Howto: Remove censorship from Manhunt 2 PSP

by Ian Dumych Feb 28th 2008

Before we go any further, we need to establish the following: the uncensored version of this game is rated AO in the United States, meaning that you should only follow this guide if you are 18 or older!

Now that we got that out of the way, Man Hunt 2 is a highly immersive game by Rockstar, the creators of of Grand Theft Auto. It was met with a great deal of controversy, and as a result, the ESRB forced the developers to censor the violence in order to receive an M rating. As a result, the murder scenes in Manhunt 2 are very stylized and blurry, making it hard to see what is happening. Some reviewers felt this detracted from the game, even if the brutal sound effects were still intact.

Thankfully, hackers saved the day, and there is now a patch for the North American version of the game. All you need is a modded PSP, some software utilities, and an ISO of the game. If you have a recent version of the M33 custom firmware, simply insert the game disk, press select in the XMB, and switch the USB function to UMD. Plug the PSP in, and copy the iso, it's a simple drag-and-drop.
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Now that you have the ISO, download the patch. Extract the program somewhere, such as your desktop. On Windows, you can simply drag the ISO on top of the program icon, and the patching will happen automatically. On Linux or OSX, you will need to use wine or darwine, respectively. On Ubuntu, just run sudo apt-get install wine. On OSX, well, ask Google. Once you have WINE, just open a terminal, and type something to this effect: "wine /home/ian/Desktop/Manhunt\ article/MH2Hack.exe /home/ian/Desktop/Manhunt\ article/manhunt\ 2.iso". You will need to change the path to where you have the files saved, obviously. This process takes a few minutes, and will prompt you when it finishes. Press enter as instructed, and it's done!

Congratulations, you now have an uncensored copy of Manhunt 2, as the developers intended.

Tags: Manhunt 2, Manhunt2, PSP, violence

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

utterer said 8:20AM on 2-28-2008

unless you provide a link on how to create an ISO image from your Manhunt 2 UMD, you should add at the bottom:

"Congratulations, you now have an uncensored AND PIRATED copy of Manhunt 2, as the developers intended AND DIDN'T GET PAID FOR."

Gutter said 8:30AM on 2-28-2008

"simply insert the game disk, press select in the XMB, and switch the USB function to UMD. Plug the PSP in, and copy the iso, it's a simple drag-and-drop."

Seems like the instructions are right there. Try reading next time you get on your self-righteous high horses.

utterer said 8:37AM on 2-28-2008

Good point Gutter, I may have misread it as using the CPU as a USB host to read ISO's. I will try it after work and if that is the method, statement retracted.

James said 10:45AM on 2-28-2008

What do you mean, "*if* that's the correct method"? Did you not notice "insert the game disk"? You only have a game disk if you BOUGHT it.

Anyway, I haven't checked Mininova or anything, but I strongly suspect that if there's a patched version that's bloodier, and an unpatched "clean" ISO, the bloodier one is going to see much wider (pirate) distribution. I mean, imagine you're 12, your mom doesn't know enough about computers to tell what you're torrenting... what are *you* going to get?

Travis said 10:56AM on 2-28-2008

Would that all be spelled out at http://www.manhunt.com?

Ian Dumych said 11:37AM on 2-28-2008

To James: I've looked around, and it looks like the ISOs in circulation are unpatched. The fact is, there is little difference, this program simply removes the blurry effects from the kill scenes. It actually looks kind of cool, in the original, but you miss details such as blood splattering on your glasses >D

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