Our mates down under just whipped out the banhammer, seeing as they don't seem to want any necro in their vision. After refusing classification to NecroVision, the Australian Classification Board subsequently banned the ghastly World War I shooter, citing a number of offensive material found in the game.

For sure. When Microsoft seemed bent to advocate Live Anywhere to game developers in order to connect console thumb-flippers to PC twitchers on what might have been the modern gamer's World War I, they probably didn't expect to be stopped dead cold by Infinity Ward's two-lettered dumb-founder: "No." Activision's Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare ain't going Live, says Infinity, and that's that.

 

But Infinity Ward's Grant Collier did reveal in an interview with IGN that CoD4 (for the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3) was not going to be a sandbox destructive game. Instead, they've put more focus on producing better frame rates on the game than creating a world that's "totally destructible."

And according to Collier, full destructibility is just another fad in the shooting genre that could end sooner than later. While everyone is else is requesting for such a feature, Infinity Ward doesn't feel that it delivers fun in any of the games that are being designed with that concept in mind, like EA's Battlefield Bad Company. He added:

I think it's a buzzword, it's a badge, it's a bullet-point option, but a lot of games they get in there and they try to do that and then they're like 'okay we have the sandbox, now why don't we try to make the game fun'. And total destructibility, you can really ruin the gameplay. ... So I think right now it's a fad, and the fad will pass, we're not going to be bite on in it - we want the game to be fun first, and destructibility comes second.

Oh and Price is coming back. Again. Revived for the modern era, the lovable Brit is going to get new shoes to fill, with arch-nemesis Zakhaev. Collier said that a foiled assassination attempt has your paths cross with Zakhaev and Price and much of their history gets revealed through flashbacks set in Ukraine.

And even though facts have been tossed around that Call of Duty 4 was set in present-day Iraq, it actually revolves around conflict touching the four corners of the modern world. And enemies aren't under-equipped, cowardly Guerrilla types; they've got the technology and the tactics to take you and your band of brothers (circa 2007) out.

There has been a lot of Christmas stories which usually involves Santa delivering gifts to kids who were nice throughout the year and all that. But that's kid stuff, and now that most of us know that Santa doesn't exist (yes kids, Santa doesn't exist), one Christmas story that really strucks a nerve is the Christmas Truce.

It was Christmas 1914 during the World War I and in the Western Front, German and British troops stopped killing each other and began singing carols and giving each other gifts in the form of whisky and cigarettes. Heck, there was even a football match. All of these because it's Christmas.

But enough of the Christmas talk and on to business, Slitherine Software and Firepower Entertainment recently released the latest screenshots for their upcoming World War II strategy game, Commander: Europe at War. Them screens will show a variety of units that one could use.

Aside from the gift of screenshots, the Slitherine online store also mentioned that you can now get 50% off from selected digital downloads. If you wanna see the full catalogue, simply click on the read link below. For now, here are the game's screens.

  

The upcoming title Aggression: Europe 1914 from Buka Entertainment lives up to its title in this demo gameplay reel which features s***, more s***, and even more s*** being blown to kingdom come. But before we get to that fun part, let us make the observation that gameplay-wise, Aggression bears a resemblance to the Total War series in that there's a strategic, big-world gameplay phase and there's the real-time tactical battle phase.

Okay, now let's get to the fun part. Buka claims their game engine is capable of handling the routines of "hundreds of detailed units in action," and based on this reel, it looks like they might have lived up to that promise (although we could think of ways of proving that claim, it's gotta wait at least until a demo's available). Simply put: Massed infantry = mass casualties.

Oh, and in case you're wondering about your history lesson, no, this isn't another World War II video game. This one is set in the earlier World War I, a change of pace from the rash of WWII games dumped on our laps in recent years. We'd say hallelujah, but then again, war is hell.

Download: [Aggression: Europe 1914 reel]