2K Games Confirms E3 Lineup [IGN via videogaming247]

According to Take-Two, the delay is due to the need "to allow additional development time for this highly anticipated game and provide a better balance in the release of Take-Two's triple-A titles."

The team already has Borderlands, Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway, Aliens and Samba de Amigo for Wii on its plate, with the newest super secret project to get some serious attention only after at least two of those games ship. That means whatever Gearbox has been tapped to create, it's a long way off.

So, let's start the predictions, gang. We know that Gearbox currently has strong ties to Sega and has done plenty of work for Valve in the past. The team also handled the original Halo PC port. We also know that their forte lies in first person shooters, but aren't afraid to tackle a rhythm game remake.

Unfortunately, we may not know for years what the team has planned, but we're going to be hovering closely to (read: stalking) Mr. Pitchford at both DICE and GDC this month to try to learn more.

If you're an industry developer, this is the most important post you've ever read... [Gearbox Forums]

"Thing I love about Kotaku is that you just don't care," says Gearbox Software boss Randy Pitchford. (Not sure if we don't care per se, but rather, that we care a little too much.) It's a few days before Christmas, and he is showing me around Gearbox's Texas HQ that occupies the top four floors of a suburban Dallas high-rise. Pitchford is open and upfront. Want to take a picture of a wall with concept art? Sure. The dev opened up its doors and showed us pretty much everything it could. Gearbox, best known for the Brothers in Arms series and the Halo: Combat Evolved PC port, is poised for a breakout year in 2008 when the company brings Dreamcast title Samba de Amigo to the Wi, puts out original FPS Borderlands and a new entry into the Brothers in Arms tactical shooter series. With its pedigree Borderlands makes perfect sense. But Samba?

"We're huge Samba fans. Huge Dreamcast fans," Pitchford tells me. "We totally told SEGA they had to let us do it. People want a Samba Wii game." SEGA consented, and Gearbox dove in trying to squeeze the max potential out of the Wii-mote. Sure, Nintendo is making tons of money with the Wii. Third party devs haven't been as rewarded for Wii innovation. Case in point: Capcom's Zack and Wiki, which posted embarrassingly poor sales figures. Pitchford does point out that SEGA has hit with Mario and Sonic at the Olympics — though, that game *does* feature Mario. Still, Pitchford is optimistic.

"Third parties are doing alright with the Wii if they spend the right amount of money and time," he says. "People bought the Wii for the promise of the Wii Remote."

While, the Dreamcast version of Samba de Amigo has specially designed maraca peripherals, Gearbox has the challenge of turning the Wii-mote into, well, maraca peripherals. Here's the challenge: The Wii-mote itself is high tech, while the Nunchuk Wii peripheral is not. Sure, it does have a three-axis accelerometer, but still isn't the same level of technology that's in the Wii Remote. What's more, the Wii-mote doesn't always know where it is in space. It knows it's been moved, but positioning it can be tricky. So getting the Wii-mote and the Nunchuk to input the same? Or what about making it so players can use two Wii-motes instead of a Wii Remote and a Nunchuk? Not easy! "It's possible," Pitchford explains. "You just need a lot of smart people who can do a lot of math." Attitudes like that (and only attitudes like that) will keep the Wii out of the third party hobo gutter.

Not exactly what you'd expect from a company that cut its teeth on WWII tactical shooters. "Steven Spielberg told me he really thought the Brothers in Arms series had beautiful graphics," Pitchford says. The upcoming Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway is more accessible than previous its titles and better looking. "If I had to guess, it's 15-20 percent more high def than Gears of War," he says. Don't expect a Portal type add-on game bundled with Hell's Highway, but the concept of that added content is appealing to Gearbox. "It's added value," Pitchford says. "Like at the beginning of Pixar movies. They have those little shorts, which give them an opportunity to experiment and try out different things. I don't know if we'll have time to do something like that before Brother in Arms: Hell's Highway ships, but definitely before the generation is over."

