Round Up: Gears, Voices, Second Life Machinima

Today's round-up includes news of Gears of War going gold, voices signed for Sierra's Eragon, and AMAS taking the 2006 Machinima Festival into Second Life, as well as the latest Game Career Guide updates, Serious Games Source posts, GameSetWatch posts and Gamasutra job postings. - Microsoft and developer Epic Games announced today that the long awaited Xbox 360 action title Gears of War has gone gold. In addition, in preparation for the game's launch on November 12, Microsoft has released a sneak preview trailer for the game, which is now available for download over Xbox Live. Finally, Microsoft announced that it plans to celebrate the title's release day, dubbed “Emergence Day”, with 24-hours of special events beginning at 12:01 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 12. Xbox Live Gold members in North America will have a chance to participate in a variety of events including a 24-hour Gears of War leader board tournament; hourly sweepstakes drawings and prize giveaways; and Game with Fame sessions with rock band Megadeth, Cliffy B, and others. - Sierra Entertainment and 20th Century Fox announced the signing of the actors from the film Eragon to lend their voices to the upcoming game based on the movie. Edward Speleers will voice the central character Eragon, a young farm boy who discovers that he is destined for greatness as a dragon rider. Sienna Guillory (Resident Evil: Apocalypse) will voice Arya, an elf who is saved by Eragon from King Galbatorix. Garrett Hedlund (Friday Night Lights, Troy, Four Brothers) voices Murtagh, a mysterious figure who becomes Eragon’s unlikely ally. Finally, Robert Carlyle (Trainspotting, The Full Monty) will voice Durza, a powerful shade who controls the Urgal army. Eragon will ship nationwide on November 24 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, Xbox, Game Boy Advance, PSP, Nintendo DS, mobile and PC. - Representatives from The Academy of Machinima Arts & Sciences (AMAS) have announced that the 2006 Machinima Festival will take place not only at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York City, but also within the virtual world of Second Life. Organized and produced by the Academy of Machinima Arts and Sciences and sponsored by NVIDIA, Beepa and GameVideos.com, the 2006 Machinima Festival is a two-day celebration of the art of Machinima, featuring panel discussions, demonstrations and screenings of the most noted works of this movement, along with the nominees and winners of the 2006 Machinima Awards (“The Mackies”). On Thursday, November 2, at 8 PM EST, there will be a pre-festival showing of Machinima that have been nominated for awards, with the original Machinima makers appearing in-world to present their work and answer questions from the audience. The Machinima showing will take place in the theater in the Laguna Beach sim within Second Life, created by the Electric Sheep Company, a co-sponsor of the 2006 Machinima Festival. The final awards ceremony will be simulcast on November 4 at 9 PM EST in the Laguna Beach sim. - The latest updates on Gamasutra sister alt.gaming weblog GameSetWatch include a look at the popular machinima Red Vs. Blue, a Nintendo tribute album by Uncle Monsterface, and a nostalgic look back at Final Fight and Streets of Rage. - News on Gamasutra's game education sister site Game Career Guide includes a student postmortem on Outsourced Games' Seas of Europa, and news of MTVU's Game0RZ Ball Tour ‘06. - Also updated today: the latest Gamasutra job postings, including openings from Blizzard, Day 1 Studios, Disney Internet Group, Sierra Online, and Tilted Mill Entertainment.