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Stuff That Never Gets Old – Duke Nukem Ventrilo Harassment

Dave Oshry — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 02:00:12 +0000

There are some entities on the internet that transcend time and relevancy. No matter how out-of-date they may be, no matter how many times you’ve seen them, the humor lingers and we find ourselves right back where we started, laughing our asses off as we add one more view to the tally of millions. This, my friends, is stuff that never gets old.

There once was a man named Duke Nukem. A man so badass that he could harass your mother on her own vent server for hours and get away with it. Sure, the Duke may not be as relevant as he used to be, but this video will forever be synonymous with the phrase, “Ventrilo Harassment”

Check back next week for more videos we wish we’d been clever enough to make ourselves.

Got an EA Forum Ban? Then No Origin Games For You!

Catherine Cai — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 17:00:00 +0000

Apparently, EA forum account bans are linked to your Origin account as well.

Yup, that means if you decide you want to maliciously slander EA on their forums, you probably shouldn’t plan on playing any games on Origin linked to that forum account. Apparently, back in March, when EA forum user ‘Arno’ earned an EA forum ban after a facetious bash on the company, he was locked out being able to play online with any of his EA games. EA stated that the ban was a mistake, as:

“Unfortunately, there was an error in the system that accidentally suspended your entire EA account. Immediately upon learning of the glitch, we have restored the entire account and apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused while accessing other areas of the EA service.”

When the issue came up again, EA promised to “fix” the account glitch. However, Rock, Paper, Shotgun has heard stories from EA customers that prove otherwise. EA customers are still being locked out of their account despite their only issues with EA on the forums. In fact, an individual who was banned from the EA forums ended up having his account terminated without much of an explanation, besides the false accusation that he was a repeat offender.

Considering the amount of flak that EA has already gotten about how bad its customer service is for Origin and the amount of support that EA gives Origin, hoping it’ll succeed, it’s probably a good idea to get this EA forum/Origin account thing fixed. Sure, Origin’s probably not expected to be any type of Steam killer, but it’s certainly quite similar to the Steam client in terms of functionality and intrusiveness in the gaming experience. If you want to smoothly integrate Origin and maybe have people willing to use it, it’s probably a good idea to have people think you’re not the scum of the Earth. Really, it’s a simple fix. Have a separate log in for the EA forums and the Origin account like Steam does with the Steam forums. Problem solved.

DooM No Longer Banned In Germany After 17 Years

Dave Oshry — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 18:00:21 +0000

In 1994, id’s genre defining masterpiece DooM was deemed harmful to the German youth. It was restricted to adult only stores like a set of vibrating anal beads.

However, the ban has now been lifted because they feel the game only has artistic value and is no longer of interest to youngsters who would rather play realistic games like Call of Duty… and kill Russians and Nazis.

Who made this happen? Bethesda. id Software was acquired by ZeniMax (BethSoft’s parent company) back in 2009 and the company made an appeal stating that the game’s dated graphics made the violence have much less of an impact on today’s youth.

Although the German version of the FCC (a.k.a the Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons or “Bundesprufstelle”) said their original decision was not based on the visual quality of the game alone, they did admit that even cell phone games are much more visually powerful than DooM these days. They say the original decision was due to the fact that the game contained an endless cycle of violence that was not counter balanced with the Doomed protagonist hugging bunnies and saving puppies or some shit.

Lies. He Loved That Bunny...

In a letter to the BBC, the Bunderwhatever stated that a game can be deemed unfit if it contains:

“drastic portrayals of violence directed against human or human-like beings”.

“If the game then does not contain any real alternative scenes which might on the whole ‘neutralise’ the violent parts, then the game is likely to be found to have a harmful effect on minors.”

