A hack allows a portion of the edited-out Adults-Only content of Manhunt 2 to become visible. This hack, according to a statement from Rockstar (R*) to GamePolitics, produces an illegal version of the game and is only playable on an unauthorized, modified PSP system.
After doing a minute's research in the Internet, I found all you need to access the hack is a homebrew-enabled PSP (meaning the PSP can play content made by your regular programming genius), and a few initialization files. Kotaku sums this up handily:
The hack, one that the general public will most likely never see, as it requires a disk image of Manhunt 2, software "back up" tool UMDGen and the editing of a pair of initialization files to explicitly turn off the added filter. No one will accidentally stumble upon this hack, unless they went through the above effort or happened to illegally download a modified version of the game.Although R*'s statement to GamePolitics seemed very apologetic to the general public (unlike when they attempted to just cover-up the infamous Hot Coffee debacle). But still, I'm suspicious that this is yet another silly publicity stunt on their part.
If this hits the mainstream (i.e., an NBC News/Couric and Co. follow-up), it's gonna cause a huge ruckus. HUGE. Like the huge amount that was in Manhunt 2 to begin with huge.
Attorney Jack Thompson has already launched a comment on this on GamePolitics.
Ok, let’s get over the hatred of me. This is a huge news item, whether you agree with me or not. The ESRB made it REALLY clear that if a developer left code in a game that could be unlocked, then that would be a huge violation of ESRB rules.
If the ESRB allowed any code to be left in which could be unlocked, then the ESRB is a goner. That is not an exaggeration. Dennis, you know how serious this is.
1) Getting over the hatred of you is going to take wayyyy more than asking, bub.
2) Huge news item?... ja, it's all over the internets.
3) But yeah, this is probably bad news for ESRB... we may never know if they knew the code was there or not.
Remember: only a portion of the AO-edited-out bits have been found. And so far, Manhunt 2 hacks have only worked on the PSP--the Wii and PS2 versions remain locked. Knowing the devious side of the gaming community though, it may only be a matter of hours until more content is found.
And to R*: way to discredit the already under-fire gaming industry! Seriously, you're Fox News is to journalism, as your games are to the gaming industry!
I no longer feel sorry for you when you have Jack Thompson and a horde of angry parents beating down your door. That is all.
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2 comments:
Meg, Rockstar, while I don't think they're the best of companies, didn't leave that code in there on purpose. They needed to get the game out the door. Rockstar was losing money every day that game wasn't on the shelf. I'm sure some of the sequences couldn't have been totally removed without weeks and weeks of additional coding. Perhaps the media ought not have freaked out so much and forced the ERSB to give it an AO rating. Instead of attacking the ERSB and game publishers, perhaps they ought to go after the retailers that are selling to children. Maybe if they crucify them, I will be able to play a game I would like to play the way it was meant to be played without worrying about children playing it.
I realize I jumped on the R*-hating bandwagon a bit too quick with the Manhunt 2 hack, and I did apologize for that in my follow-up post.
Don't get me wrong--I'm not taking the "save the children" stance. I'm taking the "the system IS in fact flawed (as you mentioned with the retailers), so parents need to watch out so that their underage child does not purchase this game if the parent does not want them too."
I don't want to keep you or anyone from playing Manhunt 2. If it's there and you want to play it, go for it. I thought I went over this point I wanted to convey in the post, but I guess I didn't, so time to make an amendment:
The main problem I have/had with this incident, is R* constantly discredits the game industry by making games with overly violent content (I understand creative rights and all, but there IS a limit where such a degree of violence isn't necessary). Debacles like this don't help. Games are just going to get a worse and worse reputation from games with such senseless killing. Sacrificing the reputation of the industry just so R* can make some sweet, short-term profits? *tsk tsk*
Not cool, R*, not cool.
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