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This past Saturday brought us the Spike TV Video Game Awards and – before experiencing the litany of world exclusives that awaited us inside – we spent some time outside cruising the red carpet and talking (briefly!) to many of the game developers and talent. We squeezed them for information as fast as we could while simultaneously wishing them holiday cheer and good tidings. Yes, it was as awkward as it sounds. Here's what we learned from Epic's Cliff Bleszinski.

So you segued from Gears into Shadow Complex ... what are you working on now?

I can't tell you that! It's actually quite agonizing for me right now, because there's a bunch of awesome shit we're working on, but I can't say a damn thing about it no matter how many alcoholic beverages you might try and feed me! Well, maybe if you bribe me with hookers and blow, that might work.

Shadow Complex will be on sale during the holidays. Was that Microsoft's idea or Epic's?

Microsoft is doing that promo. They're doing some other stuff as well to help drive the holiday sales. I mean, in this day and age look how crammed Christmas is, and it's like March is the new holiday. Everybody's moved out to March. I think it's good because the good games will rise, and the bad games will sink, right? I was getting tired of the fact that everyone had to cram everything into the holiday season. Hopefully we'll get some quality releases in March that will do well, and the gaming industry can sell more than 80% of its games outside of a three month period.

What are you playing right now?

I'm playing the hell out of Modern Warfare 2 and I hate those guys, because those guys are so awesome. Uncharted 2 I beat, which was absolutely stellar. Borderlands co-op is amazing ... that's the only way to play, really. I gush about it not just because it's our engine but because Randy and those guys are good friends, and it's the kind of game I really want to play. It's the perfect blending of the shooter and the RPG.

So when will we hear about this "awesome shit"?

Maybe sometime when the weather's warm, you'll be hearing something.

Look, we know, alright? Cliff "Not CliffyB" Bleszinski has a lot to say, and as such, he ends up in the headlines a bit more than anyone could expect. But how can we resist when he says such interesting stuff, like what he said during a recent interview with Develop. He dropped some pretty serious hints about the future of shooters -- and in turn, his own franchise, Gears of War. "I had a conversation with Harvey Smith – one of the lead designers on Deus Ex – and said to him the future of shooters is RPGs," the Cliffster said during the interview. "He said he completely agreed."

So, Deus Ex of War with RPG elements confirmed? Not quite. Bleszinski made sure to mention immediately afterward, "One could wean that from the comments I made earlier about the future of shooters is RPGs and see where things are going with us. It depends on where things go." Here's hoping "things go" right back to work on the game and less of the gum flapping!

(Just joshin' ya, Cliffy. We still love you.)

If you think Unreal Engine 3 games feature too much gray and brown, laden with "pillars and girders," all being stomped around on by bald space marines, Cliff "Young Clifford" Bleszinski wants you to blame the tech. Speaking with Develop recently, the man that birthed Marcus Fenix said, "The technology of this generation just happens to be very good at rendering metals and stones and dramatic lighting." He argues that "translucent effects" are much harder to pull of with the technology given and as such, "the tech is good at showing off armor and it's not that good at doing hair ... that's why we have bald space marines."

Though we'd argue that there are lots of bald men in our lives who happen to not be space marines -- CheapyD and Dr. Manhattan prime among them -- we can appreciate how Marcus Fenix may be more equipped to take down the Locust than an omnipotent blue man. Wait a minute! Interestingly, Bleszinski also notes during the interview that he's got "like five projects going on right now" -- we're counting Shadow Complex and another (still unannounced) Gears of War, which leaves three unannounced projects? Something is afoot at Epic Games. And it almost certainly involves bald space marines.

At some point during the short life of Twitter's @cliffy_b, a mockumentary version of Gears of War designer Cliff Bleszinski, the joke became a little too real for some people and it had to be shut down. Matthew Downham, who we've actually featured before in spoofs where he fails hard at games, along with his friend, Austin Brown, were the men behind the false Bleszinski. Today he posted the full explanation of the birth and death of @cliffy_b.

Downham explains the duo never intended any malice with @cliffy_b, that the character, a clear goof on the extroverted designer, was meant to be an over-the-top version of a gaming personality they admired. The joke was going along fine, until one particular tweet was taken a bit too seriously. Although Downham avoids what the post was, it was probably the tweet heard round the Gears community: "After much testing, it looks like matchmaking is permanently broken ... There are new maps though, only 800 Microsoft Points!" That's when the Epic lawyers had Twitter kill the fake Mr. Bleszinski. The story stands as a good metric on how some lines -- especially involving money and multi-million dollar franchises -- are dangerous to cross.

