Coming as no surprise seeing that the original shared the same fate, Gears of War 2 has been deemed too violent, resulting in a sales ban in the great country of Germany. Then again, we don't quite understand the ban seeing that Microsoft could have made the German edition locked into Gears 2's new family friendly mode. But we digress.

Even more odd is that Gears 2 has also been banned in Japan. We guess the Japanese market just can't handle the awesomeness that is Gears of War 2. Sucks for them.

yet other violent games slip through (DMC, and about 1 000 000 others)
This is very strange

As for Japan - sorry but the Japanese dont have a thing for action TPS and FPS games. So they aint missing out on "the awesomeness that is gears 2" as they didnt even bother buying Gears 1 (you can check the sales for reference).

Gears is a great action game no doubt but not for the Japanese market sorry. Though i cant understand why Germany band it, i dont see it as that violent of a game considering your killing aliens not humans.

@ Oniichan )

Gears is close to the pinnacle of games when it comes to glorification of violence(Postal and Soldier of Fortune still are at the top I guess). It's violent nature is one of it's main appeals and scenes like slicing enemies into pieces are even accentuated by changing into a different, more cinematic camera perspectives. BTW although the enemies aren't human, many of them are humanoid and there are gallons of red blood flowing.

Glorification of violence is besides glorification of the national socialism the main point for games not getting a rating for the german market, which means that, if they are released without a rating, they can be indexed (no ads allowed/no magazine reviews and reports allowed/ not allowed to display them in shops/ sales over requests at the counter only) or banned.
Microsoft chose to not release games without a rating, so the game can't be banned in germany.

If they ban this game, they should ban Resistance 2 for gore elements as well.

Too violent....oh no, sprites are attacking each other, run for yer lives!

 LOL... Resistance doesn't have chainsaw bayonets and curb stomps. (and I don't think it has blood splashing on the screen)

Common sense is your friend

They have a gun in the game that shoots saws at people, and i've seen photos from videos in the game of a soldier being ripped in half . The gun also had a holding option where you can saw deep within a person instead of just cutting them. You have very selective memory.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wixN5g6yOaU

nothing close to what i mentioned

Nice video. Look closely at when the gun dismembered the alien with multiple shots. You can keep shooting the your enemy on the floor as well for extra gore effect. It literally shows piles of body with heads missing dude.