Rockstar Games" controversial Manhunt 2 game has been rejected for a second time by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), despite revisions made after a ban in June.
Rockstar had launched an appeal to the BBFC Video Appeals Committee against that decision, which was suspended while the revised version was considered for classification.
"We recognise that the distributor has made changes to the game, but we do not consider that these go far enough to address our concerns about the original version," said BBFC director David Cooke.
"The impact of the revisions on the bleakness and callousness of tone, or the essential nature of the gameplay, is clearly insufficient.
"There has been a reduction in the visual detail in some of the "execution kills", but in others they retain their original visceral and casually sadistic nature."