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Don't let the Delta Squad catch you with an iPod.

(Credit: Microsoft)

If you love of Gears of War and hate the iPod, we have the perfect product for you. Microsoft is making special edition Gears of War 2 Zunes and placing them on presale today for $280. The special edition Zune 120 comes with a laser-etched Crimson Omen on the back, and comes preloaded with 244 pieces of Gears of War media, including the game soundtrack, behind-the-scenes videos, game trailers, and concept art galleries.

The Gears of War 2 edition of the Zune 120 ships on November 7 (same as the game) to the U.S. and Canada. Pre-orders are available online at Amazon and Walmart.

Each year, the selection of games on display at E3 reveals what the hottest current trend in the video game industry is at the time--usually manifesting itself as an overused gameplay mechanic that every developer suddenly feels the need to shoehorn into their games.

Resident Evil 5

This year's big buzzword is cooperative gameplay--meaning gamers play together, but are collaborating, rather than competing, to complete the game's goals. This often happens online, where gamers connect via Xbox Live or the PlayStation Network from remote locations.

We've seen several examples this week of the cooperative gameplay mechanic added to games that don't seem to need it, except as a bullet point on a marketing plan. Resident Evil 5 is adding an online cooperative mode, where players can assist each other in surviving an onslaught of zombie-like creatures. It seems oddly out of place in a game series that has traditionally been a single-player experience designed around building a tense atmosphere through fear and isolation.

Fable II

We also saw co-op features added to Fable II, the ambitious sword-and-sorcery role-playing game from designer Peter Molyneux. While playing through the game, which is a traditional single-player RPG, players will run across glowing orbs. Those orbs represent gamers on your Xbox Live "friends list," who are also playing Fable II at the same time. You can then invite them to jump into your game, where they can lend a helping hand for as long as they want. At first glance, it seems gimmicky and out-of-place, but Molyneux (Populous, Black & White, The Movies) is known for pushing genre boundaries, if not always successfully.

A much more traditional co-op experience will be found in Gears of War 2, the sequel to the 2006 Xbox 360 hit. From our brief hands-on time with the game, it seems to not stray much from the original's successful formula, with tough-as-nails soldier-types fighting weird insect creatures.

The first Gears of War game had a two-person cooperative mode, where you and a friend could play through the entire plot together, and hopes were high for an expanded four-player co-op mode in the sequel (similar to the four-player co-op mode in Halo 3). Unfortunately, the main game is still restricted to two players, but as a consolation prize, there is a new five-person online cooperative mode that's essentially a simple shooting gallery pitting humans against endless waves of monsters.

Co-operative gameplay will also play a big part in Sony's upcoming Little Big Planet (which we talked about in our show preview). There, four players can link up online and guide their tiny sock-puppet-style avatars through a series of puzzles built out of giant versions of everyday household objects.

You can expect to see a greater emphasis on cooperative gameplay in new games this holiday season and beyond. In some cases, it's a natural fit (Gears of War 2, Little Big Planet), in others, we'll have to take a more wait-and-see attitude.

The new Xbox 360 dashboard

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News)

The E3 conference opened Monday in Los Angeles with a press conference from Microsoft. Here are some highlights.

Microsoft showed off first-ever game play footage from the post-apocalyptic title Fallout 3 and announced that there will be downloadable content exclusive to Xbox Live. We saw real-time action from Resident Evil 5, shipping on March 13. We got a peek at the new co-op feature in the game, where players will be able to team up and make their way through together. Developer Square Enix also made announcements that included the release of four titles for Xbox 360 including Final Fantasy XIII.

roundup
Complete E3 coverage

Expo is no longer a huge free-for-all,
but that doesn't mean Microsoft
and others aren't making noise.

As for console exclusives, we saw in-game action from Fable 2, shipping in October. Players will be able to seamlessly invite other friends who are also playing the game. Finally, we were blown away by the impressive game demo of Gears of War 2 shipping November 7. The game actually looks better than the original and will feature a five-player online co-op mode.

Microsoft will be releasing a new dashboard interface this fall that incorporates an avatar system--the Xbox answer to Nintendo Mii characters. The new feature allows you to join up with other friends to form a "party," a group of up to eight people where you can share multimedia items or start a game. A new mode called Primetime will actually incorporate real-life TV shows like 1 vs. 100 and allow Xbox Live members to play and watch these game shows and possibly even win real prizes.