Gearbox points to historical and military accuracy as to what separates Brothers in Arms from other shooters. The market is clogged, choked with WII shooters — so much so that dev Infinity Ward took the World War II out of World War II shooter Call of Duty in the latest installment in the series. "The Call of Duty guys makes great shooters, but they're just Quake dressed up in World War II. There are no characters in it I remember. There isn't deep historical accuracy. It's just a really fun shooter." Going as far as to employee a military officer for consulting and use WWII aerial surveillance maps for creating in-game maps, Gearbox isn't pussyfooting around.

While Gearbox ponders ways to keep WWII real for gamers, it's taking a major step with original IP Borderlands. The FPS took inspiration from movies like Mad Max and Raiders of the Lost Ark and even TV shows like Firefly and Deadwood. It's set in the future on a large planet that rotates so slowly that it takes something like one hundred hours to turn once. The season is spring and things are coming out of hibernation. Characters are class based with a solider, a hunter and a magician. Players can level up their characters and go on side quests. Sound like a RPG? "In the beginning of Halo, Master Chief is the same as he is at the end," says Pitchford. "Sure, the story has changed, but the character hasn't." Leveling up the characters in Borderlands does change them. "The coolest thing about games like World of Warcraft is leveling up your character and then going to up to band of weaker players and totally destroying them," he says. The game allows for up to four player co-op that allows new players to enter and leave on the fly. Also, it's possible to play with characters of different levels in co-op and even level-up your own characters in co-op. Not only will this sort of leveling up change the playing field in Borderlands, but guns. Lots and lots of guns.

Borderlands features an in-house Gearbox created weapons sequencer that can produce up to a half a million different weapons — all with different names, appearance, properties. "Imagine any cool weapon you've ever wanted in a game," Pitchford says. "Borderlands has it." The sequencing means that players will most likely never see the same weapon twice. Ever. Gearbox doesn't seem concerned about the possibility of there being one single weapon that is more powerful than anything else in the game. "If there's a gun that can break the game, why would we limit that?" he says. Do you think there is a gun that can break the game? "I don't know," he says. "I guess we'll find out." Gearbox doesn't care either way. Or maybe, it just cares too much.

Word has it that this year's Spike TV Video Game Awards, set to air on Dec. 9 at 9 p.m., will feature a cornucopia of new trailers and other goodies.

Among the list is the first footage from the new downloadable content Halo 3 Maps hitting next month, the world premiere of the first trailers for Borderlands and Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2. There will also be new trailers for Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, TNA iMPACT! and a few other surprises that haven't leaked out yet.

Reality, however, leveled off my personal expectations, as the game seems to be more accurately described as "Hellgate: London meets Firefly meets Pitch Black". That's the reality of it, a franchise step down that's very grounding. But is that necessarily a bad thing? Jesus. No. While Borderlands may not be a wet dream blend of two uber-franchise favorites, it still has plenty going for it—over 500,000 guns for example. Bullet point alert!

Half a million guns may seem like a bullshit claim, but it's the Diablo II-style item randomization system that makes such a thing possible. The debug build of Borderlands that Gearbox showed us had a nice cheat that let the dev team fire an endless stream of random guns when the Xbox 360's select button was held down. After showering the ground with a few dozen guns, just to illustrate how different they all were in appearance, one could see where the Diablo came in.

In addition to thousands upon thousands of firearm combos, ones that vary in capability based on their stock, color, material, sight, barrel size, chamber and a handful of other stats, it was clear that gun nuts will drool over the game's gun gamble feature. There's clearly plenty to play with here.

That randomized content also applies to the game's other usable items, including armor, helmets and even whatever you've got stashed in your garage. We saw a half-dozen or so unique looking vehicles, some with mounted turrets, some with tank treads, all of which sported a well-used look.

Borderlands also features randomized "level" layouts when one is removed from the New Haven's confines. We were shown some of the game's co-op action as two of the Gearbox guys tooled around in one of the ATVs, encountering an unfriendly group of fellow settlers looking to make their own fortunes on the planet of Pandora. This ultimately played out with an firefight that saw the characters Gearbox controlled taking out a trio of bandits in a Mad Max-style battle caravan.

While some of your encounters will be with your fellow human transplants who have sought shelter at the edge of space, you'll also come face to face with Pandora's original inhabitants, the Rack.

