“We’re honored to be recognized by the NCTA as an industry leader in technology,” said Dr. Michael Capps, president of Epic Games. “The other nominees are trailblazers in their respective fields — for a game company like Epic to be singled out as the award winner is very flattering.” Indeed.

Epic Games Wins 2008 NCTA Award [GamersHell]

Roger Altmeyer and the "St. Louis Mod Shop" is barred from selling Gears of War 2 ever again. Furthermore, he'd been advertising modded Xboxes that would play it and other illegal copies of games online. He's out of that business too, for good. He also has to turn over all his remaining mod stock, any parts "capable of circumventing copyright restrictions," assist Epic in identifying others violating copyright restrictions, pay Epic some money and say he's real sorry, in public. My guess is lawyer fees is on top of that prize package too.

Epic spotted the ads and sued Altmeyer on Oct. 31. That means this sucker got resolved at the legal equivalent of warp 9. Epic's lawyer-mans said modders and pirates are increasingly a problem, but difficult to stamp out — unless they all but drive up to Cliffy B's front door and fire off a signal flare, which is about what Altmeyer did. Epic said the ads were "pretty hard to ignore." Another reason word-of-mouth is the best business.

Granite City Man Settles Case Claiming He Sold Illegal Copies of New Xbox 360 Game [St. Louis Post-Dispatch]

Titan Studios is made up of developers from Ubisoft, Epic Games, Scion Studios, Blizzard Entertainment and Lionhead Studios. The core of the team, previously operated by Darkstar Industries, began production on Sony's upcoming DL title Fat Princess, set to release next year.

The team is also working on unannounced Unreal Engine 3 based games including a massively multiplayer online game, according to the press release.

“Titan Studios offers a way for intellectual property owners to leverage Unreal Engine 3 and Epic Games China’s full suite of game development services,” said Jay Wilbur, vice president of Epic Games, Inc. “Not only are Titan developing award-winning, original IP of their own, they also have resources available to help other studios increase productivity and minimize risk.”

Epic Games China is the outsourcing division of Epic Games.

“I’ve talked to some developers who are saying ‘If you want to fight the final boss you go online and pay USD 20, but if you bought the retail version you got it for free’. We don’t make any money when someone rents it, and we don’t make any money when someone buys it used - way more than twice as many people played Gears than bought it.”

That would reduce everything but a retail sale to a demo, in my view. This doesn't sound like Capps specifically advocating such a bastard-ass move. But these two sides — developers and retailer/resellers — need to arrive at some sort of truce or else the only ones who'll get screwed are the gamers.

I can't imagine the Amazon and Metacritic reviews for such a game. It would make the Spore DRM backlash look like a polite disagreement. Seriously, games industry, you want to start spewing douchewater like the RIAA, go for it. They can tell you what it's done for their sales.

Capps: We Really Need to Make Strides Against the Secondhand Market [Videogaming247, via Bingegamer]

Hit the jump to find out.

Loved
Tight Pacing, Eclectic Maps: With 29 chapters spread out over five acts, Gears of War 2 has plenty of room to stretch its legs. Fortunately, it takes advantage of that. Instead of forcing gamers to slog their way through endless subterranean and oppressively dark settings, the game delivers fragfests in Alpine forests, dilapidated hospitals, across the expanse of a massive city. And the key encounters among that collection of maps are tightly paced, managing to maintain your interest no matter where you are.

Epic Battles: One of the problems the original Gears faced was that players never got a proper sense of scale for their encounters. Instead of feeling like part of a world-wide effort to save humanity, it felt more like a handful of guys taking on a bunch of Locust. This time around Epic Games goes out of its way to remind the gamer not only what’s at stake, but just how large the effort is. There are times when the ragged landscape fills with a sea of Locust, when enemies are in the sky, on the hills and swarming up from underground. I just wish they happened more often.

Single Player Tweaks: The original Gears brought a lot of refinement to the shooter genre. This time around the changes aren’t as evident, but still make for a much deeper experience. For instance you can now crawl around after getting knocked to the verge of death, seeking someone to revive you. (On the harder levels, you just die.) There are also a number of new ways to take out a downed enemy, including using them as a “meat shield.” I found the tweak that has the biggest impact on the single-player experience is the Locusts’ new found ability to revive one another. Now you aren’t the only one crawling around looking for a little help. And if you don’t take care of these stragglers they’ll come back to take you out.

Vehicles of Mass Destruction: I’m not a big fan of vehicles in shooters, especially vehicle levels. I find that they tend to ruin the experience, stripping away the tactical nuance found in most shooters and replacing it with a rail-shooter aesthetic. Fortunately, Epic Games avoided that trap in their vehicles. Instead they use these few levels to help move players across expansive terrain and with perhaps one exception, they’re as nuanced and fun to play as the feet on the ground levels. Oh, and riding a Brumak into battle: Tons of fun.

Character Development: In general I don’t play shooters to get all touchy-feely. I really don’t care who lives and dies in these games, and trying to get me to do so inevitably irritates more than it evokes. But when it works, it works well. In the case of Gears 2, the game tiptoes around the over-the-top emotional string tugs but still delivers enough emotional punches to make me worry over Fenix and his pals.

