A job advertisement for Microsoft Game Studios is looking for somebody to work "with an experienced team at MGS and the world-class developers at Epic to drive the success of Gears of War and Shadow Complex in the highly competitive and fascinating world of interactive entertainment".

Exciting. We'd have pointed out the Gears part too, but news of more Gears of War games is like news of the sun's rising.

Microsoft hunts producer for new Epic games [Develop]

Many have made the comparison of Gearbox's Borderlands to Diablo. Cliffy B certifies it with this unsolicited Tweet: "Borderlands, I adore you. You're Diablo for a generation raised on first person shooters. I want a Claptrap statue."

That can be arranged, Cliff.

Cliff Bleszinski's Twitter [via Hot Blooded Gaming]

Outside of mod tools included in the PC versions of Gears of War or Unreal games, the only way to get your hands on Unreal Engine 3 technology for free was to date Cliff Bleszinski, and even then odds are you wouldn't be sharp enough to do anything with it. Now Epic has released the Unreal Development Kit, a standalone game development package available for free non-commercial use.

The Unreal Development Kit, or UDK, contains everything a budding game developer needs to create Unreal Engine 3-powered games. Games like Whizzle from Psyonix Studios, a game crafted in two months using a two-man team of a programmer and artist. You can see the results in the screenshot up top, or head over to the showcase page to download the game for free.

"I'm excited about the possibilities the Unreal Development Kit opens to those who are looking to get into the game business but don't otherwise have the means to acquire world-class technology and tools like ours," said Mark Rein, vice president of Epic Games. "UDK is Unreal Engine 3, which has been used to create games in a wide range of genres, as well as military simulations, 3D architectural walkthroughs, animated movies and more. Users are only limited by their imaginations. Go ahead make something Unreal!"

You can download the Unreal Development Kit right now at http://www.udk.com/, where you can also find documentation, licensing terms, and a full feature listing.

Okay, $949.99, but I very much doubt that $50 under is going to sway anyone to the dark side of video game collectibles. TriForce's Lancer has been crafted by some of the biggest names in the business. Names like Erick Sosa, William Valenzuela, Jorge Martinez, Toi Ogunyoku and painter, Paul Komoda. Names you probably don't know, but again, don't think they'll matter that much in this purchasing decision. What matters is that this is a 40-inch long, 15-pound 1::1 model of an iconic video game weapon, and if that's your kind of thing, then it's your kind of thing.

The Lancer is limited to 500 pieces worldwide, so if you are feeling at all compelled, I'd suggest heading to the product page and preordering. Or buying us all pizza for a week.

We loved Shadow Complex, and so did you folks apparently, with stellar review scores and one-week sales so spectacular that Microsoft had to issue a celebratory press release. Multiplayer titles dominate Xbox Live Arcade, and single-player games generally don't perform nearly as well, but Chair seems to have knocked this one out of the park.

"Congratulations to Chair Entertainment and Epic Games for creating an outstanding game," said Scott Austin, director of digitally distributed games at Microsoft. "As the capstone title of the second annual Summer of Arcade program, "Shadow Complex" has raised the bar for downloadable games. We're proud to offer such high-quality content on Xbox LIVE Arcade."

I found the game to be one of the most complete game offerings ever made available on Xbox Live Arcade. I would have easily paid full price for it, which makes the 1200 Microsoft point ($15) so much sweeter. If you've not yet played it, it comes highly recommended.

It includes the main game along with all post-release DLC, which comes to 19 maps and the bonus singleplayer level Road to Ruin. Well..."include" is such a strong word...you get a download card in the box for it, meaning to access the DLC, you have to get the game home then download it. Really, guys, would it have killed you to put it on the disc?

Regardless, the download token seems to have stopped the game from going Platinum, with the Gears 2 GOTY selling for $40.

[GameStop]

I must have missed McWhertor's story on Peter David taking up writing duties for Shadow Complex, which is strange, considering David is one of my all-time favorite comic book writers, and not too shabby as a novelist as well. His stint on X-Factor still stands as my favorite comic book run, developing Guido "Strong Guy" Carosella into the role model for guys with torsos way out of proportion to their legs. Yes, guys like me.

Sure, you may game on a HD set. I know I do. But in an interview with Eurogamer, Epic's Mark Rein has revealed that "Over half the users who played Gears of War 2 so far do not have HDTVs".

That's, uh, a lot. Millions of people. No wonder these console manufacturers keep banging on about a ten-year lifecycle; it's going to take that long for people to upgrade to a HDTV.

Epic's Mark Rein [Eurogamer]

Speaking to Eurogamer, Rein, the Epic vice president, said Sony has "their own financial issues to solve and lowering the price of the console would probably have made their situation worse,"

"They will get around to it in their own good time," he said. "If you're willing to look at this as a long-term play, they're going to be just fine."

Epic's Mark Rein [Eurogamer via GamesIndustry.biz]

With Title Update 4 dropping just in time for America to celebrate its independence from British tyranny, which seems a bit silly now that we look back, now is the perfect time to hold a double experience weekend in Gears of War 2. Executive producer Rod Fergusen agrees.

