5. What do you think is the biggest change from Gears 1 to Gears 2?

It's everything coming together; the sum of its parts. Less grey pillars. More blood. More destroyable stuff. Bigger monsters. Larger battlefield scenarios. More memorable, "OMG" moments. A better, darker story. More intimate violence. Oh, and that cheesy online technique of shotgun rolling to gib people is suddenly going to be less effective as bullets taken from the front will slow you down. Most importantly, we're finally able to answer some of the nagging questions that gamers have had since the first game. And no, I'm not going to spoil it, so don't even try!

6. Where do your game design inspirations come from?

Every experience that I have in day-to-day life goes into my library of inspiration. From playing games to reading graphic novels to watching films, it's all grist for the mill.

7. Is there any way to remove the Host Advantage in Gears of War?

We have many, many optimizations planned for Gears 2 that will *drastically* reduce these issues as well as another few tricks up our sleeves that I'm not able to reveal quite yet. Trust me that it's really high on our list of things to make right.

8. A lot of the combat in the original Gears of War was very horizontal in nature. I was wondering if the team at Epic had given any thought to integrating vertical-based combat (repelling down a cliff would be one example, though I'm just using that to make sure you know what I mean). Also, I've heard that you guys are trying to make the narrative a little more compelling in the sequel. Is the game going to show a little more humanity in the characters? For a game that deals with a humanity on the verge of extinction, I would expect to see more of that shown.

We deliberately built Gears to be a slightly less vertical game than others for several reasons. First, we believe that aiming up and down with a controller can be cumbersome in a life or death situation. Second, there's no jumping in Gears, so by nature it's a less vertical game. (Although I think if done right, a Jumping Flash type of shooter *could* work rather well if the designers built for it.) Any time designers have to deal with jumping there are ramifications – there's a reason why Master Chief floats like he's on the moon, otherwise, he'd be nearly impossible to track and hit in multiplayer while bunny-hopping.

Regarding the characters and their humanity, yes, we're definitely exploring it more in the sequel. Dom's growing increasingly desperate in his search for his wife Maria, and he demands answers. In the first game, humanity's back was up against the wall, and now they're about to be tossed over that wall as their one last safe city is now threatened. Tensions flare and the stakes are higher than ever, and the game really ventures down into some really dark places. Story-wise we take some risks that I've never seen in a videogame before. I think people will be a little surprised.

9. When are we going to see the triumphant return of the one and only Jazz Jackrabbit? This game would be absolutely badass on modern consoles. I'm sure remakes of many old Epic games would be great also (Xargon, Kiloblaster, Jill of the Jungle, the list goes on).

While I'd love to consider doing something like that, unfortunately every spare body we have right now is hard at work making Gears 2 into the blockbuster rollercoaster ride it needs to be for November, while also getting out a very slick Unreal Tournament 3 on Xbox 360. In the meantime, you can download the user mod for UT3 PS3 that has a "reborn" Jazz Jackrabbit as a buff, badass bunny!

10. Some friends and I are working on a game currently. What advice would you have for aspiring developers trying to break into the business?

Each person should pick an area that they're best at and start the long journey down that road towards becoming the best at whatever it is that they do. For example, if you're more of an artist you should acquire as much traditional training as you can and then move onto creating digital works. If you're more math and problem solving oriented you should look into learning C++ and various programming languages. When I got started in the business there were very few schools that taught game making as a skill and now, years later, there are many programs throughout the world that will assist.

Mod making is another great way to get started in the business. A great deal of our employees at Epic got started in the mod community and now they're living the dream of making AAA fun titles. Build levels, materials, mutators, UnrealKismet scripts, or make a small gametype for Unreal Tournament 3 and promote your efforts by entering it into the new $1,000,000 Intel Make Something Unreal Contest we just launched. There is plenty of time to enter as the contest runs until the end of 2009, and there are huge cash prizes in all kinds of categories as well as a chance to win the grand prize, which is an Unreal Engine 3 license! If you want to learn how to use the tools in our tech go to www.3dbuzz.com and under "Unreal Tech" look at the various UT3 videos. Once you get established with a portfolio of content to show off go to the various Game Developer's conferences around the world and make sure you network.

Above all, keep your head down, stay focused, seek feedback from peers, work on your communication abilities and remember to not party too much.