Horde: This new multiplayer mode is a lot more addictive than it sounds. You drop a bunch of players, up to five of them, into a map and then fill it with an increasingly large batch of Locust until everyone dies. There’s something terrifically satisfying about hunkering down with a group of pals trying to stave off wave after wave of Locust in a struggle to survive 50 waves of Locust.

Multiplayer Mayhem: Horde isn’t the only change made to Gears of War 2’s multiplayer. This time around, Epic Games tried to achieve the same reach in their multiplayer modes as they sought in their single player campaign. The game includes seven versus modes, more than double the amount that shipped with the original title. You can also now play with up to nine others, either real players or bots. And if you’re more into Co-Op, the co-op campaign mode now allows the two gamers to play on different difficulty settings in the same game.

Hated
Pain in Your Ear: I get that I'm a cog in a much larger military machine and that on occasion I'm going to need to report back to folks. But does that mean I can't do simple things like reload my weapon or pick up ammo while I'm talking into my earpiece. Let's hope the Locust don't attack while Fenix is chewing a stick of gum.

Story Arc: Epic nailed the character development of Gears of War 2, but the story, not so much. There were plenty of things I learned, plenty of interesting developments and twists that unraveled as I made my way through the nine hour or so campaign. But a lot of that either came out of left field or was left dangling when the surprisingly abrupt, incredibly flat ending hit me in the face. Of course there's going to be a sequel, but I think the story arc needs to be more of an actual arc and less of a bumpy ride to be satisfying across all three games.

Normal Is a Bit Casual: It's funny that the developers felt that the needed to add another easy setting to the game because they thought casual was a bit too hard. I thought it was a bit too easy in the first game and this time around, playing at normal, I only died a handful of times, almost always because of bad vehicular mishaps or wrong turns. Playing through the campaign on Insane now finally gives me the challenge I was looking for.

Gears of War 2 is a satisfying middle child for what I can only expect will be the Gears trilogy. It ups the gameplay, tweaks the mechanics and finally digs into that deep potential, delivered in sweeping scale and backdrops, through a plot that both intrigues gamer and fills out the title's many interesting characters. I only wish the game's sense of purpose and pacing continued until the very end of this latest game, rather than drying up a few chapters early.

Does Gears of War 2 reinvent the genre or even the franchise? No, but it doesn't need to. Instead it works on expanding it's polish and it's scope to include not only the gameplay mechanics, but the story, the settings and the characters. And I think that's plenty.

Gears of War 2 was developed by Epic Games, published by Microsoft Games Studio and released on Nov. 7 for Xbox 360. Retails for $59.99 USD. Completed single-player campaign alone, tested campaign coop, Horde and other multiplayer modes.

Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ.

A simulation like America's Army pales by comparison, and not just for aesthetic reasons. Gears 2 features destructible cover, and concepts like projectile refraction (that is, rounds altering course as they pass through permeable surfaces) and even how lighting factors into one's comprehension of a hostile environment. Through it all, Capps — who studied for four years at the Navy Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif., and was part of the America's Army team — provides a very informed perspective on how Gears 2's deep aesthetics are more than just eye candy.

Hauling off with a futuristic machine gun and a chin-mounted chainsaw bayonet, while suffering multiple wounds from elephant-stopping firepower, sure, that's not a part of anyone's combat skills manual. But the hunkered-down, is-that-a-threat, open-fire mentality created by Gears — and Unreal 3 — is.

How Gears of War 2 Raises the Bar for Military Simulators [Popular Mechanics]

That's the extent of the details Q-man is willing to give, only noting that the title is "multi-platform" — which we'll interpret to mean Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and (maybe) PC, not Nintendo DS and PSP. We'll hold tight for the EGM cover story on the matter or hope that Cliff just spills the beans in the comments.

Quartermann: Cliff Bleszinski's Next Game a Survival Horror Title? [1UP]

"A beta is like hooking up with a girl just to say, 'yeah, I f*cked her,'" Cliff waxes. Furthering the Gears boning metaphor "Once you play a beta, you can check it off your list — you can say, 'yeah, I played it.' Then you might not feel motivated to get that initial cherry popping from the proper, final game."

That's an excellent point. One opportunity to "look at all that juice" wasted!

Cliff also explains why there is no Gears of War 2 demo on the horizon, pointing out "stuff takes [time] to put together." If stuff were put together "Gears of War 2 wouldn't be out until February of 2009." And then you'd have blue balls.

Cliff Bleszinski dishes on Gears and games [Gamepro]

Clearly, Mr. Capps has never experienced the thrill of reading headlines while folding proteins in Life With PlayStation! And those Mii parades? Painfully hip.

Capps tempers his enthusiasm for Microsoft's cool factor when it comes to promoting Xbox Live Arcade games. On the subject of his company's recently acquired Chair Entertainment, Capps notes "there's no marketing path, there's no PR path for a really sharp 20 dollar Live Arcade game," something that lead to Undertow for XBLA being financially unsuccessful.

Not sure there's any easy solution to the marketing of online titles, whether they be on Live, PlayStation Network or WiiWare. I'm certainly not looking forward to the future of more invasive DLC marketing, as I fully expect pop-up ads to start invading my regular game playing at some point.

