"The decision to found the ESRB was influenced by violent content found in games such as Mortal Kombat and Night Trap and other controversial video games depicting violent or sexual situations at the time, and by pressure from the United States government."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entertainment_Software_Rating_Board

If they end up changing Manhunt 2 because of this AO rating and removing some of the content then I am going to be very very pissed...

Yea AO rating is pretty much an axe to the game cause no major retailers will supply the game. Hopefully that will change in the future but right now it's pretty much saying you have to change something. But weird comments from ESRB make it sound like they are putting this rating out preliminarily possibly under stress cause they make it sound like it should have got an M rating.

Either way whether the game is changed or not Manhunt 2 will sooner or later be dropped to an M rating. Otherwise doom would be spelled for the game. Let's hope nothing has to be changed.

 Again, that was a quote from Take-Two, not ESRB.

"Games such as Harvester, Soldier of Fortune and Manhunt have shown gruesome violence, yet only got the M rating, which is supposed to be the entertainment software equivalent of the R rating. Many critics have claimed that these games deserve the AO rating[3] and were given the M for commercial reasons...

...Critics have claimed that the ESRB will only rate games AO if they have sexual content in them, regardless of how much violence is present. Twenty three products have been given the AO rating. One was given it for unsimulated online gambling. The rest were given it for sexual content and/or nudity."

This is from the same Wiki and probably explains why they are hiiting Manhunt 2 so hard - trying to prove a point.

"and by pressure from the United States government."

Still wrong, sir. The US Government basically said "either you regulate yourselves or we will." IT was the game's industry's choice to acquiesce to a ratings board. They could have fought in court or submitted to government rating. They chose this mess, they compromised.

Besides, isn't it kinda weird to attach your freedoms to material goods? "They aren't allowing me to buy what I want! ZOMG 1984 Big Brother."

or... just maybe the game is really just that disturbing? none of us has played through the game.

Actually age of consent ranges from 16 to 18 depending on the state. In my state MN I know it's 16 while it's 18 in CA for instance. Not that I have any usefulness for that knowledge.

regardless if its an M rating or an AO rating, ill still be buying it so i can see what all the hub bub is about

heh, 16 in my state as well as age of consent. Which is good because I dated a 16 year old for a while when I was 19 >_>. Didn't want to go to jail lol.