAC voted to uphold Rockstar's appeal of the BBFC's original decision to deny the game a classification.
Although you, and perhaps everyone in the UK who was even remotely interested in playing the game, are likely long past caring about these events, they set an important precedent for games to come.
We must remember that this all started because the BBFC thought the best way to protect citizens from what it perceived as the harmful effects of a violent videogame was to deny them access to the game in question.
Whatever your feelings about Manhunt 2, you would more than likely prefer to be the one making the decision as to whether or not you play it, rather than having some committee render it off-limits for what they consider to be your own good.
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