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Take-Two, in addition to appealing the AO rating, has apparently invited members of the mainstream media to evaluate Manhunt 2, including Newsweek and MTV. Also in attendance was a journalist from the New York Times, Seth Schiesel, who viewed the game and had some especially interesting remarks, comparing the game to an R-rated movie.
Schiesel writes, “Banning the original version of Manhunt 2 may be a good way to demonstrate that the industry can police itself. Side by side, though, movies seem to be way ahead of games in delivering top-notch gore.”
Schiesel compares the game to Saw II, in which the opening scene has a young man that must pull a key from his own eye to unlock a device that will otherwise crush his head in 60 seconds. Schiesel believed that the game got the AO rating because the ESRB didn’t actually play the game and just saw a highlight reel of it. This is standard procedure for the ESRB, as the game developers present them with a highlight reel intended to convey an idea of the game’s contents.
Schiesel also believes that the AO rating will help sales of Manhunt 2, as he stated “Whenever it does ship, Manhunt 2 is likely to enjoy a level of public awareness (and potentially sales ) that it could never have attained without the ban. That of course may well have been what its makers intended all along.”