Gears Of War Novels Get New Author

How very odd. Back in January we reported that Steven L. Kent, author of the Clone series and The Ultimate History Of Video Games would be penning a series of novels based on Gears of War, but now Del Rey has announced an entirely different sort of clone author for the series. Karen Traviss, who wrote the excellent Star Wars: Republic Commando series of novels. No offense to Mr. Kent, but my excitement level just kicked up a notch.

“Playing Gears of War is a kick-ass experience,” said Del Rey editor Keith Clayton, “And the Gears of War books should remain true to the spirit of the game. I’m happy to announce that the marriage of Karen Traviss and chainsaw bayonets is a match made in heaven—or hell, if you happen to be a Locust drone.”

The first novel, Gears of War: The Battle Of Aspho Fields will go on sale October 28th, exploring the relationship between Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago. Let's just hope there's no kissing involved. Hit the jump for more info.

The Violent Gaming Book To Buy Your Parents

Until now, the most-publicized studies came from a small group of experimental psychologists, studying college students playing nonviolent or violent games for 15 minutes. It's debatable whether those studies are relevant to real children, playing self-selected games for their own reasons (not for cash or extra credit!), in social settings, over many years. But media reports and political rhetoric often ignore that distinction.

Dead Space Gets Comic Book Prequel

Sam And Max Back In Print

Telltale games is now taking preorders for the reprint edition of Sam and Max Surfin' the Highway, the 1995 paperback collection of Steve Purcell's comics that - alongside the 1993 LucasArts adventure - launched a failed cartoon and eventually led to the episodic adventures we know and love today. The book contains all of the original material plus 25 pages of extra content, including promotional material for the upcoming DVD release of the animated series! The book comes in two flavors: a $19.99 paperback shipping at the end of this month and a $49.99 limited-edition hardback signed and dated by Steve Purcell due out in the Spring. Order before the 29th of this month and you'll get a code good for a free copy of Sam & Max: Ice Station Santa, the first episode of Season 2 of Telltale's adventure series. Having an extremely dog-eared copy of the original in a place of honor on my bookshelf, I cannot recommend Surfin' the Highway enough. Go buy now.

Sam & Max Surfin' the Highway Preorder Page [The Telltale Store]

Women's Murder Club Goes Casual

James Patterson's best-selling book series Women's Murder Club is going interactive! Hot on the heels of the ABC television series based on the series, Patterson is teaming up with Gabriel Knight creator Jane Jensen, whose casual development company Oberon Media will be creating what they hope to be a series of casual murder mystery games. By coupling the female-dominated casual gaming market with the equally female-dominated book buying market, Patterson hopes to have a huge success on his hands.

So I think the market for what we're doing — games that are more sensitive and are centered on character, not shooting — will be monstrous. I have a huge audience ... which is something ABC discovered when 'Women's Murder Club' debuted and it was their biggest premiere on a Friday night in four years."

Patterson pursues video game murders most casual [The Hollywood Reporter]

Gears Of War Gets Novel Prequel

If you were wondering what exactly happened to Marcus Fenix before the events that transpired in the blockbuster Xbox 360 hit Gears of War, you might be getting a little more insight come August, as Del Rey readies Steven L. Kent's Gears of War - The Pendulum Wars: The Battle of Aspho Fields. The first in a planned trilogy of prequel novels for the game, the book will presumably cover the Pendulum Wars - a series of skirmishes between human countries that led to COG taking over the planet. The trilogy is being penned by Steven L. Kent, author of The Ultimate History of Video Games as well as his own series of Clone novels, which centers around a future where the Earth's colonies throughout the galaxy are policed by a clone military. Let's just say the series is in very capable hands, as long as Kent can get the right balance of steroids-to-profanity going.
Gears of War Pendulum Wars The Battle of Aspho Fields [Amazon.ca via NeoGAF]

Hellgate - A Novel Purchase

"World of Warcraft is a global phenomenon that boasts a large base of people who not only actively play the online game and TCG, but who also really enjoy the artwork in the games," said Tim Muret, Vice President of Upper Deck Authenticated. "We wanted to release a book for these players as well as celebrate the great work of these artists."

Assassin's Creed Novels Assassinated

Next thing we knew, they wanted to remove all religious references from the book. I guess the Crusades were about shoe size or something. Then they hired an expert to vet the book. Curious that they hadn't thought about that before, eh? And finally, they wanted to send the book to the Agha Khan's people for their suggestions. By this time, Marco was thoroughly disenchanted. The book was turning into puree of bat shit, and I was no longer amused. The whole three-book project died.