The Shrine

Sheer morbid curiosity landed a copy of this game in my hands.

And it's pretty brutal =o

Did it deserve an AO rating? Yeah...Yeah it did. This game redefines violent murder, Jason Voorhees has nothing on the game's main character, neither does the Saw series in terms of gore.

I'm assuming the version coming out in a few weeks dumbed down some of the killings, stabbing somebody in the back repeatedly is a bit different then stabbing somebody up through under their chin and watching the knife come out through their face.

From what I hear they removed one of the murder scenes because it was too much, and you are right about the other stuff, they used effects to make it less obvious and that got them an M-rating in North America.... It actually kind of says something about society when a game with a regular common sex scene will get an AO, but a game with violent murder and killing is M-rated.