Saboteur, Saboteur... Wait, wasn't that the "other" upcoming title from Pandemic, which got kind of overlooked in all the Mercenaries 2 and Lord of the Rings: Conquest hype? Oh, dear - whatever happened to that, and given the rather apathetic reception both of those titles received, do we care? Well, EA are hoping we do, and have sent along a nice little fact sheet and a bunch of pretty new screens and concept artworks to try and reel back our possibly flagging interest in this stylish tale of Nazi-occupied Paris, and the nicotine-stained Saboteur who fights for her liberation - Paris, that is; the nicotine stains are on a bomb happy bloke.

*Not* for exploding.

• Live the resistance in an open-world Paris – Fight and sabotage your way through a stylized open-world 1940s Paris – from the top of the Eiffel Tower, to the riverbanks of the Seine, the cathedral of Notre Dame or the prestigious Champs-Élysées.


• Be the Saboteur – Use a broad range of weapons and explosives to perform your blockbuster sabotage as you single-handedly hunt-down your enemies to dismantle and destroy the Nazi occupation.


• Quiet In, Loud Out – Use gameplay systems like Climbing, Sneaking, and Stealth Kills to infiltrate the Nazi occupation to perform acts of Sabotage Once you've blown your target to pieces, leverage the intuitive cover system and assortment of weapons to blast your way to freedom.


• Vertical World – This version of Paris was designed to leverage the unique abilities of The Saboteur. Being a Saboteur is all about surprise attacks and Paris' rooftops are the perfect path for your secret operations.


• Will to Fight – The Saboteur introduces a innovative new feature that is both an iconic visual style, and a compelling gameplay element. See and feel Paris change around you as you progress through the game. Go from a dark and oppressed black and white policed state, to a bright and inspired world where the citizens fight back...


• Hijack any vehicle - From high performance racecars to military vehicles, as the Saboteur, you can drive any vehicle that comes along to escape your pursuers.

Depending on your point of view, this sudden slew of information after a long press silence is either very well or quite poorly timed as the hype starts reaching its height for that other atmospheric WWII action title, Velvet Assassin, which has the additional bonus of an attractive female lead rather than a chain-smoking Frenchman. On the other hand, as far as I know Velvet Assassin doesn't include any Grand Theft Auto car jacking sequences, or aspire to the new 3rd person buzz word verticality, like Damnation and inFamous, and Saboteur seems more keen on the Metal Gear Solid-style stealth and gadgets thing. Wait... is anyone else seeing a theme here? Throwing a whole bunch of the most interesting concepts from competing titles into one game? What could be more awesome?

Cynicism aside, I'm actually kind of keen on the sound of this one, so I'm going to have a closer look at the rest of the new screens. No word yet on when Saboteur hits PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, but if EA follow the usual pattern we ought to see the trickle of info turn into a torrent over the next few months, so sit tight for more as we get it!