Discovered by some intrepid forum posters, and originating from a Sega FTP site, this collection of images contains what appear to be screenshots of the just discovered Sonic Unleashed. It is of course unknown whether or not these are actually from that game, but the timing seems right, and these images do appear to be in-game, as evidenced by the clipping visible in this shot here. So whatever it is, it's up and running (pun not intended).

As for the shots themselves, they're really clean and have a Blue Dragon quality about them. With locations ranging from Africa to Eggman's lair, and no signs of Sonic's "city" (cursing by rhyme...) friends, could we be seeing signs of a good Sonic game on the horizon? Possibly, if the lack of subtitles is pointing to a more "Subspace Emissary" take on the Sonic cutscenes, with a total lack of dialog, just using animation to tell the story (also similar to the Lego games). The only downside right now appears to be the gameplay screens, which hint at a Sonic and the Secret Rings style of gameplay. At the moment there is still no word as to the platform this will land on, but if it's following the footsteps of Secret Rings, we may have to end up handing this one off.

[Update: Images pulled on request from Sega of America's Sr. Legal Counsel.]

[Via NeoGAF]