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?

All those Halo Wars trailers not detailed enough for you? Well then, have some jumbo-sized screenshots exposing more detail than you'll ever see on any TV, HD or otherwise - rendering them rather useless. In this latest batch issued by Microsoft, we see a Vulture fight set alight by pink laz0r pewpew, a besieged Covenant stronghold, and a highly unimpressive pose of a Warthog caught in mid-jump.

The release of Halo Wars on Xbox 360 is still set for February 27 in Europe, and March 3 in North America.

And they say world wide economy is going down the drain. What a bunch of horse bullshit. Take a look at this, it seems that Gears of War 2 sold, probably as expected, no less than 2 millions copies in the first weekend since its launch. Which isn't THAT bad, really.



Other than that, LIVE was also targeted and bombed by 1.5 million players who logged in to kick some ass in Gears of War 2, totaling some 15 million hours of game-fucking-play, unlocking 19 million GoW 2 achievements. How's that for a freaking console exclusive game? And I also heard it is actually good.

It seems that enthusiasts all over the world have to wait just a little bit more for Halo Wars, since Ensemble's X360 strategy game will be hitting the shelves in February 2009, according to Microsoft. Both in regular size and in enhanced, erected, Collector's Edition.



For those of you interested, the Collector's Edition will be, as usual, full of all kinds of stuff, both useful and useless, ranging from a Halo Wars: Genesis comic book from Graeme Devine, the game's lead designer, up until exclusive in-game shit, like a unique vehicle and a patch that allows you to start the game as a member of SOF. All this for “only” 79.99 USD.

Ensemble Studios, who are also responsible for that time consuming, brain eating and friend bashing Age of Empire series, will sadly be closing its gates after Halo Wars is up and running. I have no idea why, and I also already miss them, since they were a nice bunch of geeks.

Source.

And they say cheap whores don't sell. Well, I beg to differ, in my country at least, cheap is the actual true meaning of a good marketing and sales department. Microsoft seems to be learning a bit from this, since they recently announced that their X360 sales have gone up faster than a horny teenager browsing his porn magazine, increasing with 62% in good ol' Europe.



While Microsoft's console is also becoming a good hit in Japan (the place you want to check out first when it comes to games and jail-free loli porn), it still hasn't managed to top down the Wii – no matter, though, the (high school) girls in charge of the company are estimating good sales for the Japanese 360 titles, up to 1 billion USD until the end of the fiscal year.

Ah well... They are doing good so far, even if the X360 is starting to become of age. But with the upcoming titles that will probably make many a gamer droll, things are looking shiny and pink fo Microsoft.

Sequels are becoming so... yesterday. Or the day before that. It's either publishers getting lazy and covered in too many layers of cash, either the fact that, well, an expansion is easier to make, no one needs to create anything new from scratch, you have your engine, you have your shiny effects.. so just throw a few more multiplayer maps here and there, a singleplayer campaign to mess you up a bit while smashing AI heads with a blunt polearm, and, voila! Halo 3 Recon is up and running.

At least, it will be, somewhere in the rainy Fall of 2009. That is, if we will be getting any Fall by then. Story-wise (*gasp*), no more Master Chief for you, folks, just some random, nameless and personality lacking ODST Marine, who just happens to look like Master Chief.

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.

Price cut rumors are always welcome, particularly when they come true. And for this one, we'll only have to wait a few more days to find out if it's bogus or not. According to this fresh TechRadar story which already spread all over the webs, the price of the Xbox 360 will be cut by €50 on 14 March in Europe. They say the reduction will apply to all Xbox 360 SKUs, and that they confirmed the story with "numerous UK retailers" - none of which agreed to go on record, though.

"This effectively means that the cost of the Xbox 360 Elite system on Amazon will be in the region of £240 (ed. - €313) and the basic Arcade system (without a hard drive) will cost in the region of £150 (ed. - €195)", TechRadar predicts.

Indeed, that would put the price of the lower-spec Xbox 360 Arcade bundle below that of a Wii console. But the numbers are still wildly fluctuating - from £150 on TechRadar, to £170 on MCV, and down to £140 for the Arcade bundle (from what MCV seems to have seen back on TechRadar... weird). Only time - and Microsoft - will tell what's the right price.

I'm pissing in the wind, just pissing in the wind, what a wonderful feeling, my e-peen is happy again... Just when we thought we had finally gotten away from all those silly "make / don't make that [X game sequel]", "close / don't close that [Y studio]" petitions... something new comes along. A boycott, no less! A boycott against the holy mother of monopolistic corporations - Microsoft - and all the developers and publishers jumping the Games for Windows Live bandwagon. Sort of a PC Gaming Axis, to combat the evil (?!) PC Gaming Alliance, and gas all the new-age untermenschen who don't agree that online PC gaming should be free. Sieg Heil!

As much as we cherish our fragging memories from the good old LAN parties with Doom 2 and Quake, we no longer live in the '90s, nor does the rest of the gaming world. Well, except for a select few, like the ones mentioned above - with their inspiring futile Boycott Games for Windows - Live initiative. Do they have a point? Sure. Should the Windows Live [gold] service be free? Sure. Should Halo 2 be natively playable on Windows XP? Sure. Should lolis be legal? Sure. But hey - there's not much we can do about any of these, no matter how many clicks we give. And God knows we keep clicking for lolis like madmen!

Did Hironobu Sakaguchi's classic Final Fantasy game get any sequels?... A few, yeah. Is Blue Dragon getting a sequel?... You bet! What about Lost Odyssey?... I don't see why not. Microsoft Japan seem to be happy with the game's 100,000+ sales there so far, and Lost Odyssey is also enjoying a lukewarm success over on this part of the world. It's only been out in North America for a couple of weeks, and releasing in Europe tomorrow, so it's still too early to tell exactly how well the game is doing on a woldwide scale.

But don't take it from us. Take it from the H&E Head of Microsoft Japan, what's-his-name, interviewed by Nikkei (loose Google translation, via AllRPG). He's the one claiming they're happy with the game sales in the territory, and he also says that the Lost Odyssey series will grow in time. Meaning one or more sequels are coming. Hardly shocking, but still nice to get an "official hint" on this.