Ripten Video Game Blog » Epic

Gears of War 2 Update 4 Details

Rangebar Merani — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 16:52:42 +0000

Epic has released the details for the upcoming Gears of War 2 Update 4, which will prepare the campaign and multiplayer modes for the Dark Corners downloadable content, add XP gain to Horde mode and allow for a bunch of other bug fixes and improvements.

The release date for Update 4 is still unknown, but will no doubt be released before Dark Corners comes out on July 28. The Dark Corners downloadable content will come available by itself for 1200 Microsoft Points, or in a 1600 Point All Fronts pack with all previous DLC’s included. Hit the jump to check out all the details for Update 4.

Improvements

Title Update 4 makes these new improvements:

Adds the ability to collect multiplayer experience by playing Horde mode. Players currently gain experience at this rate:

50 points per completed Casual wave.

75 points per completed Normal wave.

100 points per completed Hardcore wave.

125 points per completed Insane wave.

Adds the ability to restart Public Horde from the current failed wave instead of having to start over from wave 1. Title Update 4 also allows the host to kick players from a Public Horde session.

Increases the frequency of downloadable content (DLC) maps showing up in map voting if all players have shared map packs.

Adds a message at the end of the match to explain to players that they should wait before quitting so that they avoid an experience penalty for quitting early.

Adds support for the new campaign chapter, “Road to Ruin.”

Adds 13 new achievements worth 325 points. All of the new achievements require the Dark Corners Map Pack, a set of seven new maps and a deleted campaign chapter to be released July 28. The 13 new achievements are:

“My Way or the Highway” (25 points): Without being detected, complete the “Road to Ruin” deleted scene after choosing the stealth option.

“Highway to Hell” (25 points): Complete the “Road to Ruin” deleted scene after choosing the guns-blazing option.

“Two for the Road” (25 points): Complete the “Road to Ruin” deleted scene in co-op as either Marcus or Dom.

“Be Careful What You Wish For” (10 points): Reach level 5 in multiplayer and complete waves 1 through 10 on the War Machine map in Horde (any difficulty).

“Ride It All Night Long” (10 points): Reach level 10 in multiplayer and complete waves 1 through 10 on the Highway map in Horde (any difficulty).

“No, But His Face Rings a Bell” (15 points): Reach level 15 in multiplayer and complete waves 1 through 20 on the Sanctuary map in Horde (any difficulty).

“Lost in Transition” (20 points): Reach level 20 in multiplayer and complete waves 1 through 20 on the Way Station map in Horde (any difficulty).

“Like Father, Like Gun” (30 points): Reach level 30 in multiplayer and complete waves 1 through 30 on the Allfathers Garden map in Horde (any difficulty).

“Am I Only Dreaming?” (40 points): Reach level 40 in multiplayer and complete waves 1 through 40 on the Memorial map in Horde (any difficulty).

“Blood on the Sand” (50 points): Reach level 50 in multiplayer and complete waves 1 through 50 on the Nowhere map in Horde (any difficulty).

“Afraid of the Dark” (20 points): Play a multiplayer match on each of the seven Dark Corners Map Pack maps (any mode).

“Did Not Go Gentle” (30 points): Win a multiplayer match on each of the seven Dark Corners Map Pack maps (any mode)

“Is it Hot or Is That Just You?” (25 points): Kill 25 Bloodmounts with a Scorcher Flamethrower while playing Horde on a Dark Corners Map Pack map (any difficulty).

Exploit Fixes

Title Update 4 fixes these possible exploits, where under certain circumstances:

A player could copy game progression data from one profile to another.

A team could use the 50-point revive bonus to artificially increase its score in Horde. Going down but not out (DBNO) in Horde now subtracts 50 points, so there is no advantage to using the revive-bonus technique.

A player could get 2 points for each kill in Wingman.

A player could continue to shoot the Flamethrower while performing special movements like evading and mantling.

A player could cause heavy weapons to spawn continuously while playing Horde.

