Silent Hill banning, now we play the 'waiting game'

Mike Bantick
Wednesday, 01 October 2008 09:46

Opinion and Analysis

The latest incarnation of the popular horror survival game Silent Hill: Homecoming has been refused classification in Australia.  In effect the game has been banned.  Once again the OFLC is unable to classify the game under Australian legislation that tops out at a MA 15+ rating, so like Fallout 3 fans, Silent Hill: Homecoming aficionados must wait and see if developer Konami will believe it is worthwhile to make the requisite edits.

For a small market in a global sense, the Australian video game retail sector generates a lot of publicity.  Much of it around the effects on new game releases in a climate devoid of a R18+ rating system for interactive entertainment.

So far this year there have been three games refused classification for the Australian market by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC).  Silent Hill: Homecoming is number four.

According to an update to the banning on the local IGN site , the OFLC; "cited several high impact scenes in the game, mostly focusing on drilling into and severing body parts.  One scene in particular that was highlighted as a problem involved Alex (the main character) having a drill forced into his right eye socket, which caused a lot of blood to spray out."

There were other scenes cited by the OFLC who seem to have taken a stand against the use of power drills in interactive entertainment.

The OFLC has it hands tied in regard to classification of games, banning a game by refusing classification is done under the legislated guidelines currently in place. 

In order for the legislation to be altered, a directive needs to come from Australia’s own Silent Hill, Parliament house - or more specifically the States Attorneys-General.

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