It's been a while since we last heard anything about Frontier Development's long in development techno thriller, The Outsider (PS3, 360, PC). Things are set to change however, as we've received word that the David Braben led project has signed a publisher, exactly who the publisher is will be announced in the very near future.

More on the game after the jump!

Frontier Developments' Founder David Braben has revealed details on his current project The Outsider (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360) and confirmed that they are working on Elite IV for next gen consoles in the recent Nottingham's Game City event.

In the conference, Braben described the video game as an "action thriller, directed by the player." Further lending to this feeling is the premise of the game which places players in the shoes of an ex-CIA agent called Jameson who was framed for the murder of the U.S. President.

While The Outsider has a lot of action sequences, a major part of the video game has Jameson interacting and dealing with various factions such as the Chinese secret service and the corrupt CIA agents who framed him. Fans of non-linear gameplay will be thrilled to know that Braben said that they have modeled the entire Washington DC in the game and that it is possible for players to interact with thousands of NPCs in the game.

Braben also revealed that The Outsider features a robust physics engine and animation system complete with motion capture. In one of the videos featured during the event, they showed of Jamison knocking out one of the bad guys causing him to painfully bounce off one of the nearby tables before hitting the ground.

Gamers who can't wait to pick up a copy of Founder Developments' The Outsider will be happy to know that it should be available for PS3 and Xbox 360 some time this year barring any delays.

The head of The Outsider's developing team Frontier Developments, David Braben, has made the following brave statement (made in the face of hardcore gamers and alike): the much acclaimed titles BioShock and Halo 3 are not exactly next-gen.

"I found Halo 3 great fun, too, but also a little disappointing," he said, adding that while Halo 3's graphics have improved, the gameplay didn't offer anything new that Halo 2 didn't. His sentiments towards BioShock was more or less the same, with Braben saying that he liked the overall oldies theme of the game, but that the gameplay wasn't next-gen.

Braben believes that Frontier Development's The Outsider, which was announced almost two years ago, will be a proper next-gen game that can trounce Bungie's Halo 3 and BioShock. And how does he define a "proper" next-gen game?

For Braben, a real next-gen game lets players have the tools or the means to affect the game's story more deeply than just merely choosing the "good path" or the bad path".

That said, we couldn't wait to get more info on how The Outsider will turn out. Since we haven't heard much about the game for several months, here's a refresher: The Outsider places gamers into the shoes of Jameson, a rogue CIA agent accused of murdering the President. In the game, players can choose whether to avenge his wronged name or to take advantage of the situation and wreak havoc onto Jameson's former bosses.

The game will be released for both the Xbox 360 and PS3. There's still no concrete information about the game's release dates or the actual gameplay, but you can be sure that we'll keep you posted.

First announced almost a year and a half ago, David Braben's techno-thriller The Outsider remains to be the ever-elusive Sasquatch. With intermittent bursts of screenshots by the truckload, information just can't seem to burst through the dam fast enough. Both the PS3 and Xbox 360 fans are just thirsty for info when it comes to this game.

But not for long. Sighting of the game has been confirmed, and finally, it does hint at a clearer view of what the gameplay really is all about. Leading man Jameson, accused of assassinating the President, is sure to take on a whole lot of sprint exercises as CIA operatives chase him around town.

Most definitely, snipers will be hidden within buildings to try and take him down as he runs for it. So, why did he come back to the scene of the crime knowing full well that all's out to get him? Is he pursuing a vendetta against the government? That remains to be the mystery.

But from the few clues that were divulged via the video, we can surmise that he would want to break into the White House, and probably scour for evidence that he is innocent of the charges against him. Most probably, he was just set up. After all, no guilty murderer would come back to the crime scene hoping against hope that an evidence would turn up, clearing him of the crime.

Anyhow, if you want to see what we're talking about, and if you want to see the sasquatch finally captured on video, just click on the Read link below. Release date still TBA.

Tired of all the PS3 opinions you've been getting lately? Well don't be. At least not yet, 'cuz we have yet another one right now that shows some luvvin' for the console, unlike PS3 party pooper Merrill Lynch, who insists that Sony will lose.

Fellas, meet David Braben, Elite creator who's responsible for classics like Zarch and Virus. Yeah yeah, we know, he doesn't look so good in the picture but he does have good stuff to say about the PS3.

