Platinum Games' MadWorld looks great. Really getting the most out of that Wii hardware. Should be a blast! But if you live in Japan, Australia or Germany, be warned: you may be on the outside looking in on this one. While the game is to be aggressively geared towards the American market, it won't - as we've pointed out - even be shown at TGS, and releases in other "sensitive" markets - like Germany and Australia - are "not part of Sega's strategy right now". Bummer. Best you Germans and us Australians can hope for is that the classification boards go easy on it on the grounds it's "comic" violence.

Sega Working Closely With ESRB On Ultra-Violent 'MadWorld,' Japanese Release May Not Happen [MTV]

...Australia or Germany? Go on, guess! OK, well done, the correct answer is indeed Australia. Still hamstrung by the South Australian state Attorney-General's refusal to amend the country's classification laws (currently games don't have the R18+ rating movies do, and all six state AGs need to agree to change the law), Silent Hill: Homecoming has become the latest high-profile game to be refused classification in Australia, a move that practically bans the game from these antipodean shores. Those that have already played the game will suspect the decision was due to quality control concerns, but in reality it'll have been down the game's gore. Or, sorry, "gore".

No Homecoming [Screen Play]

The future of Rock Band's release in Australia has long been up in the air. We've heard that it was coming late, that it wasn't coming at all, all kinds of things. Today, the wait/conjecture can finally be put to rest, with EA confirming that the game will indeed be seeing an official Australian release. And only a year after the American one! The game will be out on November 7, and - we're guessing because EA are now shipping Rock Band 2 elsewhere and have some leftover bundles lying around - it's going to be a lot cheaper than expected. While Europeans were kicked in the nuts, left with both outrageous pricing and quirky bundling options, Australia will be getting the all-in-one box for a "reasonable" AUD$250 (USD$208).

Also available will be a drums-and-game bundle for AUD$180 and a guitar-and-game bundle for AUD$140 (which matches Guitar Hero's pricing). As for the standalone game, it'll be AUD$100 on 360 and PS3, AUD$90 on Wii and AUD$70 on PS2. It's claimed 200 songs will be ready for download when it does launch, so it looks like most - if not all - of the Rock Band Store will be making the jump down under as well.

EA Finally Sets A Date For Rock Band In Australia [IGN]

Been all quiet on the LA Noire front for a while now. So how's everything going? Well according to the president of the Game Developers' Association of Australia (LA Noire's in development at Team Bondi studios in Sydney), Tom Crago, everything's going just fine. He says the game has around "a year or so to go", then adds that it "could be the biggest budget videogame in development anywhere in the world. It would certainly... in terms of console titles, be in the top ten... LA Noire is a massive massive project". Never really had the game pegged as a BLOCKBUSTER before, but hey, if that's how Rockstar want to spend their cash, it's their cash! Finally, he also told attendees at Games Convention Asia that the game was coming to 360. Funny, since it's always been a PS3 exclusive. Then again, Crago's boss of the GDAA, not boss of Team Bondi, so we'll peg this last bit a rumour for now.

L.A. Noire: A Year Off and No Longer PS3 Exclusive? [IGN]

Not content with ruining Fallout 3, the Australian Classification Board is now just playing mind games with us.

Yesterday the Board posted a classification notice for LEFT 4 DEAD Game (Nintendo DS).

We had to screen cap this so we could prove to ourselves so that it really happened and they couldn't delete it and start whistling innocently while we ran around, wild-eyed like someone on the Twilight Zone who has realised that it is indeed a cookbook.

We contacted Valve's Doug Lombardi who quickly brushed off the OFLC's clever ruse as "Nonsense".

Just step off, Australian Government. We are on to you.

Left 4 Dead: Nintendo DS [Thanks to Carlos Negron for the tip]

Slow week this week. Nothing wrong on the parity side of things, as most things the US store got the PAL one's got, it's just a slow week, that's all. Can't imagine millions of you clamouring for some new Haze maps, though with ice hockey a sort-of-big-deal in certain parts of Europe, the NHL 2K9 demo might go down a little better.

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Looks like THQ have plans to wage an endless war on humanity's wallets. Not only are they (well, they and Relic) serving up Dawn of War II and a "ready when it's done" 40K MMO, but job listings appearing on THQ Australia's website reveal the company also have plans for a 40K "action game" for the 360 and PS3. The company site doesn't out-and-out name the project, saying "We are currently looking for people to work on a next-gen brutal, intimate melee combat game using a world-class brand", but a listing on a local recruitment page gives the game away, using 40K as its main selling-point. Games based on 40K that aren't Space Hulk or Dawn of War have generally sucked, but who knows, a "brutal, intimate" combat game on a PS3/360 might yet be able to take the Dawn of War intro and make a game out of it.

THQ Studio Australia needs developers for Warhammer 40,000 project [Tsumea]
THQ Australia Careers [THQ, both via IGN]

Good news, Europeans (and antipodeans)! Because it's the Leipzig Games Convention, and because Leipzig's in Europe, and because you've all been very, very good, this week's PlayStation Store update is almost exactly the same as the North American one. And the North American one was stacked. You get Ratchet & Clank, you get Kratos, you get DragonForce, you even get the PSP version of Pirates! as a downloadable title. So no complaining this week, OK?

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To recap: the PAL Virtual Consoles sometimes run a little thing called the Hanabi Festival. Means a bunch of rare, usually Japan-only games get made available for a limited time. Well, they've kicked off another one this week, and the update's a cracker. While one of the games has already made an appearance - Mario 2 - the other is a sight for sore eyes. It's Super Mario RPG. Yeah, Super Mario RPG. Which never, ever graced these southern shores, so if you'll excuse me, I'm off to catch up with my good friend 1996.

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