New Gears 2 videos

Epic Games and Microsoft Game Studios released two new behind the scenes videos for Gears of War 2 today, which are now available for download on the Xbox Live Marketplace. These two new videos take viewers behind the scenes and on stage with Epic Games during a demonstration of Gears of War 2 and the updated Unreal Engine 3 at the 2008 Game Developers Conference (GDC).

In the first of the two videos, Epic Games President, Mike Capps, and Lead Designer, Cliff Bleszinski (also known as CliffyB), reveal the inner workings of producing a major video game announcement, and add in some extra messages for fans before and after the game's announcement at GDC last month. The second video shows Epic Games' demonstration of the updated Unreal Engine 3 during the Microsoft keynote at GDC.

Text-to-win contest for GTA IV

GameStop announced the start of a national text-to-win contest in preparation for the release of Grand Theft Auto IV . The promotion will culminate with a launch event on April 28 ^th , the day before the game's release, in New York City, where the national winners will meet regional winners and compete for $30,000 in prizes. The contest will be running until Tuesday, April 15 ^th , until which time entrants can visit www.gamestop.com/gtaiv to get the contest question and sign up for exclusive information about the game leading up to its release on April 29 ^th .

Playing for a chance to win up to $10,000 and a trip to “Liberty City” for the launch event, participants are required to text-in one of five possible answers using their mobile phones. Players will have a second opportunity to enter at www.gamestop.com. A total of four (4) national winners will be selected at random from all correct mobile and online entries, and will each be awarded:

• Roundtrip airfare and ground transportation to “Liberty City” for themselves and a guest

• One hotel room for two nights

• Two gift bags courtesy of GameStop and Grand Theft Auto IV

• Two hundred and fifty dollars ($250) in spending money

• One key to open a lock box at the April 28th launch event

The national winners will meet the regional winners in New York City to see if their key opens Niko’s Lock Box. Niko’s Lock Box contains 38 unmarked envelopes containing awards from $100 to $10,000. The event will take place at GameStop’s flagship store at 1282 Broadway (at 33rd Street).

GameStop will also be running a regional “Lost Keys” promotion in New York City from April 1 ^st to the 27 ^th . The company will drop red key chains in select stores around the city, which direct players to call a local telephone number for further instructions on how to gain access to GameStop's GTA IV launch event, and a chance to win up to $10,000.

Turok ships 1 million copies, gets new features

Touchstone announced a milestone for Turok today, as well as some new features for the game. Turok has now reached the milestone of one million units shipped worldwide. Also, the both the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game will soon have a new multiplayer pack available, called the Velociraptor Pack . This new pack contains five new multiplayer maps, and will be available for download tomorrow for 400 Microsoft Points via the Xbox Live Marketplace or $4.99 USD via the Playstation Store.

Of the five new Turok downloadable maps for consoles, two are completely new multiplayer maps, one is a new co-op map and two are tweaked versions of popular multiplayer maps available with the game. Included in the pack are:

• Co-Op – A brand new Turok co-op map for 2-4 players. In this co-op map your Whiskey Company squad has been captured and is being held in a Mendel-Gruman facility designed for holding dinosaurs. You and your team have to break out and make it to the rescue chopper before the Wolf Pack troops decide to feed you to the captured raptors.

• Desolation – A brand new swamp-based map where simple structures are set up alongside a rock cliff to allow helicopters and transports into the area to bring in supplies. There are many hiding spots on this multi-level map which enables numerous quiet kill opportunities.

• Sentinel – Another new multiplayer map and one of the largest Turok maps to date. The setting takes place at the top of a mountain around one of Kane’s orbital defense arrays - the very base that shot down the Whiskey Company ship from orbit in the single-player campaign. Also, the presence of a few large dinosaurs on the map can make things very interesting during multiplayer combat.

• Inconclusive Tests – This time the Testing Grounds map takes place at night and offers a different view of the world that now contains more dark hiding spots. A word of caution -- watch out for the raptors.

• A Rivalry Continues – As the name suggests, the struggle for the compound from A Heated Rivalry is not over and has extended into the eerie darkness of the night.

Touchstone also announced the release date for the PC version of Turok . PC gamers will find that version hitting store shelves on April 22 ^nd . Downloadable content will also be available for that version, some time soon after its release.