Those in the know will know that, in Australia, MA15+ is as high as the ratings for video games go, with no legal grounds (yet) to rate a game "adults only" (or, as it would be known here, R18+). So the game hasn't technically been banned, but it may as well have been, since it's the Board's way of politely saying "well, we'd have given this an R18+ if we could, but we can't, so stores aren't allowed to sell it under Australian classification laws".

There's been no explanation from the Classification Board as to why, exactly, the game was knocked back, but being a game about the undead in the First World War, it's most likely go to do with gore and/or violence.

For the record, the game was released earlier this year in Europe on the PC to a decidedly lukewarm reception.

Necrovision banned in Australia [GameSpot]

Cenega Publishing has announced NecroVisioN, an FPS game developed by The Farm 51 of Medal of Honor: Allied Assault and Painkiller fame. You play a young American soldier fighting during the first world war who discovers another war raging below the surface of the planet between human-hungry demons and the vampires trying to protect us from them. Offsetting the fact that WWI weapons sucked, the player will gain access to vampire artifacts, technology, and magic.

It's a nifty bit of theme swapping that sounds pretty intriguing, sort of like the movie From Dusk Till Dawn, which starts as a crime movie and takes a left turn into a horror film. I'm intriguied. Hit the jump for a gallery and the press release. Michael Fahey

Cenega to Release Vampires and Hell Demons

NecroVisioN for PC signed

April, 2nd, 2007 - Prague, Czech Republic - From the recent drug battles in South America, through the future human battle for survival on Mars, Cenega now plunges headlong back into World War I with its newly signed title, NecroVisioN. But there is more to the game then defeating the Kaiser's army. There is much greater evil hidden beneath the battlefields of the Great War. Captured in another war, it fights its way up to the face of the Earth. And has to be stopped...

Now the only defense standing between the powerful forces of darkness and humans, who are unaware of the existence of the underground worlds, are vampires. But they are losing ground in this war and desperately need help before they fall and all hell will get loose. Can a young American save these worlds, and survive as a human?

NecroVisioN is a First Person Shooter taking place in a variety of locations from battlefields of World War I to much darker and brutal underground world of vampires and demons. Sceneries range from realistic to dream-like, opponents from enemy troops to fantasy creatures - old fashion look and style of the game is going to remind the world setting from the Lovecraft's horrors and seamlessly mix the war shooter elements into it. Player will fight enemies using environments, powerful and evil artifacts, vampire technology, and authentic WWI era weapons.

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NecroVision page on Cenega.com