Title Update 4 also fixes a number of lesser-known exploits.

General Fixes

Title Update 4 fixes these other issues as well:

An issue that could cause players to lose all achievement progression if they signed in during a loading screen.

Issues related to the Smoke Grenade causing a player to cringe instead of knocking them down. If hit by a Smoke Grenade with cringing turned on, players will now:

Drop the Boomshield, even if aiming while carrying it.

Drop a heavy weapon, even if it is deployed.

Cringe while roadie running.

Cringe while in cover.

An issue that prevented players from shooting around the lower left side of a planted shield.

An issue that could cause a DBNO player to not appear as DBNO.

An issue that prevented Gears players from inviting players of other games to join them in progress in a Private match using DLC.

Issues that caused rich presence information to become inaccurate.

An issue that caused the overall achievements progress bar to not reflect the latest achievements.

An assortment of localization bug fixes.

Additional miscellaneous bug fixes.

Balancing

Title Update 4 makes these balancing changes:

Adds a 30-second delay in map-based weapon spawning at the beginning of a Wingman match.

Adds more future server-side balancing options.

Source: Shacknews

Unreal Tournament 3 patch and Titan pack available now

Sam Naylor — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 18:26:20 +0000

As Shacknews reports, the gigantic Unreal Tournament 3 patch and Titan pack has been released for free for PC and PS3 users today. Steam and PS3 users can simply let the game update itself, and non-Steam users can either register the game to Steam or download the files from Fileshack. The extra content includes 19 new maps, two new game modes, and a myriad of vehicles and items. Hit the jump for the (frankly, titanic) full release notes.

[Update]The game is set to be free this weekend on Steam, and a 40% discount is in place until 15 March.

* Two new game types: Greed, a “tug of war” skull-toting team points battle, and Betrayal, a cutthroat style of play where alliances and teams can shift fluidly through a match.
* The Titan Mutator, where you can become a 30 foot tall behemoth in any game mode.
* Nineteen maps for Deathmatch, CTF, Vehicle CTF and Warfare modes, including 11 new maps plus eight popular maps from the first UT3 bonus pack and Xbox 360 version.
* New vehicles and pickups, including the X-Ray field deployable, the link station deployable for vehicle repair, the slow field powerup, the Stealthbender vehicle, the Eradicator artillery piece, and the Stinger rail turret.
* Client-side demo recording.
* Revamped User Interface, including an improved server browser, improved server filtering options, all new advanced options menu, streamlined and polished the whole system.
* Awards: Fifty-seven different awards mark your progress and mastery of UT3. Progress screen in the UI shows which awards you have earned, and your current progress on awards not yet completed.
* Maplists and voting: New maplist system and mid-game voting support for gametypes and mutators as well as maps.

And as for the full patch notes:

