Fallout 3 Is Go For Aussie Release

The Fallout 3 saga continues but hopefully this is the final chapter. The news today is that the Australian Office of Film and Literature Classification has given Fallout 3 an MA 15+ rating for the slightly modified version of the game.

The rating was given for "Strong violence, drug references and coarse language". Originally it was these "drug references" that caused the ruckus as the use of them in-game was too realistic. Word on the street is that when you used morphine in Fallout 3 your character felt better. Weird hey... so the OFLC refused classification on that basis. Now you get a "health pack" in-game which makes your character feel better. The whole game has changed!

EB Games says Fallout 3 will be in stores in October (nice and precise there EB!). Anyway, read a little more about it over at Kotaku.

Game Ratings In Oz: Yes, We Suck

Kotaku put me on to a great post on abc.net.au by Tom Crago on the current Australian games classification system. Tom is the chief executive of Tantalus and president of the Game Developers' Association of Australia (GDAA) so you'd hope his words carry some weight.

Tom mentions that there are 2,000-odd game developers living and paying taxes (we hope) in Australia yet some of the games they work on can't be sold here due to the lack of an R rating (18+) for games using Fallout 3's effective banning as a good example.

One interesting quote is "Australia's absence of an R18+ category, and the financial imperative of getting a game onto store shelves in a timely manner, means that many games intended for adult audiences (and rated 18+ in other countries) are inappropriately shoehorned into the existing MA15+ category in Australia. Far from protecting minors from adult content, our uniquely incomplete classification system has allowed them, in many cases, to legally purchase and access such content.".

Read the entire thing, it's not long and points out how stupid our government (yes, even you KRudd) is in the eyes of the world.

Fallout 3 Banning Fallout

Further to this morning's post about the game Fallout 3 being banned down south comes the reason for it being banned.

Corresponding with the list of various "chems" are small visual representation of the drugs, these include syringes, tablets, pill bottles, a crack-type pipe and blister packs. In the Board's view these realistic visual representations of drugs and their delivery method bring the "science-fiction" drugs in line with "real-world" drugs.

That's right, the drug use is too realistic, not the killing. Pfff... did they not see Bioshock? Seriously, who in their right mind would pick up a giant syringe from the soggy carpeted floor of a run-down underwater city and shove it into their arm?

Read the full report over at Kotaku AU.

Fallout 3 Banned In Australia

Damn, now the world really knows we're a bunch of stupid hicks here in the land of Aus. Kotaku tells me today that Fallout 3 has been refused classification by the Australian Office of Film and Literature Classification which means, basically, we can't get it (legally).

I guess if the publisher sees fit they'll produce a cut down edition like Rockstar have done with past GTA games but seriously, this isn't the 1980s any more.

You know, I think now that it's banned, I might want to actually play it.