Certainly an Undertow demo attached to a copy of Gears of War 2 wouldn't hurt...

Epic: Microsoft is "winning" online battle [GamesIndustry.biz]

The minute long spot features the tune "How It Ends" by DeVotchKa and was created within the Unreal Engine 3 with the help of ad agency T.A.G SF, special effects house Digital Domain and director Joseph Kosinski. Yep, that's the same team responsible for "Mad World." See the ad after the jump or during the listings provided after this, but make sure the heartstrings get a good stretch ahead of time.

"Last Day" is set to air at the following times.

* U.S. – Nov. 2 during the NFL’s Sunday Night Football presentation of the New England Patriots at the Indianapolis Colts on NBC
* Canada – Nov. 3 during the NFL’s Monday Night Football presentation of the Pittsburgh Steelers at the Washington Redskins
* France – Nov. 3 on Sci Fi Channel and MTV
* Mexico – Nov. 3 on FX, FOX and CVM networks during prime time programming
* Australia – Nov. 4 during The Simpsons on FOX 8, Nov. 7 on MTV during the 2008 MTV Europe Music Awards and Nov. 10 during American Chopper on the Discovery Channel
* United Kingdom – Cinema spots including films such as Saw V and Max Payne; TV spots on Dec. 1 during The Simpsons on Sky One and Dec. 2 on Sky Sports 1 during Carling Cup Football

Gears 2 Trailer: The Last Day [Yahoo! Games]

Rein didn't apparently provide any further details, such as platform, price or planned delivery date. But we hope the armor will be much, much bigger in Unreal Tournament 3: Major Expansion but doesn't go so far as to cover up the cleavage of any of the in-game combatants. That wouldn't be right.

Rein outs "major expansion" for UT3 [Eurogamer]

You and four other players pick a Gears character and choose weapons. Then you’re dropped on a relatively small map littered with ammo and perfect areas for cover, sniping, and dying like an idiot when you get cut off from your group.

The idea is to survive wave after wave of Locust hordes that the game throws at you. You lose if every member on your team is killed. You win when you kill every Locust in a wave of the horde – after that, the game pauses to show you which players had the most kills and then chucks you back into the map with another wave.

There’s a vague incentive to kill steal. It’s rewarding to see yourself at the top of the list at the end of a wave with seven score marks by your name. But ultimately, Horde mode takes teamwork, so try not to be too much of a bastard or your mates will leave you to die behind the barn while they set up a perimeter on the bridge. (I don’t think friendly fire is an option – or at least I wasn’t bitchy enough to warrant my teammates shooting at me.)

Shit hits the fan at about wave 10. More and more of the Horde come from all directions on the map, overwhelming whatever system you’ve managed to set up. We made it all the way to wave 15 by sticking together, but after that, someone decided going every man (or woman) for themselves was a good idea and we all died like dogs.

The game let us repeat the wave where we’d left off, but our spawn position on the map was reset so we started from new random positions instead of the place where we left off at the end of the last wave – and I think our score was reset to zero (I clicked through the menu too fast in my zeal to get back to the fight). I have no idea how anyone is going survive all 50 waves of Horde mode – even after I switched out with a more hardcore shooter journo, the group never made it to wave 20 in the hour we had to play.

Ball-breakingly difficult or not, Horde mode does stand out from your average multiplayer romp because it’s co-op survival instead of just you against the AI. And it was pretty damn fun, even when you were getting your face raped by the sheer number of Locusts coming at you.

Be honest – how many of you were going to go buy the game no matter what I had to say?

So, without further ado, my real thoughts on Gears of War 2.

Gears of War 2 is everything it’s supposed to be – the same loud, visceral war epic with a few new weapons, a few new characters and a whole lot more explosions. The plot has just as many cliffhangers as the first one (though it does wrap up the Maria storyline), and the conflict between Locusts and Humans is less resolved at the end of Gears 2 than it was at the end of Gears 1.

In short, Gears 2 is The Empire Strikes Back. And I, for one, think that’s a good thing.

I started out with the campaign. At first I entertained noob notions that I ought to try the Hardcore difficulty and then wisely went with Casual instead. We picked up (sort of) where we left off at the end of Gears – only now we were told during the intro cutscene that we hadn’t wiped out the Locusts with the Lightmass bomb and that the only city that hadn’t been sunk was Jacinto.

The tutorial (which I think you can skip) has you training green recruit Benjamin Carmine who bears a striking resemblance to Metal Gear Solid 4’s Akiba in many ways. Training is cut short when Locusts show up and you’ve got to run and gun through a hospital while waiting for an extraction team to save your ass.

Next up was a moving cutscene, complete with cheesy epic music and sprawling scenes of COG forces marching off to war.

Now the gameplay got a little harder. We were set up on transports (Jawa sandcrawler-looking things) and had to defend both our transport and other transports from Locust attacks in the air and on the ground. The best strategy I came up with was manning the transport turret and alternating between mashing the trigger button and mashing the Left Shoulder to cool down the gun. This worked well enough against the swarms of ground forces that overtook one of the other transports out of my turret’s range; but it failed miserably when I had to take out the Locust that actually started driving the transport. I was summarily rammed off a bridge and down a cliff to my fiery doom.

