Hot off EA CEO John Riccitiello's announcement of a new Need For Speed game, some less exciting revelations were dropped. The publisher revealed that two of their premiere titles won't be coming out until early 2009. The games in question are BioWare's Dragon Age and Pandemic's Saboteur. More details after the jump.

If all you can think about when you hear World War II are games like Medal of Honor and Call of Duty, you're in for a nice little twist. Pandemic Studios, creator of the Mercenaries franchise, has announced a game called Saboteur and it's going to delve on the sneakier side of war.

Set in the 1940's and based on a true story, this game will pit you as a secret operative in Axis-controlled territories where you must perform missions that will weaken enemy forces by striking them from within. This video may have that cocky feel to it, but the devs assure us that we'll be all business come game time.

Developed for next-generation platforms Sony PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Xbox 360, Saboteur seems to have a nice, distinctive look to it as seen in this teaser clip. Not a whole lot is known about the game, so you'll have to stick around to find out more.

  

Pandemic Studios is well known for their bringing the highly-explosive Mercenaries franchise to the sand-box destruction gamer, so when they announced sneaky, clandestine shooter Saboteur coming soon to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, people were probably thinking: what in the world got into Pandemic's head?
 
In an interview with GamePro, Pandemic's director Trey Watkins and producer Phil Hong answered that question with:

One of the reasons we sought out this arrangement was because we wanted to be able to take some risks. When you're under the traditional paradigm, many developers are averse to taking risks. In self-financing we've set out, certainly we have other properties that are well developed like Mercenaries; we want to be creating new IP that's pushing the edge.

Pandemic Studios found a new air of freedom with MMORPG-focused BioWare, allowing them to look at the war-shooter genre from a different perspective and break away from the mainstream shooters, like Call of Duty and Medal of Honor. Instead of developing another WWII game clone and aiming at hardcore gamers, Pandemic broadened their horizons to cater to a much larger crowd.

As Watkins suggested, the game may be a cross of Metal Gear, Splinter Cell, Grand Theft Auto and Mercenaries. All these titles have been very popular in their own right, and catered to their own set of gamers. They believe they will be unifying two game concepts into a single type of game for the first time.

For your information, the game is based loosely on a true story. Pandemic's CEO read such a story in a book, told by an English race car driver named William Grover Williams. The game takes into account the stories told by Williams while behind enemy lines. The game seems to be also coming to the PC (according to IGN), but there is no full confirmation yet.

Mercenaries creators Pandemic Studios revealed the new WWII title they're working on for next-gen consoles, Saboteur (for the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3). Unlike many WWII titles, this game takes on a more clandestine approach to freedom fighting, pitting the player in German-occupied France and a plot based on a true story.

 

Saboteur will be touting an open world environment, requiring the player to use stealthy maneuvers to evade hordes of German occupation forces and commit acts of sabotage against enemy assets. The story unfolds as one man fights the Third Reich single-handedly, in an effort to find those responsible for killing his loved ones.

In order to help the player accomplish that, the game will allow the player to manipulate the many objects in-game, including military and civilian vehicles. In addition to efficient use of costumes, weapons and items, players will also be granted the ability to scale walls and evade patrols by moving on rooftops, often taking on enemies in bare-handed combat.

As pointed out in the official press release, the game concept of "Will to Fight" (as opposed to "World of Fight") encompasses the visual representation of the parts of Paris that are liberated and those that are still occupied. Where Germans heavily patrol, the game suddenly turns into black and white. The citizens there are quiet, passive and obedient to the occupying forces.

But progressing through the game, players will find that those parts eventually get liberated, returning them to bright, colorful surroundings. Citizens will become more outspoken and even encourage rebellious activity with cheers. The visual measurement of progress is readily observed in-game, allowing players to know just how much they've accomplished so far.

As Pandemic Studios Phil Hong said, "While one of the great conflicts of human history is being played out all around us, ultimately we’re not really concerned with winning the war because we know how that turns out. We’re interested in telling the story of one man’s personal battle." Saboteur will be coming by 2008 to next-gen consoles.

Multiplatform Pandemic Studios lead designer Tom French and producer Phil Hong were interviewed by GameSpot to prime Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 players about open-world, action WWII title Saboteur coming for their consoles in 2008. The game itself sets the player in German-occupied Paris, France in the World War II era.

During that time, an insurgency of strategic sabotage and small skirmishes allowed the Allies to hinder the progress and relocation of men and material to the Western and Eastern fronts of the theater, where Spanish and Russian forces engaged the German war machine.

The next-gen game aims to slap the player right in that part of history, and allow players to perform clandestine resistance missions against the occupation forces. Using a unique approach to visual representation, the "World of Fight," Pandemic Studios will allow players to easily locate the occupied areas of the city and gauge how much progress they've made on liberating the city from the German occupation.

The game creates a black and white (noir) environment for the parts of the city still heavily patrolled and guarded by German troops, but once the forces have been beaten back, parts of the city then regain their vibrant colors. Features such as climbing, scaling and sneaking around have been mentioned, but the extent of mobility seems to be locked for traversing on foot.

Music will feature "big band" jazzy tunes, to commemorate the jazzy French music of that era. Click the "Read" link below to view the interview video on GameSpot.