'Manhunt 2' has just become the first video game to be banned in the UK in a decade. The decision by the British Board of Film Classification singled out the game's 'unremitting bleakness and callousness of tone', and made it illegal to sell the game; along with a comparable ruling in the USA, this effectively kills Manhunt 2. An appropriate fate, one could argue, since Manhunt 2 is a horror game full of killing; it exhibits, according to the BBFC, 'a sustained and cumulative casual sadism in the way in which these killings are committed, and encouraged'.

LRB 19 July 2007 | PDF Download