Heavy Rain handed '15' rating, BBFC explains

I think it's how long before your comment faded, actually.

Might have been funny if you've mentioned what "15" was supposed to mean not just "how long" y'know "15 minutes" "15 seconds" but what you said made no sense.

So close yet so far.

Yup, if by '15' you mean years.

15 minutes or 15 seconds take your pick.

Naah, no need. Downvote either way.

i think it will last 15 parsecs :p

Nice star wars goof reference.

Nerd Five!

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Heavy rain has naked people, which is like a "15" in Britain, but more like an "AO-72-Terrorist" in the States.

I hope the ESRB does not require cuts for the M rating here.

I'm thinking there will have to be cuts.

Lord knows we don't need another Hot Coffee-esque scandal in the media again.

GTA does offer interesting insights into the ESRB mindset.

The Lost and the Damned schlongs made it through an M rating, but stripper boobies in GTA IV did not. Presumably, it's because the latter was in an erotic context, and the former was not.

I don't know the context of the nude scenes in Heavy Rain, but I do know that there are sexually charged scenes that are provocative and menacing. On the other hand, Heavy Rain will clearly skew to a much older audience than GTA.

mass effect is good example of the BBFC leniency since they game it a 12 and PEGI gave it an 18

maybe heavy rain should be put on psn. Gta: ballad of gay tony has sex scenes, but the media didn't go crazy about it cause it was downloadable.

They'd have no reason to, this isn't Aussie.

Red letters: This game was passed with no cuts made.

Come on guys, get your head in the game.

Brits are way less stressed by sex than the U.S. It's violence they're strict about.

We see the red there killer. But the fact thay they felt the need to mention that at all makes me wonder. Anyway I was referring to the fact that maybe the developer made the cuts PRIOR to submitting it to be rated.

Liberation CtrlBurn, Liberation :P

"I can see England is well on its way to realizing the vision of '1984'."

Yes. Also, England implemented a London congestion charge, which shows it is well on its way to implementing concentration camps, and the Holocaust times one thousand.

that statement might have had a point if the "morality police" hadn't officially existed in the entertainment industry for about 90 years.

If it's well on it's way to "1984" it's taking a hell of a long time to get there.

Someone is caught in a loophole here methinks.

We don't have a dictatorship, I'm fine with all the cameras (except for speed cams cos their just a joke) if your not doing anything wrong there is nothing to worry about, we hardly have any dodgy laws that only benefit the government.

The only people moaning about speed cams are the people who get caught speeding, the only people moaning about parking cams are the idiots who park in the wrong places. I agree, sometimes complaints are warranted, but a majority of the time, people are just planks who want to do what they want to do and get away with it ¬_¬

"if your not doing anything wrong there is nothing to worry about"

Ah, yes, the classic line given to rationalize too much power being given to the government. I mean, hey, why not let the government tap every phone? If you're not doing anything wrong there's nothing to worry about. Right?

You have a point there Vidikron, but I think there is also the safety benefit of it as well. I don't particularly like the invasion of privacy and I think there is an extent to which you are crossing the line, like tapping calls. But then, theres a reason for it. Take random searching for example, people complained that it was racist etc searching certain people because they fit a profile, so police began searching anyone and everyone, to the point random people sunbathing in the park were being searched in case they had weapons or such on them. I can see why this is stupid, but I can also see why they thought it warranted in order to make it less seem like they were profiling.

Theres the argument that if its in your safety and it helps catch those who cause trouble, violence, terrorism, is it warranted?

I think it depends on just how much it invades your privacy and extra safety isn't always enough to warrant the invasion. To take it to the extreme, you could lock me up in solitary confinement for the rest of my life and I'd be about as safe as could be, but it's clearly not worth the loss in freedom. Again, that's an extreme example, but it demonstrates my mindset on these issues.

Coming back down to a more rational level, I tend to be against things are that are persistently invasive. For example, the aforementioned tapping of phones and cameras. Having cameras inside government buildings, banks, etc... is one thing, having them all over the street is another. I tend to think that that governments will eventually abuse any power they are given.

Just Google up traffic cams, specifically red light cams. There's actually quite a few instances where they've already been abused. For example, there are examples where cities installed them and then shortened the yellow lights so they could catch more people running the light.

IMO, any additional "safety" measures that are truly needed should always come with explicit descriptions of their applications. Any wiggle room with eventually be abused.

I dislike anything being abused, and like I said before, in instances whereby they are trying to make money off of people for petty things, the cameras are neccessary, though I do believe those deliberatly not following rules deserve to be caught by cam, I can't tell you how many accidents are caused simply by people being foolish, people tend to memorize where cameras are specifically so that they can slow down at that point and speed up again afterwards. If theres no need to speed, why do it? Its endangering people, and nobody can tell what the effects of it are until they actually hit and kill someone. A person who has lost someone due to someone elses stupidity could tell speed freaks the trauma they went through.

Saying that, I believe there are areas of which the government is being too invasive, such as tracking Facebook profiles, emails and again calls, I can see the beenfit in some instances and it makes catching criminals all the more easier (considering people are quick to get upset when the police have not yet found the culprit who burgled them or murdered someone they know). I agree with your midset about freedom however, but it just means that if something were to happen to any one of us or those that we care about, we'd just have to be more patient when it takes police a longer time to identify who the culprits were and have to accept the fact that in some instances, we may never get the justifice we want.

Thank the 'mysterious company' *cough NINTENDO cough* who provided Joe Lieberman with 'carefully edited' videotapes of Night Trap and Mortal Kombat (Genesis).

Damn you night trap and your scantly clad girls in nighties, you ruined it all...

It does, they just don't think the scenes warranted an 18 rating. Movies are the same, I can't tell you how many films I've seen with real people semi nude or completly in 15s, let alone 18s. So how does Heavy Rain warrant any higher rating then they did when they were real people, real actors.

You can't just watch this game on youtube, it isn't a linear story.

I think it its linear. but with multiple choices on the way that lead you to the same story. You cant go pass a scene if you dont do certain actions. The review in joystiq , and the videos tell you that. You can ignore youre child...and be bored as hell or you can talk to him, the action be bored as hell loops. the real action (talk to the boy) take you one step further in the game. The scene with the woman in the club, you have to dance (press the correct buttons) or you wont get in. same loop. Maybe you can hear diferent dialogues or see a diferent cutscene but its not like you can make youre story and tell the player to go drunk and die there. If you die then you will continue with the other character but to have the "good ending"im guessing you have to stay alive :o spoiler. So if you cut the crap of the game (watch tv, take a drink, pee on a toilet, the part where you have to investigate a room) im pretty sure you can make a dvd with the story and make another one with ïnedit scenes.

So you're saying if all the characters die, the plot will go exactly the same way as if they all lived, that makes sense.

Quit trolling.

there's a big difference in dying on TV by going "argghhhh" and falling over, and by being riddled with bullet holes and exploding blood squibs and serial murders, which is the norm for US TV.

And Nu-Who is full of farting aliens and rubber-faced monsters. Realism couldn't even get it's foot in the door of the TARDIS long enough to be taken seriously.

Dr Who has never been realistic, ever.

It's just that they revitalised it in a time where everyone is more cynical.

They went for indistinguishable? Haha, their characters look like late 90's plastic looking CG FMV. I'd be a lot more interested in this game after all their boasts of extreme realism if it wasn't filled with stiff, bland mannequin dolls.

Its funny you should say that, quite a few french films are at the top of my most favourite films of all time. Goes to show that there is quite a difference between the superb and the downright....rubbish.