Manhunt 2 will be hitting North American stores at the end of this month, after the ESRB recently granted a reworked version of the controversial title an M rating. However, the game’s future elsewhere remains uncertain, and nowhere moreso than in the UK, after the BBFC once again rejected Rockstar's brutal title.

Of course, we say "again" because this isn’t the first time the game has been deemed unsuitable by the British censors. Back in June, the BBFC refused to grant the original game a rating, claiming it demonstrated an "unremitting bleakness and callousness of tone." And now, the BBFC claims that not enough has changed in the modified Manhunt 2 recently submitted by Rockstar.

"We recognise that the distributor has made changes to the game, but we do not consider that these go far enough to address our concerns about the original version," said director of the BBFC David Cooke. "The impact of the revisions on the bleakness and callousness of tone, or the essential nature of the gameplay, is clearly insufficient.

"There has been a reduction in the visual detail in some of the ‘execution kills’, but in others they retain their original visceral and casually sadistic nature," he added.

Publisher Rockstar Games plans to appeal the latest decision, and has protested that the changes being demanded by the BBFC are "unacceptable."

"We are continuing to appeal the British Board of Film Classification's decision to deny the edited version of Manhunt 2 an 18-plus certificate and thereby ban its release in the United Kingdom," reads Rockstar's statement. "The changes necessary in order to publish the game in Britain are unacceptable to us and represent a setback for video games.

"The BBFC allows adults the freedom to decide for themselves when it comes to horror in movies and we think adults should be similarly allowed to decide for themselves when it comes to horror in video games, such as Manhunt 2."