Here's what Braben had to say about Sony and those who knock the company down: "there's a fashion to knock Sony and I think it's a big mistake. The fact that they have succeeded very well twice, they're one of the few companies to have gone outside core gamers. Don't write them off."

A statement like this is definitely a refreshing change from all the dissing ones we've been hearing lately, and Braben continues to opine on the PlayStation Network saying,

I think the important thing with PS3 is it could do very very well. It's got the web browser and people are saying, 'yeah big deal' but it's the philosophy behind it, the fact that you can go to any site...That shows a very different [approach]. It's not a narrow gateway, highly controlled by one person. A game can drive you to a specific site for that game, with tons of stuff to download for it for example. I think that is very very positive.

Braben even sites Phil Harrison browsing through YouTube as an example of the PS3 not being restricted by a "narrow gateway" in its web-browsing features. This may lead to a different way with which we view the PS3's pricing, making the PS3 reach out of the hardcore gaming circles. According to Braben, people may actually start to see the PS3 as less of an expensive game console but rather more as a cheap PC. Or maybe even a hybrid of the two.

Braben says, "When you put it together with the fact that it supports a keyboard and things like that, people may start to regard it more as a cheap PC than an expensive console. Or a new thing that's somewhere in between." He also thinks that people are knocking down and writing off Blu-Ray way too early when it's "extremely exciting" and saying that he even wants one.

When Braben isn't too busy talking up the PS3, he's working on the upcoming political thriller The Outsider, for the said console. We'll keep you posted for more.

The Outsider is a techno-thriller. That alone should get you in the edge of your seats for Frontier Developments' much anticipated next generation, high-octane action game.

Revolving around political events, the player takes on the character of ex-CIA John Jameson, as he finds himself the prime suspect for the President's assassination. Amidst the chaos of the martial law surrounding Washington DC, the framed operative tries to escape the long arm of the US Government.

If that is too Hollywood for you, Frontier promises that the game will abandon the prescriptive, mostly linear story found in most of the next generation games by replacing it with characters' motivations in an immersive, dynamic world storyline. So expect the unexpected in The Outsider.
  

Frontier Developments Ltd. has released new awe-inspiring screenshots of the upcoming game, The Outsider, for the Xbox 360 and PS3. With present-day Washington DC as the backdrop, the player takes on the role of a CIA operative who has an arsenal of technology, combat talents, and weaponry available to him.  A shocking opening scenario wrongly makes him an enemy in the eyes of the media and the public. He can choose to wreak revenge or clear his name.

Frontier Developments Ltd. ('Frontier'), the leading independent games developer, today announced its first new game for fifth generation consoles – "The Outsider".

Frontier has been focusing on new game-play elements that are now possible on the imminent console platforms, and emphasise that gorgeous graphics are merely the starting point; they do not make a true 'next generation' game. Several key proprietary technologies, which Frontier has been developing for some time, make their debut in "The Outsider" and bring the sort of freedom of action first seen in "Elite" bang up to date.

The game radically enriches the player's experience by abandoning the traditional, prescriptive, mostly linear story of current generation games, and replaces it by simulating characters' motivations and aims. This gives the player genuine freedom to change the story outcomes in a way that has not been seen before - each player will get a truly unique, sophisticated, visceral experience rather than simply switching between 'good' or 'evil'. The techniques used are enabled by the greatly increased processing power available to the imminent new consoles including the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

"The Outsider" is a gripping, high-tech thriller played out against the backdrop of a living, crowded city based on present-day Washington DC and its environs including the CIA HQ at Langley, Andrews Air Force Base and Newport News Naval Dockyard. As a CIA operative the player has a mouth-watering arsenal of technology, combat talents and weaponry available to him. A shocking opening scenario wrongly makes him Public Enemy Number One in the eyes of the media and the public at large, but leaves many different ways to proceed: to wreak ultra-violent revenge, to turn the tables and exploit the shady organisations he is mixed up with for his own ends or crusading to clear his name.

"The new games consoles like Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 offer a massive opportunity in the future of gaming. One of the comparisons I like to make is with the film industry – we're at the stage that the film industry was at in 1930, where people had started to tire of effects driven 'car-on-a-train-track' films and wanted something more, just as technology and budgets greatly increased to bring in the golden age of Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Wells and many others. A golden age of games is now just around the corner, and I believe 'The Outsider' is one of the first of these." said David Braben, Chairman and Founder of Frontier.