Starting Friday morning you'll be receiving double XP as well as a 500 XP bonus awarded to the winning team. And to give a little extra bang to Horde we're bringing the Ticker squad (a group of Tickers that all spawn at the same time) into full effect. They'll be showing up a lot more throughout all the waves of Horde and they've completely infested every 10th wave with nothing but Tickers. So if you've been having trouble with Bloodmounts, this weekend is a good time to get your Horde on and get further than ever before. And don't forget that TU4 will give you experience for every wave you beat.

Who needs fireworks and picnics, right?

July 4th Weekend Event - XP Galore/Ticker Infestation [Epic Games Forums]

As this novel is a direct sequel to Gears 2, those of you who haven't finished it yet might want to hurry the hell up. The rest, read on.

Jacinto's remnant picks up after the destruction of humanity's last bastion on the planet Sera, with the refugees from Jacinto finding themselves struggling against the icy wilderness as well as the remaining Locust, which are understandably very angry. Only Marcus Fenix and his merry band of muscle-bound Gears can find a safe haven for the dregs of humanity.

"Karen Traviss has outdone herself once again," said Rod Fergusson, executive producer, Epic Games. "JACINTO'S REMNANT not only answers the question of what happens after the events of Gears 2, it also provides greater insight into the Gears of War universe and a deeper understanding of its characters. We hope players of the games and discerning readers alike will enjoy this ongoing tale of humanity's fight for survival."

Traviss' first Gears book, Aspho Fields, was one damn fine read, and I can't think of anyone I'd rather have continue the Gears saga than the woman behind the Star Wars: Republic Commando novels.

Gears of War: Jacinto's Remnant should be in stores come July 28th.

For starters, you'll accrue multiplayer XP from playing Horde mode, and also be able to restart a public Horde match from the last wave you passed, rather than wave 1.

Also added (in preparation for the upcoming Dark Corners expansion) will be 13 new achievements, worth a total of 325 points. But, uh, you'll need Dark Corners to get them.

You can get the finer details over on Epic's boards.

Gears of War 2 Title Update 4 Detailed Release Notes [Epic]

Two back-to-back Gears games.

"There are still plenty of opportunities for things you can do in a cover-based shooter and there are still a lot of stories to tell in the Gears universe," says the designer. "I'm not burned out with the franchise at all."

Dude's got a huge point — there are only two Gears games. Wait until Bleszinski's promoting the inevitable Gears of War 7 to ask him if he feels burnt out.

We really hope Gears 7 is better than Gears 6.

Cliff B 'not burned out on Gears' [CVG]

IGN points to a site called Beantown Games, explaining that "there were plenty of details that appeared to be pulled from an upcoming press release", along with a box shot and details on a limited edition of the game, complete with gold lancer. There are indeed plenty of details, but taking any block of text from said details and putting them into Google search reveals that they are the exact same details from the Xbox 360 press release, word for word, except for a few spots where they replaced "Xbox Live" with "Games for Windows Live". Whoever changed the text even missed some, as shown in the line "Taking full advantage of the Xbox LIVE service, which boasts 10 million gamers".

And then there's the fact that the retail codes are all for The Golden Compass.

Yes, the UPC code, MPN number, and ASIN identifier all point to Sega's PC version of The Golden Compass, based on the theatrical version of the book, which did indeed feature a war, but instead of gears, we have bears. Bears of war.

Finally, the box art itself is the exact same artwork released early on for the Xbox 360 version, complete with "ARTWORK NOT FINAL" on the bottom. The image doesn't jive with the standard dimensions for PC box art either, leading me to believe that it is a Photoshop job.

We've contacted Microsoft, Epic, and Beantown Games for comment on the listing, but have yet to hear back from any of the three. Microsoft has already commented to IGN that there are still no plans to bring the game to the PC, and we know how Cliff feels about a PC version already.

Update: Microsoft got back to us with the expected response. "Gears of War" is a great franchise first and foremost for Xbox 360, and therefore we're focusing on that platform for "Gears of War 2." We have decided to not create a PC version of "Gears of War 2."

Gears of War 2 PC Rumors [IGN via Big Download]

The company's Unreal Engine 3 powers a good chunk of this generation's titles. The ensuing generations are likely to have photorealism — and Epic's Tim Sweeney thinks that'll be de facto in 10 to 15 years.

"We're only about a factor of a thousand off from achieving all that in real-time without sacrifices," says Sweeney. "So we'll certainly see that happen in our lifetimes; it's just a result of Moore's Law. Probably 10-15 years for that stuff, which isn't far at all."

Over at industry site Gamasutra, Sweeney goes into great detail about graphic realism and reproducing the nuances of human behavior.

From The Past To The Future: Tim Sweeney Talks [Gamasutra via [Eurogamer] [Pic]

Yes, sit back and allow John DiMaggio - who does the voice work for Futurama's surly robot (and also some Marcus Fenix guy) - to take you on a guided, emotional tour of the new maps featured in the pack.

