"Three hundred a week for this? That seems a little high."

TopWare Interactive has announced that it will publish Scivelation, the latest title from the Black Wing Foundation. If you’re anything like me, you probably assumed the Black Wing Foundation to be a selcouth society dedicated to taking over the world. Imagine my surprise when I recalled that they’re actually the Ukrainian developers responsible for the quirky Stalin vs. Martians.

According to a press release posted on IGN, Scivelation is an action packed third person shooter. The game takes place in a post-apocalyptic future dominated by an iron-fisted global government known only as The Black Wing F… er… The Regime. As you’ve probably surmised, you won’t be working for them. A shame really, as the pay and conditions are quite generous. Instead, you’ll be enlisting with the resistance, who operate in the very definition of an unsafe workplace.

If the story strikes you as somewhat generic, the art design probably won’t inspire you either. The game’s hulking gunmen and murky corridors were brought to life using Epic Games’ aging Unreal Engine 3. Perhaps the game itself will offer a degree of nuance absent from the publicity.

Scivelation will be released for PC and unspecified “next-gen consoles” in mid 2010.

When I see their happy little faces, it makes it all worthwhile.

A censored version of forthcoming PC and Xbox 360 game Left 4 Dead 2 has received an MA15+ rating from The Australian Classification Board. The horror sequel had earlier been Refused Classification, effectively banning it from sale in this country.

According to the Board’s findings, obtained by GameSpot AU, developer Valve has removed “depictions of decapitations, dismemberment, wound detail, or piles of bodies lying about the environment”. A good thing, if you ask me. Young people these days need to realise that lying around won’t get you anywhere. You should be up and about (preferably looking for a job) even if you’re dead.

Valve has also lodged an appeal of the original decision in the hope that the uncensored version of the game can be released in Australia.

In related (though slightly less contentious) news, Valve has unveiled Scavenge, a new competitive multiplayer mode for Left 4 Dead 2. As reported by Joystiq, Scavenge involves two teams of four players. The first team (consisting of survivors) must locate and salvage drums of fuel. The second team is composed entirely of undead miscreants determined to destroy the fuel and maul the survivors. That’s nice.

Left 4 Dead 2 is due for release, in one form or another, on 17 November 2009.

Ah yes. The familiar sense of self loathing that follows a McDonald’s meal.

Two long forgotten (and apparently cancelled) PlayStation 3 exclusives may yet see the light of day. In an interview with GameSpot, Sony London Producer Nicolas Doucet suggested that while Eight Days and The Getaway 3 had been “put to one side”, they were “not dead yet”. The two games were approximately halfway through their development cycles when the call was made to refocus the studio’s resources on the family friendly Eye-Pet project. I’ll just let that sink in for a moment or two.

Though little is known of Eight Days, the trailer released in 2006 implied third person gunplay, vehicular combat and a grindhouse aesthetic. The trailer concluded with a car speeding away from an exploding service station, a scene that (I think we can all agree) has never been attempted before in any medium.

The Getaway 3, an open world crime sim, represented perhaps the more surprising of the two ‘cancellations’. Though its predecessors had received a muted response from critics, the series had garnered a substantial following. So while Doucet offered no assurances that either game would be completed, Doucet’s words will be warmly received by Getaway fans.

After more than two years in production, CCP has finally issued a trailer for its forthcoming console MMO Dust 514. Set in the same sci-fi universe as the more cerebral (and decidedly PC centric) EVE Online, Dust 514 is set to deliver frenetic FPS and RTS action. The anonymous hero of the trailer takes on enemy foot soldiers and witnesses a vehicular shootout before climbing aboard an airborne transport. The sense of scale is impressive.

The art design, animation and visual effects employed in the trailer have invoked comparisons with Sony’s PlayStation 3 showpiece Killzone 2. Depending on your perspective, the environments presented are either logically utilitarian or depressingly generic. Admirers of the colour grey are advised that Dust 514 belongs at the very summit of your wish lists.

The promised interaction with EVE Online stands as the most novel aspect of Dust 514. How will it work? According to a report on fan site dust514.org, EVE characters, who are largely confined to their space ships, will be able to hire Dust characters to descend to the surface of planets and battle for control of key areas. Such negotiations will add a new layer of intrigue to a setting already known for its Machiavellian manoeuvrings.

Dust 514 is to be the first release from CCP’s Shanghai studio. No target platforms or release date have been specified at this time.

"Well, so much for Barry."