Here's some good news for those who want to hone their chops on professional-level game development tools. Epic Games is offering a free version of the Unreal Engine 3 devkit for non-commercial purposes.

Everyone's set to celebrate Halloween, and the gang of Gears of War 2 is no exception. Epic Games has officially announced that there will be a double XP weekend happening this Halloween weekend.

They've repeatedly denied that there will be a Gears of War 3 coming our way, but the secret's out of the bag now, and really, people aren't exactly surprised. In last Saturday's live 1 vs 100 game, Epic Games poster boy was asked by host Chris Cashman about the said upcoming shooter sequel, to which Cliff Bleszinski spilled some beans on Alex and some rumors surrounding her presence in the game.

Heads up, Avatar threads coming your way. Back at the Comic-Con in San Diego, Cliff Bleszinsky and Ron Fergusson of Epic Games have announced that Gears of War-themed armors are coming to Xbox Live for your Avatars. Hit the link and check 'em out.

In his interview with Eurogamer, Epic Games' Mark Rein talks about the many sides of the industry - from game development, consumer status quo, all the way to publisher strategies. Many interesting points were brought up, but one of the more notable bits of info gathered is his take on the PS3 price cut talk. Mark Rein reckons that with Sony's financial difficulties this year, a price cut was out of the question.

The All Fronts Collection DLC for Gears of War 2 popped up on the Marketplace recently a few days before its official release. A lucky few spotted it in time to download it for the practically half-off price of 800 MS Points. If you were one of those few, rejoice. Epic Games and Microsoft are letting you keep it.

Did you know that the creator of the original story for Epic Games' Xbox Live title, Shadow Complex, is none other than renowned comic book author David? Well now you do. Microsoft Game Studios announced this little bit of trivia today via press release, in anticipation of the game's online release in August.

We've already seen various example of successful shooters that integrated RPG elements into the gameplay such as BioShock (PS3, Xbox 360, PC). Cliff Bleszinski thinks this isn't just a passing thing. He believes that RPGs are the future of first-person shooters.

This weekend will be a great time to fire up Gears of War 2 and jump into the fray to grab some extra XP. Epic Games has announced that from Friday morning until Monday morning, players will be getting double XP, with the winning teams also getting a 500 XP bonus. That's not all. Tickers will also figure prominently along with another surprise: title update 4.

Epic Games is readying a new title update for Gears of War 2, but apparently it hasn't passed certification yet so they can't give out a release date at the moment. What they do have is a list of all the changes included in Title Update 4. Check it out after the jump.