So… if DooM had cutscenes in between the levels where the space marine mopped up all the blood and planted flowers around the lost Deimos Base, things might have been different. Or maybe if there was an option to make all of the blood turn into donuts like in Serious Sam Double D. (Yeah, you can do that)

Anyhow, the bunderwunders further stated that children are far less likely to play DooM now and will likely play much more realistic and challenging games… which are still not as good or as influential as DooM.

In a related story, Wolfenstein 3d will never be released in Germany – blow it out your ass.

Epic Will Ban Your Ass If You Spoil Gears of War 3

Chris Carlson — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 22:00:31 +0000

If you remember correctly, back in July the full, but unfinished version of Gears of War 3 was leaked online. While Epic and Microsoft have been removing the leaked copies, there’s still one issue that threatens the fans of the series – spoilers. Epic plans to track down anyone who spoils the game and ban them from playing when the game hits shelves later next month.

Speaking with Eurogamer, Executive Producer Rod Fergusson stated:

“We have a banning system built into our stuff so we can go in and identify certain people. Some people aren’t smart about what they do. They’ll be disappointed on 20th September when they can’t get in and can’t play. They may be banned.”

“If you don’t value this community, you don’t value this experience, then we don’t value you. I’d rather pick that one bad apple out of the pool so everybody else can have a better time.”

Gears of War 3 launches on September 20th exclusively for Xbox 360.

Dingleberry, Crackspackler and Sphincterface Among Hundreds of Words Banned from Mortal Kombat

Bryce Wilson — Sun, 01 May 2011 13:37:40 +0000

A data file enthusiast has torn apart the configuration file for the latest Mortal Kombat game and found a bunch of ridiculous words banned from use in MK9 text communications.

So whilst it’s okay to use Scorpion’s fataility to cut someones airborne skull in half, it’s frowned upon and forbidden to use terms like:

skin flute, bunk monkey, balls in your mouth, fudge packer, cocksmoker, sphincterface, deez nuts, cum dumpster, monkey humper, mother fucker, mud people, muff diver, dune coon, penis breath, pussyjuice, rug muncher, rectal redneck, tar baby, tit fucker, aaaand Bin Laden.

Oh, you also can’t use the word “murder” which I can’t help but feel is slightly ironic considering the voice-over guy yells “FINISH HIM!” at the end of every fight.

Source: [GamesRadar]

Australia Introduces R18+ Rating… Sort Of

Bryce Wilson — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 06:02:52 +0000

The Australian R18+ rating saga is a story known to many, and known well. Many great games have fallen victim to the strict and outdated ratings system currently employed in Australia, however one state is set to blaze their own trails, with South Australia announcing it will introduce its own R18+ rating.

South Australian Attorney-General John Rau confirmed earlier today that he had taken matters into his own hands and would be introducing the adults only rating regardless of what the rest of the government decides at the upcoming SCAG (Standing Committee of Attorney-General) meeting in July.

The move comes after Home Affairs Federal Minister Brendan O’Connor said that if the no ‘other options’ could be agreed upon, there would be a possibility that each state and territory could introduce their own arrangements and laws – and that is exactly what South Australia is doing.

Rau, speaking to GameSpot AU earlier today spoke of his decision;

“I’ve been consulting very broadly on this [issue] for a year now, I’ve been listening to parents and gaming advocates and I have come to the conclusion that both points of view are legitimate and need to be accommodated. Recent moves by the federal government suggests that there will be an R18+ classification for video games in some form after the July [SCAG] meeting.”

Whilst there’s still no word on a nation wide ratings system being introduced, we will keep you updated on the matter as we hear more. That being said, a journey of 1,000 miles starts with one step, right?

Let us know what you think about the ongoing R18+ saga in the comments below, or voice your thoughts to me via Twitter – @DrjftGaming.

Mortal Kombat – “Australian” Edition

Bryce Wilson — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 14:05:34 +0000

Australia is no easy walk when it comes to games coming through the classification system, and many a good game have fallen foul to the R18-less environment.

