Yesterday's overblown rumor regarding a spree of "cancellations" at Konami's Japanese headquarters have proven to be quite untrue. Konami has stated that all the previously listed games, including Gradius and the Wii's eagerly anticipated "Action Adventure 2," are still in the works. The chopped release lists printed in the pages of Famitsu and Dengeki have been attributed to simple error.

Unfortunately for fans of first-person shooters, Konami did not have a Phoenix Down to spare for Coded Arms: Assault.

[Thanks DBX00, yimtaka.]

Sounds like Konami might have taken the Coded Arms: Assault criticism to heart. The latest rumor suggests that the PlayStation 3 FPS has been canceled. Most reports indicate that Famitsu broke the news, but there has been no official confirmation form Konami. The rumor can be traced back to German site GameFront.

GameFront's original entry is short, and reads (as translated by Google): "The Shooter Coded of arm: Assault of Konami is to appear allegedly no more. That comes out from Japanese trade price lists. Konami did not express itself to the report yet and the attitude of Coded of arm: Assault so far officially does not confirm." From this, it's unclear how Famitsu became involved in the rumor. Perhaps the Japanese magazine published its own report based on the alleged trade price lists; or perhaps Famitsu has been wrongly tied to the cancellation rumor.

True or not, the loss of Coded Arms would hardly deal a crushing blow to PS3's image. Good riddance. (May we remind you that there are more important Konami titles at stake?)

Whereas Ridge Racer 7 impressed us, Konami's Coded Arms Assault left us writhing in pain. The game was a comedy of errors and should never have been shown. Among the game's many, many technical flaws include:

• A jerky frame rate that frequently slowed down when something happened, no matter how small (e.g. reloading your pistol)
• Very low polygon count. We're pretty sure we've seen GameCube titles use more horsepower, which is not a good sign for a PS3 game.
• Cheap-looking explosions.
• Bullets and grenades left paths in the air that can best be described as "a line of sprites."
• Horrendous load times (about 43 Mississippis seconds)
• Unresponsive camera controls that had only two speeds (stop and spin wildly).

Beyond all that, Coded Arms Assault is just another derivative first-person shooter. It offers nothing to set itself apart from the crowd, including its paltry visuals (shown at 720p, though you'd be hard-pressed to notice). We'd consider this a mediocre PlayStation 2 game, and it's supposed to be next-gen? Tsk, tsk, ...

More early previews from the show floor reveal a new installment to the Coded Arms franchise for Sony's PlayStation Portable. This unsolicited picture shows the new Coded Arms: Contagion getting prepped for play. We won't be able to formally get our grubby hands on this until Wednesday, but PSP owners will be craving some fresh titles coming out of E3.

The hand-held doesn't have the best track record for new and innovative games (erm... homebrew?), so hopefully this title will provide something that PSP gamers can sink their thumbs into.