PlayStation 3 owners have grown immune to outrageous rumors, and now Xbox 360 is getting a taste of its own medicine. Recently a rumor was started that Gears of War was coming to PS3, and Epic Games' Mark Rein didn't hesitate to make a statement:

"This story is complete bull****. I emailed the site and asked them to take it down. We're very happy with our relationship with Microsoft. If it weren't for them Gears wouldn't be the huge hit it has become."

I wonder how well Gears of War would sell on PS3, since most PS3 owners I know swear that the game of the year was shit compared to their beloved Resistance: Fall of Men. Although, it probably won't be much longer until we hear more about Epic Games bringing their game to the PC.

The new Gears of War Hidden Fronts multiplayer map pack 2 is now out on Xbox Live Marketplace for 800 points, here's the official details from MajorNelson:

• Bullet Marsh: In this Kryll-infested swamp, an old generator still powers the area lights. A few stray bullets could easily knock out the generator, leaving players in the dark to fend for themselves against the hungry Kryll.
• Garden: This overgrown and crumbling conservatory still has a working fertilization and pesticide system. This system can pose a serious health hazard to anyone who ventures into the greenhouse without first venting the air.
• Process: Teams must fight for control of this subterranean Imulsion processing plant, still active despite the cessation of the Pendulum Wars.
• Subway: Timgad’s Central Subway Station used to serve as a central hub for commuters. Now the tunnels are crawling with Locust.
  

The first Hidden Fronts map pack was only 100MB, but this one is 230.32MB worth of waiting while it downloads, so don't put it off for too long - unless you're willing to put it off for a few whole month. Epic Games got into a fight with Microsoft about these maps - they actually wanted them to be free, which of course, Microsoft couldn't understand. So there compromise is that from now to September 3rd, they'll cost 800 points to download. But after that they're free. Check out the four pictures below to get an idea if they're worth a download or not.

I used to consider sanitary jobs where people had to remove dog shit from public as the worst job ever, but Major Nelson (Xbox 360's spokesman) is forced to reverse the process, and go out of his way to feed gamers shit they don't want. TheBBPS noticed one of the most recent updates is a five piece BradyGames video showing the locations of the COG tags in each act of Gears of War. Each video costs $1.25, bringing the grand total to $6.25 that I hope no one wastes money on. Gears of War came out in November, who would pay for this sort of content when they obviously also have the Internet?

What did the Factor 5 finga's say to the face? SLAP! Lair developer Factor 5's president, Julian Eggebrecht, sat down for an interview recently, and was asked to compare their upcoming PS3 game to last year's Xbox 360 game of the year. What's the biggest difference between the two in his opinion? Lair doesn't suck:

"In Gears of War there is no way you could actually go above the city and then basically go seamlessly from air to ground. Unreal Engine in the end just provides for corridor and corridor being more a metaphor here in terms of design. Our engine is always designed in a huge world bubble and that can be 32 kilometers by 32 kilometers. You can go anywhere at extreme speeds. Unreal Engine is dependent on the fact that you go relatively slowly through your world. With us, you can go through the world fast or slowly. If you are in night mode, or you are on the ground, you get all of the detail that Unreal Engine provides. But there is no way you can get the macro."

Yeah well what if we wanted dragons fighting in hallways, ass? Then what? Oh, they wouldn't fit, that's what. I thought you had cell gameplay n' shit, why the fuck is everything so big on the PS3. I'm sure CliffyB doesn't mind the bad press though, if asked what he thought the biggest difference between Lair and Gears of War was, he'd probably point out that the enemies in his game never get caught running around like chickens in fields of shitty 2D grass graphics. You say toe-may-toes, he says fuck vegetables . . . and fruit.

So many gaming movie rights have been snagged, so little have been seen, even fewer have been enjoyed, sigh. New Line just grabbed the rights to Gears of War:

"New Line has won feature rights to Microsoft's hugely popular vidgame Gears of War with Stuart Beattie writing and Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey producing via their Temple Hill banner. CAA conducted the auction, which featured a 21 page treatment by Beattie, who wrote Collateral and Derailed."

