GOG.com is getting ready to offers gamers an Unreal experience. Under a new agreement with Epic Games, players will soon be able to get DRM free versions of Unreal Gold (including the Return to Napali expansion pack), Unreal Tournament: Game of the Year Edition, Unreal II: The Awakening Special Edition and Unreal Tournament 2004: Editor’s Choice Edition.

“Epic Games redefined the first-person shooter with the Unreal series, and we’re very happy to welcome them to the growing list of companies that share our vision of digital distribution,” said Adam Oldakowski, Managing Director of GOG.com. “We know that a lot of gamers have been waiting for new deals, and we’re sure that the Unreal games will satisfy their lust for alien blood and intense multiplayer action… DRM-free, of course.”

“Epic has partnered with GOG.com to make our time-honored Unreal series more accessible than ever before,” said Jay Wilbur, vice president of Epic Games. “GOG.com provides an affordable way to buy our back catalogue of games and get up and running with minimal
effort.”

Unreal Gold and Unreal Tournament: GotY Edition are already available with other title soon to follow. Epic Games is a great edition to the GOG.com library. These Unreal titles join classic games from Codemasters, Interplay, Pluto 13 and Strategy First. Now if CD Projekt can just convince Lucas Arts to sign up for a Good Old dose of adventure games. For the full list of available titles visit GOG.com.

Anyone who’s bought a new copy of Gears of War 2 was lucky enough to receive a code that unlocks five maps from the original Gears of War’s multiplayer mode. Epic did more than simply copy and paste them into the game; they’ve redone any number of aspects of the levels including the color palette and various parts of the environment, like changing Canals’ water to ice.

As the video above demonstrates, the theme in Gears 2 — so far as multiplayer level design goes — seems to be clarity (and possibly better weather). The rain from several of the levels has cleared up and it’s now much easier to both navigate and find enemies in these redone levels.

Aside from that, don’t expect the levels to play much differently. The overall geometry is largely the same, so chances are that most viable strategies for these maps in the first Gears is still going to work here. It’s surprising how Epic managed to find a middle ground between completely remaking these levels and porting exact copies. Regardless, the lovers and haters will no doubt be swarming in flocks to tell us how awesome/broken/worse/better these versions are. There’s never any pleasing everyone, but do let us know what you think of the remakes and if Epic did too little or too much.

Epic Games president Michael Capps’ complaints about the rental and used game markets cutting into company profits sound a bit hollow today considering a recent report from Microsoft stating that the Xbox 360 exclusive Gears of War 2, had opening weekend sales of over 2 million units worldwide.

To top that off, over 1.5 million people logged into Xbox Live during the weekend, racking up 15 million gameplay hours in Gears of War 2, which set a record for concurrent Live players. Gamers who joined in the fray collectively unlocked over 19 million Achievements.

These huge numbers on both sides of the spectrum are thanks to Cliff Bleszinski’s wish to launch the game on the same day worldwide so that everyone around the globe could log in and share the experience simultaneously:

“We were so excited to launch ‘Gears of War 2’ on the same day all around the world, something virtually unheard of in the games business. We wanted our fans, no matter where they live, to have a shared experience on day one, and that’s exactly what’s happened.”

If those figures were just actual sales in America, you would be looking at over $120 million dollars–and that is not taking into consideration the limited edition version of the game. If you incorporate the current exchange rate of non-U.S. dollars, the numbers get even higher because Gears of War 2 costs $59.99 (£44.99) and the limited edition costs $69.99 (£49.99)–so the British Pound to U.S. Dollar exchange rate is a benefit, meaning it will convert to more money for Epic.

Considering that the Holiday Shopping Extravaganza is only a scant couple weeks away, you can only expect these sales numbers to skyrocket across the globe. Kind of makes Capps’ complaints sound a bit like a child’s temper tantrum now, doesn’t it?

