What is it about the forthcoming RPG Fallout 3 which has caused the Australian Classification Board to ban the game? Theories abound, but several suggestions have been outlined on /. (before the commentary devolves into infantilism), including the admittedly controversial use of morphine as a stimulant in the game.
The Australian system is notoriously conservative; they don't have any rating above 15+, which means that adult-oriented games, with adult-oriented themes, are frequently censored. That includes games we take for granted, like Grand Theft Auto (the whole series), Leisure Suit Larry (Magnum Cum Laude) and graffiti-sim Mark Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure. You can see the full list of the games-non-grata here.
The UK has a much shorter ban list, but what's always remarkable to me is how different it is from others'. Each country has its own notions of taste and decency, from Germany's well-reported dislike for blood and Nazi themes (bye bye classics Wolfenstein and Carmageddon) to the US' dislike for explicit sexual content (well, breasts). It gets political too: Saudi Arabia banned Pokemon for its alleged Zionist undertones, and China banned Football Manager because it recognised Tibet as an independent country.
More information on this topic on Wikipedia, which provides a detailed list of banned games by country.
