Frontier Developments' boss David Braben is feeling really confident about his upcoming game, The Outsider (for PS3 and Xbox 360). Players take control of an ex-CIA agent framed for the assassination of the President in what looks to be a good, "high octane" time. But like we said, he's feeling really confident about it.

I loved the 1930s-1950s atmosphere of BioShock...but the gameplay itself was not 'next-gen'...I found Halo 3 great fun, too, but also a little disappointing - as although there were a few nice touches and improved graphical fidelity, it hadn't really moved on much from Halo 2 in terms of the gameplay.

His game on the other hand, is going to be fantastic:

...if anything I am reassured; I think Outsider more than stands up to them, and I still think Outsider will be one of the first 'next-gen' games.

Braben's point is that gameplay has failed to evolve with this generation, and player choice is a letdown (as with Bioshock, you can only "choose" to be good or bad, not much in between).

Here's hoping The Outsider is everything Braben claims it to be, offering us a robust world of possibilities while making two critically acclaimed AAA releases look like Atari 2600 titles. But until then, it seems like a lot of talk, and not a lot of...

BioShock, Halo 3 not "next-gen" [eurogamer]

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