A new behind-the-scenes trailer for F.E.A.R. 2 has been released, showing off some scary footage from the horror shooter, as well as an interview with two developers talking about how they built the game.

Financially troubled publisher Midway now has someone to blame for all its problems – Epic’s Unreal Engine 3. Variety talked with some ex-employees of the company who threw light on the use of Unreal Engine 3 that caused much of the company’s woes. Here’s a bit:

"The mistake we made was, instead of just taking the base Unreal 3 engine that ‘Gears of War’ was made on and building games off of that, we let our tech and product development guys try to really modify the engine to add all these diff things," one ex-employee told me. "It was a ton of new technology which they just weren’t capable of doing. It put all the games way behind schedule."

Even though Midway invested millions in building a common tech base for all its studios, apparently they all had to adapt UE3 for each project, which meant they couldn’t share resources in a timely manner, so none of the promised benefits materialized. Making the code work for PS3 was particularly hard, sources said, and so games just weren’t coming out. Look at the first half of 2007, when all Midway shipped was "Lord of the Rings Online" for Turbine, or the first half of this year, when all it shipped was "Unreal Tournament III" for Epic.

Many publishers and studios have licensed Unreal Engine 3 for use in their games. One notable exception is Capcom, who has built its own engine to power its multiplatform releases.

It seems that the Japanese have a big fascination with the western world, especially big Japanese publishers who are increasingly looking to the west for development ideas, among other things. Square Enix has revealed that it is working on an action game that will be developed at a studio in Los Angeles.

A careers page of the company discloses that they are looking for programmers, project managers, marketers and testers for the LA studio. In fact, it also states that they are looking for programmers with prior Xbox 360 experience, confirming at least one platform for the action game.

Square Enix is yet to announce the game formally, but given that they are still looking for people to fill the studio, the game is far off in the horizon.

The nonprofit National Geographic Society is seeing the birth of a spinoff called National Geographic Ventures that will create PC, console and handheld games based on the company’s nature-themed television shows and its magazine.

Their first title is Herod’s Last Tomb, a hidden objects game that is already available on Windows and iPhone. “Entertainment with substance” is their motto, apparently, and their focus is not teaching materials. Upcoming titles include Rain Forests, Greencity and Africa.

Expanding your purchase options, Call of Duty: World at War is now available on Steam.

Developed by Treyarch, the game is now selling like hotcakes across all regions. It can be bought for $49.95, the same price as retail.

Variety reports that monolithic publisher Electronic Arts has shut down Blueprint, the studio which was working on – most notably – the three games being developed by famed director Steven Spielberg.

The studio was reportedly part of the EA Games label and was headed by Neil Young, who started the company mid-2007 and led it around for a year before leaving it to head an iPhone gaming company.

A dozen or so people have been dispersed from the now-closed studio. It is not known how their projects will be handled by EA.

Japanese publishers Tecmo and Koei have merged together to form Tecmo Koei Holdings, which will come into effect on April 1, 2009. Koei, the larger of the two, will hold three quarters of the newly combined venture, which will see 20 billion yen ($207 million) infused into it at launch.

The new company has put forward a business plan aiming for a profit of 16 billion yen ($164 million) in its fiscal year 2011. Interestingly, the two added up to a combined profit of 8.5 billion yen ($87 million) in their last fiscal year.

Tecmo is known best for publishing the Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive franchises, whereas Koei is best known for the Dynasty Warriors series.

With the release of Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix looming, Capcom today announced the “Season of Street fighter”, noting that it will feature an assortment of Street Fighter-themed downloadable content packs, music inspired by the series, and newly designed digital destination points for both Xbox Live and PlayStation Network.

First off is the release of the Super Street Fighter Pinball FX downloadable packs, which adds a SF pinball table to the popular XBLA game. A DLC pack for Uno, offering new Street Fighter Command Cards with signature Street Fighter power moves, as well as backgrounds and music.

Capcom additionally stated that it has another “little” surprise coming to the PlayStation Network later this year.

Finally, the publisher will release a direct-to-download music album of hip-hop tracks inspired by the legendary fighting series. It will feature the musical talents of artists such as DJ Qbert, Redman, Oh No, DJ Toure and more. These songs will be free of charge and exclusive to the PlayStation Network.

Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix launches on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network on November 25 and 26, respectively.

Spellborn sends word that the closed beta signup process for The Chronicles of Spellborn has ended. Players will be informed starting tomorrow the starting date of the open beta.

Additionally, the developer noted that the NDA for closed beta testers and press parties is dropped as of today. Expect to see previews and impressions pop up across the Internet.

Since Activision is in party mode, the publisher has announced that it will host a Xbox Live weekend this month, letting players 14 years of age or older participate in a number of activities to celebrate Guitar Hero: World Tour.

The activities include an Xbox All NIghter on November 27; Play & Win sweepstakes from November 28 through 30; and Game with Developers on November 30 from 10pm to 1am GMT.

Those who play during the weekend can win special prizes, including Samsung home theater packages, 1GB memory sticks and more. However, most interesting will be the Game with Developers session where lucky gamers can have their ass whooped by the makers of the game themselves. Here are the people who are participating:

• GHDevTina – Producer
• GHDevLee – Associate Producer
• GHDevCorey – Production Coordinator
• GHDevAnthony – Midi Designer
• GHDevChris – Midi Designer
• GHDevJason – Lead Animator
• GHDevZack – Junior Programmer
• GHDevJosh – Jr. Sound Designer
• GHDevKristina – Mocap Supervisor
• GHDevJustin – Mocap Tech
• GHDevAdry – QA Tester
• GHDevBrandon – QA Tester
• GHDevTravisR – QA Tester

You can check out the event’s official website for more information.

Hoping to make all their downloadable content available to everyone, Harmonix and MTV Games announced that they have released Rock Band Track Pack Volume 2, the second installment in its track pack series. It is now available for PS2, PS3, Wii and Xbox 360 for $29.99.

The pack features 20 tracks ranging from Lynyrd Skynyrd and Motley Crue to Red Hot Chili Peppers and Duran Duran. It can be played as a standalone game for all consoles. However, you will also be able to export the songs for play with Rock Band and Rock Band 2 using a free offer on Xbox Live or PlayStation Network.

Now that the New Xbox Experience has launched, Novaleaf Game Studio sends word that they will officially release Biology Battle as a launch title of Xbox Live Community Games today.

One of the many titles built by users themselves, Biology Battle is an unique take on the classic space shooter genre, having players take control of medical nano-bots during its mission inside of its target cell. It includes 360 degree movement and firing and offers both single-player and multiplayer modes.

The studio notes that it was created using XNA in Bangkok, Thailand, completed by “4.5 developers in 11 months.”

Konami sends word that a completely updated and enhanced version of GTi Club+ will be released via the PlayStation Store on December 4. It will be priced at 14.99 Euros and will offer all new graphics and expanded gameplay elements.

To be a 335MB download, the game will feature a French locale within a giant game map. It will run at 60 fps and offer five licensed cars – Austin Mini Cooper, Renault 5, Fiat A112, Abarth, Lancia Delta and the VW Golf GTi.

Additions to the game include new game modes, as well as PlayStation Eye support. It also supports 5.1 surround sound and player-to-player voice communications.

Ignition Entertainment has announced that The King of Fighters XII will be released in North America and Europe in 2009. The highly anticipated fighting game is expected to be released on PS3 and Xbox 360.

For the first time in the franchise, KOF XII has undergone a complete graphical overhaul. All sprites used over the last 14 years have been dropped and replaced with new high definition, high resolution sprites on detailed 2D backgrounds, drawn 100% by hand.

“Dreams never die!” said Ajay Chadha, President of Ignition Entertainment. “I’ve been a huge The King of Fighters fan since 1994 when the game first debuted and I know original fans will be as excited as I am about this groundbreaking installment of this very popular series. And just as importantly, The King of Fighters XII should be a treat for the new gamers who’ve just been introduced to the hugely popular franchise.”

A new patch is now online for Crysis Wars, the multiplayer portion of Crysis Warhead, updating it to v1.2.

The patch can be downloaded from Rapidshare – it’s a direct download link courtesy of us. You can find patch notes for the new version here, which outlines balance changes, bug fixes and other things included in the update.