Australians: easily offended and in need of protection from the sort of graphic content that’s all too prevalent in today’s games. Who knew?

But somebody, somewhere apparently thinks so as Grand Theft Auto IV, which is set to delight, stun, lightly titillate and generally entertain ‘mature’ gamers of the world later this month has just had much of its controversy curtailed prior to release in the name of not offending our Antipodean cousins’ apparently delicate sensibilities. Croikey!

The Australian Office of Film and Literature Classification has already awarded GTAIV an MA15+ certificate (their equivalent of an 18+ rating) in view of the "strong violence, strong coarse language, drug and sexual references" contained within the game. Well, they got all that right! They have not, however, specified which bits have been cut out and what effect their omission will have on gameplay. And nor is Rockstar telling.

But it doesn’t take the mental faculties of Prof. Steven Hawking to take an informed guess, does it? Molotov cocktails, serrated knives, private lap-dances at strip joints and three ways to enjoy the services of ladies employed in, shall we say, the oldest profession. Go on, take a guess…