Australian game rating board under fire for Lost and Damned classification
Typically, when Australia's Office of Film and Literature Classification (the game rating board for the Land Down Under) is criticized for shoddy job performance, the attacks are coming from ... well, people like us. This is because the board's highest rating is MA15+, meaning games containing similar content to games rated Mature by the ESRB are often refused classification and sent back to the developer for content cuts.
However, the OFLC has recently come under fire from its harshest critics, not due to its refusal to classify certain games, but rather, because of its rating for the recently released expansion to GTA IV, The Lost and Damned. These critics take issue with the fact that the expansion earned a rating from the OFLC without undergoing any content cuts, while GTA IV was forced to clean up its act before getting approved. These critics claim the similarities between the core game and expansion are evidence of major disparities in the Australian rating board.
These critics might have a point -- the OFLC could be taking on a more lax approach to their classification of mature content titles. However, it's just as likely that Rockstar made content cuts to Lost and Damned before the first submission in order to avoid a refusal of classification -- and a costly resubmission. There's only one way to tell: Australian readers, we need you to boot up the game and, well, check for any and all wangs. We know, it's a lot to ask.
