This is the same thing the tax and war departments do, calling themselves "revenue" and "defense" to hide their true objectives.

The fact that Manhunt 2 was banned did not have any effect on me. I wasn't going to be buying the game, nor were any of my friends.

What did get me very angry however, was the reasons they gave for it's banning. They stated that the reason it was banned was due to the violence having no context, where strong violence is sometimes permissable if it has a context within a story. Manhunt 2 was never going to win any fiction awards for story telling, but the fact remains, it did have a plot and story, no matter how trite or poorly done, and therefore a context within that story. It seemed to me that they had banned it simply because Britain had, perhaps to make it seem like "If it's unacceptable to them, it must be the same to us".

What made me even angrier still was the response I got from them when i enquired about the ban and the reasons behind it. I quoted their reasons for the ban, and pointed out that the movie The Texas Chainsaw Massacre had very little plot (just like Manhunt 2), featured callous and gruesome violence (just like Manhunt 2) and was an example of violence out of context (just like Manhunt 2), yet the IFCO saw fit to release it with an 18's certificate. I asked them why had Manhunt 2, which is very similar in many ways to this movie, not been released with the same, appropriate 18's rating.

In answer, they repeated to me the very same reasons I had already brought up and quoted in my mail. No explanation of why one example of violence with little or no context is given a pass while another is banned outright. No effort to explain further their reason. It felt like a form response letter which had been sent without reading mine and simply going by the subject header.

If a GOOD game had been banned, I would still be writing to them. But even though it was a pretty poor game, their reasons and replies to me has made me see them in a very bad light.

My thoughts:

When you change the name of a pile of crap to 'fluffy marshmallow pies' it's still a pile of crap.

I somewhat feel it, that They seem to aim for some kind of revisionism, don't you think?

Censorship is still censorship no matter what terms you want to use.

It seems to me that the main reason they're changing the name is that having "Censor" in the title causes people to have a knee-jerk negative reaction. Exhibit A: the comments here by CyberSkull, E. Zachary Knight, Benji, The_None and Zerodash. Despite the name, IFCO does precisely the same work as PEGI and the ESRB, two organisations that seem to enjoy a considerable amount of goodwill from gamers.

"Casablanca, Woody Allen’s Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex and Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers"

I'm sure by now we can get this movies uncut, I mean Casablanca came out in the 40's around the time Ireland was beyond prudish, Any bans and edits that where placed than are long and truely dead.

I bet I can go to the local Xtra Vision and rent any of them films without edits. And was the banning of Manhunt 2 really that bad you can still buy the original game for 15euro in Virgin.

To follow your point EZK. The ESRB is NOT government run or sponsored. I think this is a concept many people both domestically and abroad have trouble understanding. The government CAN'T dictate content either by creation or omission. Any and all attempts to bring government control over media content have been ruled unconstitutional. If I'm reading this right then the IFCO is a government body and that makes a very big difference.

If you call a horse a monkey... it's still a horse.

Casablanca? In need of an edit? BS.

Changing the name makes it all better?

Sorry Zach, gotta steal your idea.

Paint a turd pink and stick flowers in it, it's still a turd.

I agree with everyone...

A spade is a spade. Change the name all you want it still doesn't change what you're doing it just confuses what you do. For those who disagree I ask this, what exactly does a Sanitation Engineer (aka garbage collector), engineer?

Films banned or forced into edits by the IFCO over the years include Casablanca, Woody Allen’s Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex and Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers…

Oh come on, our own MPAA was a lot stricter early on and has gradually grown less strict (or so it seems), and I've heard the BBFC was the same way.

The BBFC used to make LOTS of cuts to movies so they could get an 18 rating. The original Texas Chainsaw Massacre is banned in the UK.

I love PCness lets change the name but not the game...er definition.