By John Gaudiosi

SAN DIEGO, CA--Cliff Bleszinski, design director at Epic Games, was the featured speaker on the Comic-Con International "Xbox 360 Gears of War Showcase" panel, over the weekend. Sitting alongside was comic book writer Josh Ortega, who worked with him on the Gears of War 2 story, and New York Times best-selling author Karen Traviss (Star Wars: Republic Commando), whose first of three planned Del Rey novels, Gears of War: The Battle of Aspho Fields, hits store shelves October 28.

Travis received an e-mail from her Del Rey Editor, Keith Clayton, asking if she could do a fast turnaround on a military game tie-in. After asking around and being told that Gears of War was "Traviss town" material, she acquiesced.

"If I don't like something, but I've taken the money, I maintain a tactful British silence if asked for my opinion on it," said Traviss. "I certainly won't lie and gush over it, but I won't talk it down either. So if I say I love something, I love it. And I bloody well love Gears."

Travis, who began her writing career as a journalist, said Gears is the best-looking game that she's ever seen.

We're excited about LittleBigPlanet. And maybe you are, too. LBP-centric site LittleBigPlanet Central is obviously jazzed as well and got a total of one hour and thirty minutes hands on with the game at this year's Comic Con, taking copious notes of things it noticed. Let's dive in:

Character Customisation
• There is a Tron suit you can wear in the game, along with a killzone helmet and mask.
• Not only that, but there are about 25 different materials and designs that you can choose to have your sackboy made out of, including 3 types of camo.
• There are held items that you can choose from, such as a wooden sword and a magic wand (a stick with a star on the top). You can't use them as weapons, but when you slap while holding an item you hit them with said item.

There's more after the jump. Lots more.

Sitting down with Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon at Comic-Con last week, we chatted about the developer's latest creation Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. This was after some extended play time with newly released characters Shang Tsung and Catwoman, both gobs of fun to play.

Having already discussed the previous take on Mortal Kombat 8 at length — with Boon telling me that it had been scrapped in favour of MK vs. DCU and that the ninth proper entry in the series may take it back to its ultra-violent roots — I wondered how much sleep Boon and crew had lost over the decision to junk that, instead adding a bunch of out of place superheroes.

Given that MK vs. DCU has no plans to introduce any new Mortal Kombat characters to the mythos — Boon called the MK side a "greatest hits" line up — how did the team feel fans would react to the inclusion of DC's finest? (The other "Vs". option Boon told us about chilled us to the bone, by the way.)

It looks like THQ released a trailer during last week's Comic-Con showing off one of the boss fights I described in my write-up of Deadly Creatures.

Street Fighter IV producer Yoshinori Ono fielded questions from the Street Fighter fanbase at Comic-Con this weekend at the inappropriately named "Making of Street Fighter IV" panel. While the majority of the questions and answers were gameplay focused or simply unanswerable, Ono did drop some good news — the console release of the fighter won't follow in the footsteps of Soulcaliburs II and IV.

That means it won't be coming home with console-exclusive fighters a la Yoda and Darth Vader (or Link, Spawn and Heihachi). Instead, each version is planned to include the same roster, the arcade line-up plus whatever new additions the SFIV team sees fit. We have a fairly good idea that Cammy is one of those new additions, but hope we'll get much more than just her.

Any requests?

If you happened to miss our live coverage of the Halo universe panel at Comic-Con this weekend, we're not offended. It was pretty missable for the casual Halo fan. But if you're the least bit excited about the release of real-time strategy game Halo Wars, you'll be ecstatic to learn that maybe, just maybe, you'll be able to play as the Flood.

During the Q&A session, a good portion of the panel, a fan asked "Is there going to be a Flood appearance in the Halo Wars campaign?"

"That's a very good question", a panelist responded. "We haven't talked about any other races. All I can say is that it's a complete Halo game". It has already been announced that players will get their hands on a playable Covenant.

We're not going to assume that's code for "Yes, you'll be playing the Flood" — they may just make an appearance — but won't be surprised when their inclusion is announced.

It's Monday and Comic-Con 08 officially ended over the weekend. Mike McWhertor braved the fest on the hunt for gaming news and he bagged himself quite a lot of big game. Here's the run-down of what we've run so far:

Gears Of War Movie To Be Pro Wrestler-Free
Gears Of War 2 Features "Backwards Compatible" Linked Achievements
Prince of Persia Creator Working On New Karateka Game
Resident Evil: Degeneration Comic-Con Trailer
EA Signs Up Talent Agency To Bring Franchises To Movies, TV
Xbox Live Makes Horror Funny This Fall
Peek At Comic-Con 08's Big Gaming Booths
Jim Lee Dishes On DC Universe Online
Want To See The Max Payne Movie Posters?
EA, DC Bring Mirror's Edge To Comic Books
Spore E-Card Creator Goes Live, Makes You An E-Card God
Liveblogging Will Wright Discussing His Inner Otaku At Comic-Con
Manga Coming to Japanese Wii
Liveblogging The Comic-Con Halo Universe Panel
The Making Of Street Fighter IV: The Liveblog
Ghostbusters: The Video Game Does Booth Babes Right
Street Fighter IV Panel Hints At Console Cammy Return
In Dead Space, No One Can Hear You Sweat Profusely
Midway Delaying Wheelman to Q1 2009
Mortal Kombat 9 Planned As A Mature Return To Form
Spider-Man: Web Of Shadows Impressions
NECA Pimps Gaming Toy Line Up At Comic-Con
Green Lantern, Joker Join MK Vs. DC Universe Line Up
Prince Of Persia Creator "Delighted" By Film Casting
Afro Samurai Hands-On Impressions
Comic-Con Cosplays Street Fighter, Final Fight... And Captain Commando?!

Comic-Con 08 definitely wasn't lacking in cosplaying Jokers — all of the Heath Ledger variety, naturally — or cosplaying Marios. But a Bee Suit Mario spotting was truly a rare thing. This one, seen buzzing about Microsoft's Too Human dedicated booth, wouldn't let us take a picture until he'd asked us some questions.

"Do you know who I am?" Bee Suit Mario. "Do you know what game I'm from?" Super Mario Galaxy. Duh.

Obviously someone's never matched wits with a video game journalist before!

Sideshow Toys always brings some serious sculpts to Comic-Con, catering to fans of horror, sci-fi and, of course, video games. The Pop Culture Shock label has a few Capcom licenced products for the second half of the year and beyond, including an excellent Morrigan and Cammy, each in two styles, plus a very sweet looking Vega.

Heads up, though. Unless you're willing to part with about $US 300 American for one of these mixed media ladies, you may not want to even look.

One of the most unfortunate cancellations of Comic-Con 08 was the Ghostbusters: The Video Game panel, planned to feature actors Dan Aykroyd and Ernie Hudson as well as reps from Sierra. While we were disheartened to learn of the nixing of that particular panel, we took comfort in the limited, but very awesome, showfloor demo of Ghostbusters: The Video Game. Based on our limited playtime, we're more interested than ever to get our hands on the final version, and not just for the stellar performance from the Ghostbusters booth babes.

The Comic-Con demo takes place in the New York public library, the location featured at the beginning of the first Ghostbusters film. As the four Ghostbusters enter the library — Winston Zeddemore, Egon Spengler, Ray Stantz and you, the new recruit — the cheers of New Yorkers can be heard in the distance.