I can actually seeing this one going the distance though. It's not as detrimental to 360 as the Halo series and has much less story to worry about. Throw some money at some graphics and you've got a decent ass kicking film that will sell well and get two more movies as the series grows. As long as The Rock isn't in it, I'd see it.

Last month I found a quote from Mark Rein confirming Epic Games wanted to bring Gears of War to PC, and he's mentioned it again, this time not as just a possibility: "Gears of War will come to the PC platform eventually." The Inquirer isn't too reliable as a source, but it sounds like they've done the paperwork and plan to pursue the PC game now. If you refuse to get a 360 then that's probably because you consider Gears of War its only great game, so you might be enjoying it next year without having to get another console. And if they're going to keep working on the game then there will probably also be more content given out on Xbox Live, more levels would be nice.

Gears of War has sold millions of copies, but it's not without its flaws. Many people assume game companies are made of gods, and when Square Enix pays Epic Games to use their latest Unreal Engine, you'd figure they at least feel confident. The truth is they don't though - they made Gears of War with a small team and in a short amount of time, but they'll admit they need a lot of help in some areas. Microsoft Game Studios game development leader Phil Spencer recently said that he wants every Xbox 360 game to use Halo 2's successful multiplayer setup, and Epic Games' Vice President Mark Rein isn't too proud to agree - he's calling out to all programmers to help him make it happen. He admits his team is too small to implement Halo 2 source code, but would love to hire people to mimic Bungie's design. So if you think you'd be useful in any way to Epic Games, now's your time to get your foot in the door when the praised game company is desperate for help.

The Chicken Soup sob story doesn't end there though, Sonic Team producer Yojiro Ogawa has some reasons for why the recent Sonic The Hedgehog game for Xbox 360 and PS3 got such terrible reviews. Yojiro basically admits that they rushed it:

"We did want to launch the title around Christmas, and we had the PS3 launch coming up, but we had to develop for Microsoft's 360 at the same time and the team had an awful lot of pressure on them. It was very hard for the team to try and see how we were going to come out with both versions together with just the one team. It was a big challenge."

Hopefully they didn't screw up the new Sonic and the Secret Rings game for the Wii - Yojiro feels confident that the adventure and party mode will be loved by Sonic fans, but we'll just have to wait and see. The game came out today, and I'll be picking up a copy tomorrow night for review.

A lot of people won't buy the Xbox 360 because they can play most of its best games on PS3 or PC, but despite constant rumors, Microsoft has always insisted that Gears of War will remain an Xbox 360 exclusive. Mark Rein from Epic games recently told the public that they do want to bring it to the PC though, but won't say when that possibility could come to life:

"I don't think that's any great secret that we would like to do it on PC, but for now it's a 360 game. Eventually we'll get around to a PC version. I just don't know when."

Doesn't sound like it'll happen any time soon, but I'll pass. I used to prefer shooting games on PC, but I've grown used to console controls too much over the years. I'll have to make an exception for Crysis and a few others though.

The AIAS awards have finished - the awards that aren't worth paying too much attention to because they wouldn't include Dead Rising or Okami due to Capcom not paying them $10,000 for each game to be judged. So don't take these awards too seriously, but Gears of War probably would have destroyed the competition even if more games were recognized and considered anyways.

