The Rundown: Jan. 22, 2009

Another day in New York. It’s hard to work with all this talk about Priceline and the flurry of nerf darts that pierce an otherwise quiet Thursday afternoon. Today in the news NOBY NOBY BOY gets a date and a price on the PlayStation Network, Mines of Moria gets an award, the IGF Student Showcase winners are named, details on Global Game Jam, Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad goes gold and much, much more. Please join us for yet another pulse pounding edition of The Rundown - right after the break.

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F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin Banned in Australia

Apparently, folks in Australia may not have anything to fear … including F.E.A.R. itself. The Australian Classification Board and Classification Review Board, the country’s governing body for the entertainment industry, has refused to give any classification to Monolith Production’s upcoming horror/FPS title, F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin, effectively banning it from being sold in the region.

Currently Australia only offers classification for games with a rating of MA15+ or lower, leaving any titles intended for the 18+ crowd without the possibility of release in the region. Fallout 3 and Silent Hill: Homecoming are just two of the other games than have fallen victim to the Board’s strict classification criteria. Fallout 3 was forced to make edits to the game in order to garner an MA15+ rating and be made available for sale, while Silent Hill: Homecoming has yet to reach Australian audiences.

So far, the Board has so far given no reasons for its decision regarding F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin.

Project Origin Becomes F.E.A.R. 2

Some good news came out of Burbank this week: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment has changed the name of action horror game Project Origin to F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin. I am certainly happy that Monolith’s follow-up to the original game now has the proper moniker. The game with the spiffy new name will be published by Warner Bros. Interactive on February 10, 2009 in North America and February 13, 2009 in Europe. Here’s what WBIE had to say about the name change:

“The name addition builds upon the strong game recognition, which we will extend as we move forward reinventing the F.E.A.R. brand,” said Samantha Ryan, Senior Vice President, Production and Development, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. “F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin will continue the legacy of the original F.E.A.R. game with story and combat while adding new twists, gameplay and graphics to expand the players’ experience.”

Project Origin was to be published under the Sierra label owned by VU Games, which was all but abandoned by Activision Blizzard after the merger. WVIE bought back the rights to the game from the company, who was glad to sell it off and move on. I guess it’s a win-win for everyone.

Check out our coverage of the game before it became F.E.A.R. 2 in our Project Origin Preview.