The Unreal Engine 3 will only run on third-generation iPod Touches and the iPhone 3GS, and the demo being shown is not a fully-operable game, just a stripped-down version of Unreal Tournament.

Some elaboration from AnandTech from their meeting with Epic Games V.P. Mark Rein:

Epic isn't announcing any sort of iPhone engine licenses nor are they entering the iPhone game market. Porting UE3 to the iPhone is simply one of many projects being worked on inside a newer, more svelte and innovative Epic Games (wait till you see what's next...)... Mark said they planned to make this available to licensees at some point in the near future.

And here's a thought experiment: How about a recent Epic hit ported to the iPhone?

...eventually it wouldn't be too far fetched to see a full port of Gears of War to something as small as an iPhone. NAND Flash capacities to support multiple 9GB games will be there in another few years, as will GPU horsepower.

According to the site, Rein said that Unreal Engine 3 support will be announced for "another mobile platform" at next month's CES, the biggest tech show of the year.

Epic Demonstrates Unreal Engine 3 for the iPod Touch/iPhone 3GS [AnandTech]

The drinks - of which, sadly, we have no nutritional information - are put out by Boston America, who are also the guys behind the Street Fighter energy drinks you may have seen doing the rounds.

Kotaku's Night Desk would gladly chug these down by the case in an attempt to stave off naptime, were it not for the fact we've seen what happens to those exposed to too much Imulsion, and to be honest, glowing yellow veins clash with the colour of our sneakers.

Bonus treat: check out the drink's Amazon page, which is able to sum up the Gears of War fanbase better than words could ever hope.

Gears of War [Boston America]

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]

Sure, Gears aficionados can also win a replica Lancer gun, but it's the option to grill outdoors in pitch black that will probably get Japanese gamers excited. All they have to do is watch a Gears Of War 2 promo video at the game's official Japanese site, find the hidden password buried within, and then throw their name in the hat.

The company is also hosting a Horde tournament for Japanese Xbox 360 owners, netting serious Gears players things like a sweet new TV, 5.1 surround sound headphones and other prizes. But hey, they're giving away BBQ sets. Two of 'em! You probably stopped reading at BBQ set.

マイクロソフト、Xbox 360「Gears of War 2」発売に合わせてランキングイベントなどを実施 [Game Watch]

While Dark Corners comes packed with seven new maps for multiplayer gaming, the thing that really sets this bundle of download content apart from the rest is the inclusion of a lost level cut from the middle of the game and now playable as a stand-alone mission. The level, introduced with a short video by developer Cliff Bleszinski, even introduces a new mechanic, stealth, to the game.

Is this a worthy addition to Gears of War 2 or was Epic right to cut it before shipping the game last year?

Loved
Road to Ruin: The Road to Ruin single-player campaign is presented as a level cut from the original Gears of War 2 in a sort of director's cut of the game. The level takes place after the emotional reunion between Dom and his wife Maria in the underground lair of the Locust. The level has players traverse an underground highway on their way to find the queen. The Road to Ruin can either be played as a typical stop-and-pop Gears level or a stealth level. That's right, this particular level introduces the ability to put on some Theron Guard armor and become nearly invisible to most Locust. If you decide to sneak through the level, you'll spend most of your time following on Marcus' heels as he creeps past guards for about two-thirds of the level. Both the stealth approach and traditional approach culminates in the same room filled with lever-controlled pop-up barriers and a flood of enemies. The whole thing wraps up neatly with a boss battle before segueing back into the original Gears of War 2 plot. While short—it took me just 45 minutes to play through the game on hardcore difficulty—the lost level does give gamers a chance to drop back into the game and experience something new. The stealth mode is mostly wasted on the level, delivering something more tedious than exciting. Despite the lackluster mechanic, I do wish they had included Road to Ruin in the original title, the impact it would have had emotionally on gamers when played directly after the scenes of the reunion between Dom and Maria would have been significant.

Seven New Places to Play: Dark Corners also comes packed with seven new multiplayer levels, most of which are a welcome addition to the current stable of maps available to gamers. None of the maps are bad additions, but a few really stand out. In particular I enjoyed the interesting, overly-ornate setting for Way Station. My favorite map of the bunch, though, was Nowhere which features an abandoned gas station and garage.

