ANOTHER GRAVE DANGER FOR GAMERS

Friday 15 April 2005/... Play It, the value interactive entertainment publishing pioneer, has confirmed the upcoming release of Gungrave O.D. , the sequel to one of last year's most stylish action videogames.

Gungrave O.D. has a mix of furious combat combined with astonishing visuals and follows on from the global success of anime superstar Yasuhiro Nightow's Gungrave anime series. Featuring the return of Grave, a super-cool undead hitman wielding dual pistols, swaggering with attitude and using his own coffin as a shield, Gungrave O.D. threatens to redefine the term 'fast and furious'. With heavily populated levels filled with enemies hell-bent on preventing Grave from dismantling their drug-dealing network, the player enters an adult wonderland of anime-styled destruction, where anything goes and seemingly everything can be shot, smashed, crushed and blown-up in a free-form orgy of joyous, bullet-ridden carnage. This environmental devastation isn't merely for effect; continual destruction of enemies and objects forms a 'beat combo' that charges super-powerful shots, capable of taking down the hardiest opponents with a few well-placed blasts.

Mark Cale, CEO of Play It says: "This is quite possibly the arcade action hit of the year. Gungrave O.D. mixes intense gameplay with cutting-edge visuals in a classic gaming setting. It's powerfully dark, violent and supremely entertaining. What's more, the character of Grave is one of the coolest, meanest heroes ever to grace the Playstation 2. Gamers will love it."

From the opening in a graveyard, where even the gravestones themselves aren't sacred to Grave's onslaught, to a sumptuous hotel complete with glassware-filled lobbies and extravagant luxury suites, Gungrave O.D. goes on to stage further mayhem in locales such as an underground car park, where every car owner loses their no-claims bonuses, even taking in a densely stocked supermarket, where a particularly ardent player can literally clear the shop of all its stock and fittings, as well as waves of enemies.

Whilst taking down a criminal army single-handedly may well be immense fun, everyone needs a break once in a while. Gungrave O.D. supplies pauses in the action at the end of each level, telling its storyline via cutscenes of an outstanding quality. Exquisitely designed, drawn and animated, these moody vignettes are likely to be the best examples of Japanese animation ever seen in a videogame, being easily at home in a high-budget feature-length anime.

Gungrave O.D. promises an action experience unmatched in terms of intensity and sheer fun and will be available to buy from late June.

About Play It:

The Play It range is available from a wide range of retailers, from specialist games stores to huge supermarket chains, ensuring the games are available to all consumers.