The latest in the long list is the upcoming gore fighter Mortal Kombat, and the reason solely being that some of the fatalities contained that was “unsuitable for a minor to see or play” according to the National Classification Board.

RipTen Reader Andrew Burdusel took it to himself to create more ‘child’ friendly versions of the fatalities so that Mortal Kombat may rise and shine in this fair country… Well, fair if your game is kid friendly… Even if it should be MA15+ and out of the hands of children anyway.

Check out the new and improved Mortal Kombat below;

Do you think this version will get past the tough ratings board? Let us know in the comments below or tell me via Twitter – @DrjftGaming.

Some of Andrew’s other work was featured on Kotaku (A Pictoral History of Australian’s in Video Games), so check it out and leave him a comment!

Mortal Kombat Reboot Banned in Australia

Bryce Wilson — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 03:29:07 +0000

The latest and goriest entry into the Mortal Kombat franchise has been refused publication in Australia, due to failing Australia’s outdated and problem riddled classification process.

The report came from an anonymous person who received an email claiming that the game “will not be released in Australia”. Furthermore, all promotional posters and products must be removed from shops and all current standing pre-orders must be canceled and refunded. The email did state however that this decision may be overturned in the future but for now all the mentioned steps are necessary.

An official statement from Warner Bros. is currently pending and we will update you when we know more. One thing is for sure though, this will further fuel the file for the great R18+ debate.

UPDATE: Warner Bros. just issued their statement. It reads;

The highly anticipated video game Mortal Kombat, published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment (WBIE) in Australia, has been refused classification by the Australian Classification Board and will not release in Australia. We are extremely disappointed that Mortal Kombat, one of the world’s oldest and most successful video games franchises, will not be available to mature Australian gamers. WBIE would not market mature content where it is not appropriate for the audience. We understand that not all content is for every audience, but there is an audience for mature gaming content and it would make more sense to have the R18+ classification in Australia. As a member of the iGEA, WBIE is reviewing all options available at this time.

To all my Australian gaming friends, just import the game from overseas – don’t support a government that wont support you. Let me know what you think about the potential banning via the comments below or Twitter – @DrjftGaming.

Official PS3 Statement – Hackers and Pirates, Stop or be Banned

Garrett Hartman — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 22:14:51 +0000

I tell you, if there is anything to take away with how Sony has been dealing with Piracy and Hackers, it’s that Sony ain’t nothing to eff with. On the US PS Blog they released an official Statement titled “Official Statement Regarding PS3 Circumvention Devices and Pirated Software” and in theis statement they come out and say pirates and hacker will be permanently banned from PSN.

Read the Statement below:

Notice: Unauthorized circumvention devices for the PlayStation 3 system have been recently released by hackers. These devices permit the use of unauthorized or pirated software. Use of such devices or software violates the terms of the “System Software License Agreement for the PlayStation 3 System” and the “Terms of Services and User Agreement” for the PlayStation Network/Qriocity and its Community Code of Conduct provisions. Violation of the System Software Licence Agreement for the PlayStation 3 System invalidates the consumer guarantee for that system. In addition, copying or playing pirated software is a violation of International Copyright Laws. Consumers using circumvention devices or running unauthorized or pirated software will have access to the PlayStation Network and access to Qriocity services through PlayStation 3 system terminated permanently.

To avoid this, consumers must immediately cease use and remove all circumvention devices and delete all unauthorized or pirated software from their PlayStation 3 systems.

And Sony doesn’t stop there. With the statement, they also explain why they are doing this.

Circumvention devices and game piracy damage our industry and can potentially injure the online experience for you, our loyal PlayStation customers, via hacks and cheats.

By identifying PlayStation 3 systems that breach our guidelines and terminating their ability to connect to PlayStation Network, we are protecting our business and preserving the honest gameplay experiences that you expect and deserve.

Rest assured, this message does not apply to the overwhelming majority of our users who enjoy the world of entertainment PlayStation 3 has to offer without breaching the guidelines detailed above, and we urge you to continue doing so without fear.