Microsoft also announced ... Read more

A screenshot from the forthcoming Epic Games release, 'Gears of War 2.' The game, which is scheduled to be released in November, is the sequel to the hit, 'Gears of War,' which sold more than 5 million copies and is one of the best-selling Xbox 360 games ever. The title was one of those featured Tuesday at the Microsoft Game Studios Spring Showcase event in San Francisco.

(Credit: Epic Games/Microsoft Game Studio)

SAN FRANCISCO--If ever there was pressure, it falls on the shoulders of development teams trying to follow up a smash hit with a sequel.

That's the position that the folks at Epic Games find themselves in right now as they put the finishing touches on their forthcoming video game, Gears of War 2. And that's because the original Gears of War sold more than 5 million copies, becoming one of the most successful titles for Microsoft's next-generation video game console.

On Tuesday, Gears of War 2 was one of the featured games at the Microsoft Games Studio Spring Showcase event here. Dozens of video game journalists flocked to the shindig, as they do each year, for a series of tight controlled demos and hands-on play with a few of the titles.

I got a chance at the showcase to talk with Cliff Bleszinski, the design director for Epic Games, about what it's like trying to follow such a big hit like Gears of War and what kinds of expectations are being put on him and his team as they get ready for the expected November release of their much-anticipated game.

"There's a ton of pressure," Bleszinski told me. "But my confidence in myself and my team is exponentially high...We're nervous, but confident at the same time."

It's no small trick to sell 5 million copies of a game that costs $60. Nor should it be, given that that equates to more than $300 million in revenue for the publisher. Few titles reach those kinds of levels.

And while it's far too early to tell if Gears of War 2 will live up to its predecessor's success, there are certainly some things that augur well for it.

First, there is a huge hunger for it. Gears of War sold so many copies because it was considered a top-notch game, and Epic is very well-respected in the industry. So it's safe to say that a lot of people will buy the sequel based purely on the anticipation that built after they played the original.

'Gears of War 2' is bigger and better than its successor, said Epic Games design director Cliff Bleszinski at the Microsoft Game Studios Spring Showcase event Tuesday. Epic and Microsoft certainly hope so.

(Credit: Epic Games)

Similarly, the number of potential buyers is higher simply because it's coming out a couple of years after the original, and a lot more people own Xbox 360s now than they did when Gears of War came out.

"The threshold (for sales success) is higher because there's quite" a higher Xbox 360 install base, said Bleszinski, who added that after Gears of Wars became a hit, "we got a note from (Halo franchise developer) Bungie saying, 'Thanks for raising the install base'" for Halo 3.

The same factor is true, of course, for any new Xbox game, or for titles on any platform. Still, despite more potential buyers, a game like Gears of War 2 is going to have to seriously deliver the goods in order to sell as many copies--or more--as the original did.

A scene from 'Fable 2,' the much anticipated new game from Peter Molyneaux and his Lionhead Studios. 'Fable 2' was featured during the Microsoft Game Studios Spring Showcase Tuesday in San Francisco.

(Credit: Lionhead Studios/Microsoft Game Studios)

Another game in the same boat--and also on display Tuesday at the showcase event--is Fable 2, due out this fall from Lionhead Studios, the home base of, yes, fabled game designer Peter Molyneux.

Along with a bunch of other journalists, I sat through a half-hour demo of Fable 2, during which Molyneux explained why the sequel will be so much better than the first Fable.

"I had a dream when I created Fable 1," Molyneux said, "which I didn't realize, which was to create a truly memorable experience."

I'm sure there are plenty of people who would quibble with Molyneux's self-deprecation, but regardless, he said he and his team set out, in creating Fable 2, to make a game that tells a complex, dramatic story.

He explained that it is both a role-playing game and a simulation. And as part of the narrative arc, he said, the title is centered on learning what it feels like to have nothing--you start off as a street urchin in a little village called Bowerstone--and then progress to being a true hero.

Among the game's innovations, he said, are getting rid of the ubiquitous game "mini-map," which he said is confusing to casual gamers, and adding, instead, the concept of "breadcrumbs" that players can follow back from whence they came.

"With the breadcrumb trail," he said, "it will always show you the way back."

