Coded Arms reach for Europe

Konami's PlayStation Portable shooter Coded Arms will be released in Europe this summer in addition to the USA, according to the European arm of the Japanese publisher.

As such it may well be a European launch title. Sony has yet to announce a specific release date for the region, recently confirming that it was still several months away.

Described as a "fast-paced and aesthetically stunning" first-person shooter, Coded Arms thrusts players into a hastily abandoned VR system populated with hostile alien races, each of which is vulnerable to a certain weapon amongst the game's 30-plus systems.

It sounds like Coded Arms will be delivering traditional FPS action with a klepto twist, expecting you to plug your efforts into uncovering the various weapons concealed in the game's Virtual Reality setting. Any weapons unlocked in the single-player game will then be available in the four-player wireless multiplayer modes.

The VR world, originally conceived as a training programme to help prepare mankind for the possibility of alien invasion, is populated with nasty aliens spawned after the construct became self-aware, and you play a daring hacker sent in to clear it out.

You'll plough through three distinct worlds, touching on lots of high-tech weaponry which runs the gamut from machineguns and pulse weapons to sniper rifles and a variety of grenades, and Konami is promising hugely detailed 3D environments full of "eerie lighting and shadow effects" that "show off the power of the Sony system perfectly".

You can see how they're getting on in this screenshot gallery, and we'll be sure to let you know more as we do.