Wolf Ninja

They're not voicing the creatures. They're voicing two human characters who are featured in the game. http://wii.ign.com/articles/925/925753p1.html

Agreed with those who said the Big N and Sony have had their no-AO policy for a while now. When Nintendo courted Rockstar, they were pursuing M-rated titles. Rockstar provided an AO-rated title, and just as it is the choice of any video store to choose not to allow certain movies in their store, it's Nintendo's choice not to allow certain games on its system. If Rockstar wants to go the AO route, they'll have to find a system that lets them.

The difference between what the ESRB, Nintendo, and Sony have done and what happened over in Europe is that over in America, it was an industry thing. There are still options available to Rockstar that could allow it to sell as an AO-rated or AO-worthy title, if indeed it is AO-worthy. Just not for the Wii, and not for a Sony system. That's not to say it would be an easy road, but there are options. The game has not been banned, it has just become harder on the company to put it out there. In contrast, in Britain, it's illegal to sell the thing so T2 has no options whatsoever. That's the difference between industry-regulated and government-regulated. Over here, you only have to obey the guidelines if you want the support of the industry. If you can find another way to publish, go ahead and do it. With government regulation, stepping outside the guidelines means no sales, under any condition whatsoever. Even if T2 could find a system to put Manhunt 2 on over here, and sell it fine through stores that don't restrict the AO rating or through online sales, it would still be banned in the UK.

Agreed that the general process Rockstar will have to go through is no different than a movie aiming to go from R to PG-13. If they want that M rating, they'll have to shoot for it. Otherwise, they'll have to find another system to get the game on, like the PC.

I do agree that it is entirely possible the ESRB's AO rating was politically motivated, considering that games like God of War 2 and the Wii version of The Godfather haven't gone past the M rating. However, it's equally possible that Manhunt 2 is just that twisted. Regardless, Take-Two chose to submit their game for rating, and they did so knowing the political climate and the other games on the market. They can appeal the rating if they want, and maybe they'll get it changed. Maybe not. That's the business they chose to be in.

I loved the Xenosaga games (even the 2nd one), but the anime left a bad taste in my mouth. I mean, they took a game with a story huge enough that it had, what, 30 hours or so of cinematics alone, and they cut it down enough to become a 12-episode anime series (at 30 minutes an ep, that's 6 hours total). That's a scary amount of cutting, there, especially when you consider that the anime had to also use material you would've played in the game, and which therefore wasn't part of the cinematic hours.
Add to that the fact that amongst all this cutting, they added a completely unnecessary new character, and changed several plot elements for the worse, and you have something that stomped on what could've been great.
I will also agree that the animation quality for the anime wasn't very good, save for the excellent acrobatic sequence with KOS-MOS in the final battle.
In other words, if you want to experience Xenosaga, play the games--don't watch the anime.