It's hard to really call video game designers celebrities. Sure, most of the people reading the Joystiq network can tell you who Shigeru Miyamoto is, but his isn't exactly a household name. There is, however, at least one game designer who acts like a celebrity, and that's Cliff "Formerly CliffyB" Bleszinski, designer of the Gears of War series. Like many celebrities, it seems Cliff is willing to share his thoughts on any subject, even voting. Sarcastic Gamer has had enough, and has created the parody "Silence CliffyB," which sends up Cliff's constant quips.

That's not important though. What is important is that the video also sends up the various gaming outlets and blogs that cover Cliff's shenanigans. Specifically, the video shows a snapshot of this very blog. We're totally in a video, and that's awesome. Find the video after the break.

"Don't expect the perfect shooter" out of Gears of War 2." (3) "There's a lack of depth here -- an amalgam of recycled mechanics and ideas that ... never really gets anywhere." (1) "The game has what seems to be a disappointing lack of polish, what with the minor glitches that have crept in." (6) "The execution is frustrating" (1) and "one can't help but think that the team is still honing its level design, its pacing, its combat and its storytelling." (3)

"Overall, Gears of War 2 is ... essentially the same as its predecessor." (6) "It's as if the original Gears has gotten a face-lift, and been expanded upon, without much real change." (1) "The game's opening teaser ... could have been sliced out of the original title" (4) and "the basic gameplay, with the focus on taking cover and precise re-loading, as well as the dismal gray visual design, is little changed from the first Gears." (2) "The whole freshness and aspect of 'new' that came with the first game won't really come across here." (6)

The game's "major shortcoming is a mawkish and cliche-ridden story." (2) "The characters [are] as macho and stereotypical as ever," (3) and "so uninspired you can almost predict their next response or action -- usually some variation of a grim, determined assertion of their physical prowess." (1) "Do we really have to have the shit-scared new cadet who's barely old enough to shave, the general giving a rah rah speech consisting entirely of jingoistic clichés, and the loud-mouthed hick who calls his rig Betty (and has a fetishistic love for it)?" (3) "There's barely a single character beat that isn't cringe-inducing." (2)

First, let us say we love Clifford Bleszinski. With that out of the way, we would offer him this bit of sage advice: If you want people to take you seriously, asking them to not call you CliffyB anymore is a great Step 1. But Step 2 should almost certainly be to stop saying things like, "A beta is like hooking up with a girl just to say, 'yeah, I f*cked her.' I know that sounds crude, but it's the honest-to-God truth. Once you play a beta, you can check it off your list – you can say, 'yeah, I played it.'"

There's more to that quote in a GamePro interview that you really have to read right here, we just didn't want you to think we were taking anything out of context. Credibility, ahoy!

"His current haircut is short and cowlicked, his bangs twirled up into a tiny moussed horn. He was wearing what in my high school would have been called 'exchange-student jeans'-obviously expensive but slightly the wrong color and of a somehow non-American cut." After a brief period of alarm, thinking someone had stolen and published our romantic Cliff Bleszinski novella, it came to our attention that The New Yorker had posted a lengthy profile on Mr. Gears of War himself.

Packed with biographical information and sensual descriptions of Bleszinksi's earlobes, the article provides an interesting glimpse at a man who has set out to make game design "a little cooler." Check it out and get to know the man responsible for your recently developed chainsaw fetish a little better.

[Thanks, mn]

[Update 2: The Giant Bomb user formerly known as CliffyB has changed his user name based on a request from the Giant Bomb staff. Seems this was a case of mistaken/overtaken internet identity. Joystiq regrets the error.]

[Update: It seems there's some doubt as to whether or not this review was actually written by Mr. Bleszinski or just some Giant bomb user who took his common online moniker. Either way, the review is still an interesting, alternative look at the game. We're looking into it and we'll update as warranted.]

After so much hype and so many years in development, many were surprised by the lackluster critical reception for Silicon Knights' Too Human. Count among the surprised Epic Games' Cliff "Don't call me CliffyB anymore" Bleszinski, who defended the game from its harshest critics in a recent Giant Bomb reader review.

