Backtracking through four websites, all the way to a most obscure original source, I can only wonder what the hell am I missing here... Epic's CliffyB made it pretty clear some months ago that they're not doing a PC version "this time around" (unless he meant to say "at this time"), and yet some are desperately holding on to the hope of seeing Gears of War 2 ported to the PC. Conceivable as that may sound.

The rumor resurfaced last night over on IGN, whose syntactically-challenged report claims that "there were plenty of details [about Gears of War 2] that appeared to be pulled from an upcoming press release and even a preliminary box shot with the Games for Windows logo stamped on the front and limited edition details". Said source even offered pre-orders for Gears of War 2, with a release date allegedly set for December 4, 2009.

Bullshit? Oh, you bet! Right now, there doesn't seem to be any reference to the sequel's PC version on said website; not anymore, at least. Kotaku did catch a glimpse of it, though, and what they found out is rather amusing:

"(...) And then there's the fact that the retail codes are all for The Golden Compass. Yes, the UPC code, MPN number, and ASIN identifier all point to Sega's PC version of The Golden Compass, based on the theatrical version of the book, which did indeed feature a war, but instead of gears, we have bears. Bears of war.

Naturally, Microsoft's reps are still denying any plans for a PC version. Seriously, are people that desperate for gaming "news" after the E3 dried out the scene?

The first gameplay footage from the Gears of War 2 campaign was revealed this week, and for the past couple of days, Microsoft has been shoving more materials down our throat. It may sound like a lot, but in fact it's just a bunch of uber-high-res screenshots issued yesterday, and today they re-released the Gears of War 2 'assault' trailer, but without Cliff Bleszinski's commentary. In case you can't make out anything during the intense non-stop action, here's what the trailer is all about, in CliffyB's own words:

"The Locust are back, and they're meaner than ever. And they brought with them a force that can essentially sink entire cities; and it's not just a little emergence hole, it's an entire city going down at once. So humanity's back is against the wall, and we need to strike back against these guys. So the way that we do that is by taking these trucks called Derricks, and we tow these devices called Grind Lifts into Locust-occupied cities. The COG guys get in the Grind Lifts, they barrel down into the depths of the underground, and they fight back against these bad guys."

Both the trailer and the screenshots below are taken from the same level, called "Assault" (the third chapter), from the first act in the single-player campaign.

- Red Faction 3 is no more... But relax, nothing is fu... cancelled, dude. They just renamed it to Red Faction: Guerilla, apparently.

- Likewise, the Aliens FPS announced by SEGA at the end of 2006 finally has a title - Aliens: Colonial Marines, "invading consoles and PCs in 2009". The devs from Gearbox had better make aliens playable as well, at the very least in an expansion. Or else!

- NCsoft has "something to announce - not only announce but to show - by the second half of this year"... their very first console (PS3?) MMO game. They're "pretty psyched" about it. I'm not. Not yet, anyway.

- Epic's CliffyB loses faith in PC games, thiking that "the PC is just in disarray". So right now they're focusing on making Gears of War 2 console games. Can't say I blame them.

- Speaking of Epic, their Unreal Engine 3 also got licensed by Korean MMO maker Devroot Studio, for a new game codenamed "BK Project". They're a division of SONOV Corporation, who made that MMO with hot chicks, Shaiya: Light and Darkness.

- The Xbox 360 fails at a rate of 16.4% (give or take), while only 3% of the PlayStation 3 and Wii consoles fail. Should be interesting to see some sales figures for Microsoft and Sony's consoles in actual working condition!

- Wii hacked once again (and once again without much use), this time through an exploit in The Legend of Zelda. Great, wake me up when there's something worth seeing.

- Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings for the DS is being released tomorrow in the UK (and presumably the rest of Europe). We got the latest trailer here, in case you missed it.

- The Witcher, CD Projekt's debut RPG, has sold over 600,000 copies in 3 months. They're still aiming for 1 million in the first year, and at this rate they're going to shatter it. Grats!

Lagging a couple of years behind the pack, Take-Two has finally licensed Unreal Engine 3 for its 2K Games label. Today's announcement issued by the engine's makers from Epic Games only mentions some "unannounced games in development", so we can only guess what exactly they're working on... Neither party had anything intelligent to say on this occasion (other than the reciprocal pat on the back, as usual), so I won't drag this on any longer than needed, either.