Valve’s Gabe Newell has promised at least three “big surprises” in the next 12 months, according to the latest issue of PC Gamer.

Knowing Valve, Newell could have pulled the number “three” out of thin air–maybe it was the number of doughnuts he had for breakfast that morning. Either way, Valve wants to prepare us for a shocking year.

“I can guarantee you people are going to be surprised at stuff we do. That isn’t going to stop any time soon. I’m just laughing because… people will be shocked again,” Newell said. “We have three pretty big surprises in the next 12 months at least.”

So what could the three–at least–surprises from Valve be? My bet is on Half-Life 3, a full-length TF2 movie and a hat DLC pack for Left 4 Dead 2. What do you guys think Valve is cooking up? Make your wishlist in the comments!

When I prepare for battle, the first things I know to grab are my trusty screen printed t-shirt and a Marvel comic book.

Just kidding – I break the glass containing my Zombie Apocalypse shottie first – but today Enslaved: Odyssey to the West is giving away exclusive tools of war for anyone who pre-orders at GameStop.

Today only, GameStop pre-orders will receive an Enslaved t-shirt and comic book, which the ad assures us (two times, in case we miss the first brightly-lit sign) are GameStop EXCLUSIVES. The retailer is also hosting the Enslaved Home Entertainment Sweepstakes, wherein the grand prize is a Sony 55″ TV, surround sound speaker system, a choice of a PS3 or Xbox 360, an Enslaved statue and a copy of the game. Four first prize-winners will receive the statue and game.

Pre-orders from GameStop will also grant you a code for the playable “Ninja Monkey” skin, which has unlimited ammo.

Enslaved: Odyssey to the West is due to drop October 5 for PS3 and Xbox 360.

Is this enough incentive for anyone to pre-order Enslaved today? Let us know what you think about the game trailers and this exclusive offer in the comments!

Target and Best Buy both announced expanded used game trade-in services this week, just in time for major developers to start making a profit off pre-owned games with online codes and subscription models. But I’m sure that’s just a coincidence.

Best Buy will officially launch used game trade-ins in 600 stores this week, with the promise of more to follow soon. Games can be traded for Best Buy gift cards, which can be used instantly in the store. There is no mention of a cash trade-in option – it looks like Best Buy is following in the footsteps of great aristocrats worldwide and keeping it in the family.

Target’s new Electronics Trade-In service packages cell phone and iPod trades with video games, and should be in over 850 stores nationwide by 2011. Trade-ins receive Target credit of up to $200, but that amount would probably only be for a 4G iPhone at this point.

Best Buy will sell back used games “soon,” while Target does not specifically mention direct sale of any used games.

Both stores will offer online options for trade-ins, Target through a partnership with electronics recycling site NextWorth, and Best Buy through their own online system that will appraise games, accept them through the mail and send out gift cards 7-14 days later.

What does the mainstream trade-in service mean for our used game consumer future, or that of gaming in general? Leave us your thoughts in the comments!

Gears of War fans probably know that the popular franchise busted onto the book scene in 2008 with Aspho Fields and then with Jacinto’s Remnant following one year later, both penned by #1 New York Times bestselling author Karen Traviss and both instant bestsellers. Now the third book of the series, Gears of War: Anvil Gate highlights the human race’s struggles to move on after the tragic events on Jacinto. The latest Gears novel will go on sale August 31, 2010 for $16.00.

Here’s a description:

With the Locust Horde seemingly destroyed, Jacinto’s survivors have begun to rebuild human society on their island stronghold. Raiding pirate gangs take a toll — but it’s nothing that Marcus Fenix and the Gears can’t handle. Then the terrifying life-forms they thought they’d left behind – the Lambent, creatures even the Locust feared – begin to advance across the planet. Gears and gangs must fight side by side to stop their deadliest enemy yet, falling back on the savage tactics of another bloody siege: Anvil Gate. 

 ”Anvil Gate is part of the fast-moving storyline between the second and third Gears games, so it’s essential reading for any fan who wants to fully understand the events of Gears of War 3 – the final game of the trilogy, also written by Karen,” said Epic Games Executive Producer Rod Fergusson.

You can find out more about the newest novel right here.

So, do the Gears fans amongst you plan on picking this up? Give us something to read in the comments why don’t ya?

Finally, Blockbuster has made it possible to play Modern Warfare 2 and watch Runaway Bride in the same night from one all-encompassing subscription package. Stop panicking; your Friday nights are saved.

Blockbuster has added video games to its By Mail movie service, and starting today you can pick from 3,000 titles to rent via snail mail for Xbox 360, PS2, PS3 and Wii. There is no additional charge for renting games, which count against the total “disc out” limit just as movies do.

Blockbuster has been a slight ballbuster within the recent Netflix and Gamefly advancements, and it seems they’ve taken a while to catch up with consumers’ fast-paced, technologically-dependent needs. Is this Blockbuster’s saving grace, or another desperate plea for relevance? Let us know what you think in the comments!

When Keiji Inafune isn’t creating Mega Man or working on Capcom’s latest zombie survival title, he directs low-budget B-list horror films like the Dead Rising 2-inspired Zombrex: Dead Rising Sun, available for free starting this week on Xbox LIVE and later at the movie’s official website.

Episodes one through three are available now exclusively on Xbox LIVE, and will be available online August 11. For a list of all eight episodes’ release dates, check out the Zombrex website.

