Heavy Rain gets 15 certificate in UK
Quantic Dream's Hevay Rain has been given a 15 certificate in the UK despite tackling very mature themes.
Interestingly, the reason for the 15 certificate as opposed to an 18 rating could be seen as a snub to the claims made by developer Quantic Dream about the quality of the graphics.
"These are obviously not real people, or real people acting," the BBFC told IncGamers.
Heavy Rain has drawn a lot of attention for the stunning quality of the graphics and the lengths that the team has gone to in order to create a cast of 'virtual actors', including buying their own motion capture studio. We had a look at the game mid-2009 and were completely blown away by the attention to detail and the way that the characters were animated.
"[i]It all depends on the level of blood and violence. We use the same classification for games as we do for films, and this game is suitable for a 15 audience,[i]" added the BBFC spokesperson.
Quantic Dream owner David Cage has promised that the game will update the adventure game genre and deal with mature themes in a responsible and interesting manner, unafraid of issues such as sex, violence and loss. You can read more about the game in our Games to Watch in 2010 article, or read our older discussion with David about the problems of creating interesting characters in a computer game.
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Discuss in the forums ReplyBut most people don't take notice of age ratings on games, so it won't make the slightest bit of difference anyway ;)
edit:
"[i]It all depends on the level of blood and violence. We use the same classification for games as we do for films, and this game is suitable for a 15 audience,[i]" added the BBFC spokesperson.
I would have thought a 15 rating would have been a good thing too.
Regardless of what developers tell us, all 'photo-realistic' graphics, are just that, graphics. I highly doubt anybody has ever thought (even for a moment) "wow, is that real?" when playing a video game.
If the game isn't too gratuitous, why shouldn't any theme be acceptable at '15'.
Reminds me of Mass Effect's original release. PEGI saw fit to classify the game '18' while the BBFC, looking at the game as a whole, classified it a '12'.
Err, I did, during Crysis.
impressive, yes. realistic? naaah.
Then how comes Deadspace didn't also get a 15 rating? Seems like they must have thought all those monsters must have been real, or real monsters acting.