Bleszinski says he found the game more engrossing than either BioShock or Call of Duty 4, pouring 16 straight hours into it on his first sit down and readying for a second playthrough after a 42-hour quest. While admitting that the story "isn't God's gift to writing," Bleszinski still insists it compares favorably to a lot of other video games. His main beef, though, is with critics who derided the game's combat as too simple simply because they weren't willing to delve into what Bleszinski sees as some complex strategic depth. "It will require some attention to learn," he warns, "If this is too much to ask, do not fret. There is always the Wii." Ouch!

The full review goes into an insane amount of detail on Bleszinski's experience with the game. Check it out if you're interested in a well informed, decidedly different perspective on this epic.

In an interview with Gears of War 2 lead designer Cliff Bleszinski at X08 in Toronto, Canada, we learned of an upgraded version of the original "Seriously" achievement, first seen in the popular franchise's previous installment. The achievement, "Seriously 2.0," requires 100,000 kills across the single and multiplayer campaign of the anticipated title. Yikes!

Stay tuned for the entire interview where Cliff reveals his thoughts on the single-player experience, Gears of War 2's Horde mode (first revealed at E3 2008), Too Human and, err, his desire to pee. Yeah, he went there.

Joystiq has obtained a video that's set to air at the start of Gamestop's Gears of War midnight tournaments tomorrow. The video contains an introduction by Cliff Bleszinski as well as "never-before-seen footage" from Gears of War 2. Is your interest piqued? Video embedded after the break.

In anticipation of next week's E3 Media and Business Summit, we've prepared bingo cards for each of the big press conferences, filled with some likely (and some not-so-likely) predictions for what each of the big three console makers intends to announce at arguably the biggest trade shows of the year.

Today's card is for Microsoft (special thanks to X3F). We're going out on a limb and giving Avatars away as the free space. Click on each of the slides above for more information about our predictions. Microsoft's E3 press conference is scheduled for next Monday at 10:30 am PT (that's 1:30 pm Joystiq Time / ET). As always, we'll be liveblogging the event, so you can play along in real-time with us.

Stay tuned for more press conference bingo cards in the days leading up to the conference. (Also: check out our bingo card for Sony's press conference.)

Download a copy (PNG file) and play along!

Update: Only hours after we post this ... N2, you hit my battleship!

While most of the "new" gameplay elements and maps discussed in the above preview for Gears of War 2 aren't really "new" to the video game news consuming populous, it's still nice to see some of the game's fresh features in action. The preview is fairly comprehensive -- there's looks at some of the soon-to-be-covered-in-gore locales, the new gametypes (we absolutely cannot wait for meatflag), chainsaw duels, new weapons and executions, and brand new, colorful ways of describing acts of grisly violence from the game's all-growed-up iconic lead designer, Cliff Bleszinski. We can't think of a better way to spend eight and a half minutes of a Sunday afternoon than to watch beefy combatants get halved.

The July issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly has an extensive 13-page blowout of Gears of War 2 multiplayer details. Earlier last week, some information leaked from and article in X360 Magazine, but the EGM cover-story by outgoing editorial director Dan Hsu includes a world of new information ripe for the picking.

Some information between the X360 and EGM article is slightly different. Most notably, some of the buttons involved in getting rid of a downed enemy are strangely different. However, since we don't talk about Gears 2 enough around here, we have all the info you need here.

From new weapon stats, the possibility of bots and the ability to blow you and your enemies up with a diabolical grenade--here is the newest info from EGM's fantastic July cover story. The issue also includes an extensive interview with Cliff Bleszinski, so any Gears fan should check it out.

All the info we got from EGM's cover story, after the jump!

Though other shooters have surpassed it in terms of Xbox Live activity, we still hold a dear, dear place in our heart for the multiplayer portion of Gears of War -- a place intricately carved by an enemy chainsaw. Sure, the character advancement of Call of Duty 4 and Vegas 2 led to a more compelling overall experience, but they lacked a certain panache that only a well-timed curb stomp can supply.

Imagine our excitement when we caught wind of the intimidating flood of details for the sequel's multiplayer component in the upcoming issue of UK's X360 magazine. There's a full list of said details on our Microsoft-related sister site, but to inspire you to continue reading, here's a few tantalizing buzzwords you'll find behind that link: Meatflag, Poison gas grenade, Flamethrower, Ten person multiplayer, Chainsaw duels, and last but certainly not least, Verandas. If that didn't sell you, we don't know what will.

[Via X3F]