Serious Sam sequel locked and loaded

2K Games has turned flying lead into gold, as the publisher today announced that Serious Sam II for the PC and Xbox is on its way to the factory for duplication and should hit stores October 11.

Croatian development house Croteam returns with a first-person shooter that takes the wanton violence and bizarre world of Serious Sam and cranks up its offbeat sense of humor with bomb-toting parrots, a deadly, spiked version of the American Gladiators "Atlasphere," and other such zaniness.

According to the game's story, action hero "Serious" Sam Stone has been drafted by three diminutive sorcerers to retrieve the five fragments of a magical medallion. When combined, those fragments will make the game's invincible antagonist, Notorious Mental, vulnerable to a brawny action hero with tennis shoes and a grenade launcher. Convenient!

Serious Sam II features more than 40 levels of gameplay and 15 different weapons, as well as new vehicles and turrets for dispatching large numbers of enemies in rapid succession. It also touts online cooperative play for up to 16 players on the PC, or four players on the Xbox through Xbox Live.

Serious Sam II is rated M for Mature and will retail for $29.99 on the PC and $39.99 on the Xbox. For more on Sam, check out GameSpot's latest impressions from time spent with the PC version.