Luckily, Gears 2 is pretty patient with you if you die and I loaded right back to a checkpoint just before the bridge with barely any downtime to seethe. Getting the message that the game wanted me to complete the level with a dominant strategy (shotgun), I left the turret to get right up against the “bulletproof” windshield of the offending transport and shoot it (and the driver) to high hell.

By now I had completely forgot what the plot was and why my unit was out in the middle of nowhere. On cue, a cutscene occurred, telling me I had to go to a specific point on a map so I could be shot down into the earth where we could look for the Locusts that were supposedly digging the ground out from beneath human cities to sink them.

At this point, another game journo wanted to jump into my game. I was at an auto-save point, so I quit out and then opened up the options to host a co-op game. (Still had to go through that tedious Xbox Dashboard exercise of accepting a friend request and firing off an invite… hopefully we won’t have to suffer that for long.)

Instantly, my partner dropped in as Dom and the two of us entered the next level where we were shot down into the earth.

I’ve always liked co-op; I’m what they call a social gamer. So I’m happy that Gears of War 2 improves the co-op from the first one by giving the other guy more to do – more enemies to shoot, an NPC to protect, stuff like that. And whenever we need to take diverging paths (which the game forces you to do about once every other level – otherwise, you’re free to go anywhere until a player hits a checkpoint and then you’re rubber-banded to the same area), each player gets a different weapon to specialize in. Like the guy who takes the high road gets the sniper rifle while the guy on the low road gets a mortar.

I wound up taking a path that provided me with a sniper rifle. Thus, I thought I’d have to provide cover for my co-op buddy who was down below with mulcher – but nope! I had to target weird orange fruits hanging from the ceiling and shoot them down one by one. This brought out an indigenous worm that functioned as living cover for my buddy down below – leaving me free to run ahead and start harrying Locusts holding choke points throughout the cave.

I seem to remember the moving cover from the first Gears – I think it was with cars.

We made it to the end of the level where we began to encounter some of that religious junk the Gears 2 plot was peddling in some previews. At the risk of comparing Gears to Halo – I have to ask: what’s with shooters and religious organizations? Is it mere coincidence that Halo 2 featured the Arbiter as a primary antagonist and Gears 2 features Skorge, a leader of a Locust religious sect?

Whatever – it’s not like I thought I’d actually get to see Skorge before the day was out. The campaign mode on Casual takes a pretty solid 8 hours for the average gamer (maybe only 6 if you’re a hardcore gamer and you know where you’re going); that’s five acts with at least five chapters each. Normal mode took one of my fellow journalists about 12 hours (and was nice enough to let me come watch the ending cutscene). And Hardcore mode? We’re talking like 20 hours, give or take a few massive coronaries.

Anyway, my co-op buddy and I took on the priest-like Locust that was summoning (and healing) more hordes to shoot at us. We ran into some trouble since Carmine was tagging along with Dom – for the most part, Carmine can hold his own, but periodically he’d need babysitting. My co-op buddy thought he was with me, I thought he was with my co-op buddy. So when he went down, neither of us could find him in time to heal him and we lost the level when he bit it.

Stupid Carmine. I wish him a horrible death.

The next level was really gross. I checked the embargo info and it looks like I’m not supposed to talk about it at all – but seriously. Ew.

Moving onto the next level was the greatest joy of my life because we finally got a “story”
cutscene that teased us with info about Maria. I’ve been dying to find out what happened to her since the last game and it looked like I was finally going to get my answer when…

A PR rep tapped my shoulder. “We’ve got an hour left before we throw you out. Did you want to see Horde mode?”

What?! It had been five hours already?

I was blown away – I never get that lost in anything but RTS games, simulations games and Zelda. And I hadn’t gotten the game over screen more than twice.

This magic epiphany of mine is the one you’re all hoping your girlfriend has when you play these games in front of her. I can’t guarantee that Gears will give it to her the way it did to me, but I think it’s a testament to how well made Gears of War 2 is that a non-shooter like me can become so wrapped up in the experience that we forget what makes us not like these games in the first place.

Gears of War 2 is out November 7. I’m buying it so I can co-op with Manfriend.

P.S. You might have heard that Gears of War 2 was adopting the cover system from Uncharted. I didn’t really notice the difference, but I still stuck to things once in a while while. Overall, it was smoother than the first game – but that’s what you expect from a sequel, isn’t it?

P.P.S. Fuck that fucking water boss. You'll know who I'm talking about. *seethes*

First, Electronic Arts is not buying Epic Games, OK? Doesn't matter that EA has tons of money and someone else with a lot of time on his hands has good ideas for what to do with it. "Rubbish," says Epic Vice President Mark Rein, a guy who's in position to actually know something substantive about this.

Then everyone jumped on the bandwagon of a rumor that Sega was breaking back into the handheld market. That's not true either. Well, not exactly. The "Sega Vision" isn't a PSP competitor, unless Java games have gotten way more sophisticated, because that's it's only game functionality. Unofficial RPG Site ran down the Sega rumor with, of course, Sega itself. While it's not a fake, "it is not intended as a re-entry to the gaming hardware market or a rival to Sony or Nintendo's systems," said a spokesman.

