Call of Duty: Ghosts is out now; here’s our Call of Duty: Ghosts review.
The core Call of Duty games have been uniformly rated 18 in Europe since 2009. Perhaps you are in your mid-to-late teens, eagerly anticipating your 18th birthday, when you’ll finally be able to play a new iteration of this FPS everybody’s been talking about since you became sentient.
Well: sorry to ruin the sense of occasion, but if you’re old enough to drive a moped in the UK, you’re already old enough to play Ghosts.
The history of European ratings is somewhat complicated by the switch from the BBFC, whose responsibility now rests solely with film, to new Pan-European body PEGI.
The BBFC awarded Call of Duty: World at War a 15 certificate in 2008, despite the bayonets and burnt-out pillboxes, but Modern Warfare 2’s look-at-me airport controversy a year later saw the series’ rating pushed up to 18.
PEGI have kept that number consistent since taking over the job, designating both Modern Warfare 3 and Black Ops 2 as 18 games. Until now, of course. Early promotional material had suggested Ghosts would be rated in line with its predecessors, but PEGI have now confirmed a 16-and-above age restriction.
Is that because it’s set in the wibbly-wobbly future, where murder isn’t really murder? Possibly not – Black Ops 2 pulled that trick too. Hopefully, then, this signifies a campaign story devoid of the cheap shock Infinity Ward have sometimes been guilty of.
Ghosts is out on November 5. Knew there was a reason to remember that date.
Thanks, Eurogamer.