Area 51 pops up on radar

A few new details about Midway's first-person shooter project Area 51 have surfaced almost a year since we first wrote about it, and two years since it was first announced. The story sees protagonist Lt. Nick Cross stumble across some aliens on the job, before becoming infected with a "biological mutagen", which begins to transform him into an alien as well.

Over the course of the game's eight levels, Cross will start to gain abilities as he mutates and will gain access to 15 weapons, both human and alien in nature. Probably the game's main draw is the creature designs from Academy Award-winner Stan Winston, but we're still yet to see any evidence of his creations thanks to the total lack of screenshots available - we'd like to have a look Midway! The game will support online multiplayer on PS2 and Xbox via their respective services, but the GameCube version has been canned. The other two should see the light of day some time in 2004.