Thankfully, he does it in his best "John DiMaggio" voice, rather than his best "Marcus Fenix" voice, so you don't need to worry about his gravelly tones rubbing your inner ear raw over the course of two minutes of non-stop narration.

UPDATE - Wow. So, according to Microsoft, it's not DiMaggio at all. It's Baird, who is played by Fred Tatasciore. If you'd asked me 100 times who this was, I'd have said, 100 times, it was DiMaggio. Sorry Fred!

Fans have been drooling over them for several weeks, and now the four new multiplayer maps for Gears 2 are upon us in the Snowblind Map Pack. Grindyard, Under Hill, Courtyard, and the snowy remake of Fuel Depot are all available now for 800 Microsoft points, giving players even more places to get chainsawed in half than ever before.

Adding to the value of the pack is 250 points worth of new achievements, mainly centered around the new experience system introduced in last week's title update. Achievements are now earned for reaching level 5, 15, 25, 50, and 100, with some additional requirements added to the later levels to keep things fresh. What requirements? Check out the full list of achievements below to find out!

Snowblind Achievements

"Rookie Gear" (10 points): Earn enough multiplayer experience to reach level 5 (Public only).

· "Seasoned Gear" (20 points): Earn enough multiplayer experience to reach level 15 (Public only).

· "Battle-Tested Gear" (30 points): Earn enough multiplayer experience to reach level 25 (Public only).

· "Battle-Hardened Gear" (50 points): Reach level 50 and play a match on each of the four Snowblind Map Pack maps (Public only).

· "Veteran Gear" (75 points): Reach level 100 and win a match on each of the four Snowblind Map Pack maps (Public only).

· "Never Eat Red Snow" (20 points): Complete waves 1 through 10 on all Snowblind Map Pack maps in Horde (any difficulty).

· "Icy Dead People" (25 points): Complete waves 1 through 50 on any Snowblind Map Pack map in Horde (any difficulty).

· "Frigid Body Dynamics" (5 points): Play a multiplayer match on each of the four Snowblind Map Pack maps (any mode).

· "The Weather Outside Is Lethal" (15 points): Win a multiplayer match on each of the four Snowblind Map Pack maps (any mode).

The image, posted on Joystiq, was discovered by a Gears of War forum user in a now defunct thread, fueled by former Kotaku guest editor Geoff Keighley's Twitter entry regarding Gears of War 2 level announcements. If the rumor holds true, this would see two Gears of War 2 add-ons released within a month of each other, with Snowblind due out on March 31st. It doesn't seem like a wise idea, releasing more maps while people are still getting used to the last batch, so this could very well be an extension of the single player campaign as well.

Hopefully we'll find out more as the Game Developers Conference continues. Until then, strictly in the realm of rumors.

Rumor: Gears of War 2 'Dark Corners' DLC to be revealed this week [Joystiq]

Now that they've managed to license their engine to just about everyone in the gaming industry, Epic is ready to bring some exciting new features to the Unreal Engine 3, which they'll be showing off at GDC next week. Features like Unreal Lightmass, which coupled with their new Swarm distributed computing framework makes adding high-quality static lighting effects 10 times faster then before. How about a new content browser and search engine, freeing developers from having to manually hunt for game assets?

"We looked at how easy it was to search the net with Google, and find photos on Flickr, and redesigned Unreal Engine 3's content searching and tagging along those lines," said Tim Sweeney, chief executive officer and technical director of Epic Games. "The result was a productivity boon for artists and designers."

They've also got a couple nifty additions in store for online developers, including the addition of Gears of War 2 scalable statistics and data management back end in the form of the Unreal Master Control Program.

"Battle-tested by over 6.8 million hours of online player time, Unreal MCP seriously ups the ante for game engines," says Mark Rein, vice president of Epic Games. "The online infrastructure required for a modern, triple-A game represents man-years of work, and all of this is now included in Unreal Engine 3."

And for those developers who prefer their multiplayer to be massive, Epic China will be showing off their new integrated massively multiplayer online game backend solution, which should have MMO developers frothing at the mouth in joy.

In layman's terms, the Unreal Engine 3 is now even more attractive to game developers across all genres. Expect to see the logo popping up more and more with these new additions to one of the world's most popular engines.

The title update - due on March 24 - is geared at making player's progression up the ranks more transparent. The contentious, confusing "TrueSkill" system will remain in place, though its scoring formula will be kept "under the hood". For more visible feedback, "players will earn experience points for scoring in public matches". The more points in a public multiplayer match you score, the more experience points you accrue (with a total of 250 on offer as part of the update), the higher up the food chain you move.

A week later - on March 31 - the "Snowblind" map pack will be released. It will include four maps, three of them (Grindyard, Under Hill and, Courtyard) new, one of them (Fuel Depot) a remake of an original Gears 1 level. You can see a couple of pics of Grindyard here, along with a score sheet showing off the new experience system.

The update will of course be free. The map pack? No word on price yet, but 800 MS Points sounds like a good bet.

New Gears of War 2 experience system due 3/24, Snowblind Map Pack coming 3/31 [GameSpot]