• Overall Game of the Year - Gears of War (Epic Games/Microsoft Game Studios)
• Console Game of the Year - Gears of War (Epic Games/Microsoft Game Studios)
• Computer Game of the Year - Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Bethesda Softworks/2K Games)
• Outstanding Innovation in Gaming - Wii Sports (Nintendo/Nintendo)
• Handheld Game of the Year - Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day (Nintendo/Nintendo)
• Outstanding Achievement in Animation - Gears of War (Epic Games/Microsoft Game Studios)
• Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction - Gears of War (Epic Games/Microsoft Game Studios)
• Outstanding Achievement in Soundtrack - Guitar Hero 2 (Harmonix/Activision/Red Octane)
• Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition - LocoRoco (Sony Computer Entertainment/Sony Computer Entertainment)
• Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design - Call of Duty 3 (Treyarch/Activision
• Outstanding Character Performance - Male - Gears of War (Epic Games/Microsoft Game Studios)
• Outstanding Achievement in Character Performance - Female - Viva Piñata (Rare/Microsoft Game Studios)
• Outstanding Achievement in Story and Character Development - The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Nintendo/Nintendo)
• Outstanding Achievement in Game Play Engineering - Wii Sports (Nintendo/Nintendo)
• Outstanding Achievement in Online Game Play - Gears of War (Epic Games/Microsoft Game Studios)
• Outstanding Achievement in Visual Engineering - Gears of War (Epic Games/Microsoft Game Studios)
• Outstanding Achievement in Game Design - Wii Sports (Nintendo/Nintendo)
• Sports Game of the Year - Tony Hawk's Project 8 (Neversoft Entertainment/Activision)
• Strategy Game of the Year - Company of Heroes (Relic/THQ)
• First-Person Action Game of the Year - Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft)
• Fighting Game of the Year - Fight Night Round 3 (EA Sports/Electronic Arts)
• Racing Game of the Year - Burnout Revenge (Criterion Games/Electronic Arts)
• Role-Playing Game of the Year - Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Bethesda Softworks/2K Games)
• Children's Game of the Year - LocoRoco (Sony Computer Entertainment/Sony Computer Entertainment)
• Action/Adventure Game of the Year - Gears of War (Epic Games/Microsoft Game Studios)
• Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year - Guild Wars: Nightfall (Arena Net/NCsoft)
• Family Game of the Year - Guitar Hero 2 (Harmonix/Activision/Red Octane)
• Simulation Game of the Year - Microsoft Flight Simulator X (Microsoft Game Studios/Microsoft Game Studios)
• Downloadable Game of the Year - Bookworm Adventures (PopCap/PopCap)
• Mobile Game of the Year - Orcs and Elves (Fountainhead Entertainment/Electronic Arts Mobile)

That' 8 out of 30 awards all to one game. The Gears of War project leader Cliffy B was honored to have done so well in such an exciting year of gaming, and commented that "being on the outside of this industry looking in as a kid, and wanting to be part of it, and then being able to be here and get an award from all of these talented people who've been in the business for so long, finally to be a part of it, to be recognized like this is absolutely unbelievable. We could not be honored more." Hopefully we'll get a Gears of War sequel before too long that doesn't disappoint. Considering that most games take hundreds of people and over a dozen million dollars to make, Epic Games should feel proud to have made a game of the year with just 20 - 30 people on a budget of just $10 million dollars.

Unfortunately there's no detectable leaks in the airplane restroom - trust me, i checked it over twice with the brunette. So no PS3 for the readers, looks like I'm still stuck with it. But there have been some noteworthy leaks on the Internet - Epic will be releasing 2 new Gears of War maps as part of a Discovery Channel promotion. There's the "Raven Down" map - the one with the crashed helicopter - NOT a good omen while I'm still flying. And then there's the "Old Bones" map - the more dark and gloomy one. Here's the descriptions they gave of the two maps:

A Raven Helicopter has gone down in the middle of a large scale battle with the omnipresent Locust Horde. Gears have taken out the Seeder and gamers join Delta Forces moving into the crash site from all angles to search for survivors.

In an attempt to eradicate any traces of human history and culture, the Locust Horde has emerged under Sera’s Capitaline Museums and has begun to destroy them brick by brick. Each gamer’s mission is to help the Delta Force recapture the museums before all remnants of humankind’s existence are obliterated.

The Discovery Channel also plans to hold a contest giving away 2 million Marketplace points to the grand winner, and MyGEN also reports that the contest site (not up and running yet) will be located at ReadyAimFuture.com. How original. The contest isn't supposed to start until the 13th, but the really cool part is that these 2 new maps are going to be free, and downloadable before the contest on January 11th.

Check back in another 30 minutes for my last post before landing - hopefully I don't wind up on the Raven map. Although, I think I just hit a time change. Does that mean the Mile High  Club thing never happened? There's no way I could get a DeLorean on this plane, fuck! Oh well, Vegas is almost in sight. Since I can't offer you a view of Vegas just yet, here's the other 3 Gears of War map pictures for yuh.