Ripten's Dan Landis writes:

During GDC, the Ripten crew was privy to an exclusive invite-only shindig presented by the good people at D3Publishing. What did we do? Well, we sat down in front of some system-linked Xbox 360's and proceeded to tear the shit out of each other in a few rounds of Digital Extremes' new game, Dark Sector.

Steve Sinclair, Project Lead for the game, ran through a bit of the single player with us first. He showed us what is essentially the tutorial, the events leading up to Hayden (Dark Sector's main character) getting infected with awesomeness, and then skipped around to later levels to show us some upgraded bad-assery.
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Following news last week that Australian censors have withheld yet another game (Dark Sector) from adult players, most gamers would feel frustration at the inequity of the current classification regime.

But Dr. Brett Hutchins, a passionate gamer and a senior lecturer in Communications and Media Studies at Melbourne's Monash University, believes the lack of an R18+ rating for games in Australia might actually be good for the long-term health and acceptance of interactive entertainment.

The gaming community should be very careful about what games they use to rally around and prosecute the classification system. In much of the public eye, unnecessary and mindless games like Manhunt 2, which rely on extreme violence to shock, titillate and garner attention, are only going to reinforce the stereotypes that gamers are fighting to overcome. Dr. Hutchins points out that "if the wrong games (i.e. extremely violent games) are held up as evidence of unfairness, this may actually be counter-productive."
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D3Publisher has told GamesIndustry.biz that its Australian distributor may be considering an appeal over the banning of upcoming PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 title Dark Sector.

The game has been refused a rating in Australia by the Office of Film and Literature Classification, effectively banning the game from sale in the region.
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Digital Extremes' third person action title has been deemed too "violent, gruesome and sinister" for Australian gamers by the country's ratings board.The OFLC, Australia's classification board, has refused to grant the PS3 and Xbox 360 title a rating, reports IGN, labelling it a "violent and sometimes gruesome game with a sinister storyline and ominous outcome"."The violence and aggression inflicted upon the protagonist is of a high level, ... » Read More

Digital Extreme's sci-fi themed shooter gets refused classification in Australia due to high impact violence.
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Upcoming gory third-person action game Dark Sector will be hitting UK store shelves on Friday April 4, with a demo set to hit XBL and PSN in mid-March, D3Publisher has told VideoGamer.com.

Dark Sector, which looks like a cross between Gears of War and Resident Evil 4, is the first next-gen game from developer Digital Extremes. You play as Hayden Tenno, a super hard CIA operative who gets to chuck a death-bringing glaive around a mysterious island as he gains super powers from a deadly infection.
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D3Publisher today announced that Michael Rosenbaum, TV's Lex Luther, will lend his voice talents to the upcoming Dark Sector.
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TeamXbox Staff writes:

" D3Publisher of America has revealed four new weapons from the upcoming action-thriller, Dark Sector: the double-action revolver, the Hammer 1895; the Striker short-barrel shotgun; the TEKNA Burst Pistol; and the VX Carbine high powered rifle."
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Greg Miller of IGN takes a look at Dark Sector and delivers a timely progress report.
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Oct 19, 2007 Digital Extremes has been developing Dark Sector for over three years, and is only now starting to hint at details regarding the plot. You play Hayden Tenno, a covert agent who - in the midst of a dangerous mission - gets attacked and infected with a bio-weapon. The weapon in question gives Hayden powerful, inhuman abilities which he must learn to control. This is all well and good. But the latest trailer hints at another darker story. It seems agent Tenno must die in order to ... » Read More

Sept 13 2007 Dark Sector, the weird Resi 4-a-like where your hand is also a razor-sharp boomerang of death, is predictably pursuing a plot line of odd science and dark experiments. And, as this fresh video illustrates, some of the chaps you'll meet will be odd scientists in dark places. Nice. Seriously, though, Dark Sector looks nice. It's got vicious weapons, bio-mechanical man-machine goodness and lots and lots of high-tempo action in gritty East European locales. All you need for a love-in ... » Read More

