EA Feeling Retro

TSA Towers is enduring some ridiculous internet issues.  Whether it’s all freaking out because the sun has decided to show his beaming white face or not we’re unsure, but whatever’s burning through the pipes in the ground is causing  sub-dial up speeds this morning.  Still, it’s sunny, so it’s probably worth just abandoning the desk and having a quick kick about in the park, or whatever it is that non-geeky folk prefer to do of a lunch time.

But that’s not our style, not when there’s news to deliver.  Firstly, it appears Project Redlime is now officially Syndicate.  Starbreeze, developers of The Darkness and the upcoming remake of Chronicles of Riddick are attached and have apparently been working with EA on Syndicate since August 2007.  Starbreeze are nice and cosy with EA at the moment, next year’s Bourne game will be their first after Riddick is out the door and on the shelves.

If you’re not familiar with Syndicate, the isometric cyberpunk strategy game was a huge Amiga hit, drawing on Blade Runner for obvious inspiration but smart enough to carve its own niche.  Developed by Bullfrog (Populous) and much loved by everyone at the time. Bullfrog was later aquired by EA, which explains the license.

Elsewhere, and with even less to make a story from, it appears that the vapourous next-gen Road Rash wasn’t quite so thin after all, with Mark Knight’s online CV providing the main meat of any news outside of an official confirmation. Despite the bullet point for Road Rash being marked as ‘unreleased’ it’s clear Knight was the Senior Sound Designer for the project, which would have seen a release on both PS3 and Xbox 360.  Whether an unannounced project can actually be cancelled is a matter of semantics, but this, as far as we know, is the first we’ve heard of it.

We’ve spoken to EA and asked for confirmation, will update if we get anything concrete.

Tips: Tuffcub, Kevling, Sources: GI.biz, SA