Even before Gears of War cleaned up at the 2007 Game Developers Choice Awards its lead designer, Cliff Bleszinski, was in high demand. On Wednesday afternoon, there was a half-hour wait at the Epic Games to speak with the iconoclastic developer. But while it was a hassle to try and get some face time with "Cliffy B," in person he proved an affable fellow--albeit laser-focused on his message.

　　It being the Game Developers Conference, Bleszinski's message was lock-step in line with that of his employer, Epic Games. The North Carolina-based developer was there hawking the Unreal Engine 3, the toolset with which it made both Gears of War and the forthcoming Unreal Tournament III.

　　Even though UE3 is licensed by a host of publishers and developers, including Electronic Arts and THQ, Bleszinski and Epic Vice President of Marketing Mark Rein put on a presentation to help sell it. To impress upon attendees that the toolset can do much more than "first person shooters with a lot of metal and stone," they trotted out Monster Madness, an bright-colored, Smash TV-style top-down , UE3-based shooter for the Xbox 360.

　　Following the presentation and the aforementioned wait, Bleszinski sat down with GameSpot's Tor Thorsen to talk about Gears updates, UE3, and more.