14 DAY TRIAL // We know that every major US senator should be prepping an effective campaign by now and they must have surely mentioned the issue of violent games in their platform. A group of four senators, which includes Hillary Clinton, Joe Lieberman, Sam Brownback and Evan Bayh is setting on "banning" Manhunt 2 (again) by upgrading its ESRB rating.
Well, of course Rockstar's game won't be totally banned, but it will change its rating form to AO, which equals a semi-ban, since the majority of gamers, specially teenage ones won't be able to play it. We remind you that Manhunt 2 was censored by its producers after being banned by ESRB and its censored version was approved afterwards. Now, a month after its launch people are still talking about the controversial title and not just any people, but major politicians.
The four senators I've mentioned above have sent a letter to the ESRB and we'll show you a fragment of it below, courtesy of Gamesradar:
"We ask your consideration of whether it is time to review the robustness, reliability and repeatability of your ratings process, particularly for this genre of 'ultraviolent' video games and the advances in game controllers. We have consistently urged parents to pay attention to the ESRB rating system. We must ensure that parents can rely on the consistency and accuracy of those ratings."
So, it seems that controllers are also to blame for the teenagers' violence and I bet that the politicians were referring to Nintendo's Wii Zapper, which was really a hit specially when used while playing Resident Evil 4. This entire affair sure sounds like someone's trying to gather a couple of parents' votes before the official electoral campaign starts. However, the senators have thought this up a tad late and I doubt that the ESRB will change the game's ratings, after the entire scandal surrounding it.