"Sega is committed to remaining a software third party in the videogames industry," the spokesman continued, "but also has several non-games products in the market. The Vision is primarily an MP4 video player with some basic games functionality, and not a new handheld gaming machine."

Best part? "Further investigation on our part finds the Sega Vision isn't actually a Sega-developed device at all, and in fact a cheap Chinese iPod-style alternative, rebranded with the name of the fallen hardware company."

So there you go. You didn't hear this stuff here first, for a reason. By the way the source of this EA-Epic rumor was the same site behind last week's Xbox 360 slim horseshit, shot down by Major Nelson himself. One's own personal speculation is fine — it helps if it's informed, of course — but it should always be clearly labeled as speculation.

EA Buying Epic? "Rubbish" Says Rein [Videogaming247]
SEGA Vision is "Real," Not a PSP Rival [Unofficial RPG Site]

Here's how AJ earned her keep this week:

Battlefield Heroes – Battling The Stigma Of Battlefield
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince – Wii Impressions
Tetris, Spore, Scrabble and Sudoku – EA’s iPhone lineup
Boogie SuperStar – Objectifying And Empowering Tween Girls Everywhere
Celebrity Sports Showdown Impressions
The Odd Couple - EA & Grasshopper or Suda 51 & Shinji Mikami
Epic's New Game – President Tells All

And stay tuned next week for more from EA's 08 Showcase and some stuff on those mysterious events I'm not allowed to talk about yet.

Thanks for the big welcome, y'all! (And I can say that because I'm from Texas, so back off.)

Just yesterday it was announced that Epic Games would be joining EA as one of two new partners along with Grasshopper Manufacture (of Suda 51 fame).

I got some face time with Michael Capps, President of Epic Games, to see how the little independent studio that could feels about going with a Big Scary Publisher – especially one like EA that's got a reputation for ruthlessness with smaller development houses.

“The EA five years ago is not the same EA they are now. We wouldn’t have partnered with them five years ago,” Capps counters – shooting a furtive look at the EA handler at the interview. He scratches the back of his neck and removes a square of tape. “From the [stage] microphone,” he says.

Sure, I believe him. He’s not going all Manchurian Candidate on me.

I asked about his game and got one of those fluffy PR answers about “it’s great, but we can’t tell you about it.” But he did say that it was being developed by Polish studio People Can Fly, which Epic picked up last spring after being blown away by how awesome the studio did with PC content for Gears of War.

“We said ‘do another Painkiller!’” Capps laughs. He’s really into Painkiller – and guns, and things that go “boom.” But what do you expect from the guy who brought the world Unreal Tournament and Gears of War?

Gears of War 2, is what I expect, maybe another Painkiller. But Capps is anxious to go with a new IP; and that’s a big part of why he went with EA instead of some other huge publisher. Their enthusiasm about this mystery project clicked with Epic’s enthusiasm – and that’s the way to make a game, Capps says. You need more than just a dev team that’s jazzed about the game; an entire studio of people has to love the game so much that they’re willing to sacrifice sleep and years off their lives. So People Can Fly + Epic + EA = at least 300 people who aren’t going to sleep for the next few years while this game gets made.

I say “few” because Epic’s average dev cycle is between three and four years and we can assume this idea was pitched well before my interview. Gears of War 2 doesn’t count because most of the game was already made before they even started, so cut that dev cycle down to two years.

So what kind of game are we getting for the collaboration of no sleep? Anyone’s guess at this point, by my money’s on something action-packed with a rich back story and tons of super cool guns that explode things. And multiplayer; they can’t do a game without multiplayer.

“We don’t do unicorns,” Capps says. I asked about exploding unicorns and he wrote something down, muttering, “We’ll see.”

“We only get so many ‘fuck’ tokens,” Capps says. “And ‘badass’ is one of them, so I won’t use that…” But he says bigger than “wicked” and better than “really cool.” And we won’t have to worry about some watered-down version on the Wii. Capps is pretty sure this new game won’t appeal to “that crowd” and that the best way to make a game that works on multiple platforms is to build a super-awesome story, find a badass hero and then work with the system particulars to deliver tailored experiences. So – maybe – mods for the PS3 version and official DLC for 360?

“We’ll see, we’ll see,” Capps says.

As a parting shot, I asked about chicks in this new game. I hinted (flat-out said) every Epic game I’ve seen is severely devoid of badass females (except Unreal Tournament) and wanted to know if he planned to do anything about it. Apparently, I’m not the only one with this concern. Capps’s girlfriend is also very interested in the badassitute of female characters in Epic games – ditto for the EA handler’s girlfriend and double it for all the guys at People Can Fly with girlfriends.

“Well, we thought about…” Capps starts to say. The EA handler sits up and Capps switches to, “Ah! I can’t, I can’t! You almost got me!”

Almost. The option to play as a girl? Co-op female sidekick? Gotta wait a little longer for more details to leak out.

But seriously – Epic – give me Ellen Ripley and exploding unicorns. Is that so much to ask?

