Jeff: I've just played the first board of 'Manhunt.' I feel about how I did when I walked out of Harmony Korine's film 'Gummo.'

Tom: From the makers of 'Grand Theft Auto' comes what is quite possibly the biggest fuck-you to the protective parents and concerned educators of America ever. Here's what the intro screen says: 'To best experience Manhunt you should ... Turn off the lights ... Close the drapes ... Lock the door ... Then get ready to kill!' I'll say this: 'Manhunt,' at the absolute least, is honest.

Jeff: Delightfully, the difficulty levels are called 'Fetish' and 'Hardcore.' Let me give everyone a little Manhunt gameplay clue: Pick up a shard of glass, a sickle, a plastic bag, or any number of blunt and/or hideous instruments, find some shadows, hide in them, wait for someone to happen by, and press the X button.

Tom: Whereupon, if you're really lucky, you'll see an execution cut-scene.

Jeff: Which as often as not will involve the game's 'camera' being sprayed with arterial blood.

Tom: All of it somehow narrated by the great actor Brian Cox, who is, unsurprisingly, the best thing about this game.

Jeff: Would I feel better about 'Manhunt' if its hero were not a convicted murderer? If its milieu were not the undiscovered country of the snuff film? If the slickness of presentation were not equaled only by the pointlessness of its provocation? It manages to be both shocking and boring. It's the video-game equivalent of a Bret Easton Ellis novel.

Tom: As the old critic said, there is much in 'Manhunt' that is good and new, but the stuff that's good is not new and the stuff that's new is not good. And I finally fear that playing too much 'Manhunt' could well cost someone his or her eternal soul.