House of the Dead Overkill HD has been refused classification, essentially banned, in Australia. This is despite the Wii version sailing past with an MA15+ rating in 2009. The issue of contention with the OFLC is a new ‘Hardcore Mode’, this mode increases the requirement for headshots and the number of zombies/mutants needing to be killed to progress, which in turn increases the amount of gore on screen. There is also mentionin the OFLC documentation of a baby mutant that leaps onto the screen and then explodes into bloody chunks when shot.

Yes this does seem massively inconsistent with many games available for sale right now that feature all of these things, Dead Space springs to mind for monster babies. But that’s the judgement, needless to say Sega of Australia are unhappy, “There are far worse titles currently available in the marketplace which involve more than shooting down mutants in humorous circumstances,” claimed Managing Director Darren Macbeth, "We will do everything we can to prove that House of the Dead: Overkill is worthy of an MA15+ rating in Australia.”

There can only be one logical explanation for this, the OFLC are zombies and this ban is another in a long list of their attempts to restrict access to zombie elimination training simulators from the public. People of Australia, import this game immediately, for the sake of the children, before they become walking happy meals for OFLC zombies! Import this game! Train your children! Rent Army of Darkness as an educational tool!

If you're just a nipper you might not know that the greatest motion picture ever made came out way back in 1986. While people were wearing hypercolour shirts and parachute pants in public, a skinny upstart named James Cameron was making a sequel to renowned director Ridley Scott's space thriller Alien. It's not even slightly an exaggeration to say almost every single scifi shooter you've played, almost every single game involving slimy monsters or heavily armed yahoos, was loosely inspired by Aliens. I must have played a hundred games and felt the influence of Cameron's Colonial Marines and H R Gigers terrifying xenomorphs at the peripheral.

There have been plenty of games featuring the Aliens, even Rebellions lacklustre Aliens Vs Predator 3 just last year, but Gearbox have been working on what feels like the definitive game, a game that really captures the mood of Aliens the movie. Prepare to have any and all scepticism wiped away by the below trailer. And if you haven't seen the movie for gods sake do so immediately.

I had to post this video (and the screenshots after the jump) because this game just looks like the most adorable space action MMO. The game is getting it's first showing at Gamescon and a whole buttload of info has been dropped. To me it looks like Borderlands or Firefall if one of those games had been made by Disney, or possible even Pixar. While that might make it sound childish, and it certainly looks a lot less grim than, say, Rage, in terms of visual style it's about the highest compliment I could think off. The game just looks adorable, adorable and awesome.

Despite Governer Schwarzeneggers best efforts, Mr Freeze remains for me one of the most interesting and tragic of the Batman rogues gallery. He walked a fine line between corny and edgy and the cartoon series often used him with stellar style. Secretly I was hoping the third Nolan Batman movie would use Mr. Freeze as the protagonist, but I knew that would never happen. On the happy face side of things chilly willy is getting the boss character treatment in Arkham CIty, the upcoming and likely best ever, Batman game. And as you can see by the trailer below, he's being played as straight as a die. (I'll never forgive you Arnie, I wouldn't for all the Running Man Blurays in the world)

Yes, yes I admit, we're getting a teensy tiny bit over saturated on here with the Borderlands 2 content. Especially when they're really hasn't been much to talk about. But here's a quick trailer of Salvador the Gunzerker going all shooty. Don't stick pins in your kewpie doll of me until you watch it okay? Pretty please? The doctor says I'm imagining the pain but I know, I know it's you... and your voodoo.

I haven’t mentioned Dishonored yet, which feels dishonourable (with a ‘u’, the correct way) on my part because the game looks both interesting and awesome. Now I’ve got some new pictures and an excuse to write about it.

It’s been developed by Arkane Studios who made Dark Messiah (groan) and Bioshock 2 (oooh). But the real ace card for Dishonored is Harvey Smith, a man responsible for a few little games like Deus Ex (the original one) and Thief: Deadly Shadows.

Click through for some more pics and info.

Metro 2033 was one of those great little games that just had too much going wrong with it. Released with crappy controls it took a developer patch to get them right, but the game on the whole was pretty cool, peppered with terrific, memorable moments and a unique feel. Metro Last Light looks like a big step up in the franchise. The lighting effects that were just pretty good before, now look amazing and the game world looks even more interesting than it did before.

Check out the gameplay trailer below and the follow up trailer after the break. Once that's wetted your appetite run out and grab a copy of the original game to fill these dark days while we wait for the holiday release period.

When it comes to iconic video game characters fueled by pure undiluted awesome while maintaining respectable day jobs as civil servants, only one name comes to mind. Mike Haggar (seen above pile driving a shark).

But why is he the greatest mayor of all time? What trials did this Hercules body slam into oblivion to claim his title? Well listen close (to the below youtube video) and learn ye mortals, The Ballad of Mike Haggar.

Borderlands was a pretty awesome game that just about begged for a sequel and Gearbox guaranteed it from the get go. Now we've got the first images and a promise of more info and the Gamescon expo. The early promises are more weapons, more characters, more bad guys, more environments and better mission system to deliver a more structured story.

The next issue of Game Informer will also have a twelve page spread with lots of juicy details. Click through to see the awesome Borderlands 2 cover Game Informer will be rocking next month.

I didn’t want to write about this. I thought the initial finger pointing would die down far more quickly. But every geek and game blog I’ve looked at the last few weeks has covered it in some way or another. Jim Wallace from the ACL made has appearance on news programs with a rant so ridiculous it borders on self parody on the subject. The subject of Anders Behring Breivik.

Anders Behring Breivik; a name that will no doubt, much to its owners delight, live in infamy. For that reason alone I was resisting the temptation to comment on how gaming relates to this terrible tragedy. It seemed... trivial I suppose, in the wake of such a horrible tragedy. But under the weight of all this commentary I have broken; we’re in for a terrible hurricane of stupid in the weeks to come and I just wanted to say from my soapbox to my fellow gamers, keep calm and game on.