News about Codemasters and inXile Entertainment's HEI$T (Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony PlayStation 3, PC) has been rather scarce the past few months. Until now, that is. A representative from Codemasters recently gave out a general time frame when we can expect this game to hit the stands. To find out more, check out the full article.

Long-running British developing and publishing company Codemasters have a lot of goodies already lined-up for everyone in the coming year.

Rod Cousens, CEO of Codemasters announced that the new titles reflect the driving grown in the North American market and will focus on content geared for the American consumer

Check out the line-up right after the jump!

To even think of going head to head with the crime simulation games of today, you need to have the look, the swagger, the guns and the ride. Looks like HEI$T has done its homework and is shaping up to be just that. Still doubtful? Check out these screens:

In HEI$T, you play the role of the son of a former gangster and you were orphaned when the baddies wasted your dad. You decided to follow in your old man's footsteps and ended up in the bug house. Now you're free again and without a trace of fear and regret, you set out to resurrect the family business and plan to pull off the biggest jobs in town.

Did these screens get you riled up to pull off your own heist? Click On the jump and see the rest of the booty!

In an interview with David Craddock of Shacknews, inXile Entertainment's lead designer on Hei$t, Scott Crisostomo, primed the potential Bonnies and Clydes out there on how the game slated for the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 should help them live the plans, robberies and getaways, all in your own home.

 

But first and foremost, you may revel in the fact Hei$t takes in all aspects of robberies, from planning to preparation to execution to the getaway, and pull them off from the lowly bar to the fortified banks. The game places the player in a world where choices and discoveries should be as free to achieve as possible.

The player will take control of Johnny (apt name for a 60s lad in 'Cisco) who, upon start of the game, just got out of prison. It's up to the player to get his crew back together and try to pull the biggest job ever...on the San Francisco Mint. And it gets better: as long as the player's experts in the crew keep cracking the same duties on every job, the next big heist you pull will become a cakewalk for them.

But just to ensure success in every mission, the player will have to option of robbing smaller establishments first to gain the moolah to blow on bribes and insider info. The getaway from the heist isn't exactly foolproof, so the more care the player puts to his well-thought plan, the less foreboding the fortified banks become. Crisostomo hints at some of the player's options:

The getaways are a big part of HEI$T. Grabbing bags full of cash is easy, getting back to the hideout without getting caught is the hard part. If players pull of a heist perfectly, they’ll probably just have to shake loose some cops in a car chase. For example, if before robbing a bank they paid a visit to a disgruntled city bus driver and gave him a sizeable bribe, during the chase they head to 16th and Mission and as they pass by his bus and honk the horn the bus driver pulls across the intersection blocking off any cops.

The player's arsenal will be able to tap into the the early version of the M-16 rifle (used in the Vietnam War) plus the trusty Kalashnikov favorite. But he'll have to start out with the less modern pistols and revolvers and work his way up to Tommy Guns and Grease Guns before he could grab one of the more modern weapons. Explosives will also make a showing in the game.

The game will be coming with online play, but details haven't been mentioned, so we'll be watching for more information on that. Hei$t should be coming to the next-gen consoles and the PC by the fourth quarter of 2007.

Codemasters announced that it will be giving fans a chance to go back to the year 1969 and rob banks all across San Francisco. Aside from stealing all the Benjamins, players are also encouraged to raid various establishments like bars, restaurants, strip clubs, and armoured cars in order to acquire bigger and better tools needed to penetrate the more difficult banks.

But wait! Don't get ahead of yourselves as all of these are just in-game of course. The celebrated publisher just unwrapped the covers of its upcoming "open world" video game HEI$T, currently under the reins of developer inXile Entertainment. In this title, players will be in-d in charge of ex-convict Johnny Sutton and his group of renegade criminals.

Creative Director at inXile Entertainment Maxx Kaufman explained that HEI$T is being designed so that players can feel how it is like to be a part of the best robberies and car chases from classic movies. Speaking of which, after every bank robbery, players are required to make a quick getaway lest they want to end up again in jail or worse. Kaufman remarked,

Everything from the different types of jobs to pull and the reckless pursuits by the police through the streets of San Francisco, to the sarcastic banter back and forth between the members of the crew, gives HEI$T the action and style of the great attitude and rock-driven films of the 60's.

HEI$T is scheduled to be released on platforms Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 (PS3), and Games for Windows (PC). Codemasters mentioned that the video game will be available in Q4 2007.

We're sure you guys have already picked up on the news that Line Rider's gonna be released for the Wii and DS. Yup, and while we're getting ready to think of more sadistically cruel creative ways to send the game's sledder downhill, the dudes over at FiringSquad made a brief phone call to company CEO Brian Fargo.

In their brief phone interview, Fargo told the guys about his introduction to this flash game title back then, and thought it had strong potential if it were pushed further than its current net release. From there, he contacted game creator Bostjan Cadez, who gave him the go signal to set the game for console use (Wii and DS).

Now, moving on with the interview, the guys also managed to pick up info on another inXile project: their upcoming PS3/Xbox360/PC RPG game, which Fargo compared to the inXile's humorous RPG title, The Bard's Tale. But while the humor and personality for this mystery title will be on par with The Bard's, according to Fargo, the game will carry a more Quentin Tarantino feel to it. That's where the details end, though we can expect more info early next year.

And with Fargo being the former Interplay CEO, they asked him about his thoughts on another hot topic: about Interplay's current US$ 75-million project bid to bring up a Fallout MMORPG. His reaction? "I don't know what they are smoking in France but it must be illegal," they quoted him as saying.