New Zealand bans Postal 2
So Running With Scissors' Vince Desi takes the piss out of Peter Jackson in response. Is Postal 2 evil? Or is it just unmitigated bollocks? Your thoughts please...
Postal 2 has been banned by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) in New Zealand, where it's now illegal to own or sell the game with various fines and even prison time for offenders.
The OFLC's ruling is the climax of a yearlong investigation into the game (can anybody imagine a fate worse than having to play Postal 2 for a year?), and ruled that anybody found with the game be fined NZ$2,000 (€1,075), that any retailers selling or even displaying it be fined NZ$20,000 (€10,750) and potentially go to jail for a year, and that any larger "incorporated" distributors or retailers be fined NZ$50,000 (€26,860) for similar breaches.
"The game is designed, and has the capacity, to allow the player to test how much violence and humiliation he or she can inflict on human beings," the OFLC said.
Vince Desi, founder of Running With Scissors, responded with typical irreverence: "I'm glad that PeeTER [sic] Jackson can hack and slash up orcs, elves and pseudo-humans in Lord of the Rings, but a videogame like Postal, that lets you piss on yourself, is somehow evil," he told GameSpot.
Normally we'd probably have something vaguely sympathetic to say here, but frankly Postal 2 was so offensively awful and pointless that we're glad it's been banned.