The game will be released for PC, PS3 & Xbox 360 and be developed by Epic's People Can Fly studio, based in Poland. For those of you wondering, People Can Fly were the folks behind Painkiller.

“Epic is excited to work with EA Partners to launch our next big IP on the global stage,” said Mark Rein, vice president, Epic Games. “EA Partners gives independent developers like Epic the muscle of a global publisher like EA, along with the focus and flexibility of a smaller team committed to working with our individual needs.”

Full details after the jump

EA SIGNS PUBLISHING DEAL WITH EPIC GAMES

EA Partners Team up with the Creators of the award-winning Gears of War and Unreal series

to Publish an All-New IP

Redwood City, Calif. – August 14, 2008 – Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) and Epic Games, Inc. today announced that they have signed a publishing agreement for an all-new action title for the PC, Xbox 360® video game system and PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system. The new intellectual property is currently in development by Epic’s People Can Fly studio in Poland.

“Epic is excited to work with EA Partners to launch our next big IP on the global stage,” said Mark Rein, vice president, Epic Games. “EA Partners gives independent developers like Epic the muscle of a global publisher like EA, along with the focus and flexibility of a smaller team committed to working with our individual needs.”

“In the last year, EAP has become a powerhouse player in the publishing world with the best of breed developers signing on to leverage EA’s studio-focused philosophy, global scale and publishing leadership,” said Frank Gibeau, President of the EA Games Label. ”Epic brings first class talent and technology to the development of this new title. We are very proud to have Epic join the growing roster of EA Partners.”

“Epic is a legendary studio that is synonymous with quality and EA Partners jumped at the chance to team up with them on the launch of their next blockbuster IP,” said David DeMartini, senior vice president and general manager, EA Partners. “EA Partners is committed to giving the world’s best independent developers access to EA’s global publishing resources, letting them focus on what they do best – making great games.”

For more information about Epic Games, please visit www.epicgames.com

For more information about EA, please visit our press Web site at http://info.ea.com

Develop reports that Capps also expressed plans to utilize the recently purchased Chair Entertainment to increase its stable of intellectual property. “We want to learn from casual games," he's quoted as saying, telling casual game developers on hand "we’re really jealous of the things you do and we’re going to steal all your ideas.”

He then chainsawed them all in half and took their brains back to Epic Games science labs for further study.

Epic Games looks to comic books for building new IP [Develop]

We imagine that we'll know, without a shadow of a doubt, exactly when Gears of War 2 will "escape" by next Monday, when Microsoft holds its E3 press conference. Still, it might not be a bad idea to schedule this as a sick day with your boss early as a courtesy.

Gears of War 2 [GearsOfWar.com - thanks, Max!]

Gears of War 2 designer and, apparently, part-time aviator Clifford Michael Bleszinski dishes loads of details to 1UP on the multiplayer portions of Epic's next Xbox 360 game. It's full of satisfaction, from info on Gears 2's new maps to new gameplay types like Guardian and Meat Flag. Mr. Bleszinski spends ample time discussing the various ways one can now disfigure and deform one's foes. Fans and nitpickers of the original Gears of War multiplayer modes will definitely want to check out Dan Hsu's interview with the faux-hawked one.

* May not actually cover everything.

Gears of War Content
* Gamer Picture Pack
* Emergence Day Gamer Picture
* Emergence Day Theme
* "FUTURE WEAPONS" Theme
* Emergence Day Message from Cliffy B
* Gears of War Map Pack 1 Trailer
* Gears of War - Multiplayer Map Pack 1
* 'Hidden Fronts' Multiplayer Map Pack 2

Gears of War 2 Content
* Gamer Picture Pack
* Teeth Theme
* Teaser Trailer
* Trailer
* Assault Game Play Trailer

Gears of War with Maps [GameStop - thanks, coonkine!]

Gears of War With Maps [GameStop via NeoGAF]

A popular video game for the Xbox 360 is getting a sequel this year - and it seems to be raising eyebrows with its level of gore and detail... The game certainly attracted attention for its realistic visuals and battle scenes, but caused some pause when game designers showed off a new attack players can use in the game.

The game presents the player with a number of projectile weapons, but also features a chainsaw for melee attacks. In the demo, the player can use the chainsaw to cut a person in half, starting at the groin and moving upwards. Also, players can pick up the corpses of fallen enemies and use them as a "meat shield" to protect themself from enemy fire as they engage in battle from behind the corpse.

Meh. This is nothing compared to the mainstream media shit storm Resident Evil 5 will cause.
Players Can Use Corpses As "Meat Shields" [AZ Family via Game Politics]

"Gears of War 2" is due for release in November on Xbox 360 only.

Wow. "You can now pick up enemies when they're downed and use them as a meat shield." But can you upgrade your meat shields?

Gears of War 2: "Assault Gameplay" and "Assault Analysis" [GameVideos.com]

Exclusive Gears of War 2 Gameplay Video on Friday [1UP]

I'm not gonna poke the snake of what-is and what-ain't next-gen. Let Capps do that for himself:

It's a virus where you buy it and you play it with your friends and they're like, "Oh my God that's so cool, I'm gonna go buy it." So you stop playing it after two months, but they buy it and they stop playing it after two months but they've showed it to someone else who then go out and buy it and so on. Everyone I know bought one and nobody turns it on. Obviously there's a class of people who really love it and enjoy it and are getting into the games but I'm still waiting for that one game that makes me play it.

