'Gears of War' sequel to hit store shells Nov. 7

LOS ANGELES — Just in time for Christmas, Epic Games will release its “Gears of War 2” for the Xbox 360 game platform.

Microsoft and Epic, which is based in Cary, N.C., said Monday that the sequel to the multi-million-seller Gears of War will be released on Nov. 7. The original has sold more than 4 million copies and is one of the biggest sellers to day for the Microsoft Xbox 360 platform.

Epic also is turning the multiple award-winning Gears into a franchise of books, a movie, action figures and toys. The action game pits mankind against a locust horde in a life-or-death struggle for a planet.

Cliff Bleszinski, Epic’s lead designer on the game, made the announcement at the E3 Media Summit.

Bleszinki also demonstrated some of the game’s features and action segments.

“It looks absolutely gorgeous,” raved a game reviewer for the web site G4.

Epic also said the game will feature a “horde” option that allows multiple players to participate simultaneously.

Epic was actually be part of a double feature, of sorts, on Monday. Starting at 6 p.m., there's an exclusive hands-on opportunity for E3 Game Critic judges (which I belong to) to get two hours of single-player and multiplayer time with Gears of War 2 at the Ciudad Restaurant in downtown LA. The doors open at 8 p.m. to additional E3 press, although all gaming stations will be converted to multiplayer only for this portion of the event. This event is expected to last well into the night. And this will be the only opportunity for E3 attendees to spend hands-on time with the new game.

Epic's new Xbox 360 version of Unreal Tournament 3 will be showcased at Midway's E3 booth throughout the show. The game, which just shipped, is part of a large contingent of Unreal Engine 3 games from the publisher. This list includes E3 titles like the fighter MK vs. DC Comics, the wrestling game TNA! Impact, the Vin Diesl-driven The Wheelman and the virtual adventure, This Is Vegas.

Unreal is powering a large contingent of E3 games, including Sony Online Entertainment's The Agency and DC Universe Online, Square Enix's The Last Remnant, Ubisoft's Tom Clancy's EndWar and Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway, 2K Games' Borderlands and Sega's Aliens: Colonial Marines.

When it comes to other local companies, there won't be a lot of activity. Local game makers Virtual Heroes, Vicious Cycle and Red Storm Entertainment are all sitting out the big show. CDV Software, which has its marketing and PR team in Cary, spent this week showing San Francisco press it's games.

There are still a lot of question marks regarding this year's show, which has been limited in size and scope from LA Convention Center shows of the past. Last year, the downsized E3 took place throughout Santa Monica in hotel suites. This year, much smaller booths will house upcoming games and publishers are also showing games in meeting rooms above the show floor, including plenty of behind-closed-doors games.

The size of E3, which had swelled to over 70,000 attendees in May 2005, was scaled back to 60,000 in 2006 and then shrunk to about 5,000 press invites in Santa Monica last summer. The show was also moved from May to July. This year's show is likely to be larger than that, but still nowhere nearly as large as E3s past.

There are also some significant companies that won't be at E3 this year, including the newly formed Activision Blizzard. Activision is holding its own off-site press conference on July 15, which is expected to showcase many of its big games, including the new James Bond title, it's just-debuted line-up of Wii 1st games, and the latest Call of Duty game -- Call of Duty: World at War. But Blizzard and Sierra will not take part in the show at all, which means there will be no Diablo 3, no new World of Warcraft expansion and no 50 Cent: Blood in the Sand, Ghostbusters or Prototype. Other companies skipping E3 this year include Atlus, NcSoft, Foundation 9 and Natsume.

Some companies are showing games outside of the official E3 convention center in nearby hotels. Gamecock will have its entire line-up of titles playable at the nearby Figueroa Hotel and Korean game publisher Nexon America will be showing games nearby. Nexon's biggest title, the new massively-multiplayer online game, Huxley, utilizes Epic's UE3 technology. Mobile games publisher Gameloft is renting a stretch Hummer and driving journalists around LA, offering them new iPhone games and mobile entertainment.

The main reason companies have downsized or left E3 is the enormous amount of money it costs to be part of the show. While it's currently much more affordable than previous extravaganzas, it's still a large sum of investment and a week that's cluttered with many games and a smaller group of press than the past. Most game companies hold their own press events throughout the year, where they can generate news without the cacophony of competitors' titles. After last year's lukewarm reception, the future of E3 will be dictated by this year's show, especially as international shows like Leipzig Games Convention, Tokyo Game Show and China Joy have grown larger since its downsizing.