I had the privelege of spending the day at Epic Games in Cary, along with 25 winners of Microsoft's "Gears of War" Backstage Pass Contest from around the globe. These winners got a behind-the-scenes tour of the state-of-the-art studio, an introduction to the game by videogame creator Cliffy B, and the first chance to play all of the multiplayer maps in the not-yet-released game. November 12 is "Emergence Day," but beginning November 7 the Xbox 360 game will begin arriving in stores around the country.

It's been a busy week for Epic. Cliff and the gang attended a Hollywood launch party at a cemetary mauseleum earlier in the week with Lindsey Lohan and other stars in attendence. Then it was back to Cary for the Backstage Pass. Part of Hollywood came with Epic, as MTV production crews taped the entire event as part of a 30-minute TV show called "Gears of War: Race to Launch," a follow-up to the "Gears of War: Race to E3" show that aired earlier this year. MTV had multiple camera crews following the day's events and interviewing the game makers, the winners from other countries (including a guy who already has a "Gears" tattoo"), and some of the journalists covering the event, including me.

Another Hollywood tie-in will come to anyone who sees a movie this weekend. Microsoft has the "Gears of War" trailer playing on the big screen across the country. That same trailer is available for download on Xbox Live. It's quite a piece of powerful marketing and everything in the trailer is gameplay.

As for that "Gears of War" game. The multiplayer is excellent. All of the maps were up and running, including a cool subway station with moving trains that will run over anyone in their way. The single-player game is something that I'll get a better feel for this weekend. But having played a bit of it, I can tell you that so far, the game matches the unprecedented amount of hype that Microsoft and the gaming community has created for it. "Gears of War" is definitely the killer app that will help Microsoft sell Xbox 360s this year and beyond. And it has the potential to be a strong franchise like "Halo."

This marks the second blockbuster game this year from the Triangle, as both Red Storm Entertainment's "Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advance Warfighter" and Epic's "Gears of War" will top the sales charts for the year when all is said and done.