Bourne game taken seriously

Internal Vivendi developer High Moon Studios has said The Bourne Conspiracy will be a game that "stands on its own two feet".

But it isn't because it wants to detract itself from the movie tie-in stigma; the game simply took too long to create to be tied to one particular film.

"Games for next-generation consoles take longer than movies to make - two years and sometimes longer," Emannuel Valdez, creative big cheese at High Moon, told Reuters. "We knew we didn't have enough time to build a quality Ultimatum game and come out with it at the same time as the movie. So we decided to do things differently, something new."

That isn't to say the project has been disassociated with the films. The Ludlum Estate, which acts on behalf of the late Bourne author Robert Ludlum, has hired a creative consultant in Matt Wolf to make sure everything goes to plan. He even roped film writer Tony Gilroy in to flesh out the plot.

Wolf's message and insistence on the correct portrayal of Jason Bourne has been eagerly taken up by the developers.

"The first was that Bourne isn't Gucci," said lead designer Matt Tieger, detailing two vital points of the game's creation. "Meaning that he isn't the type of spy who carries a lot of stuff with him - he pretty much weaponises his environment."

"The second really important principal was that Bourne always has a target, an objective. Meaning he's not the type of character who goes wandering around an open-ended world."

The Bourne Conspiracy will also adopt the handheld camera-style of the second and third films, helping give it a cinematic air - apparently.

The Bourne Ultimatum, the third film in the book-adapted series, is due out in the UK on 16th August. It will once more follow super agent Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) as he battles with his amnesia and rebels against the government that created him. Highlights of the films are his ingenious use of every day items to gain the upper-hand, like a Biro, or a bottle of Vodka.

The Bourne Conspiracy is due for release on PS3 and Xbox 360 in mid-2008. Subsequent titles are expected to follow with much shorter development times.

Head over to Eurogamer TV for the first trailer, or into The Bourne Conspiracy gallery for the screenshots.