Don’t mess with Sony.

Firmware 3.56 Ban Hammer Hits CoD: Black Ops Hackers Hard

Garrett Hartman — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 21:32:27 +0000

By now everyone should know about the PS3 firmware update 3.56, some more than others. Explained by Sony as a “security update” it’s effects are now being felt by accused modders and hackers. CoD: BlOps hackers are getting hit hardest with a permanent CoD console server ban – many of them have expressed their “innocence” on the Official Ps3 Cod: Black Ops Forums.

It’s not limited to just a few. In fact, there are dozens of threads about this topic. Here are just a few of their posts:

CaStR0_21:

How long am I banned for?

“This console has been permanently banned from the Black Ops servers…..”

Does this mean forever? Or will I be unbanned after awhile?

IssY_I :

When i want to play black ops it says my console is banned permanently???i have payed 150$ for the Ps3 (i bought it yesterday (used) and just came home with a new copy of b-ops! but why is my system banned?

scaryscar6:

I dont know what happened i was just playin it normally. i installed the patch and played for a while and I went to have my shower and when i came back i was permanently banned! Somone please get me unbanned! It might of been my frineds though because i lent him my ps3 a couple of days ago because his ps3 got YLOD…

prEston124:

Today i got my account back finally an It wont let let me play online idk why it says prem ban i didnt do anything man i miss black ops well looks like i have to get a 360.

Imma_Wreck_You:

Hi i understand all of then terms and conditions of playing call of duty black ops, but my PS3 has been banned.. and i dont understand why? there a few people here who play online in this house but none of us can anymore. how can i get some help? or who do i need to contact.

badderz1:

Hi i have been banned for black ops when i click online it says you have been Prem banned from B.O but i didnt do anything to get banned what i did my m8 said he was 15th yea and i said let me go on ur acc then if ur 15th so i just went on his acc and he was 15th and then deleted the user then the next day when i went on my account that message came up my psn is FoRzA-MoNsTeR I am 6th prestige on B.o legit my KD is 1.79 and my wins to losses is 1.14 and a 124 winstreak i did not boost at all please unban me.

__EtMazizi__:

I was playin Black Ops and seached for a game of search and destroy, i just prestiged 4 da 4th time and entered a modded lobby. Ileft straight away when i relised wat it waz next thing i no i banned and reset.Has this r something similair happened to u???

Innocent? Ever been to a prison? There are very few prisoners that will ever admit they’re guilty. This is either a rash of Sony errors – or sweet, sweet justice.

CoD hackers – you did the crime… now do the time.

Own'd.

Machinima Respawn YouTube Account Suspended?

Bryce Wilson — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 03:29:02 +0000

In a surprising move, YouTube has suspended one of the most popular YouTube channels. Machinima Respawn, a channel dedicated to bringing all the latest trailers, gameplay videos and montages was suspended earlier today with YouTube saying;

“machinimarespawn has been terminated due to repeated or severe violations of our Community Guidelines.”

The Machinima Respawn Twitter account said;

“Hey all. We are working with YouTube to resolve this issue. We appreciate your patience in the meantime.”

When we hear more we will let you know, but be sure to stay tuned.

Not-So-Live: Microsoft Bans Estimated 600k User Accounts From 360 Xbox LIVE Service

Chad Lakkis — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 22:54:15 +0000

In an on going effort to eliminate modded consoles from accessing their Xbox LIVE service, Microsoft has reportedly banned an estimated 600,000 accounts — a tad over one-fortieth of their LIVE subscribing customer base.

Banned users will likely still be able to use their console offline, assuming they don’t throw it into a wall or drive over it upon receiving the news.

