20 Mind-Blowing Things You Didn't Know About Grand Theft Auto 3
7. Heavy Censorship In Other Territories
Grand Theft Auto 3 is almost infamous; when it first released, the media was quick to condemn it as a violent fantasy corrupting our youth.
The actual title released on Western shores is pretty violent! You can shoot whoever you want, run people over, blow them up with rocket launchers...the list goes on and on.
In certain countries, that just wasn't going to cut it. In order to be released in these territories, Rockstar had to get to work on censoring the game.
In Germany, for example, you can't punch or kick defenceless people. There's also no blood effects, you can't blast apart heads or shoot off limbs and you'll never find money from a corpse. The chaos-fuelled Rampage missions are also nowhere to be seen.
In Australia - a territory notorious for censoring games - somehow GTA 3 actually released! It came out with a MA15+ rating, but after complaints of sexual violence involving prostitutes, it was pulled from sale. Rockstar then had to censor the game again, and in the updated Australian version you are both unable to hire and kill prostitutes.
In Saudi Arabia, the game was just banned outright and never released for 'violent content'.