The first few weeks of January are rarely exciting, but this is particularly so in the games industry. Every software publisher will have pushed as much product as possible into the trade in the weeks before Christmas, for obvious reasons, and The Bumper Book of Industry Folklore is littered with anecdotal evidence of Christmas blockbusters from the past which haven't been as complete and bug-free as they might have been. Regrettable but understandable, as the suits and bean counters might say, if the alternative is releasing a high profile title during the bleak month of January. Nobody does that. Nobody. Not unless they've got a very good reason, and/or a convincing line in excuses for the shareholders.

Two years ago this week, though, Take 2 Interactive had a very good reason for the belated January release of one of their high profile titles - a long-running dispute with the ratings authorities over content - and their marketing made much reference to it. 'Finally allowed out!' screamed the flashes which accompanied quotations, both favourable and unfavourable, from the media coverage the game had picked up.

"One of the most grossly violent games ever" - The Sunday Mirror; "If there's any decency left in the world the moral majority will rise up and demand this game banned" - Teletext Digitiser; "It cannot be faulted... where it succeeds is as a compelling and absorbing game packed with atmosphere" - Net Gamer, who gave the game a 90 per cent score.

The game was, of course, Postal, and it carried a BBFC '18' rating to ensure no minors could have access to, and become corrupted by, the on-screen carnage. It took its name from the US, where the phrase 'going postal' had come to mean grabbing a gun and shooting anyone who got in the way, after a disgruntled US postal worker had done just that.