The Rack's emergence from hibernation will drive much of the game's storyline and we were shown a few moments of how some of their reveal will pan out. I'll save you the spoilers, but Borderlands looks like it will satisfy sci-fi fans with its narrative.

The only complaint I'll issue about the game's presentation is that the visual design didn't quite live up to my individual aliens-plus-desert bandits tastes. I was genuinely hoping for Mad Max 80s-era flamboyance, all shoulder pads, facepaint, grime, and feathered feral mohawks. Instead, some rather me-too futuristic character design prevailed. Probably shouldn't have gotten my hopes up—it's dangerous.

Plus, I saw that giant vagina mouth monster coming a mile away, guys. And I really wish I hadn't.

2K Games and 2K Sports Showcase Strong Video Game Line-up at Games Convention 2007

Hotly-anticipated titles such as Sid Meier's Civilization® Revolution™ and NBA® 2K8 will be on display at Games Convention 2007

NEW YORK—(BUSINESS WIRE)—2K Games and 2K Sports, publishing labels of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO), today announced an exciting line-up for Games Convention 2007 in Leipzig, Germany. The 2K Games line-up features several of next year's most anticipated titles including Sid Meier's Civilization® Revolution™, the first console installment in the legendary Civilization® franchise, and Borderlands™ from legendary developer Gearbox Software. Games Convention 2007 also marks the premiere of 2K Sports' latest installments in the top-rated sports games franchises, NBA® 2K8 and Top Spin 3.

In addition to the stellar line-up, two new and unannounced games from established and popular brands will be revealed for the first time at Games Convention 2007.

2K Games' Line-up Includes:

Borderlands™

Borderlands is the new franchise from award-winning developer Gearbox Software that will raise the bar for sci-fi action. Blending frenetic action with character customization and randomly generated items and enemies, Borderlands offers an entirely new gaming experience.

Developer: Gearbox Software

Platforms: Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system, and Games for Windows

Available: Holiday 2008

Sid Meier's Civilization® Revolution™

Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution is the first offering in the legendary Civilization® series to appear exclusively on consoles and handheld systems. Developed by legendary designer Sid Meier and Firaxis Games™, this game will deliver revolutionary features like real-time interaction between leaders, multi-player capabilities and integrated video and voice chat, which completely transports the Civilization series to a level of gameplay that fans have never experienced before.

Developer: Firaxis Games, a 2K studio

Platform: Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system, Wii™ home video game system from Nintendo, and the Nintendo DS™

Available: Spring 2008 (Fall 2008 for the Wii)

2K Sports' Line-up Includes:

Top Spin 3

Top Spin 3 is the most realistic tennis simulation series ever. Featuring 20 of the top-ranked tennis pros from the ATP and WTA, a new ball physics engine offering improved precision and realism, the most comprehensive online play modes, and the return of the improved Player Creator feature, Top Spin 3 is the pinnacle of the tennis simulation games.

Developer: PAM Development, a 2K studio

Platforms: Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system

Available: Spring 2008

NBA® 2K8

Voted best current and next generation NBA hoops franchise by both press and gamers, NBA 2K8 will continue its legacy of basketball excellence. Featuring exciting all-new play modes, defensive controls, off-ball controls, an improved franchise mode and an impressive set of other updated features, NBA 2K8 is poised for another run as the #1 rated NBA simulation.

Developer: Visual Concepts, a 2K studio

Platforms: Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, and PLAYSTATION®3 and PlayStation®2 computer entertainment systems

Available: Fall 2007

NHL® 2K8

NHL 2K8 reigns supreme as the category leader in innovation, design and critical acclaim with five straight years as the #1 rated* NHL video game. In addition to intensely realistic gameplay, all new player models, and spectacular graphics, NHL 2K8 will feature an unprecedented level of player customization with accurate body styles for each marquee player, providing the most authentic representation of your favorite NHL stars.

Developer: Visual Concepts/Kush Games, 2K studios

Platforms: Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, and PLAYSTATION®3 and PlayStation®2computer entertainment systems

Available: September 2007

For more information, please visit www.2Kgames.com and www.2Ksports.com

Game Informer September Cover Revealed! [Game Informer]