Australia's strict censorship regime has
angered local gamers for many years, particularly the lack of an R18 games rating,
but now our Censorship Board has earned the wrath of the international gaming community.
The developers of one of the year's most
highly anticipated titles, science-fiction role playing game Fallout 3, have
made worldwide changes to their upcoming game just to comply with the
Australian Classification Board.
Fallout 3, which is set in a post-apocalyptic
Washington DC, was originally refused classification earlier in the year by our
Classification Board because it featured real-world drugs like Morphine.
According to guidelines "material promoting or encouraging proscribed drug
use" must be banned.
Last month an edited version was granted an
MA15+ rating, but Fallout 3 developer Bethesda says it is this edited version
that the rest of the world will get, too.
"We want to make sure folks understand
that the Australian version of Fallout 3 is identical to both the UK and North
American versions in every way, on every platform," Bethesda's Pete Hines
told Edge magazine.
"An issue was raised concerning
references to real world, proscribed drugs in the game, and we subsequently
removed those references and replaced them with fictional names. To avoid
confusion among people in different territories, we decided to make those
substitutions in all versions of the game, in all territories."
Many gamers around the world have reacted
with anger to the news that the game has been modified to comply with
Australia's Classification Board, some even vowing to "hack" the PC
version and restore it to its original state.
Fallout 3 will be released in late October in
Australia for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3.