Senators urge tougher rating for "Manhunt" game

Visitors using controllers play a video game at the Tokyo Game Show in Chiba, east of Tokyo September 20, 2007. A bipartisan group of lawmakers including a Democratic presidential hopeful is calling on the makers of video games to review the industry's ratings system.

WASHINGTON (Hollywood Reporter) - A bipartisan group of lawmakers including a Democratic presidential hopeful is calling on the makers of video games to review the industry's ratings system.

In letter to the Entertainment Software Rating Board, the lawmakers complained about its decision to give an "mature" rating Rockstar's "Manhunt 2" game.

Sens. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., Sam Brownback, R-Kan., Evan Bayh, D-Ind., and Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., said the game's violent content, which includes "many graphic torture scenes and murders," should have garnered an "adults only" rating.

Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination for president, has long pressed for tougher ratings and has called for a unified ratings system for movies, games and TV shows.

"We ask your consideration of whether it is time to review the robustness, reliability and repeatability of your ratings process, particularly for this genre of 'ultraviolent' video games and the advances in game controllers," the senators wrote. "We have consistently urged parents to pay attention to the ESRB rating system. We must ensure that parents can rely on the consistency and accuracy of those ratings."

Rockstar also makes the controversial "Grand Theft Auto" series of games.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter