Don’t have anything to do on Valentine’s Day?  Love Gears of War 2?  Then you’re in luck, because Epic has announced that they will be holding a Valentine’s Day event that includes some nice XP bonuses.

Joe Graf, Lead Gameplay Programmer at Epic Games, stated that;

If you recently became an owner of the Xbox 360 or you are the frugal type, you are in luck. Best Buy is offering a sale that includes some of greatest games to hit this generation.

When you buy two Xbox 360 Platinum Hits titles, you will get a third title of equal or lesser value free. Additionally, you will receive free shipping on all three games! The sale is only available online and is for a undisclosed limited time period, so you will have to act fast to pick up these excellent titles:

Mark Rein, Vice President of Epic Games, has responded to accusations that the developer regrets signing a 360-exclusive contract.

Wedbush Morgan Analyst, Michael Pachter, recently discussed his belief that Epic Games were regretting their Microsoft-exclusive decision, specifically stating that the high number of potential PlayStation 3 sales were a missed financial opportunity that would be hard to swallow.

According to Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Patcher, on a recent GameTrailers Bonus Round, Epic has to be regretting the decision to make Gears of War a Microsoft exclusive title.

When asked if it made sense for games companies to release single platform titles, Michael Patcher said:

“Absolutely not, and I think the Epic guys can’t wait until they can start doing multiplatform games”

Major Nelson reported a few days ago on the top titles of 2009 on Xbox Live. His lists included the most played games of the year by connectivity, the most played Xbox Live Arcade titles as well as lists for top Windows games and Top original Xbox titles.

The notable call-outs include Halo 3 taking top honors as having the most unique users play the game over Live throughout the year. Following this, we have the latest three Call of Duty games and Gears of War 2. On the Arcade side of things, Battlefield 1943 and the still-awesome Castle Crashers took the number one and two spots respectively.

Check out the lists below.

We’ve not heard too much about the anticipated live-action adaptation of the Gears of War franchise, but way back in February Screen Rant reported that Len Wiseman (Underworld, Live Free or Die Hard) would be directing the Gears of War feature film and co-writing the screenplay alongside Chris Morgan (Wanted, Fast & Furious).

Unfortunately, Wiseman also said he knows nothing about video games – A big red flag considering all video game movies tend to suck because movie studios can’t/don’t replicate the important parts of a video game.

In October, Screen Rant then found out that Billy Ray, who wrote State of Play and Breach is writing the Gears of War script for New Line and that was the last we heard… until now.

In case you missed it or have pushed aside one of the best games on the Xbox 360 to play any of the new major releases, Epic Studios’ Gears of War 2 is celebrating its one-year anniversary!

In honor of the milestone, Epic Games has declared this week a “multiplayer extravaganza” where players will recieve a triple experience bonus for all game-types. That’s not all though! There’s also a new Tactical Mode which you can read about below.

Here’s the press release:

With just under two weeks before its release, Valve has announced that the Left 4 Dead 2 pre-order numbers are four times bigger than that of the original Left 4 Dead. This does not come as a surprise considering the original was, an original. Gamers are more likely to pre-order a sequel to a game due to the fact that they played the first and enjoyed what the title had to offer.

There are thousands of gamers that have played Left 4 Dead and want more. It only makes sense the sequel would have significantly more pre-sales than the original. In order to impress me, Valve would have to compare their pre-sale numbers to something like Gears of War 2. Not only that, they didn’t even announce an approximate number, which is even more underwhelming.

Epic has released the Gears of War 2 Title Update 5, just in time for some Halloween Gaming.

The following was posted on the Gears of War forums by Gears of War Executive Producer Rod Fergusson detailing the patch – Check it out after the jump.

If you already have read my preview coverage of Borderlands, the you know about the basics on controls, leveling and the health system.

Now, after dozens of hours logged into the game all I can say is that it’s excellent. This is exactly what I have been waiting on for a very long time. Borderlandsperfectly blends an action FPS with an action RPG. I can easily say it is one of the best games of 2009, and one of my personal favourites on the Xbox 360.

Check out Game Rant’s full review after the jump.

Xbox 360’s quite literally epic game series Gears of War has been a huge hit on the console, and it’s been known that  several Hollywood-type people want to bring it to the big screen in the form of a movie. American screenwriter Billy Ray (Hart’s War, Volcano, State of Play) has been recruited into the effort alongside director Lens Wiseman and fellow writer Chris Morgan.

As the movie is in its extremely early stages, no casting decisions have been made, though Morgan hinted at Comic-Con 2008 that it will be a prequel to the first game, and just may explain how main character Marcus Fenix got the massive scar on his face. Among the rumors, Dominic Purcell is a name frequently mentioned to play the role of Marcus Fenix – and that’d be awesome. I mean, check out this list of well-known actors who bear a strong resemblance to certain Gears members!

Halo Recon was announced at TGS in 2008 as a small expansion to the fan-favorite Halo 3. The game was stated to have a new campaign that would run roughly four to six hours. For the first time in the series, the playable hero of the campaign would not be Master Chief, but a new protagonist in ODST (Orbital Drop Shock Troopers) armor.  It was also said to have an expanded multiplayer with exclusive new maps, and all of this content was supposed to release at a discounted price.

Over a year, the game went through a name change from Recon to ODST, a price increase, and the additionof a new cooperative multiplayer game mode called Firefight, which was said to be similar to the Gears of War 2 Horde mode (one of the most incredible experiences available on the 360). The question now is whether or not this expansion is really worth the full retail price tag.