Return to London Underworld in The Getaway Sequel Company: Sony Interactive Entertainment America Product: The Getaway: Black Monday Sony Computer Entertainment is announcing the launch of The Getaway: Black Monday, the sequel to the three-million worldwide best-seller and ?Greatest Hits? title, The Getaway, created exclusively for the PlayStation 2. Developed by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe?s Team Soho, The Getaway: Black Monday fuses gaming and cinema into one medium, providing players with an exciting, in-depth, interactive entertainment experience, as gamers make ?moral choices? in the gangland thriller that will determine their path through the story, concluding with one of the multiple endings. Team Soho used more than 25 square miles of London, adding 17 new locations for the sequel, including rooftops and portions of the ?Underground? subway to give The Getaway: Black Monday a truly authentic look at the London criminal world. Three very different Londoners? lives collide in The Getaway: Black Monday, which culminates in an explosive showdown with London?s new gangland boss, Viktor Skobel. Gamers will piece together parts of three new playable character?s stories -- Sergeant Ben Mitchell, who works in tandem with the Metropolitan Police?s firearms division, Eddie O?Connor, the boxer, and Sam, the stealthy thief and computer hacker -- all while making critical moral decisions that will influence the final outcome of the game. Providing gamers an enriched and refined gameplay experience for the sequel, The Getaway: Black Monday features more predictable driving and on-foot controls, varied pacing in 22 missions, a branching storyline, new playable characters, and an all-new cast, including more than 20 actors who were ?performance captured? as they acted out more than one hour of in-game cinematic sequences. Additional changes include a game map, motorcycles, more than 250 cars with improved damage models, a refined health system, and new interior and exterior locations including Trafalgar Square and River Thames. ?The Getaway: Black Monday expands on the groundbreaking cinematic gameplay of The Getaway,? said Naresh Hirani, game director, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. ?We feel that we have created the ultimate fusion of a full-length action movie with a first-rate videogame, featuring our beloved city of London in the starring role. As gamers become immersed into The Getaway: Black Monday?s intriguing gameplay, they will feel like they are directing, not just watching, an action-packed, blockbuster crime movie by making moral decisions in the branching storyline, ultimately producing a more personal conclusion to their Getaway experience.? The Getaway: Black Monday is a single story shown from the unique perspectives of Sergeant Ben Mitchell, Eddie, and Sam, interwoven by a chain of events and twists that culminate in an explosive showdown. When a dawn raid on an East London apartment complex turns nasty, it sets in motion a chain of deadly events that will put Mitch up against the most powerful man in London. Across town, hard hitting-man Eddie O?Connor is beaten bloody after a bank job goes wrong that leaves many of his crew dead. In over his head, his only ally is a foul-mouthed petty crook, Sam, who?s as tough as she is pretty. The next 48 hours will be a matter of life and death for all three of them, transporting gamers into the next chapter of London?s underworld. Classic and contemporary cinematic methods were used in game development; from atmospheric lighting, sound, and set design to a director working with the actors who were ?performance captured.? Using a small head-mounted camera and microphone pointed at the actors? faces, in combination with optical and magnetic motion capture tracking systems, the performances of multiple actors at the same time were then transferred into dramatic digital cinematic cut-scenes and interspersed throughout the gameplay for an authentic movie feel. These cut-scenes, along with The Getaway: Black Monday?s thrilling storyline, intriguing characters and intense orchestral score composed, arranged and performed by Nimrod Studio Orchestra and Nimrod Productions, which was remixed by artists from the Ninja Tune and Big Dada labels, combine to further blur the line between movies and video games. ?Team Soho used cutting-edge technology to create a game ahead of its time,? said Peter Edward, game producer, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. ?We wanted to create a game that offered the player a brand new, refined game and movie experience that built on the previous game. Looking back at all of the ideas we were able to implement for The Getaway: Black Monday, we are confident we have done just that.? The independent Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) has rated The Getaway: Black Monday ?M? for Mature. -Red Dawg, GameVortex Communications AKA Alex Redmann Related Links: Sony Computer Entertainment