A couple of days ago, I had the honor of being a guest on the official podcast of the unofficial “Gears of War” fansite GearHeadsOfWar.com. The site’s Nick Wangler and Tyler Bleszinski (brother of you-know-who) kindly re-dubbed the show the “Totilocast” as they brought me on to talk about E3.

But we took an unexpected turn and wound up talking about what’s good about video game violence.

Yes, what’s good about video game violence. Read more…

At 6PM Monday night Microsoft let E3 judges (I’m one of them!) play a small portion of the single player campaign of Epic Game’s November 7 Xbox 360 exclusive “Gears of War 2.” Only by making a game playable is a game made eligible to be voted for a Best of Show award. But they won’t let me cover it. I had to sign those rights away.

At 7PM or so, however, I started playing the game’s newly announced Horde multiplayer mode, and that I can cover.

Hit the jump to read how it felt to play the “Gears of War 2″ Horde mode:

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It’s been reported that “Live Free or Die Hard” director Len Wisemen will be the Hollywood force responsible for taking “Gears of War” to the big screen.

Josh Horowitz over at the MTV Movies Blog recently weighed in on the decision to hire Wisemen, comparing his pre-”Die Hard” films to the works of action director Stephen Sommers.

Since Josh asked us to weigh in, we’re going to do just that. Not only were Sommers’ own “The Mummy” films decent big-budget B-movies, I respectfully disagree that the “Underworld” series is worth writing off. Both films were B-movie fun.

And if you’ve played “Gears of War,” its story (and often lack thereof) fit that mold perfectly. Wiseman is a good choice. Heck, Sommers might’ve been, too.

So readers, while it seems Horowitz and I are both happy with the choice of Wisemen to bring “Gears” to the big screen — are you?

MTV Intern Sam Cadet filed this report about how co-op gaming is winning the hearts and minds of reluctant gamers one by one…

Do you have a genre that you can’t stand? Even the hardest of the hardcore gamers can be quite selective in what they play. Despite one’s feelings about a game or a whole genre in particular, there is a way to get gamers interested in genres they’re unfamiliar with.

Gaming is one of those things that can be even better with a friend. Cooperative play can be that feature that sells neophytes to a whole genre. It’s especially effective when the novice gamer enjoys co-op play with a friend who’s experienced in the genre. Both gamers can have a great time while the new player can learn the game’s mechanics at his or her own pace.

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“Gears of War 2” lead designer Cliff Bleszinski no longer wants to be called “CliffyB,” a name he’s used since the 90s.

Yesterday he confirmed to me that he is dropping the old nickname.

It’s “time to grow up a bit,” he wrote in a quick note. The name may have suited a 20-something Cliffy B who used to make work on “Unreal Tournament” games and run a website featuring cats sandwiched in copy machines.

Cliff Bleszinski, however, is an early 30s developer at the top of his game. He and his team are working on getting “Gears 2″ done for the fall and they’re well past nicknames — at least any they want to be known by publicly.

And that, fellow gamers, means it’s time to learn how to spell Bleszinski.

As he launched into a 30-minute demonstration of “Gears of War 2” yesterday at Microsoft’s showcase event in San Francisco, game designer Cliff Bleszinski volunteered an update on the length of the series.

He said it is not announced as a trilogy.

He explained that the decision to make a second game occurred only once Microsoft started receiving large retail orders for the first game and said a decision to make a third one would be made closer to the release of “Gears 2″ this holiday season.

And then there could be a fourth, fifth, or sixth game after, he added.

This marked the second time in two days that a top figure on the “Gears” series said that the series shouldn’t be thought of as a trilogy, so clearly it’s a point the creators want to stress. Why? I’m not quite sure.

Maybe they know that I’m skeptical about trilogies.

Before Epic Games‘ Cliff Bleszinski began playing his own demo of “Gears of War 2” for reporters at the Microsoft gaming event in San Francisco yesterday he had to boot up the game.

He navigated through a menu screen, selecting his level. This was a real in-game menu, as far as I could tell, done up in red and black like all real “Gears” interfaces. At moments like this, a game reporter’s job is to speed-read the menu screen, searching for features that the designers would rather you not notice just yet.

I spotted a prompt to press a “What’s Up” button.

I jotted down a note and asked Bleszinski about it after the session. He stonewalled. He wouldn’t say.

What could a “What’s Up” button on a menu screen be for?

The wheels in my mind are turning.

At Microsoft’s press event in San Francisco yesterday I had a chance to play and/or watch most of the biggest Xbox 360 exclusive games of 2008.

