Nearly a year ago, that old game 'Halo 3' was pretty popular. It came with a couple of bundles for the fans, the interested, and the obsessed. For the obsessed, you had the Legendary Edition -- it happened to come with a peculiar green helmet that would envelop the entirety of your head GIVEN that it, you know, fit. But when you think about it, the majority of compulsive Halo 3 players are 7 years old so maybe the helm designers kept that in mind. Maybe.

Therein enters Epic Games with their years of experience in pleasing toy lovers. If you happen to have an extra, uh, 80 dollars or so, you can go ahead and purchase the Gears of War 2 Bundle that includes a life-size Lancer (clad in blood), a chainsaw, a removable ammo clip and a adjustable side-handle.

There's no denying that this is so damn cool, but it's also so damn ridiculous when you realize you are nearly doubling the face price of your game (yes, the chainsaw comes with Gears of War 2, in case you forgot) for a weapon that can't even decimate any Locusts. The only use I see for it is new default MySpace pictures for those kind of overweight video game nerds hoping to score some ladies with their shining armaments.

[via 1UP]

Sorry I've been so out of the loop! This gameplay footage should have been posted here yesterday, but I guess I just got busy with some real life obligations. No matter -- here's the new gameplay footage for Gears of War 2, scheduled to launch this November... and some of my thoughts!

There's a couple things that seem to stick out most; better FPS, more weapons, more up-close combat variables, and a larger, more epic scale. It's sad, however, that the overall graphics are unimproved and nearly identical to its predecessor; the Xbox 360 peaked several months back -- not that big of a deal. Still, Gears of War is one of the best, if not the best looking game in the Xbox 360 library, give or take a couple other titles. So it's mind-boggling how Epic Games managed to smooth things out even a little and keep its same dashing, handsome graphics! So, what the heck? I guess there will be more about it later on, I hope.

This gameplay footage allows for a good amount of dissection and speculation. The new weapons, generally look the same, but with some added features. For instance, there's a new pistol that looks like its rate of fire is dramatically fast, and brings down its enemies to near-death. And that brings me to the subject of up-close-and-personal combat. It looks like you're going to be allowed more choice when one of these moments occur. In the gameplay video, we see Marcus lifting up the downed Locust as a meat shield -- which is great! I never thought Locust would really think twice about shooting their own kind, as vile as they are. Anyway, after your done with your meat shield, you can go ahead and slit his throat... or twist his neck? Something like that.

Finally! The feature that made this game 10% more fun is still in full effect: chainsaws and ramming them across Locust personnel. The Gears of War 2 teaser provided two glimpses of chainsaw work: ramming it inside Locust from the behind, and having a chainsaw lock-on battle to see who can amputate who first.

[via GameTrailers]

In a double dose of release date news, the Game Developer's Conference has brought us two announcements sure to please fans of bloody dismemberment Gears of War and Ninja Gaiden.

At the Microsoft keynote today, Epic Games' CliffyB announced that Microsoft Games Studios and Epic are (unsurprisingly) working on a sequel to the popular Gears of War Xbox 360 game. According to a chinsaw-weilding CliffyB, the game will release November 2008 on the Xbox 360. (Trailer and CliffyB announcement video embedded below) Additionally, Tomonobu Itagaki, also speaking at the Microsoft keynote, revealed a June 3 North American release (and an early June worldwide release) for the Xbox 360-exclusive Ninja Gaiden 2.
[via Joystiq: Gears, Ninja Gaiden]

After repeatedly assuring us that Gears of War, Epic's critically acclaimed Xbox 360 shooter, would not be moving from the 360 anytime soon, Microsoft yesterday announced at their E3 press conference that Gears and Viva Pinata, both bestselling 360 titles, would be ported to PC, and the Games for Windows platform.

In addition to these two games, new games were announced for Games for Windows, including such titles as Stranglehold and Blacksite: Area 51. Luckily for those who have not made the switch yet, (i.e. the lucky ones) Gears and Viva Pinata will run on both XP and Vista. Gears for PC will also come with "five new levels, a new editor, and 'some very big surprises.'" (Joystiq)
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