MadWorld May Not Release in Japan… or Australia… or Germany

Dan Landis — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 03:24:29 +0000

Sega reps won’t be showing the extreme gore-fest MadWorld at this year’s Tokyo Game Show, mostly due to the fact that it may be too extremely gore-festy for Japanese audiences. The game is being developed with a western audience in mind and will only be evaluated for a release elsewhere if it becomes a hit.

Japan-based Platinum Games, developer of MadWorld, is said to be be working closely with the ESRB. They want to make the ESRB feel like “part of the process” and they “don’t want to surprise them”. Basically, they want the game to be as violent as possible and are pushing to see where the ESRB draws the line.

This level of violence obviously doesn’t go over well with those pussy censors in places like Australia and Germany, so those countries are not currently in the running to receive a localized retail release. Oddly, even Japan is not being targeted for some MadWorld action.

Platinum Games and Sega are mainly focused on making MadWorld a huge, bloody hit for the Wii when it releases in North America in March ’09 and, depending on how successful it is, will consider releases in other countries sometime down the road.

Tough call on this one. Most Wii owners are the proverbial “casual gamers” like my sister and her 7-year-old, and I don’t see either one of them being a likely fan of the game. Sure, there are plenty of parent gamers out there that used their kids as a cover for buying a Wii, and maybe they would appreciate some intestine-ripping action, but people like me who think the game looks awesome, well… I don’t own a Wii.

What do you think? Even if MadWorld were a good game, would that be enough to get the numbers given it’s violent nature?

Source: MTV Multiplayer

D3 Had a Baby and Its Head Popped Off (AKA Ripten’s Review of Dark Sector)

Dan Landis — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 08:52:17 +0000

After a solid two weeks with Dark Sector, I feel fully qualified to make this statement with absolute certainty: I played Dark Sector. That’s honestly as objective as I can be, but if you want to know my true feelings of the game, please continue.

For anyone not in the know and/or recovering coma patients, let me explain what Dark Sector is. Dark Sector is a third-person shooter/body part dismemberment simulator (except in Australia, where you instead throw rainbows at people who react with sprays of chocolate and hugs). Sounds awesome, right? Well, it is and it isn’t. I’ll explain…

Let me first start by saying that Dark Sector is by no means a bad game. That being said, let me go over the things I didn’t like about it.

First and foremost, it doesn’t feel right. That’s a highly subjective thing to say and something a good many people will disagree with, but I’m sure many people will completely agree with me on this as well. Hayden Tenno, your avatar in the game, feels sluggish and slightly unresponsive at times. Then at other times, he does exactly what I’m trying to make him do. This inconsistency baffles me, and while it isn’t a design flaw, there are plenty of those as well.

My biggest peeve is that I have to look straight down to smash open an ammo box at my feet, which results in me kicking it instead of doing my usual glaive-swinging melee move. Of course I can just throw my glaive at the box, or even shoot the box (I’m a genius, I know), but that doesn’t change the fact that I have to stare straight down if I want to kick it.

In the grand scheme of things, these control issues are relatively minor. It still says something about the polish of the game in that it could have used perhaps a bit more of it. There are, however, other control issues that a lot of reviewers seem to have a problem with.

A lot of people complained about the cover system, which I totally disagree with. Compared to Gears of War, Dark Sector’s cover system is superior, though both games are inferior to Rainbow Six Vegas. Like Gears of War, Dark Sector’s running and covering mechanic both work with the same button. In Gears of War, sprinting into a wall made you press against it and take cover — Dark Sector requires that you push the button again to take cover.

While all the whiny kids out there will complain about the extra work involved in hitting the cover button again (the horror!), Dark Sector’s system prevents you from sticking to walls that you are intending to run past. This is a problem that frequently pissed me off in Gears multiplayer (among other things — I’m looking at you, mister shotgun), and has lead to me never wanting to play GOW multiplayer ever again (which Chad can attest to).

