If you’ve been hyped up for free running extreme sports after watching Casino Royale, then you’re in luck: Reef Entertainment has snatched the rights to Rebellion’s Free Running for the PS2 and PSP. One of the fastest growing underground youth sports, free running has broken into the mainstream through films such as District 13 and the aforementioned James Bond movie, as well as Madonna’s music video ‘Jump’. The game will have players running and jumping their way through urban obstacles.

Originally in development at Core Design, the makers of the Tomb Raider franchise, the game was acquired by Rebellion as part of its purchase of the studio from Eidos earlier this year. Free Running will feature characters based on the leading free runners in Europe and will feature apparel and high fashion training shows from Adidas.

The game is scheduled for release across Europe in Q1 2007; North America will see the game soon afterwards.

Following the revelation of the Sixaxis PS3 controller at E3 2006, Neversoft is one of the first developers to announce support for the motion-sensing gamepad with Tony Hawk’s Project 8. The game will let players be able to balance and steer skaters through every move, as well as control slow motion to the nail the trick moves.

Tony Hawk’s Project 8 will be available for the PS3, alongside other platforms, when the console launches on November 17. It will retail for $60.

Call of Duty 3

Tony Hawk’s Project 8

Halo 2 for Windows Vista

If snowboarding and aliens sound very odd to you, that’s because IT IS. Bongfish has announced Stoked Rider: Alaska Alien, the next installment in its snowboarding series… this time with extraterrestrials!

Equip your alien rider and drop him at the highest peaks of tremendous mountains. Wherever you want. Explore a never seen before terrain inspired by Alaska’s impressive summits or match online with your friends and players from around the globe. New equipment doesn’t only look good, it really makes you better. And you will get better yourself. Those times, where you can start a run, grab a cup of coffee and the rider reaches the bottom of the valley by himself, are over. Snowboard gaming is about the gamer. STOKED RIDER: Alien Alaska will challenge YOU.

“So?” you ask, “Where and when can I get the game?”. We’re not telling you yet, because until now we couldn’t find a publisher for most regions (with notable exceptions). And that has not got anything to do with the quality of STOKED RIDER: Alaska Alien. We’re getting great feedback from everyone. Cooperate business just claims that snowboarding games don’t sell. We say: Rubbish! Our STOKED RIDER series was played by more than 600.000 players around the world over the last six years! One thing is sure: there will be a simultaneous world wide release via online distribution - and this will take place this winter season. Bongfish is taking a next generation approach here too.

Hoping to grab some of Activision’s market share for skateboarding games, EA has announced SKATE for the PS3 and Xbox 360. Marked for release sometime next year, the game, as the title states, will focus on skating, offering “innovative controls, authentic cameras and a fully reactive skateboarding city.” Professional skaters Danny Way and PJ Ladd have already signed up to be in the title.

“Our game offers a skate mecca for both skaters and gamers in search of the definitive authentic skating video game experience,” said Scott Blackwood, executive producer, EA Black Box. “We’re focused on capturing the actual feeling of skating with the innovative control system, the physics driven animations, the intelligent cameras working together to really deliver the closest thing to being on a board.”

Making an allusion to the legendary Tony Hawk series, EA states that the game will feature an unique control scheme that will “capture the true feel of skating” versus the typical button mashing gameplay of its competitors. It will also feature physics-driven animations which will result in no two tricks being the same.

SKATE is being developed by EA Black Box in Vancouver, British Columbia.