Due of the latest game controversy in America, with their games ratings board (ESRB) investigating Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas because a certain sex game can be unlocked with a small modification, the Australian Office of Film & Literature Classification (OFLC) have followed suit by taking steps to see if the San Andreas's classification needs to be re-adjusted and most likely banned. The Sydney Morning Herald has the details..
The Australian body that rates video games says it is examining claims made in the US that Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas contains graphic sexual content, which can be unlocked by using software.A spokesman from the Office of Film and Literature Classification said investigations were under way to confirm the claims.
The game's content reportedly becomes sexually explicit if players download and install a modification - one of many so-called "mods" available on websites maintained by video game enthusiasts.
The game was released in Australia last October with an MA 15+ rating, as it contained "medium-level animated violence and medium-level coarse language".
There is no R rating for video games in Australia.
The classification office spokesman said if the claims were true, the game would be withdrawn from sale.
So, if you're interested in buying a copy of GTA: San Andreas due to all the new media attention, you do have some time left. ;) Late purchasers will be happy to know that the option to import it from New Zealand will always be there, just in case.
** Rockstar have given an official response to the mod, blaming "hackers" for meddling with their game...
"So far we have learned that the "hot coffee" modification is the work of a determined group of hackers who have gone to significant trouble to alter scenes in the official version of the game," reads the statement. "In violation of the software user agreement, hackers created the 'hot coffee' modification by disassembling and then combining, recompiling and altering the game's source code. Since the 'hot coffee' scenes cannot be created without intentional and significant technical modifications and reverse engineering of the game's source code, we are currently investigating ways that we can increase the security protection of the source code and prevent the game from being altered by the 'hot coffee' modification."
I'm sure GamePlanet NZ are stocking up right now ;)
Banning a game because a "mod" unlocks "sexually explicit content"?
Can't you "mod" a game to do pretty much anything you want?
Soon we'll have A Current Affair knocking on our doors again asking for comments. :P
Scott.
Well, the fact is it was written in there by Rockstar and they didn't remove it on the gold candidate, which is their stupidity, they simply diabled it. Obviously a modder would find it and reenable it. The problem being that the OFLC and it's infinite ignorance and moronic thinking would also ban not only the PC version but the PS2 and Xbox versions as well, they wouldn't have the brain power to realise the console versions can't be modding (well the Xbox one can, but not as easily as the PC version).
How many times must they be told? Introduce and R rating for video games you stupid mother***ers!
Rockstar have made an official announcement, but it's all rather puzzling. They're blaming "hackers" for violating user agreements and going to "significant trouble to alter scenes in the official version of the game" (see updated news item) :o.
Strike one for leaving the remnants of that sex game in San Andreas, and strike 2 for labelling people as hackers for unlocking it and going after them for violating the eula. Strike three for giving the impression that the mod created something new from the game (an alteration of scenes?) rather than unlocking something that was already there.
"All the contents of this mod was already available on the original disks. Therefor the scriptcode, the models, the animations and the dialogs by the original voice-actors were all created by RockStar. The only thing I had to do to enable the mini-games was toggling a single bit in the main.scm file." - the mod author.
doing a bit of research, here's some facts:
- The mod doesn't change any graphics, or add any new assets like voice audio (which is used from the same voice actors, all their ooooooohs and ahhhhhhs and sex speak
- The sex game is unlockable on the console versions by using what sounds like the equivelant of action replay device codes. That's no mod that's doing that; it's just changing a flag from off to on. Disable to enable.
- without the code, you usually go in the house for "coffee", and it shows the outside of the house with sex moan audio
- from rockstars statement and what's actually enabling this minigame, it sounds like they're saying that hackers stole their source while they where developing the game, added this content, contracted the same voice actors that are used normally in the game for the girlfriends, made this minigame, diabled it, then put it back on their servers where nobody noticed and the game went gold on pc, and consoles and now someone's enabled it again. Yeah right, you backflipping retards.
I'm no moral flag waving purist, but In my opinion, theft and voilence being the main points of the core gameplay throughout the series, that wasn't enough anymore. so they added sex. then they realised it wasn't going to get past the ratings board and turned it off but didn't remove it. Now they're making out like they're some victim of hacking.
www.gamespot.com- Look on the side news bar, they tested it on a new game with a suprising result ;)
Dumbarses for leaving it in there. Surely they realised that someone would find it, and it would turn into yet another issue for Politicians to whine about.
- ESRB assigns "Adults Only 18+" (AO) rating for current version of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas due to unauthorized third party "Hot Coffee" modification
- Rockstar Games to cease manufacture of current version of title and offer a downloadable patch to prevent modification of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for PC
- Company lowers third quarter and fiscal year guidance to reflect the expected negative impact on the title's retail performance
http://www.shacknews.com/docs/press/072005_gta_sa.x