And I heard some bold statements from the people who made them:

Game designer Peter Molyneux on his team’s “Fable 2″:

• “We have done everything we an do to make a story you can remember and will stick in your mind.”
• “‘Fable 2′ has as many features as I’ve ever seen in a game.” [After showing such features as cut scenes that can be interrupted by player-triggered farts, spotting a troupe of gypsies whose kids act out the plot of the first "Fable," and explaining that many regions of the game will change dynamically over time based on the player's actions.]

Game designer Denis Dyack on his team’s “Too Human”:

• “The game has the most content we’ve ever create. Even in the main menu, the Norn in the Well will probably talk for 30 minutes [if you don't press the start button.
• "I don't think anyone can experience everything that's in there." [After explaining that the game's five classes each have 50 levels, which take about 50 hours per class to achieve -- and noting that a single play-through of the game will only offer players enough time to get to the high level 20s.]

Game designer Cliff Bleszinski on his team’s Gears of War 2″:

• “A lot of people’s memory of ‘Gears of War 1′ is gray pillars. We wanted to change that.”
• “Thirty percent of ['Gears of War 2'] is underground. Cave games are cool, but this is not a spelunking game.” [After playing a level that took place entirely above ground and involved Marcus Fenix standing on top of a massive truck, shooting down mortars, mowing down enemy miners, and engaging huge tank-sized bosses called Brumaks].

Not that anyone should be surprised, but Shane Kim, head of Microsoft Game Studios, told me, Brian Crecente (Kotaku), Chris Grant (Joystiq) and N’Gai Croal (Newsweek) yesterday that “Gears of War 2” will be the biggest Xbox 360 game of the year, the flagship exclusive for the holiday season.

Not “Fable 2“? He said that game is coming along really well. But “Gears 2″ is the big one.

So no giant surprise game for Holiday 2008, 360 fans. You already know which title Microsoft is betting its chips on.

 UPDATE: Just to be clear, he’s talking about titles coming from Microsoft Game Studios.

There was only one close call.

Kudo Tsunoda, the new general manager for Microsoft’s “Gears of War” development efforts, got through most of his dinner with me and three other gaming reporters last night with only one “can-we-say-this?” look shot over to the public relations person staffing our meal.

It came after I asked him to define what “Gears of War” is to him, and how it differs from “Halo.” He threw out words like “co-op” and “tactical” and then he said “squad,” which prompted me to ask about the number of players that could team up in a “Gears of War 2″ mission. He looked for help.

No.

Not something he can talk about at the moment.

But there was other “Gears” stuff to discuss…

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This year’s New York Comic Con proved what gamers have known for a long time - video games are a force to be reckoned with.

As the Convention has grown over the last three years, so has the gaming presence. Publishers realize that they can reach their key demographics, at least when that target audience takes a break from sifting through boxes of old comics.

Many game companies were at the Con. There were booths promoting upcoming titles, like “Iron Man,” “Metal Gear Online,” and even “Space Chimps.”

Numerous toy companies showcased their game figure lines for everything from “Kingdom Hearts” to the upcoming “Prototype.”

Sunday boasted a day’s worth of video game panels that offered insight into “Gears of War 2,” as well as the games industry itself.

There were even a very tiny handful of vendors offering games for sale. Basically, there was a little bit of something for everybody.

By no means is Comic Con the next E3, but it was very refreshing to see comics and games mingle for a New York crowd.

Hit the jump for many, many more pics from the floor. Read more…

Yesterday, I interviewed renowned gaming journalist N’Gai Croal about stereotypes and diversity in games.

Croal’s interview is part of a special week-long series called “Black Professionals in Games.” Today the series continues with Morgan Gray, Senior Producer at Crystal Dynamics. The 31 year-old San Francisco native, who’s half-black and half-Caucasian, is a seasoned gamer who’s tired of being the regular white guy:

“I am sick of playing the average white dude character. And I’m sick of playing a black stereotype. … As a player I want to have more experiences other than the futuristic super soldier white guy to the unlikely hero white guy. There’s that line where you’re playing you, and you’re playing the character. It’s sort of like, are you behind the character pushing? Are you holding hands with the character in your mind? And for me, I’d like to get more of relating to this character.”

And here he is on one of the most popular characters from “Gears of War“:

“Here’s the thing: Cole Train on his own, no harm no foul. But what is Cole Train? Cole Train is basically like every other effin’ black character in a video game. Like here comes the urban stereotype. Where is this 1990’s — not even 2000 — black slang, where does this fit in this futuristic world that doesn’t even take place on Earth? They go really far to do a lot of fictional justifications for this culture that they’ve built, and they go right back to this urban stereotype for the black character.

I’m not knocking Epic; the game was fun and gorgeous. But it’s just a lack of thought, right? All it does is reinforce dumb stereotypes and it sort of reinforces casual racism.”

Read on for Gray’s thoughts on how game developers can increase social awareness and diversity, black characters in Japanese games and why “GTA: San Andreas” was “scary.”

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