So I'm sure you're all sick of hearing everyone go on about this by now, but I want to add my thoughts on this because I think this issue is much more important than whether or not Manhunt 2 will ever see the light of day.
To keep it short & to the point, I believe that the AO rating should be done away with permanently. Yes, the ESRB can give a game an AO rating & then sit back & glibly say "Well we didn't ban the game, we just rated it", knowing full well that the AO rating means that the game will never be released on a Sony, MS or Ninty system. This is simply unnaceptable.
The ESRB was established to rate games so that adults could make informed decisions about what their children play & I am totally cool with that. But if a particular rating allows them to effectively "backdoor ban" a game so that no one has the choice as to whether they want to play it, (even responsible adult gamers), then the system is faulty & needs to be reevaluated.
An M rating would be more than sufficient for any game that has questionable content whereas M denotes a game for Mature gamers who are 17 & up. Anything beyond that is simply stepping outside the boundaries of why the rating system was created in the first place. The rating system is there to inform, not dictate morality.
People may feel that Manhunt 2 getting an AO rating is some kind of victory for morale decency, but what it really is is a defeat for adult gamers everywhere to decide what kind of content they want to consume. No one should be able to take that choice away from you just so that they can feel morally secure. If you're old enough to fight in a war & die for your country, then you're damned well old enough to decide which kind of videogames you want to play.
The AO rating is the height of absolute hypocricy in a society that is being trampled on by the "moral" majority & if steps are not taken now to ensure that the AO rating can't be used to "ban" games, then those floodgates will be open for anything & everything. Soon the ESRB will decide that GTAIV & Bioshock should be AO as well & the only way we would ever get to play these games is if the developers spend millions to go back & re-edit their titles into watered-down horsepiss.
Anyone who would sacrifice their freedoms for security will lose both & deserve neither.