Hated
Cliffy: Don't get me wrong, I like Cliff Bleszinski, I just don't like having to watch him talk about the reasons behind the decision to cut Road to Ruin every time I want to replay the level. Sure it's skipable, but couldn't they have made the relatively short video be a separate item instead of attaching it to the beginning of the new gameplay? It's also unfortunate that the level wasn't delivered in a way that lets you play through the "deleted scene" in-line with the rest of the game. I would have loved to see what the missing piece of the game felt like as a whole, instead of relying on my memory to see how the plot and cut-scenes fit together. Instead gamers select the new level from the main menu and the game creates an entirely separate game save for the Road to Ruin play through.

Calling Road to Ruin a deleted scene makes we wonder why more games don't release director's cuts. I'd love to replay a more bloated version of a game I really like to see what was cut out, what was tweaked. Delivering a new level for an old game is fantastic fan service, but it is also quite frustrating when it comes unleashed from the source material.

Coming in at about $15, Dark Corners is well worth the money to any fans of Gears of War 2. It bolsters multiplayer gaming with seven new maps, but much more importantly, it gives you a tantalizing taste of brand new single-player Gears.

Gears of War 2: Dark Corners was developed by Epic Games and published by Microsoft for the Xbox 360 on July 28. Retails for $15.00 USD. Played through the single-player level on hardcore both in stealth and not. Played all multiplayer maps at least three times each.

Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ.

Dude and Rod will be joined by Gears of War movie scriptwriter Chris Morgan, Gears of War comic book author and Gears of War 2 scriptwriter Joshua Ortega, and Gears of War movie director Len Wiseman. It's gonna be busy!

Jump through to read the liveblog.

The main focus this year at the NECA booth seems to have been Street Fighter IV and Gears of War, the two great tastes that sounds great together when said out loud. We've seen many of the figures already, but a few are new. I'm really digging their take on urban vinyl for the two properties, and I definitely need a Crimson Viper figure so I can profess my love for her in person.

Thank goodness I didn't say that out loud.

Yes, whether you buy the pack from Xbox.com or from the 360 dash itself, it doesn't matter, it's there, it's available, you can download it and (our readers tell us) you can play it, and you can do all that for only 800 MS Points, half the price it was originally advertised at.

If this is a marketing sneak attack from Microsoft, it's a welcome one. If it's a mistake, quick, download it now before they yank it off and jack the price back up.

UPDATE - And just like that, it's down. Guess it was a mistake after all. If you got in and got playing, congratulations! If not, well, tough cookies.

[thanks everyone who sent this in!]

But Gears designer Dude Huge (aka "DH" aka "Cliff Bleszinski") is ready to move on.

"Stylistically though," he says, "I'd love to play in a different field in the near future in regards to what your typical expectation of a Gears of War game actually is." Lots of pastels, please!

Gears of War 2 is a slight departure visually from the first game — nothing radical, though.

Huge currently has "five projects going on right now" and says that he and his company Epic Games are going to take more risks in the future as well as make "a few safe bets that people won't be surprised to see coming." Gears of War 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7, anyone?

Cliff Bleszinski: shifting gears [Develop]

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]

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]

According to Engadget, the Jonas Brothers' video director managed to hook up a console to this behemoth at the new Cowboys Stadium, home of a 160' by 72' center hung 1080p LED wall, which just took the title of largest TV away from Kansas City (which had taken it from a Tokyo racetrack and, before that, the University of Texas.)

Considering he's playing on something a zillion times the size of a normal TV, the controls don't look too spongy at all.

A year ago, Yahoo! Sports' MJD said, "I would consider sacrificing a pinky to play some Xbox 360 on it." We know it's now feasible, so, Mr. Darnell, your hand please.

Giant Cowboys Stadium LED wall caught playing Xbox 360 during downtime Update: Video! [Engadget, thanks Madness87]

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]

For those who don't know what those are, know that sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov established three basic laws governing the programming of robots for his works, which later became almost canonical amongst other sci-fi writers, and which remain popular to this day.

Those three laws are:

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Simple. It's a paper/rock/scissors sequence of programming that allows a robot to look after itself without ever inflicting harm upon a human — which will be good to know in the dark, distant future when there are robots advanced enough to require such programming!

For now, though, the closest things we have in the real world to the classic idea of a "robot" are automatic vacuum cleaners, giant arms that work on factory floors and bipedal toys wheeled out at Japanese robotics shows.

