Yesterday, BioShock on PS3 appeared in the OFLC's database. Somehow, the static image of a syringe is much more suggestive than a dude violently jabbing himself with a needle and groaning in ecstasy. Good thing there's no mention of real world drugs, so we can pretend it's just a game!

Oh, that's right, it is a game.

As an aside, Digital Extremes gets an "author" credit in the database entry, thanks to its optimisation work.

BIOSHOCK Game (Playstation 3) [OFLC]

No chance for Dark Sector in Australia? Not quite the case. Local distributor AFA Interactive appears to have finally gotten its hands on the toned-down build for the Japanese market (or a custom one from developer Digital Extremes) and coaxed an MA 15+ rating from the Office of Film and Literature Classification.

AFA has yet to announce a release date, but it's fair to say we can expect Dark Sector to hit Australian shelves shortly.

Dark Sector Game (Multi Platform) [OFLC]

A toned-down version of Dark Sector based on the Japanese build? Yes, we could deal with that.

Sadly, it seems this information was more of a plan rather than solid confirmation, as we were led to believe. Digital Extremes, the developer of the game, got back to us recently with this:

We were aware of the Australian banning, it got quite a few headlines over [in the US]. We did make an altered version of Dark Sector for Japan which could easily be updated for Australia but D3 hasn't requested that we do it yet.

Digital Extremes says it doesn't want us to miss out on the game but as far as it knows "it's not going to happen". Australian retailers: 0, overseas stores: 1.

When Dark Sector was refused classification in Australia, we decided to chase not only the publisher, D3, but AFA Interactive, the local distributor and developer Digital Extremes.

AFA today got back to us with the following information.

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Digital Extreme's Dark Sector is meant, it feels, to be the beginning of something, a game that serves as an origin tale and set piece for what could become a franchise. In the game you play as Hayden Tenno, a black-ops agent sent into Eastern Europe to assassinate someone. Things go astray, as these things often do, and Tenno is infected with a virus that gives him evolving and deadly powers; chief among them the ability to boomerang an organic three-bladed knife at people, lopping off appendages.

Digital Extreme probably had a no-brainer hit when the decided to let people lop off body parts with a deadly Frisbee, but in their pursuit for something more they may have missed the mark this time around.

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D3 Publisher has dropped details on the two multiplayer modes included in Dark Sector, revealing a slight gimping of the game on the PlayStation 3 versus the 360. While the Xbox 360 supports Quick, Custom, and Ranked matches, the PS3 will only allow you to search or create games. Boo! As for the game modes themselves, in the Infection game mode, one player takes the role of super-human main character Hayden while up to nine others play members of the Lasrian military, trying to take him down. When one of the troopers takes Hayden down the match ends, with the killer stepping into his super-powered shoes the next round. The second mode, Epidemic, features two teams each with their own Hayden, with rounds ending when a Hayden is brought down. Interesting choice, taking two game modes traditionally tacked on to multiplayer shooters and making them the focus. Hit the jump for more details.

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I was not very impressed with Dark Sector when I briefly checked it out at the Tokyo Game Show earlier this year. This video almost makes me want to give it a second chance... almost.

As you can see above, it's obvious that they share similarities - the white/black duotone; the menacing stance; the even more menacing bladed weapon... you get the picture. Heck, you can see it.

Ignoring the fact that I had to flip the Dark Sector art for symmetry, if someone told me the same art director had been behind both pieces, I'd probably believe them.

What do you reckon?

One of our tipsters sent us a link to GamingSA's story on Digital Extremes' Dark Sector, which was being demoed at eGames. I'll be posting my own impressions this week, but I just wanted to address an error in the story.

Dark Sector, being developed by Digital Extremes, was one of the first ... next-generation titles to use the Unreal Engine 3 many years ago, and the first next to Unreal Tournament 3 to make use of the UE3 on PlayStation 3.

I can understand how you might confuse it with Unreal Engine 3, especially when you consider DE's close ties with Epic, but it's definitely the company's own hard work. I suppose DE could take GamingSA's comment as a compliment.

EGAMES EXPO - Dark Sector demonstration [GamingSA]

I had about 15 minutes to play around with D3 Publisher's Dark Sector today and while I loved having the ability to arbitrarily and capriciously lop off limbs and heads with a Krull-like throwing blade, the shaky controls and spastic graphics just killed the game for me.

When not in motion, or under any taxing special effects, the graphics aren't really that bad. In fact, I initially kind of liked the look of the game. But once I started taking fire and jumping stuff, things nose-dived. In one scene I dropped down from a ledge, at the request of the game, and the animation showed my character float out off the ledge and then drop straight down, his legs never really bending. When explosions hit near the character the entire screen turns red, I don't mean like a red tint or a blood effect, I mean an ugly red that blanks out the entire screen.

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