EIDOS ANNOUNCES FREE RUNNING

Eidos announces Free Running, the world's first ever video game based on the urban phenomenon of parkour. Developed by Core Design, Free Running will be released worldwide on PSP in autumn 2005.

Parkour, the art of movement, is less a sport and more a way of life. Its participants, known as Free Runners or Traceurs, view the environment and its obstacles, urban or natural, as a series of challenges to be overcome. To the Traceurs, parkour has a philosophical appeal: they feel transformed by the experience, free from the grind of city life. Since its inception in Paris during the mid-1980s, it has spread across the globe and now has an international army of exponents and enthusiasts.

In Free Running, the concrete jungle becomes your urban playground as you run, vault, jump or climb over obstacles in the most fluid and flowing manner possible. Test the boundaries of human ability as you perform death-defying leaps and jaw-dropping trips across inner-city rooftops. To be crowned King of Parkour, you must master over 50 moves, tricks and stunts including 'Kong Vaults', 'Pharaoh Climbs', 'Rail Split Vaults' and 'Vertical Wall Runs' in a variety of game modes while racing against human or computer-controlled competitors.

Free Running has been developed in association with Sebastien Foucan, one of the French founders of the movement, and the UK's foremost Parkour collection, Urban Freeflow. To aid your progress, Sébastien appears in the game as your mentor, teaching you new moves and tricks. Members of Urban Freeflow also make an appearance as unlockable playable characters.

Matt Sansom, executive producer at Core Design says: "After seeing these guys perform their amazing moves, we just knew we had to make it into a game. Working with Sébastien, Urban Freeflow and the other traceurs has been an amazing experience and hopefully people will feel the same buzz when playing the game. Free Running offers authentic, intense excitement which is true to the spirit and art of parkour."