25 to Life: First gritty shots hit the street

As expected, Eidos unveiled their new urban third-person shooter 25 to Life at E3 last week - and we've got the first shots of the game in action. In effect, the PS2 and Xbox title offers online cops and robbers - or, as Eidos put it, places gamers in "the gritty reality of both police task forces and hardcore street gangsters". Among the range of missions you can perform are busting out of prison and infiltrating the inner sanctum of a drug lord's mansion.

The online side of things supports up to 16 players while your status and online ranking can be improved by earning new gear for your customisable character. And depending on the side of the law gamers choose to play on, access will be given to either proper police firearms or illicit street weapons. Go for the latter, we say.

Meanwhile, in other Eidos news, the company has denied that it is in takeover talks - despite recent rumours that the likes of Electronic Arts, Activision, THQ and Ubi Soft have expressed an interest in purchasing the Brit publishers. However, Eidos have admitted that sales of their recently-released Hitman: Contracts have plummeted - despite reaching number one in the software chart - and plans for a second pressing of an additional 700,000 copies of the game have been scrapped.

25 to Life is due to be released for PS2 and Xbox in spring 2005.

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