Epic Games is a major player in the videogame industry, not only because they produce mega hits like Gears of War and Unreal Tournament, but because their game development engine, Unreal Engine, is being adopted by more and more developers. Any acquisition would be a tremendously big deal, which made the news we reported on earlier — that Legendary Pictures was looking to acquire Epic — was so significant.

As you would expect, Epic VP Mark Rein has dismissed the notion, telling Develop it’s simply “just another rumor.” This isn’t the first time Epic has been involved in acquisition rumors; Microsoft was reported to be looking to buy Epic earlier this year for $1 billion. Rein famously asked that people start predictions at $2 billion “because we don’t want anyone thinking that we’re cheap.”

Even with Rein’s dismissal, we’ll be sure to continue watching the situation. The number of implications that an acquisition would have are far too numerous to be counted, so stay tuned for the latest.

When it comes to film adaptations of videogames, big name actors are usually never attached to it. Now, this is not to say that famous actors do not star in them, just not great actors — at least in the big shoot em ups that involve some sort of lab or alien created menace. Mark Wahlberg starring in the Max Payne movie is a bit of an exception to the rule considering most action movies based on games star a wrestler or a massive hulk of an actor flexing his oiled muscles.

This is the type of actor that Cliff Bleszinski does not wish to play his hero Marcus Fenix in the film version of Gears of War.

Speaking in Australia recently with IGN, when asked who he would prefer to play the savior of the planet Sera, Cliff once again mentioned the need for a charismatic actor, but this time gave a slightly surprising example:

“Definitely not a wrestler. I think just go with a real actor. You know… like a Clive Owen type; somebody who can actually act and is incredibly charismatic. And they can put him on a workout plan for six months so he can build the muscle mass he needs.”

If an Academy Award Nominated actor like Clive Owen were actually persuaded to play the hulking protagonist it is doubtful that he would ever be able to bulk up enough to resemble Fenix unless he had some help from a doctor laden with a few syringes filled with roid juice. It is understandable that Cliff would want someone with better acting chops and a decent resume to star in his movie, but you won’t get a “great” actor without a decent script.

Hopefully with big names like Legendary Films and New Line Cinema behind the Gears of War movie coupled with the directing talent of Len Wiseman; Chris Morgan’s (Wanted) script might just be enough to entice a good actor to play Fenix. However, at this point, I think someone like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is about the best we can hope for.

Microsoft has actually managed to accumulate some semblance of success in Japan recently with the Xbox 360, thanks to titles like Tales of Vesperia. Early in September, Microsoft held a media briefing in Tokyo where they outlined goals for the 360 in Japan, announcing price cuts and showing off a number of games. From what we’re piecing together, however, it seems like Gears of War 2 won’t be one of those games releasing in Japan — which is utterly bizarre considering that even Madden NFL 09 was released over there.

A recent entry on a user blog at unofficial Gears of War website Gearheads of War by Michael “3Suns” Guenter claims that a local retailer in Japan didn’t have the game listed in its computer and an employee managed to only find the game on Xbox.com with no announced release date. But that’s not all:

“The story isn’t over. As I am walking out of the store, I notice the Xbox 360 2008 Autumn Catalog (Take Me I’m Free). So, I thought, this is great! At least maybe I can get some info out of the promotional literature. Guess what? Gears of War 2 is not listed ANYWHERE in the book. NOWHERE! Not even in the back index. They have games ranging from Too Human (old), Infinite Undiscovery (released a couple of weeks ago), to Star Ocean (2009). Even Gears of War the original is listed in there, but no Gears of War 2.”

It’s a peculiar omission, regardless of the location we’re talking about. We contacted Microsoft regarding this issue, but they didn’t have much to say: “We have no announcements to make about Gears of War 2 releasing in Japan at this time.” Depending on how you look at that, you could simply get the impression of your typical ‘no comment,’ or or you could read it as a suggestion that there are no plans to release Gears of War 2 in Japan.

You’re free to draw your own conclusion, but based upon what we currently know, Guenter probably summed it up best: “I guess Japan is just SOL.”