Speaking of multiplayer, Dark Sector’s multiplayer is a bit of a letdown. You basically have a choice between VIP and Team VIP. Infection (VIP) has one character as a tricked-out Hayden while the rest of the fools play as sorry-ass hazmat soldiers. The entire point is to kill Hayden, in which case the round ends and you become Hayden. This means that while you are a hazmat soldier, you have only one enemy, and instead of working with the other hazmat players to bring Hayden down as intended, you are competing to get the kill shot. You are basically encouraged to kill-steal.

Epidemic is the same thing except you have two teams, each with one Hayden, and the point is to kill the Hayden on the other team. This mode is highly preferred over Infection, but it still begs the question: Why is there no deathmatch mode where all characters are beefed-up bad-asses?

Another letdown is the story. I don’t mean to say the story is bad, but it really is hard to spot the story enough to tell whether or not it’s bad. There is apparently a lot of history prior to the game’s opening, a history that isn’t fully explained. A comic book that was supplied to me by D3 does give a brief history lesson on Lasria and the unexplained outbreak of the infection, but Hayden remains a mystery.

Finally, the icing on the cake is that the book is only 7 pages with 2 additional pages for the credits (although it’s in 3 languages, so it’s actually 25 pages total). Not counting the table of contents, end user license agreement, and customer support information, the actual instruction booklet is a measly 3 pages. Three pages! Maybe I’m alone in this, but I like sweaty, meaty manuals with big muscles, not these pamphlets we get nowadays — it just feels cheap.

Now that I’ve said all that, you’re probably thinking that I didn’t much enjoy the game. Well, you’re wrong. Despite its shortcomings, Dark Sector is actually a pretty good ride. It is basically the equivalent of a Michael Bay flick — lots of action and explosions with little or no story. Dark Sector’s explosions are mainly of the arterial kind, but the action keeps you interested despite the fact that there is little context to it.

There were so many jokes I thought of for this picture that I couldn’t decide on one…
I compromised by making no joke at all.

The biggest draw would obviously have to be the glaive. Soon after Hayden becomes infected, he gets attacked by a guard and defends himself by birthing a giant ninja star from his hand, slicing his assailant’s chest, and then decapitating the poor motherfucker that walks in a second later. Awesome…

You soon learn the ability to pick up items with your glaive, and eventually you can steer your glaive after throwing it and cut off some limbs in slow-motion. This is one area where the PS3 version had a slight bit of extra cool in that you could use the tilt-sensing to steer the glaive, much like in Heavenly Sword. I personally found the analog stick to be more accurate, though, but that’s just me. I also find the 360 controller more comfortable in general since I’m not 12, nor do I have the misfortune of having little girly hands… but again, that’s just me.

The glaive is also used for a majority of your finishing moves. Wear down an enemy enough and they glow red, meaning you can finish them with a melee attack. These finishers consist of anything between gutting your foe to chopping off his arm or leg. Sneaking up behind enemies also nets you a one-hit kill, and is especially effective in multiplayer.

I also liked the art direction of the game (though I liked the sci-fi Hayden of the early version better), and the graphics themselves are pretty stellar. You may be fooled into thinking this is the Unreal Engine, but it’s not, and it actually runs much smoother. There is no graphical pop-in like in Gears or Mass Effect, and the load times throughout the game are generally only a few seconds.

I also liked how the game starts in black and white and pulses into color when you get infected. The controls after waking up are pretty neat as you stumble around all drunk-like. Clever girl…

Overall, Dark Sector is a good-not-great little game. It was entertaining, like a videogame is supposed to be, but it’s not going to win any awards or hold any special place in history (other than “first next-gen game” even though it came out after so many other next-gen games). If you’ve got a thing for decapitations, however, this game is for you — Dark Sector gives you more flying head than Paris Hilton on an airplane.

What does this score mean? Check out our review scoring breakdown.

Hands-On with Dark Sector Multiplayer (Bonus Official Screenshot Gallery!)

