Tynan Muddle at Aussie-Gamer.com writes: "At the start of this year, the Australian Classification Board hailed in a reform of the system that was supposed to allow a fairer approach to video game ratings.
Six months later, it’s business as usual. Video games are still being banned despite the allowance for an adult rating.
The much sought-after “R” rating for video games was brought in on January 1, 2013 and instantly allowed adult-orientated games to be classified in Australia. Prior to that date, any game considered unsuitable for a 15-year old to play was refused classification and banned from importing into the country. Had a gamer been caught trying to buy the banned game from an international store, the game would be seized by customs and the “criminal” charged up to AU$100,000 for his attempt.
Nothing has changed."
Remember this year's Saints Row(opens in new tab)? Volition would probably prefer that you didn't, which might go some way to explaining why the studio recently decided to upgrade everyone's copy of Saints Row 4(opens in new tab) to its full-fat Re-elected Edition, containing all the game's story and cosmetic DLC and even introducing cross-play between Steam, Epic, and GOG versions of the game.
Unfortunately, that upgrade seems to have backfired, and players now report a myriad of bugs with their new version of SR4. Both the Saints Row Steam forums(opens in new tab) and subreddit(opens in new tab) are filled with players complaining of broken saves, crashes, and mods failing to function. It's also received a few hundred negative Steam reviews(opens in new tab) since the update. If it's succeeded in washing the taste of Saints Row (2022) out of players' mouths, it's only because it tastes even worse.
I wonder if Volition's getting reorged under Gearbox impacted the quality of their release.
When it comes ranking the Saints Row games, there are a couple of weird ones you have to consider, though this is Saints Row after all.
Juan at SwitchWatchTV got his hands on Saints Row 4 Re-elected for Nintendo Switch. Check out his review here and see what he thinks.
Great article. I thought the R+ rating was to get away from this nonsense. Aussies use to have the option of importing banned games from New Zealand (or anywhere really) , but its pretty scary now considering there is a massive fine if you get caught.
I heard Brazil did that when Bully came out. They banned the game, seized it at customs from anyone trying to import it and EVEN arrested some people for having a copy.