IGN has the entire interview, if you're inclined. Megatonik sifted out the good parts and posted on it, too.

NYCC '08: Talking Gears 2 and So Much More [IGN, thanks Megatonik]

Under the initial agreement, signed back in 2006, EA used Unreal Engine 3 on several games including Medal of Honor Airborne and Army of Two. EA is not saying which games they are currently developing using Epic's engine under this new agreement, but both companies were quick to pat each other on the backs.

"With the largest and most talented studio operation in the world, it's critical for us to give our studio teams the best tools they need to make great games," said Frank Gibeau, President, at EA. "This agreement reflects our commitment to Epic's technology which, in combination with our own cutting-edge systems, allows us to create ground breaking hits."

"Epic is committed to providing EA with the premier development infrastructure, tools and technology for its upcoming games," said Mark Rein, vice president, Epic Games. "We're extremely excited that EA has chosen to expand their use of Unreal Engine 3 and we can't wait to see more of the great games they will produce with it."

Any bets on which games will be getting the Unreal treatment?

The full release is below, with guest quotes from Gabe Newell and Jay Wilbur.

EPIC GAMES NOW ON STEAM

Award-Winning Library Available Via Leading Online Platform for PC Games

March 17, 2008 - Epic Games, Inc. and Valve, two of the PC industry's leading technology and content development studios, have inked an agreement to bring Epic's award-winning titles to Steam, a leading platform for PC games and digital content with over 15 million accounts around the world.

The Epic hits now available on Steam include Epic's debut classic, Unreal Gold, as well as Unreal II: The Awakening and the Unreal Tournament series of games, including the recently released Unreal Tournament 3, which has shipped over one million copies to date.

All of Epic's titles available on Steam are offered in the Unreal Deal Pack, an incredible value for just $59.95. And, to celebrate the launch, all of Epic's games on Steam are available for 10% off their regular price.

"Epic is a leading developer of game engine technology and has produced some of my favorite games of all time," said Gabe Newell, president of Valve. "It's an honor to be working with them and offering their current and classic titles to the millions of Steam gamers around the world."

"Steam is a revolutionary technology that opens up an entirely new way to put our games into the hands of millions of PC gamers around the world," said Jay Wilbur, vice president of Epic. "Valve has changed the face of digital distribution for game developers, publishers and consumers, and we are thrilled to be a part of the Steam community."

For more information or to purchase Epic's games via Steam, please visit www.steamgames.com

About Epic Games
Epic Games, Inc., based in Cary, North Carolina and established in 1991, develops cutting-edge games and cross-platform game engine technology. The company has created multiple million-selling, award-winning titles in its Unreal series, recently shipping Unreal Tournament 3 for PC and PlayStation 3. Epic's breakthrough game, Gears of War, sold over 4.5 million copies and was awarded overall Game of the Year for 2006 by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, Game Developers Choice Awards, GameSpot, GamePro and many others. Epic is also responsible for the Unreal Engine, which is the underlying technology for a wide range of games including the Game Critics Awards' Best Console Game and Spike TV's 2007 RPG of the Year Mass Effect by BioWare and the 2007 BAFTA Best Game and Spike TV Game of the Year BioShock by 2K Games. Epic's Unreal Engine 3 is the current holder, and three-time consecutive winner, of Game Developer magazine's Front Line award for Best Game Engine. Epic was also recognized as 2006 Studio of the Year by Spike TV, 2006 Developer of the Year by Official Xbox Magazine and 2007 Large Company of the Year by the North Carolina Technology Association. Additional information about Epic can be obtained through the Epic Games Web site at www.epicgames.com.

About Steam
The leading online platform for PC games and digital entertainment, Steam delivers new releases and online services to over 15 million PC users around the world. For more information, please visit www.steamgames.com

Epic, Epic Games, Unreal, Unreal Tournament and Gears of War are trademarks or registered trademarks of Epic Games, Inc. in the United States of America and elsewhere. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

While we fully expect someone from Microsoft to utter the words Gears of War II at GDC this week, unless determined to prevent an Unreal Tournament III for Xbox 360 cockblock, we're a bit hesitant about buy-out talk. The company does have a keynote planned this week, which we'll be liveblogging (*gulp*). Ready the F5 key for news.

Could Microsoft Acquire Epic Games? GamePro Editor Thinks So [WRAL]

It is amazing how people can look at two weeks of sales (in our case) in one single territory in the busiest Xmas sales season the industry has ever seen and come to the conclusion these titles are doing "badly". I don't think either title is doing so badly.

Crysis probably has 3-4x the marketing budget of UT3 and more mindshare because it is a PC-only, high-end, single-player oriented game. This isn't the fastest selling UT title ever but it's doing pretty well and we're going to support it with some pretty cool things to help it keep selling over time.

