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Must See HDTV (August 19th - 25th)
Summer may not be officially over, but as preseason football rolls in, many of our warm-weather TV shows are heading out. While we wait for the next Grand Theft Auto epic, Saints Row IV arrives on consoles ready to spoof gaming culture in the way that only this series can, along with Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist and Divekick. Finally, Thursday night keep an eye out for a re-air of Sharknado on Syfy, followed by the next shark movie it could crank out quickly -- Ghost Shark (trailer after the break). Look after the break for our weekly listing of what to look out for in TV, Blu-ray and videogames.
Saints Row IV loses 'alien narcotics' mission to gain approval in Australia
We knew the Australian Classification Board had fundamental objections to Saints Row IV. What we didn't know, however, was that these sticking points boiled down to just a single 20-minute side mission, in which the player gained superpowers by smoking "alien narcotics" with a character called Shaundi. That mission has now been exorcised, microwaved and buried in a sanitary disposal tank somewhere in the outback. According to Eurogamer, the only other change to the Australian version of Saints Row IV is the removal of a weapon called the Rectifier, which the censors were too anal to appreciate, but which will still be available to players as DLC. Meanwhile, we're taking bets on how long it'll be before the full, uncut title hits shelves Down Under as a premium box set.
Saints Row IV banned in Australia due to 'unjustified' evil
For every tearful accountant at Saints Row HQ, there must be a gleeful marketing person punching the air, playing mini golf and doing whatever else marketing people do when they're full of glee. Conflicted emotions aside, however, game publisher Deep Silver can now claim the notorious distinction of having its latest title, Saints Row IV, rejected outright by the Australian Classification Board (ACB). It's the first such refusal since the ACB implemented a new R18+ rating, which is meant to allow for adult themes within games but which evidently couldn't cope with Saints Row's peculiar depictions of sexual violence (which were "not justified by context") or its drug-themed reward system (which is "prohibited by the computer games guidelines"). According to The Guardian, this effectively means Saints Row IV is banned from sale in retail stores in Australia, but Joystiq has received word from Deep Silver saying it intends to create a "reworked" version of its open-world game specifically for that country. Meanwhile, the regular version has been given PEGI 18 and ESRB M ratings elsewhere, and it looks to be on track for an August release date.