Molyneux said that Fable 2 is a completely free-roaming, free simulation game, meaning that players can explore anywhere they want and do just about anything they want.

And everything they do affects the rest of the game, he added.

For example, at one point early in the game, the main character is told to go in search of five lost warrants that have blown away. Depending on whether the player finds them and gives them back to the man who requested them, the village can become a trader's paradise or a crime-riddled slum.

"Every choice has a consequence," Molyneux said. "When you're playing Fable 2, you're never sure what you're going to see next."

One of the biggest challenges he and Lionhead faced, Molyneux explained, was trying to build a game that would simultaneously attract casual gamers and the core audience that regularly spends $60 on console titles.

A battle scene from 'Fable 2.'

(Credit: Lionhead Studios/Microsoft Game Studios)

To do that, he said, one innovation has been to make the Xbox controller very easy to use, with just a few simple functions available at first. But as players gain experience points, he said, they can spend them on new functionality for their controllers, bringing all new weapons and fighting abilities to their control. That dynamic, he argued, would bridge the gap between the two types of gamers.

After Molyneux finished, Bleszinski stepped up and gave a demo of level 2 of Gears of War 2.

It was impressive. Loud and beautiful, the game was a cacophony of mayhem, destruction, and war. Not feeling qualified to give a proper review of the game myself, I'll leave that to my colleagues. But I will say that based on what I saw, I can't see any reason to believe that Gears 2 wouldn't do better than its predecessor.

A promotional image for the forthcoming TECMO/Team NINJA game, 'Ninja Gaiden II.'

(Credit: TECMO/Team NINJA)

As Bleszinski had told me earlier, "I damn well hope we kick the first Gears' butt in sales."

The rest of the day was spent ferrying around the Dogpatch Studios, where the event took place, getting demos and being given a chance to play the other games on display.

Those games included Ninja Gaiden II, from TECMO/Team NINJA; Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise, from Rare; Too Human, from Silicon Knights and Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, also from Rare.

All in all, it was a fun, if exhausting day.

One of the featured games at the Spring Showcase in San Francisco on Tuesday was 'Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise,' which is set to be released in September.

(Credit: Rare/Microsoft Game Studios)

It's hard to say how well any of these games will do, and certainly I would say that none will do as well as Halo 3 or the recently crowned best-launch day ever Grand Theft Auto IV, but I would bet that Microsoft Game Studios has some hits on its hands.

Only time will tell.

On June 10, Geek Gestalt hits the highways for Road Trip 2008. I'll start in Orlando, Fla., and visit many of the South's most interesting destinations. Stay tuned, and be sure to keep up, both now and during the trip, with what I'm doing on Twitter.

In a few minutes, I'll be heading over to Dogpatch Studios in San Francisco for what seems to be an annual showcase of new Xbox 360 games from Microsoft Game Studios (MGS).

I'll have more on this later on Tuesday, but for now, I'll give a brief peek of what I'm expecting to find when I get there.

The gorilla in the room, as it were, is surely going to be Gears of War 2, developed by Epic Games for MGS and the sequel to one of the biggest games in Xbox 360 history.

"Attendees of the MGS San Francisco showcase event will witness the first extended taste of Gears of War 2," wrote Gamerscoreblog Tuesday morning. "Epic Games design director, Cliff Bleszinski, will demonstrate dramatic new game play elements and stunning visual effects in a campaign sequence from early in the game--where Marcus Fenix and COG forces engage in pulse-pounding firefights between two Derrick transports, fend off vicious Reaver fly-by attacks and rabid Brumaks--all in the same rollercoaster ride of a level."

The other game being heavily touted by MGS for the Tuesday event is its Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise, the second title in a series that launched in 2006.

"In an effort to help Pinata Central rebuild their computer database of pinatas, players will send pinatas at full candiosity to parties all around the world," Gamerscoreblog wrote, "while using their creativity and imagination to attract, capture, protect, train and manage more than 100 newly discovered and existing pinata species."

Gears of War 2 is set to be released for the 2008 holiday season, while Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise is expected to hit shelves in September.

There will be other games on display at the showcase, as well. Stay tuned for all the news.

On June 10, Geek Gestalt hits the highways for Road Trip 2008. I'll start in Orlando, Fla., and visit many of the South's most interesting destinations. Stay tuned, and be sure to keep up, both now and during the trip, with what I'm doing on Twitter.