Irrational doing X-Com game?

Irrational Games is known to be hard at work on BioShock at the moment, but our old pal Internet Reports has been digging about a bit and seems to have come up with some clues as to what else may be happening in the developer's US and Australian studios.

Shacknews documents the trail, which leads through to the website of law firm Fierst, Pucci & Kane, LLP. They handle accounts for a number of game companies and related individuals, including Irrational's Ken Levine and Jonathan Chey. What's interesting is that Irrational is linked, in cached versions of a Fierst, Pucci & Kane document, to "X-Com".

Other threads pointing to some sort of Irrational X-Com possibility include the detail that publisher Take-Two, which owns Irrational, actually acquired the X-Com property in 2005, and doesn't appear to have done much with it since. Then there's the fact that Ken Levine is known to be a big fan.

It's hardly conclusive, of course, but there's certainly more to go on than usual. Shacknews notes that its contact with Levine proved unhelpful, however, with the developer declining to comment. Meanwhile we spoke to Take-Two this morning, only to be told that clarification would have to come from "on high" - the publisher's corporate offices in New York - if it came at all. So stay tuned, because there might be more in this fittingly turn-based investigative saga!