Mark Rein answers your questions! [via cvg][image: gettyimages]

First User Created Content for UT3 PS3 is released! [Epic Games]

FileFront has the download and installation instructions, which, curiously, point out that removable storage of some sort is required for import. Whether it be compact flash, Memory Stick or simply a USB thumb drive, it seems one can't simply download to the PS3's built-in mass storage via the internet browser. What's up with that?

FileFront Exclusive: First Ever PS3 Unreal Tournament 3 Map [FileFront]

Those driven to the brink of insanity by warnings of the UTIII's delay to 2008, which were later semi-scuttled by Rein himself can finally join the rest of us with full mental faculties intact. Welcome back. And yay!

Unreal Tournament 3 for PS3 has gone gold for North America! [Epic]

It may sound like very dry stuff, but SouthPeak and Epic both agree that the license is very important for independent studios who, according to Mark Rein "would typically have to wait a long time to work with our award-winning game engine." While Monster Madness was generally given a "meh" by reviewers, we hope that it will be put to good use by whomever SouthPeak signs on next.

SouthPeak Games Signs UE3 Studio License with Epic Games

License Agreement Opens More Opportunities for Independent Developers

GRAPEVINE, Texas - November 7, 2007 - SouthPeak Games, emerging publisher and distributor of entertainment software, today announced a studio license agreement with Epic Games for use of the Unreal Engine 3 (UE3) in the development of its upcoming PC and video game titles worldwide. The agreement is in effect throughout the life of the UE3 technology application across all major platforms including downloadable content. SouthPeak's latest release planned under the new studio license is Monster Madness EX: Battle for Suburbia, currently under development by Psyonix Studios for PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system.

"Independent developers need more opportunities to bring their games to market with next-generation technology," said Katie Morgan, executive vice president at SouthPeak Games. "UE3 provides developers all the tools and resources necessary to build great games and SouthPeak is giving talented developers a chance to focus on creating their games without spending the resources to create an engine to support it."

"We see this as a landmark agreement for Epic and the UE3 technology because of SouthPeak's focus on independent developers," said Mark Rein, vice president of Epic Games. "They are going to bring UE3 to a group of developers that have fantastic games but would typically have to wait a long time to work with our award-winning game engine."

"Our focus on UE3 technology has been key to our success as an independent studio. This is an ideal opportunity for us to work with SouthPeak on our projects," said Dave Hagewood, president of Psyonix Studios. "We're excited to be working with SouthPeak to bring our upcoming game to market in 2008."

About SouthPeak Games
SouthPeak Games has been publishing and distributing entertainment software since 1996. Recognizing the market need for an independent publisher, SouthPeak is focusing on marketing games from top-notch developers for all popular game platforms. Leveraging its outstanding distribution experience and retail strength, SouthPeak is currently launching new game titles worldwide. Recent titles released include the popular role-playing game (RPG) Two Worlds and Monster Madness: Battle for Suburbia. For more information about SouthPeak Games, please visit www.southpeakgames.com.

About Unreal Engine 3
The award-winning Unreal Engine is known for cutting-edge graphics and a best-of-breed toolset. Unreal Engine 3 is expected to maintain those features while adding massive world support, multi-processor support, next-generation console optimizations, and one of the most mature tool pipelines in the industry. Unreal Engine 3's new toolset is designed specifically to accelerate developers' productivity for ultra-complex, next-generation content. Additional information on Unreal Engine can be obtained at www.unrealtechnology.com.

About Epic Games
Epic Games, Inc., based in Cary, NC and established in 1991, develops cutting-edge games and game engine technology for PC and console. The company has created multiple million-selling, award-winning titles in their Unreal series and their latest game, Gears of War, broke sales records on Xbox 360 selling more than 3 million copies worldwide in the first ten weeks and awarded overall Game of the Year for 2006 by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, Game Developers Choice Awards, GameSpot, GamePro and many others. Epic is also responsible for the Unreal Engine, which is the underlying technology for a wide range of games including Console Game of the Year winner "Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell" by Ubisoft; PC Gamer's Game of the Year "Deus Ex" from Ion Storm/Eidos; "America's Army: Special Forces" by the United States Army; and "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" (PC) by Electronic Arts. Epic's Unreal Engine 3 is the current holder, and three-time consecutive winner, of Game Developer magazine's Front Line award for Best Game Engine. Epic Games was also awarded Studio of the Year at the 2006 Spike TV Video Game Awards and Developer of the Year by Official Xbox Magazine. Additional information about Epic can be obtained through Epic's Web site at www.epicgames.com

I was going to cut multiplayer from Gears because I thought it wasn't coming together fast enough...The day before E3 I'm like "no guys, it's not pulling together". And they made it, they pulled it together, and then we won every award.

So, you know I thought the Mad World music, for the commercial that's won so many awards, I thought it was stupid; I was like "what are you thinking? Nobody knows Donnie Darko any more.

But apparently it's a good thing nobody actually listens to this guy.

Mike Capps, Epic Games president, says he was going to cut multiplayer from Gears of War [pro-g]

Wait, there's a single player mode in Unreal Tournament III? Consider it (good) news to me. Apparently, the single player campaign sees you, as a big dude with a big neck carrying a big gun, taking down the Necris High Inquisitor Akasha by less than diplomatic means. I expect sexy results. With club sauce.