The first details have emerged on the new 50 Cent game, called 'Blood on the Sand', via a tasty scoop on MTV's website.

Developer Swordfish Studios won't say what 50 is doing in this 360 and PS3 follow-up or where it takes place, but by the look of his desert camo the ghetto action goes down in the, err, desert. MTV also says it's inspired by Epic's Gears of War (isn't everything these days?). Check out the new screens here.

There's drop-in, drop-out co-op with all of Fiddy's friends, an arcade-style scoring system and the odd token vehicle section to boot (although we didn't like those in Gears). Even Mark Rein was impressed when he visited the studio last year; "I was blown away and I said to them, 'wow, you've got a really great team there," the Epic VP told us.

"Once we get the game out there ... I think people will realize right away where our focus for the sequel is," Vivendi Games producer Aaron Blean told MTV. "We've emphasized the gameplay quality [more] than anything this time around." Thank goodness for that.

"Blood on the Sand is something more exotic, more Hollywood blockbuster. This game sets 50's character against a cabal of international gangsters on a far-flung, bullet-riddled adventure.

"I would say it's inspired by Three Kings meets Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, it's definitely a crime story," Blean said.

So what's the differences? "The first thing people are going to notice right out the gate is - not only the visuals and how incredible the environments and the game models look - I would also say the controls and the AI will be much, much better than the first game."

Courtesy of CVG

March 27, 2008