SpawnPoint

Rockstar's Manhunt 2 has been refused a rating certificate by the British Board Of Film Classification (BBFC), meaning that the game is effectively banned in the UK.  The original Manhunt was granted an 18 certificate.

David Cook, the director of the BBFC stated:

“Rejecting a work is a very serious action and one which we do not take lightly. Where possible we try to consider cuts or, in the case of games, modifications which remove the material which contravenes the Board’s published Guidelines. In the case of Manhunt 2 this has not been possible. Manhunt 2 is distinguishable from recent high-end video games by its unremitting bleakness and callousness of tone in an overall game context which constantly encourages visceral killing with exceptionally little alleviation or distancing. There is sustained and cumulative casual sadism in the way in which these killings are committed, and encouraged, in the game.

“Although the difference should not be exaggerated the fact of the game’s unrelenting focus on stalking and brutal slaying and the sheer lack of alternative pleasures on offer to the gamer, together with the different overall narrative context, contribute towards differentiating this submission from the original Manhunt game. That work was classified ‘18’ in 2003, before the BBFC’s recent games research had been undertaken, but was already at the very top end of what the Board judged to be acceptable at that category.”

“Against this background, the Board’s carefully considered view is that to issue a certificate to Manhunt 2, on either platform, would involve a range of unjustifiable harm risks, to both adults and minors, within the terms of the Video Recordings Act, and accordingly that its availability, even if statutorily confined to adults, would be unacceptable to the public.”

This makes Manhunt 2 only the second game to be refused a certificate, Carmageddon was the first.  Carmageddon was eventually given a certificate after the makers of the game agreed to make changes to the game.

My 4 year old nephew is staying for the week, so finding things to keep him entertained is pretty important, otherwise he starts bouncing around the house like a short, hyperactive drunk.  This makes me unhappy.

So he'd been here for a couple of days and I was getting bored with the games that he liked and the books he wanted to read so I thought "why not show him some of the games on my computer?".  He was keen so we get to my computer and then I realise that I haven't thought this out very well.

He's four and hasn't played computer games and he gets scared at children's TV.  So looking though the games that I'd got it wasn't looking promising:

Counter Strike, FEAR, Grand Theft Auto, Silent Hill  are all too violent and complicated.  Oblivion has monsters and is complicated.  S.T.A.L.K.E.R scares me in places so far too scary.  RTS and management games are a bit much for someone who is four.

So this left driving games and I only have Colin McRae Rally 2005, which involves driving in places like mountains and forests at 100mph.  It's fairly hard so I wasn't optimistic. 

Sure enough he just couldn't get the car going in the right direction.  So I suggested that I steer and he does the accelerating and braking, it was a bit of a squeeze having two people on one Playstation one controller.  This was much better, he would just hold down accelerate and I would try my best to get the car round a hairpin corner at 100mph.

He loved it, he felt like he was playing and thought crashing was great, even better if bits of the car fell off.  Before we started a race I'd say "That's a nice looking car" and he'd reply "It won't be when we finish" then giggle all the way through as we bounce from tree to tree.  I found it a challenge too, so I wasn't bored.

Anybody know any good computer games for young children that can also be played by adults?

I've just been to the local ASDA supermarket to pick up up a few things and a really nice bottle of whiskey.  I got to the check out and the guy at the check out didn't scan the whiskey so he asked for £3.47 instead of £33.47.  Without much thought I said "are you sure about that?" then he realised his mistake and scanned the whiskey.

A free bottle of whiskey from ASDA (owned by WalMart) would have been nice and I doubt I would have felt too guilty about it.  So now I'm regretting my honesty.

People often ask me how I manage to catch so many hackers. Ok, maybe no one has ever asked me so far, but I'm fairly sure a few people have at least wondered. So here is how I do it.

First you need a few things, spare time and HLSW (http://wiki.hlsw.net/index.php/Main_Page). HLSW is useful because you can quickly cycle through all of the servers you want to check for cheats, you can use your steam favourites in a similar way but it is more time consuming.

All I do is check through SpawnPoints servers every now and then looking for players with high scores or hacker type names. There is more to it than that, it's easier to get a high score quickly on deathmatch or gungame than it is on assault, so you need to take into account the map and game type. So it can be useful to look for players that are outscoring everyone else. Once you have identified a suxxxxious score, go and spectate them and see if they are cheating.

This is not a perfect method as it only leads to the more blatant cheats and there are also legit players who can get high scores quickly.

It is a bit dull, but it doesn't take long to cycle through the servers and I catch enough cheats this way to make it worthwhile. I really don't like cheats.

I've been in the Anti-Cheat Team (ACT) for 7 months now, having been invited by Hitman about six hours before I was going to volunteer. Always nicer to be invited though.

It's been a learning experience so far, I taught myself to spot cheats just by watching players and then watching the demos before sending them in. Now I know a few more tricks to help make a decision, like demoui and r_drawothermodels 2. Not only that but I also get to see a whole range of legitimate tactics and techniques that can look like cheats on server.

The actual work on the ACT is mostly copy and paste, data entry and keeping things in order. Here is what I will typically do with one demo:

• Download demo and save to cstrike folder.

• Watch demo, with demoui and r_drawothermodels.

• Watch the demo again if it is not an obvious one

• Repeat until I am certain that the player is cheating or not. Ask for second opinion if I can't be sure.

• Copy and paste SteamID and name of the player in question to Notepad.

• Reply to the person who sent in the email, copy and paste response then SteamID and name of suspect player from Notepad.

• Copy and paste details into the ban list, if applicable.

• Make a note of who sent in the demo for the "who got the most cheats banned" list.

• If sb_status was used and the demo was conclusive use winrar on the demo and submit to Steambans.com.

• Delete the demo from my cstrike folder. I had 1000 demos in there a few months ago taking up 1.5Gb, not fun going through all those.

• Move the email and my response to done folder.

• Next!

I've got organised now, so all the things I need are all open and I can do all of the above quickly now.

We can get up to 10 demos a day, we got about 70 in the last week, not including the demos we receive for other things. So as you can see it's important to be as efficient as possible when dealing with demo submissions.

Fortunately I hate cheats so I don't mind the dull parts of the job and I take great pride in the fact that we quickly and fairly deal with the demos we receive.