Dan Landis — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 23:08:22 +0000

During GDC, the Ripten crew was privy to an exclusive invite-only shindig presented by the good people at D3Publishing. What did we do? Well, we sat down in front of some system-linked Xbox 360s and proceeded to tear the shit out of each other in a few rounds of Digital Extremes’ new game, Dark Sector.

Steve Sinclair, Project Lead for the game, ran through a bit of the single player with us first. He showed us what is essentially the tutorial, the events leading up to Hayden (Dark Sector’s main character) getting infected with awesomeness, and then skipped around to later levels to show us some upgraded bad-assery.

As you probably know by this point, Dark Sector is synonymous with “giant throwing star thingy that looks like it’s from Krull” — a reference to Hayden’s main weapon, the glaive. Later in the game, you can enter a bullet-time-like mode where the glaive flies through the air in slow motion and you get to steer it around like a UFO.

You can use this time to appropriately slice and dice your enemies, literally. Body parts are sent airborne in the process with a playful amount of gooey redness, just enough to make Jack Thompson weep for the children. Josh Austin, the game’s producer (and the guy holding the controller), said there is even an achievement for cutting off two heads in one throw! Slightly more understandable now as to why it’s banned in Australia, eh?

So after our appetites are adequately whetted (with the thirst for blood, no doubt), we are handed controllers and sent off to kill each other.

The game controls much as you would expect a third-person, over-the-shoulder shooter to control. It does feel slightly slower than, say, Gears of War, as if the character is a little floaty. Maybe I was just used to playing other games, but it didn’t matter — I got used to it in 5-10 minutes.

There were two multiplayer modes available: Infection and Epidemic. Infection pits one buffed-up Hayden character against a group of normals — regular old hazmat-suited soldiers. Whoever takes down Hayden becomes him in the next round. Epidemic is team-based, with one Hayden on each side. He serves as the team’s VIP — protect your Hayden while trying to kill the other team’s Hayden.

Both game types are fairly straightforward, but they offer something most other multiplayer games don’t: bots! Both game types can house up to 10 players, but if you don’t have (or want) enough actual people to play with you, you can fill out the remaining slots with AI-controlled fodder. This is a great feature, something I never understood why it wasn’t implemented in more games.

I was Hayden in the first round of Infection, and I got two kills before being gang-banged. After that it turned into an every-man-for-himself type of deal because everyone wanted to be Hayden. There was very little team play, but I think that’s just because everyone I was playing with was a selfish bunch of dicks. Then again, where’s the motivation to team up and take this guy down if your best bud becomes your enemy? It really is just an exercise in kill-stealing, but it was fun.

In Epidemic, my team was slaughtered repeatedly until I got my turn as Hayden. Once that happened, we won 5 rounds in a row before I was dethroned by a backstabbing insta-kill (sneaky bastards!). Steve showed me where to get a freeze power-up for my glaive, which I then used to “ice” one of my opponents. Ha, see what I did there with the words and stuff? Needless to say, Epidemic was the favored of the two modes.

Overall, the game looked fantastic and felt pretty solid. Steve and Josh both stressed that the single-player game will be constantly evolving, giving you more powers and more things to do. “Never stop learning,” they say. That’s what keeps people interested and driven forward. As for the multiplayer, it will ship with just the two modes, but more are being considered.

Dark Sector is scheduled for a March 25 release on the PS3 and Xbox 360, and I’m itching to play it again.

[album=17]

Denied Down Under: Dark Sector Banned In Australia Due To Excessive Violence

Chad Lakkis — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 08:42:44 +0000

According to a recent report by IGN, the third person action game, Dark Sector, being published by D3 Publisher (who was nice enough to invite us to their GDC party) has been “refused classification” by the AGRB (Australian Game Ratings Board) due to the game’s excessive violent content.

The good news for Australian gamers is that the article closes by saying that the publisher will most likely make changes to the title and resubmit to the board. So much for those “no rules, just right” Outback Restaurant Commercials.

Source: IGN AU