If I look back and think about Trainz, there are two things instantly showing up in my mind. Well, maybe three - Transport Tycoon Deluxe, Trainz, and Railroad Tycoon 2. No, I won't say anything more than just those names, because each of them has a pretty long history behind it - at least for me - and I don't want to write a "Gaming Bible" here and now, all right?

Trainz 2009 is going into beta, as over 1,000 registered members from TrainzDev.com have been invited to join the test group, with more to follow. Tony Hilliam, Auran Games CEO, said "We're thrilled to have reached our Beta milestone, and the early feedback from testers has been extremely positive. We have built up a fantastic community over the past 8 years since Trainz began and everything is pointing towards Trainz 2009 being our best ever version."

The list of new features in Trainz 2009 looks like this:

- The largest ever collection of quality routes, locos, rolling stock and scenery.
- Twice the detail - trains, terrain and textures in higher resolution.
- Optimizations allow twice the scenery detail as well.<-125x125 Button - right->
- New ground clutter and decals add gritty realism to your world.
- More tools in Surveyor to allow easier terrain deformation and track laying.
- Improved physics and easier re-configuration of locos and rolling stock.
- New user interface and Help system putting Trainz power into the hands of everyone.
- Improvements to Content Manager Plus to make organizing your content even easier.
- Embedded web browser allows more interaction, more information, more immersion.
- Trainz Exchange Community Portal for online chat, blogs, wikis and "scrapbooks".
- Screenshot and video capture functions to help capture and share your experience.
- Enormous content update to ensure maximum compatibility between versions.

If you hurry up and pre-order, you will also get access to the Beta, as well as a 60% discount for Railroad Lines, Bus Simulator and Ship Simulator, as well as 20% off to purchase Engineers Edition. Pretty cool, huh?

Oh my, Gears of War again! Obviously, there would still be plenty to say about the first Gears of War game, especially for those (like me) who didn't have a chance to enjoy it properly yet, but today it's all about Gears of War 2 release and the result. Well, it's less about the release, and more about the outcome in terms of sales and we'll even have some video games statistics with this ocasion, too!

I don't know why, but it seems UK is the most interesting European gaming market...or the only one delivering the market statistics in time, hahaha! Anyway, according to the latest sales reports, Gears of War 2 for the Xbox 360 managed to climb above Sony's PS3 LittleBigPlanet in the British All Formats charts.<-125x125 Button - right-> Even more interesting, the Gears of War 2 release happened on the 7th of the month, while LittleBigPlanet had a headstart, being released on the 5th.

Since I mentioned video games statistics earlier, here you have them:

1. Gears of War 2
2. FIFA 09
3. Fallout 3
4. LittleBigPlanet
5. WWE Smackdown Vs RAW 2009
6. Professor Layton and the Curious Village
7. Mario Kart Wii
8. Quantum of Solace
9. Pro Evolution Soccer 2009
10. Wii Fit

Of course, we're talking about the UK top I mentioned earlier, but it's good to see the impact had by the Gears of War 2 release on the market. Also, I must point out that the FIFA franchise continues to remain a strong seller, although FIFA 09 doesn't bring anything really new, in my opinion...

Gears of War 2 has finally arrived, hooray! Back in 2006, the first game managed to be a Xbox 360 best seller, and the PC version didn't do too bad, either. Now, the second installment in the series(hopefully, we'll get at least two more) promises to do the same, but bigger, better, faster, and delivering more fun than before.

What Gears of War 2 delivers is new characters, an improved graphics engine, a better plot and so on, but - unfortunately - it also has the same drawbacks, starting great and finishing a bit too early, just like someone said "enough of this, the story is too long, it ends <-125x125 Button - right->HERE!..."

The new characters list includes Chairman Prescott, the military leader of COG, with strong dicatatorial tendencies, Tai Kaliso, "a spiritual and meditative warrior from a tradition of honor bound fighters," and Dizzy, a former Stranded who joined the COG with a noble goal - to keep his family safe.

Regarding the plot, I won't tell you anything. In fact, I guess I won't tell you anything else, since Gears of War 2 is out, and you have no excuse for missing it! Just grab it, let it roll, and find a good excuse for missing to get to your job a few days in a row. That's all, just be sure you don't get fired! ;)