Ears Of War: Star Trek - The Co-Op Manshoot

The pre-E3 announcements are hitting faster than a man cycling down a slightly steep hill, with one of the latest concerning yet another attempt to restore Star Trek as a viable gaming franchise. One-time Epic best-buds and current Darkness 2 handlers Digital Extremes are the studio Paramount's given the job to, coming up with something based on the JJ Abrams movie reboot of Rodenberry's finest.

As in the movie/original series, Flight Commander John C. Cork and Professor Speck are the stars of the game. Wait, did I get that right?

Yeah, nu-Kirk (looks like he's from a boyband) and nu-Spock (Sylar) are the stars, with that two-man setup suggesting to me a co-op action game rather than anything strategic or roleplay-y or suchlike. In fact, I don't even need to be suggested to - it's described as an action-adventure co-op game. So there.

We're promised "a wide variety of gameplay and all the action you would expect from the hit franchise", which hopefully means there'll be at least some ship-to-ship combat. Also mentioned are a "legendary enemy race", which it's hard not to presume are Klingons, but I guess someone would describe any Star Trek enemy as legendary in some respect. Even the bloody Tribbles, but they'd make a terrible enemy for an action-adventure. Unless they're like the Flood in Halo...

What's not clear is if this is based upon 2012's planned sequel to the Star Trek reboot, or fills in the gaps. It's due Summer 2012, on PC as well as on the toyboxes, and there's already a screenshot - so hopefully that means it isn't going to be one of those licensed games that gets churned out in six months flat.

Poor old Star Trek Online. More on this new game will dribble out of E3, I don't doubt. This is the one that's set a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, right?