In a nutshell, an anonymous source close to the Salt Lake City developers at Incognito Inc. suggests that Warhawk PS3 could be the definitive flight action game of our time. And here's exactly why...

The unconfirmed report starts off simply enough. "Warhawk is really awesome," says the bold tipster. As the story goes on, we learn that the game has recently been switched to run on "Stage-2" development kits, which suggests something more akin to real world PS3 technology than what was previously revealed at E3.

This has apparently helped Incog get the new flight engine up and running. The informant states that the underlying technology allows the game to feature upwards of "2,000 enemies on-screen at once." While this number may seem impossible, try to recall the vast amount of individual entities present in Capcom's Dead Rising, Microsoft's Kameo, Q Entertainment's Ninety Nine Nights, and Factor 5's Lair -- not to mention Incog's older E3 trailer. Consider those, then doubt. Hell, just play Rome: Total War!

In addition to raw quantity, the Incog spy says Warhawk will feel killer, too: "Most people describe it as Halo meets Star Wars meets Crimson Skies." Fans of flight action will hope that means Tie Fighter plus Zipper's Crimson Skies on PC, but it could just relate the style and feel Incog is shooting for, since the source goes on to note that it's retro like CS, though not quite so much.

But what's up with the Halo nod? Well, gamers who caught our PS3 coverage will have surely noticed the incredible soldiers present at the beginning of the Warhawk demonstration.

It seems unlikely that Incog would go through such trouble to meticulously render ground-based models that would only get seen from an altitude of 7,000 feet and a speed of 500 miles per hour. So according to the rumor, those characters are actually part of an extensive on-foot component. We're taking the Halo mention as a "tell" and assuming it's going to be first-person. It's also said that the game is squad-based. If that applies to both aerial combat and land action is not yet clear.

Let's recap! 2,000 enemies on-screen. Check. Flight action. Check. On-foot action. Check. A combination of Halo, Crimson Skies, and Star Wars... Oh my sweet goodness.

The leak also indicates that Warhawk is tentatively scheduled to ship next fall or at least sometime before the Christmas of 2006. Sony is also purportedly shooting for a Teen rating with this one.

IGN