We've all seen the videos, read the previews, pored over the screenshots, and it's clear - Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Conspiracy will be a game about kicking ass, taking names and kicking the asses of the names you just took. But what it was the softer, more logic-minded side of JB that made it to consoles? According to a quote from The Boston Globe, that's precisely what Bourne star Matt Damon had in mind.

"I lobbied hard to not make a first-person shooter game but to make it more like Myst, which was a great interesting puzzle you tried to solve - you know, to play with his amnesia or his memory. They weren't interested. They made the video anyway, without my likeness." Several media outlets picked up on Damon's comments recently, concentrating on his aversion to its violent focus as the key to his non-involvement.

In a conversation with MTV Multiplayer, Bourne Conspiracy developer High Moon clarified that Damon never met one-on-one with anyone from the development team. "We got the sense that his interest in games overall was marginal, and we decided to move away from celebrity involvement and take our Bourne into an original direction," said Meelad Sadat, head of product research and globalization at High Moon.

Based on what I've seen so far, this direction appears to be a positive one. As much as I love puzzle elements in action games - even at their most tedious (*cough*Resident Evil*cough*) - and original titles such as Professor Layton and the Curious Village, Jason Bourne would simply not be Jason Bourne if he didn't beat the living snot out of dopey UN guards and rogue agents alike. Preferably using that thick book on a nearby desk. Or a stray ballpoint pen.