What? A Gears of War sequel? That’s a shocker.

You have probably already heard, but Gears of War 2 is going to feature more of the same gameplay, with some add tweaks to the cover system, weapon-specific executions, and the ability to take meat shields. Above, you’ll find the E3 walkthrough video from just this morning.

In the video, Marcus and his allies are trying to escape a burning sideways building. Inventive level design? Possibly. To me, though, it still feels like more of the same, simply because of the color scheme. Developers have a trend of associating dingy colors with realism, and every game is just starting to blend together. The graphics do look quite polished, however.

Some of your favorites weapons, such as the Hammer of Dawn, will reappear, but another turret-like gun also makes it’s debut. Hopefully, this sequel won’t just be more of the same.

BioShock seems to be the go-to video game for storytelling comparisons these days, and according to Carlos Ferro, Gears of War 2’s story will be even more emotionally impacting than BioShock’s. Ferro does the voice for Dominic Santiago in Gears 2, and speaking to The Official Xbox Magazine he said that Gears 2’s storytelling goes “beyond” BioShock’s.

“It’s going to be more emotionally effecting than BioShock,” he says, “a lot happens.”

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The vague release date for the Xbox 360 version of Unreal Tournament 3, which has been on the PS3 and PC since 2007 (with decent reviews) was announced recently as “Summer 2008.” There will also be some Xbox 360 exclusive content: two new characters, five new maps, split screen, and according to Mark Rein’s hints, “something Gears of War 2 related.” Five screenshots of the Xbox 360 version were released as well - so continue on for those (one of which would make a nice desktop background) along with the full press release, filled, as usual, with generic self-fellating quotes.

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Epic Games’ president, Mike Capps, reiterated what Epic has previously said in an interview with IGN, stating that Epic won’t ever be developing games for the Wii. It’s not about the success of the platform to him, but what can be done on it. When asked whether there would ever be a time when Epic would be forced to give in and create a game for the Wii, Capps said, “no, we go forward, not back. It makes more sense for us to invest in the next-generation tech.”

As for why he believes the Wii has become so popular, he says it’s like a virus that just keeps spreading:

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.

Some in our forums have shared a similar sentiment regarding games for the Wii (at least this year), but others are very excited about the upcoming games for the system. It seems that in many cases it may just be personal taste.

Capps also talks about everything from Gears of War 2, Grand Theft Auto IV, and Unreal Tournament III to the comics, paying for weapons, and Wii Fit, so if you want to hear more of what he has to say make sure to read the rest of the interview.

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By now I’m sure you’ve heard about Gears of War 2, but there were also some pretty cool demonstrations of Unreal Engine 3 using Gears of War. Gamersyde got some video of Epic Game’s presentation off the screen, which I’ve embedded above.

They show plenty of new features for Unreal Engine 3, but the best part is about a minute in when they demonstrate high density crowds by showing over a hundred locusts on screen all at once.

They also show the improvements in lighting and water, the system used to build all of Gears’ cinematics, soft body physics, and destructible environments. It’s awesome to see these improvements to the engine that powers so many great games, and I for one can’t wait to see them implemented in Gears of War 2.

Hey all you lovely MEGATONik readers, great news if you own an Xbox 360! Before the Microsoft keynote speech was even delivered at this years GDC, the details of the hotly anticipated game was spilled by a crafty NeoGAF poster who found the following on Microsoft’s Italian PR website.

Gears of War 2 (Epic Games). Gears of War 2 is the sequel to the best seller, with 4.5 million copies sold, which redefined the tactical/third person/action game genre. Gears of War 2 follows the story of Marcus Fenix and Delta Team in an epic saga of survival, defeat, and punishment. Developed by Epic games as an Xbox 360 exclusive, Gears of War 2 will be available in November.

Thank you wonderful web translations! I’ve just been told that this news has been confirmed by Epic developer CliffyB during the GDC keynote speech. I’m guessing that nobody here thought that any console other than the 360 would be getting this game did they? Now, when is GameStop going to offer pre-orders?

Watch out PC gamers! Put down the joystick and listen to what Epic Games’ Cliff Bleszinski (Cliffy B) has to say about Epic’s future in PC games. Said Mr. B to MTV Multiplayer:

I think people would rather make a game that sells 4.5 million copies than a million and Gears is at 4.5 million right now on the 360.

I think the PC is just in disarray… What’s driving the PC right now is Sims-type games and WOW and a lot of stuff that’s in a web-based interface. You just click on it and play it. That’s the direction PC is evolving into.

For me, the PC is kind of the secondary part of what we’re doing… It’s important for us, but right now making AAA games on consoles is where we’re at.

I don’t want to win over [someone's] little college sister, because that’s not the kind of game I do… I’m not going to make f***ing Cooking Mama.

In other words, Epic Games is going to shy away from producing games for the PC in the future. In all honesty, what place do games like Gears of War have on PCs? Gears was built from the ground up specifically for the Xbox 360, and it should stay that way instead of being ported into a point-and-click shooter.

I’m with Cliffy. Screw Barbie Horse Adventures; I want some blood!

[Via Gamesindustry.biz]

In honor of today being Valentine’s Day, I created the this crude representation of love, Gears of War style. There’s not much to say besides Happy Valentine’s day, so enjoy the chocolate and extra BJs while you can.

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In an interesting post over at Kotaku, Marky Mark Wilson explains how Epic Games president Mike “No Good Ideas” Capps almost made a couple of decisions that would have completely ruined Gears of War. When interviewed on the subject, Capps said:

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.

Yikes. It’s a good thing that this guy isn’t the head of any major company or anything. I’m really happy that in being employed in Epic’s mailroom, he has no say as to what happens with the games that Epic creates. But Capps didn’t stop there. While commenting on the commercialization of his future blockbuster, Capps had this to say:

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.

Two almost debilitating decisions for the price of one? That’s too good to be true! Who let this guy become president? Looks like Mr. Bad Decisions over here has a lot of thinking to do for the upcoming Gears of War sequel, scheduled to drop sometime around the holiday season next year.

That’s right, folks. Just as we reported earlier this week, the second Gears of War Map Pack, Hidden Fronts, is free starting today. The pack, which was previously being sold for 800 Microsoft Points on Xbox Live, contains such maps as Process, Bullet Marsh, Garden and Subway. In the very little time that I have spent with each of these maps, mostly at an all-too-willing-to-download-anything-Gears-related friend’s house, I can securely say that these are four solid maps, each of which offer a solid degree of replayability to the already booming Gears of War. I, for one, am eagerly awaiting the opportunity to become familiar with each of these maps, but due to my abhorid internet connection, I may have to wait an hour or so.