During the Games Convention 2007 in Leipzig, Digital Extremes and D3 Publisher confirmed that a Dark Sector demo was on the way, ready to hit Xbox Live and PlayStation Network this October or early November.
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D3Publisher of Europe Ltd., a publisher and developer of interactive entertainment software, has announced its highly anticipated Dark Sector title for Playstation and Xbox 360 will be released across Europe on January 22nd, 2008.
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Aug 21, 2007 Dark Sector developer Digital Extremes claims that supposed criticisms of Epic Games' Unreal Engine 3 were actually taken out of context. Australian website Gameplayer ran an interview Monday with Dark Sector director Steve Sinclair, who reportedly told the publication, "A lot of promises were made about the Unreal 3 engine, particularly on PS3. But as we see now, the time frames haven't been met and now a lot of games using it are being held up." Digital Extremes now says that ... » Read More

Digital Extremes, long-time partner of Epic and developer of Unreal Championship and Dark Sector, has added to the crossfire aimed at Unreal Engine 3. In an interview with Australian site Gameplayer, Dark Sector director Steve Sinclair claims that the company opted out of using Epic's ever-popular engine so that it could hit its desired release date. "A lot of promises were made about the Unreal Engine 3, particularly on PS3," he said. "But as we see now, the time frames haven't been met and ... » Read More

As part of a Gameplayer preview on upcoming Digital Extremes shooter Dark Sector, the game's director, Steve Sinclair, drops an interesting quote about Unreal Engine 3. He claims that they decided against using the engine so they could hit their desired release date.
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Guys at Darksector are reaching out to you - Dark Sector fans, Forza 2 junkies and the gaming community at large - to make them a killer Dark Sector ride. And to reward, they will be giving out some limited edition XBOX 360 faceplates (like the one as shown in image)...
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D3Publisher of America, Inc. (D3PA) will showcase titles for gamers of all ages at this year's E3 Media & Business Summit, taking place in the Barker Hanger, Santa Monica, California from July 11-13, 2007. The company's line-up includes titles based on popular entertainment brands such as VIZ Media's hit anime series SHONEN JUMP NARUTO and Cartoon Network Enterprises' Ben 10, as well as innovative offerings for the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system, the PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system, the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, and Nintendo DS and Wii home video game system from Nintendo.

D3Publisher of America's Game Line-Up Includes:

Dark Sector
NARUTO: Clash of Ninja Revolution
Dead Head Fred
Ben 10: Protector of Earth
Dragon Blade: Wrath of Fire
NARUTO: Path of the Ninja
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In response to the story of the ESRB's call for the removal of the Dark Sector trailer due to its "excessive or offensive content", Destructoid got in touch with them for an explanation.

Here is what ESRB president Patricia Vance wrote.

"The ESRB's Advertising Review Council (ARC) regularly monitors game ads and trailers to make sure that they adhere to industry-adopted Principles and Guidelines for Responsible Advertising Practices ( http://www.esrb.org/ratings/principles_guidlines.jsp), which were established in 2000. Since 2005, ARC guidelines have required that trailers for M-rated games on publisher websites be displayed behind an age gate to help restrict viewing to those visitors who are 17 and older. Game publishers are also required to use best efforts with respect to ensuring the presence of age gates on third party websites that display their M-rated game trailers. If a third party site insists on carrying a trailer for an M-rated game without placing it behind an age gate, our guidelines require the publisher to request that such trailer be removed and/or provide an edited version of the trailer to be used in its place.

However, the mere presence of an age gate does not permit a publisher to simply put whatever content it wishes into the trailer. All trailers must still conform to ARC's Principles and Guidelines, which prohibit the display of excessively violent content or any content likely to cause serious offense to the average consumer. When ESRB notifies a publisher that the content in a trailer is in violation of these ARC requirements, or that there is an age gate issue on a third party site, that publisher then must notify third party sites to rectify the problem. The notices issued recently by game publishers to third party websites are simply that - steps in a chain of publisher compliance with ARC guidelines and the ESRB enforcement system that have been occurring since their estab...
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In a recent preview done by PSU, they mention that a developer at the show talked about Digital Extremes tossing around the idea of having items for PlayStation Home becuase the game will release about 5-6 months after Home.

One of the items they mentioned was having Hayden's metal arm as an unlockable for your Home character to sport around.
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