BlackSite: Area 51 is a first-person shooter. It's out in September. Most people would say it's been sent to die against Bungie's mighty Halo three-quel, but according to lead campaign designer Ricardo Bare, Halo 3 will actually help sales of Midway's shooter.

"We've talked about this a lot and there's a couple of different schools of thought," he told us. "Whenever you go and see a really badass action movie like X-Men, it just makes you want to go and see Spider-Man 3, right? You usually want more of the same."

He continues: "Some people subscribe to the fact that when something really huge comes out, it helps the other two or three really good games that also come out, because you want more FPS action.
"At the same time, I think our game is different from Halo, so it's not like we're offering the same thing, we're offering a really cool, gritty atmosphere and the squad - Halo 3 doesn't have a squad." Unless Bungie's keeping that under wraps...

Interesting theory. Midway also confirmed to us this afternoon that a new PS3 and Xbox 360 demo will be arriving ahead of release, including a new campaign level and online multiplayer.

"All we intended to do [with the first demo] is show a teaser, but the next release we have will be a full blown demo with multiplayer and everything. It'll be on 360 and PS3."

Look for the full interview and updated impressions as soon as we get our fingers moving.

June 12, 2007