But what about video game characters? They're governed by AI. And, in many cases, incredibly complex AI, to the point where non-playable characters can behave more naturally than the robots in Asimov's works. So this being robot week and all, we decided to ask a few game developers what their versions of Asimov's three laws were when coming up with gaming AI.

Jonny Ebbert, Relic, lead designer on Dawn of War 2:

1) Fun before difficulty. Always try to level the challenge appropriately at each level so that players feel good about playing. So make your Easy A.I easy, and your Normal A.I. kind of easy. Leave the sadism for Hard and Expert.

2) Add frailty but avoid stupidity. A.I.s need to make mistakes for the player to exploit from time to time but they shouldn't look dumb doing it. A.I's aren't fun to play if they always trigger their abilities perfectly when they have the chance (anyone old school enough to remember trying to Death and Decay a peon line against a Human AI), and they shouldn't always retreat at the perfect health level. But they need to stay in the range of competency when they do make "mistakes." It's a fine line to walk, but an important line.

3) Be a good teammate. Try to support your teammate's army when possible. Help out your opponent's base when it's under serious attack. Players love it when they see an A.I. that cares about how they're doing. They feel like they're cooperating rather than playing next to something.

4) Cheat wherever you can. A.I.s are handicapped. They need to cheat from time to time if they're going to close the gap.

5) Never get caught cheating. Nothing ruins the illusion of a good A.I. like seeing how they're cheating.

Matt Tonks, Epic, gameplay programmer on Gears of War 2:

Simplest answer:

1. Act smart until the player kills you.

Or, to be a bit more specific:

1. An AI must value its own life; take cover against threatening enemies, and avoid life-threatening situations.

2. An AI should attack the most threatening enemy, unless we are threatened… in which case, see rule #1.

The friendly AI has a couple rules added to the top:

1. A friendly AI should never get in the player's way. If you're in the player's way, get out of the way.

2. A friendly AI should stay near its assigned squad leader (usually the player).

And then the other rules:

3. An AI must value its own life; take cover against threatening enemies, and avoid life-threatening situations.

4. An AI should attack the most threatening enemy, unless we are threatened… in which case, see rule #3.

Todd Howard, Bethesda, executive producer on Fallout 3:

"I'll give you one from the old Terminator games, since the new movie is coming out. The Terminator cannot be reasoned with, can't be bargained with, and cannot be stopped. Unless of course he hits a chair, and since he can't path around it, we have him just start shooting."

It'll go on sale down under on June 4, and will retail for AUD$449 (USD$350). There's no word on whether this will be seen outside Australia.

Talking (again) to the MTV Movies Blog, Morgan calls The Rock "a genuine actor. Not only can he play the tough guy, but he can also play the nuanced, sensitive funny sad moments as well. But finding that guy is incredibly difficult."

Well, that plainly describes the job description Johnson faced in "Walking Tall," so of course he'd be perfect as a post-apocalyptic Buford Pusser.

Sensitive? Funny? Sad? I know Gears of War 2, the game, won praise for writing and developing characters that a player might actually care about. But who are we kidding here. This is a movie adaptation of a game, and the financiers of such projects couldn't give a shit for a plot or dialogue. They're greenlit because they put asses in theater seats for a single, easily marketable reason: shooting shit and/or kicking ass, not interpersonal communication.

This isn't the first mention of the Rock as Gears material. Back in October, Ripten hallucinated a movie poster that had him cast as Dominic (with fellow rassler Dave Batista as Fenix.)

Screenwriter Chris Morgan Weighs In On Who Should Play Marcus Fenix In ‘Gears Of War' Movie [MTV Movies Blog via Digital Battle]

Xbox Live's Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb informed the community today that the company has zeroed out the Gamerscores of Gears of War 2 cheaters, apparently caught with their hands in the Achievement cookie jar.

"As you know, we are committed to keeping Xbox LIVE a safe and fair place to play for the more than 17 million active members," Hryb writes on his official blog. "As part of our regular safety monitoring we have pinpointed a group of players who have unlocked specific Gears of War 2 Achievements through an unauthorized hack."

Remember, kids, it doesn't pay to cheat. I should know, because I definitely have never ever taken advantage of any glitch, particularly the Left 4 Dead "Jesus Room" glitch. You hear that, Microsoft? That's the truth!

Gears of War 2 Achievement Hacking: Banning has begun... [Major Nelson]

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!