Zombrex: Dead Rising Sun follows a group of strangers trying to survive the zombie apocalypse after it spreads into Japan. The cast includes a nurse who has been bitten and must find doses of Zombrex, a rare drug that stops the infection for a limited time, and a kid in a wheelchair who at one point ends up with wicked chainsaws attached to his spokes. The Zombrex storyline mirrors that in Dead Rising 2, where daddy Chuck Greene is forced to hunt for the drug in Fortune City to stop his own daughter’s undead infection.

At the Dead Rising 2 panel at Coimc Con, Inafune discussed the finer points of his directorial debut, stating his passion for cheesy slasher films and the disconnect between American zombie extras and Japanese ones. According to Inafune, Americans are natural zombies, while his Japanese cast had trouble understanding the concept and moved more like cartoon ghosts than the walking dead. He purposefully left some of the worst zombie impressions in Zombrex for us Yanks to find and get a good laugh at.

All 83 minutes of Zombrex: Dead Rising Sun will be available exclusively in the Xbox 360 Zombrex Edition of Dead Rising 2, which will also include a 24-minute “making-of” featurette. PS3 owners miss out on the b-list gore all together.

Are you into badly-dubbed, poorly-list, awesome zombie slasher films? Check out the first episodes of Inafune’s Zombrex: Dead Rising Sun and let us know how it compares with your classic favorites!

I’m not sure how much impact our recent conversations about review scores in gaming on EpicBattleCry Skirmish 083 and 084 (along with all of our community’s great feedback) have impacted the situation, but ironically enough, IGN today announced that they will be changing their scoring scale. That’s right, as IGN’s Hillary Goldstein puts it:

“After many long discussions (and really, this has been going on for years), we’ve decided to alter our review scale. From today forward, we will score games on a 20-point scale (meaning games score will be 7.0 or 7.5 or 8.0, etc.).”

So, aside from the obvious need to react to the unyielding power of the ‘Axe, why would IGN make the change: “…more and more the score (with a 100-point scale) has come to define the game, which is not our intention. The score should say, “This game is in the same league as these other games of the same score” and the criticism lives within the text (which we hope you all read) as well as the discussions that occur after the review.”

Obviously, this isn’t some sort of revelation, but for folks like me who have been encouraging gamers to rely less on the score and more on the discussion associated with a particular game, it’s nice to see a large gaming outlet speaking out about the same ideals.

So, there ya have it. IGN has made some changes and I’m curious to get everyone’s reaction. Is this new scoring system more on point with what you expect out of reviews? Will it change your perception of an IGN review? How does this decision fit into the overall discussion we’ve been having here on EpicBattleAxe.com for the past few weeks?

Let us know your thoughts below!

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The logically-challenged creative geniuses behind BioShock, System Shock 2, and SWAT 4, Irrational Games, will reveal its next super-secret project to the gaming public with a live press demo August 11 and an online trailer August 12.

In its latest podcast, “Calm Before the Storm,” Irrational played a montage of fan voicemails guessing what the mysterious title will be, ranging from Freedom Force 3: Rise of the Inflatable Woman to an Aerosmith-based MMO. The meat of the podcast includes interviews with developers expressing their excitement at being able to officially confirm they haven’t been making rainbows for a new “Barbie Dream Horse” game for the past few years of their professional lives.

After the press junket and the trailer’s public release, the voice in the box Shawn Elliot promises a follow-up podcast on Irrational Behavior with more details about the new title.

On a slightly related feminist note, none of the voices in Irrational’s mailbox belonged to women, even though I have confirmed females do exist on their slice of internet. So ladies–and boys, if you need to assert your dominating masculinity any further–what do you hope Irrational Games’ secret title is?

Tomonobu Itagaki, famed creator of the Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden series (and now Devil’s Third), said in a recent recording session for his Famitsu column Valhalla Freaks, that “the era of pursuing technical strength has ended” and that “from here on out, we should pursue what makes games interesting and fun.”

Now I bring this to you not because it is breaking news, but because EpicBattleAxe wants to hear your thoughts on the matter. We want to know if you think gaming has reached the point where technical prowess is no longer and issue and developers can just concentrate on story and mechanics? If so, do you think that those aspects of video games are significantly improving because of this new found freedom from graphics mongering? Or is there still room for better graphics and improved AI in gaming? Have we really reached the point of diminishing returns, where technical improvements are so inconsequential that they are not worth the time? What do you think, ‘Axeheads?

Are there any games recently that shine as examples of how better graphics and AI can make a game stand out in the crowd or how about any that didn’t have those things and clearly suffered for their lacking? Drop us some knowledge below and let us know if you think Itagaki is right or if he should get the sword (that was my attempt at a Ninja Gaiden pun, by the way). Cleave on!

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Sony has patented a genuinely marketable use of its 3D gaming venture with stereoscopic screen sharing that can replace split-screens with two full, separate images for two players, and what looks like an omniscient view for one spectator.

That’s three different images from one television screen. Three.

According to the patents, Sony’s 3D shutter glasses can also display different images from three of the following devices at the same time: a game console, PC, DVD player, cable box, and the ever-relevant VCR. The 3D glasses operate on video signals and are viewed through shuttered filters on the glasses, which sync screen images based on the viewer’s orientation, ideally shutting off the filter when the glasses are turned away from the screen.

The glasses themselves also appear to have earbuds, meaning users will receive their own audio tracks, because watching American Idol with a Call of Duty soundtrack would be more than a little disorienting.

The patents, filed a year ago and released to the public Thursday, were initially discovered by Broke My Controller.

Check out .pdfs of the patents right here and here.

Does this make the 3DTV and its oh-so-fashionable accessories purchase sound more appealing to you? Share your shifting opinions in the comments!