Sunday, November 4, 2007

Hackers discover extra Manhunt violence

COMPUTER hackers in the US have uncovered ultra-violent content in the game “Manhunt 2” which the publisher had hidden in order to get it through the ratings authority.

The Entertainment Software Rating Board in the US had originally given the game an “Adult’s Only” rating. But when the game went on sale a week ago, it carried a “Mature” rating.

Reports in the US say hackers have broken the blurring of some of the more violent scenes in the game. The game’s publisher had blurred the ultra-violent content in order to get a more marketable rating.

The reports say the hackers had defeated blurring on the Playstation Portable version of the game, which is also available on PlayStation 2 and Nintendo’s Wii consoles.

The Manhunt 2 publisher Take Two Interactive Software have hit headlines in Australia previsouly, both for the previous version of ManHunt and for its Grand Theft Auto franchise. Ultra-violence and graphic sex scenes have been the complaint.

The Manhunt 2 hack is said to roll-back only some of the changes that were made to give the game a more accessible rating. The hack also requires considerable technical expertise, as well as a PlayStation Portable that has itself been hacked to allow it to play modified software.

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