Cliff Bleszinski and his team don’t feel threatened by casual gamers. The Gears of War creator is confident in the success of Gears of War 2 despite Microsoft courting casual gamers and pushing family-oriented games.

Bleszinski told GamesIndustry.biz in a recent interview that Gears of War 2 has appeal for casual gamers as well as hardcore fans.

“Microsoft currently has to walk that line right now where they’re selling a game that’s a bit more hardcore like a Gears while trying to expand the installed base in regards to casual gamers,” he said.

“Thankfully I’m in a position where I’m just trying to make the best game possible, but at the same time make sure that Casual [difficulty] is truly, truly easy, as well as having a little bit of heart in the story with a game that, yes, it’s about monsters, yes, it’s about chainsaws and blood, but it’s also about a guy who’s looking for his wife.

“There’s still a fair amount of jock, fratboy, macho bullshit in the game – I’m not going to lie. But at the same time, there’s a little bit more personal elements in there, and some of the themes in the game with loss, retribution and the sadness of war, I think they’re coming through a lot more in this game.”

Blezinski goes to say that although many developers specializing in hardcore games are uncomfortable or even feel threatened by the rising numbers of casual gamers, Epic isn’t one of them. He adds,”We say anybody playing videogames in our opinion is a very, very good thing.”

I’ve got to say I feel the same way. The more people exposed to gaming, the less alien and misunderstood gamers and videogames become. If you introduce people new to gaming gradually they may eventually work up the courage to try more hardcore games as they gain confidence in their skills.

Epic has released a new trailer for their highly anticipated sequel to Gears of War, which basically gives an overview of the new plot and character details in the game. This video has design director Cliff Bleszinski, senior producer Rod Fergusson, and Epic president Mike Capps all discussing the trials and tribulations of Delta Squad this time around. Of course, besides all that, it’s just going to be fun to start slicing through Locust with a chainsaw in a fresh new setting. Just another in a long list of reasons that November release date just can’t get here soon enough.

We’ve seen quite a bit from Epic about Gears of War 2’s new weapons, levels, story, and such, but we haven’t seen all that much in the way of really different enemies. Now that’s changed with this new batch of screenshots that show off a few of the new baddies that you’ll be chainsawing your way through in November. They include the guy above with a wicked-looking mace, some bulldog-like creatures, and one guy sporting a flamethrower and a bucket for a head. Right now though, I just hope I’ve finished with Fallout 3 by the time this game hits release.

You can check out the rest of the screenshots here.

It’s a well know fact that videogames are a recent favorite scapegoat for the media and politics. Videogames are the latest bad influence on today’s youth like comic books, rock and roll and so many other controversial forms of media and art that have been targeted over the years. Unfortunately, it seems these talking heads are doing their job well.

According to a recent survey by parental advisory website What They Play, parents are more worried about their kids being exposed to Grand Theft Auto than beer or pornography.

The poll, which ran August 1-6, 2008, queried parents on what they’d be most concerned about their 17-year-old child indulging in while at a sleepover. More than 1,600 respondents revealed they’re more apprehensive about their child smoking marijuana (49 percent) and playing the video game Grand Theft Auto (19 percent), than watching pornography (16 percent) and drinking beer (14 percent).

The poll is a follow up to a survey seeking to find out whether sex or violence triggers parents’ anxieties more:

The results of the initial What They Play online poll, conducted April 4-10, 2008, found that the 1,266 participants were most offended by the following in a video game: a man and woman having sex (37 percent); two men kissing (27 percent); a graphically severed head (25 percent); and multiple use of the F-word (9 percent).

No one should really be surprised at these results. It’s pretty obvious that games including adult sexual situations will earn a mature rating more often than one featuring graphic violence. While we’ve become placidly inured to gore and violence, our nation holds true to its Puritan roots remaining squeamish over sex and nudity.

The latest Question of the Day survey in progress is based on Gears of War 2 which will offer parental controls to turn off blood and foul language. Personally I don’t understand why a mature rated game should offer these features at all. The Gears of War series and many others like it were never intended for children.