More Hot Coffee

[Adagio]

This time in Oblivion:

Take-Two Interactive may not have a follow-up for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas yet, but it appears the publisher does have a pseudo-sequel to that game's Hot Coffee scandal on its hands.

The Entertainment Software Ratings Board today issued a parental advisory that it has changed the rating of Take-Two subsidiary 2K Games' hit role-playing game The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion for the PC and the Xbox 360. (Inital reports indicated that only the PC version of the game had been re-rated.) Originally released with a rating of T for Teen, the game has now been rerated M for Mature, due to "more detailed depictions of blood and gore than were considered in the original rating, as well as the presence of a locked-out art file or 'skin' that, if accessed through a third-party modification to the PC version of the game, allows the user to play with topless versions of female characters."

Before the game was rerated, Pete Hines of Oblivion developer Bethesda Softworks discussed the mod with GameSpot. "Obviously we have a pretty big, and active, mod community for the PC version, and there are some gamers who hacked into Oblivion's art archive files and modified them to create a nude upper female torso in the game," Hines said. "We can't control and don't condone the actions of anyone who alters the game so that it displays material that may be considered offensive. We haven't received any complaints on the issue from anyone."

The ESRB is adding a "nudity" content descriptor to the PC version of the game "until it can be re-mastered and released with the topless skin removed."

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6148897.html

[Quillan]

Someone needs to tell those morons at the ESRB that it isn't due to "locked out art files". I've seen that mod. Someone CREATED new DDS files for the upper torso of the female races to do this. It wasn't in the game to begin with. Idiots.

[FrostyBoy]

What modders should do is put a nude female in EVERY GAME, that will shut them up.

[DrSpike]

I guess it sounds much more interesting if someone 'hacked' their way into the game. Like last time the real facts will probably slowly emerge.

[Adagio]

Originally posted by Sn00py
What modders should do is put a nude female in EVERY GAME, that will shut them up.

Pac-man nude patch

[Silver14]

At least ESRB recognizes that its ok for teenagers to hack up innocent villagers with various hand to hand weapons.

[DrSpike]

Correction: It's ok for teenagers to hack up innocent villagers with various hand to hand weapons as long as they do it fully clothed.

[Skanky Burns]

Have they revised Tomb Raider's rating yet?

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by DrSpike
Correction: It's ok for teenagers to hack up innocent villagers with various hand to hand weapons as long as they do it fully clothed.

'due to "more detailed depictions of blood and gore than were considered in the original rating,"'

[lord of the mark]

hacked in

I dont understand, does this mean they hacked into the developers own computers and altered the game comment, or they hacked open data in the game that wasnt supposed to be moddable, and modded it? If the latter, Quillian is right, but if the former, the ESRB is right and Take two is screwed up in a major way.

[Silver14]

Originally posted by lord of the mark


'due to "more detailed depictions of blood and gore than were considered in the original rating,"'

That was there to begin with. Never mind the blood you can kill innocent people just walking in the street, or even join a cult thats entire basis is around murder.

They are just useing the blood/gore as an excuse to soften the blow to the real reason, nudity. If nudity couldn't be hacked in they wouldn't be changing sh*t. Never mind the fact you can download porn just as easy as some 'nude' patch. What is it with topless women that scares americans so much?

Maybe if some american teenagers wern't sexually frustrated they wouldn't go postal (like you can in some games) and end up on the evening news?

[Jon Miller]

Originally posted by lord of the mark
hacked in

I dont understand, does this mean they hacked into the developers own computers and altered the game comment, or they hacked open data in the game that wasnt supposed to be moddable, and modded it? If the latter, Quillian is right, but if the former, the ESRB is right and Take two is screwed up in a major way.

My understanding is that the game is suppose to be modable. And that they modified it to have naked ladies.

What I would think would be appropriate is to have one ESRB with a note that rating can change due to online interactions.

Jon Miller

[Solver]

Wow. I really can't believe how moronic the whole "parental advisory rating" system is. Now they change rating because of a 3rd-party mod. Sheesh. Worse yet, I can't understand why games with violence easily get a T rating, but a game that has any nudity whatsoever immediately gets M. I don't buy all the BS about either "damaging children", but even that aside, are they trying to argue that seeing a breast is more damaging to children than killing virtual people?

More fun. A major part of Oblivion is killing. Mostly of creatures. However, you do also get to kill people. Realistic-looking people. In Doom3, you don't kill any people - the closest things to people there are zombies, who don't really look like people. Oblivion lets you kill people in towns. Moreover, it has a guild and numerous quests where you can do such killings for money. But a breast is more "mature" content than all that .

[Unspeakable Horror]

USA

[snoopy369]

Sigh ...

They could be referring to "base" content, as if I recall correctly the models have "base" under-clothes models for physics purposes. Of course, those models don't have genitalia... mods are needed to add that in.

But echo the rest of the comments in this thread... bah. Although i suppose the ratings are only relevant for people who care about nudity, who can feel free to care about what they want to care about; the problem I have is when retailers are required to see adult ID to sell the product. Then it's infringing on civil liberties...