'Partial nudity' said to hinder M-rated Halo 2 release
'When we asked for exciting Vistas, this is not what we meant...'
An "obscure content error which includes partial nudity" is allegedly behind the set-back Microsoft this week made to the Windows Vista version of Halo 2, originally due 8 May, then 22 May and now 31 May.
Microsoft doesn't appear to have stated outright the reason for the latest delay, but in an email website Next-Gen claims to have received from the company, the software giant said: "It has come to our attention that an unfortunate, obscure content error which includes partial nudity was included in our initial production of Halo 2 for Windows Vista."
Interestingly, the content does not appear to have been removed. The email continued: "We have updated the initial game packaging at retailers with a label, so customers are aware before purchasing the game. Additionally, we’ve developed an online update which can be downloaded from www.halo2.com to remove the content."
Both the PC version of Halo 2 and the Xbox version, released way back when, are stamped with the US games rating M, marking them as suitable only for "mature" players, held to be anyone aged 17 years or older.
Our minds inevitably wander back to the similarly rated Duke Nukem 3D, which was full of scantilly clad females, and this didn't generate anywhere near the fuss Halo 2's partial nudity - does the Master Chief get his kit off? - has.
But then we live in more panicky times for games developers and publishers, as the reaction to Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas' infamous hidden 'hot coffee' scene prompted.
COMMENTS
Well...
M$ needs to try harder to convince people to go to Vista.
I am happy with XP SP2 and it runs very well with the spec of PC I have (P4 3.2Ghz HT, 2 GB RAM....yawn, yawn). Why would I want an OS which will make my PC run like a 486 on non-turbo mode.......just for a FPS which in my opinion looks shite. Lets face it I will not be able to watch TV on my smaller monitor and play online games on the bigger 19" getting 20 fps (at 1152x 864,still playable only a 256MB Graphics Card :-( ) with vista.
But still, how much difference can we make, will M$ listen.........I think not.
Now if M$ had topless fit women who you had to 'save' in a game then well hell yeah it may be a good buy..................sorry dreaming there....;-) Lets face it an 18 certificate on a game is really going to stop the 11-17 year olds (and younger) from playing it, isn't it.........NOT!
Halo 2
Halo 2 is an excellent Multiplayer, the Single Player isnt as excellent or perfect as the first. But halo 2 should of been release when XP was launched, The sad true that the best version of Halo ports is the MAC version. Smooth no need to upgrade the O/S. Microsoft should of release this sooner and on a standard platform. It will sell, unfortunatly
We are talking about 'Halo', right?
As in the FPS with gopod multiplayer, and three good levels of single player followed by 7 or so formulaic potato stamped flood fightiong crap? The sequels have added nothing so far. Never has a mediocre FPS gained so much hype.
I'm flying high on a rocket to the sky
"millions of young men worldwide" - having seen the picture, which is of a fat man with his shorts down, I doubt that millions of young men worldwide are going to want to look at it for more than a few seconds. If computer games fans want to look at fat bottomless men they just have to go to Google and type "fat bottomless men"...
No, tell a lie, there are no results for "fat bottomless men". A search for "fat man bottom" returns an article by Richard Herring(!) about his own televisual nudity.
"Our minds inevitably wander back to the similarly rated Duke Nukem 3D, which was full of scantilly clad females, and this didn't generate anywhere near the fuss Halo 2's partial nudity" - my theory is that, even as late of 1996, computer games were still a major cult, and Duke Nukem 3D was itself a cult-within-a-cult. The mainstream media simply hadn't heard of it, although it's interesting to wonder how the tabloids would have dealt with the game, given that you could blow up strippers. If the press could have tied it in, however tenuously, with a contemporary murder, it would have been dynamite, and probably still banned to this day.
Title
"Does MS really believe that all the gamers out there are going to upgrade to vista so they can buy a port of a 2 year old game that may have some nudity."
You mean the way that a whole generation of teenage boys bought PCs and 14.4kbps modems that they may have some nudity or the way millions of young men worldwide have upgraded to broadband that they may have faster nudity?
Damn right they will!
