Today, Volatile Games announced the development of their latest title Dead to Rights: Retribution, a re-imagining of the gritty crime drama franchise Dead to Rights.

Set in the corrupt and nightmarish world of Grant City, the title thrusts the player into the epicenter of an intensely dark, dangerous and tragic story as a vice-cop named Jack Slate – along with his vicious sidekick Shadow, the dog, in were you fight to expose of ‘shadowy underworld figures’ as they try to control the crumbling city.

Introducing an innovative new hybrid combat system, Volatile Games has unified third person shooting, hand-to-hand fighting and AI dog into a visceral gameplay experience. Dead to Rights: Retribution will launch for Xbox360 and PlayStation 3 in 2009.

“Dead to Rights: Retribution is a fresh look at the franchise, with a ground-up design for the game mechanics, world, characters and narrative,” explains Imre Jele, Project Director for Volatile Games. “We’ve re-imagined Dead to Rights for both fans of the franchise and a brand new audience alike.”

Hey, do you remember the crazed Strangle Hold-like mediocre shooter that was on last-gens consoles entitled, ‘Dead to Rights’? Well, it looks like the game is coming back, but not on the PlayStation Portable (PSP) but on this gens systems.

In the March issue of PlayStation: The Official Magazine, it reveals that Namco is planning to release a brand new entry in the Dead to Rights franchise for PS3 and 360, which is coming in the fourth quarter of 2009. The game is being developed by Volatile Games, who did games like Reservoir Dogs.

The game will have a heavier focus on hand-to-hand combat other than the previous three versions, counting the PSP version, but it’ll still retain third-person shooting mechanics. Staring Jack Slate and set in Grant City, the game will feature the return of Shadow, which is the dog – although this time it’s a stray Jack finds, other then a police dog.

And according to 1UP, it looks like the game has a sort of Jason Bourne-style, meaning it’s alot more action oriented.