Eidos announces line-up

Better late than never, Eidos has announced its E3 line-up, including that enigmatic "third person urban action game with an online component" that the publisher announced it was working on with Highway 1 Productions some time ago, known as Get On Da Mic.

Games on the show floor we'll be more familiar with include Backyard Wrestling 2, Climax's reported Burnout clone Crash 'n' Burn, Pyro Studios' recently announced empire-'em-up Imperial Glory, and a couple of games we can already buy - Hitman: Contracts, and Singles: Flirt Up Your Life (which Eidos is distributing in the States).

Notable absentees from that list include ShellShock: Nam 67 from Guerrilla Games, Tomb Raider 7 from Crystal Dynamics (although Eidos admitted as much recently) and Thief: Deadly Shadows from Ion Storm Austin, but we imagine the first and last titles will be loitering around somewhere - particularly given that the latter just went gold.

Get On Da Mic, though, is the thing we're probably wondering about the most. (Or at the very least giggling about.) It seems the "urban action" thing that we all picked up on was a bit of a red herring in the sense that while we all envisaged some form of street-smart action game, we didn't realise we were up against a street-smart hip-hop music title, to be followed by the similarly titled Get On Da Floor dance title next spring.

Both the Get On Da... titles are in development at French developer Artificial Mind and Movement (A2M), and we're told that Get On Da Mic will feature 40 licensed songs, and that players will have to impress the crowd, freestyle, and use their musical skills to rise to fame in the music industry. What's puzzling though is that we don't really know anything else. Will we be singing? Rapping? Singing and dancing? Goodness only knows - or rather E3 does, and will be telling us later this week.

Oh, and if we needed extra incentive to keep an eye on Eidos' offerings, we'll be treated to an audience with the Insane Clown Posse (some sort of crazy people) and a Ms. Tera Patrick, who we're told is a porn star. We're not familiar with either the ICP or Ms. Patrick's work, but we're told they will be there to promote Backyard Wrestling. Which is just as well, because quite frankly we did need extra incentive to give a damn about that one...

Eidos official line-up consists of the following games:

• Backyard Wrestling 2: There Goes The Neighbourhood (PS2, Xbox)
• Crash 'n' Burn (PS2, Xbox)
• Hitman: Contracts (PS2, Xbox, PC)
• Get On Da Mic (PS2)
• Imperial Glory (PC)
• Singles: Flirt Up Your Life (PC)