Improved Steam integration
o Steam Achievement support for Steam installations of UT3.
o Integrated Steam Authentication support.
o 57 achievements mark your progress and mastery of UT.
o Progress screen shows which awards you have earned, and completion progress on all awards.
o You can activate a non-Steam purchased version with Steam (making it a full Steam version) by:
o Open Steam main window
o In Games menu, select Activate a Product on Steam…
o Type in your CD Key
o Install UT3 via Steam
o Note this make an entire new UT3 installation, so uninstall the previous version (your settings/profile should not be affected)
Server Browser:
o Server Browser updates, expanded query filtering, clientside filters and a new UI option list.
o Added mutator filtering to the server browser (filter by installed mutators, mutator classes and mutator names)
o Now displays each servers IP in the server details box
o Added ‘Join IP’ and ‘Spectate IP’ buttons to the join game menu
o Added an ‘Add IP’ button to the favourites menu
o Modified the main menu to return to the server browser after disconnecting
o Added a new button to the midgame menu ‘Add Favorite’, and a new console command: AddServerToFavorites
o Updated server browser code, so that custom gametypes are properly filtered.
o Added a ‘List All Game Modes’ selection to the server filter menu.
o Added more information to the server browser player list.
o Fixed servers not being added to history, when following a friend to a server
o You can now attempt to directly connect to offline servers in History and Favorites (even during master server downtimes).
o Show “+” for player counts that are populated by bots.
UI:
o Major visual and menu flow overhaul for improved useability.
o Made the instant-action and host-game menus keep their settings.
o Scoreboard double click functionality for kicking, messages to specific players.
o Enabled gamepad stick sensitivity setting in UI.
o Improved gamepad support on PC.
o Added support for a whole mess of options on Advanced video settings page.
o Easier to click buttons by fixing cases where mouse went just past them.
o Max player counts always fit on all scoreboards.
o Modifier cards should take display priority in toasts over character unlocks.
o Improved voice command menu positioning and offsets.
o Fixed showing as teleport destinations on map nodes which could not be teleported to.
o Added tooltip while deployed in stealth vehicles to show drop deployable button.
o Bot count UI changed from “Number of opponents” to “Number of combatants” to be less confusing.
o Added support for showing top weapon user in end of match scoreboard. This shows which player got the most kills with a particular weapon. If a player was the leader with more than one weapon, it picks the weapon he or she got the most kills with.
o Show beacon with name of enemies in DM if they are close enough.
o Fixed ammo number on HUD pulsing on armor pick up instead of ammo pick up.
o Third position for powernode beacon, when just looking at base.
o Added speaking icon to player beacons.
o Portraits shown for player speaking with VOIP.
o Fixed onslaught teleporter tooltip not always displayed correctly.
o fixed toasts that don’t shut down properly popping up later unexpectedly
o More delay before going back to ambient music from action.
o Fixed text being obscured after removing a friend from the friends list
o Fixed showing proper weapon icon on weapon bar for selected weapon when two weapons are in same slot.
o Fixed issue where playercard and friend message screens were disappearing.
o Reduced chat log spam.
o Fixed rules for showing “change team” button.
o Added John Barrett (programming contractor), Michiel Hendriks (programming contractor), and Pancho Eekels (level design contractor) to credits.
o Fixed duel match rules in scoreboard.
o Fixed player information on server browser history page not refreshing correctly.
o Fix a crash caused by some mod UI scenes during the gamne
Vehicles:
o Increased radius/volume of Manta, Raptor, and Viper engines.
o Fixed scavenger legs disappearing in kill volumes.
o Force occupied manta to rise if underwater.
o Added sound effect and recharge bar to SPMA to indicate when the weapon is ready to fire
o Increased water damage taken by vehicles.
o Increased Goliath health.
o Fixed nightshade beam weapon accuracy.
o Fixed spidermines confused about nightshade that switches teams.
o Tank shell is always relevant, so you’ll see it if it kills you from a hidden tank.
o Leviathan shield doesn’t stay around after death.
o Fixed leviathan passenger beacon positioning.
o Fixed hoverboard rooster tail positioning when traveling over shallow water.
o Fixed flag positioning on tracked turrets.
o Fixed flying Manta exploit.
o Fixed boost exploit with Fury vehicle
o Fixed exploit to damage own core/nodes with rocket turret.
Weapons:
o Added burn trail for link gun beam.
o Weapon pickups now disappear for the player who picked it up, until it can be picked up again (now works like weapon lockers).
o Weapon throwing always enabled.
o Improved force feedback for various weapon and pickup actions.
o Simpler crosshair for instagib rifle.
o Third person translocate sound.
o Stinger now higher priority than flak cannon by default.
o Back splatter decals for hits with sniper rifle, stinger, and enforcer.
o Improved spidermine aiming help on console with hitscan weapons (enforcer, stinger, sniper).
o Fixed enforcer anim problems when become dual during initial loading.
o No ammo display for instagib rifle.
o Improved spidermine herding with Avrils.
o Improved redeemer blast screen shake.
o Spidermines work properly in deathmatch.
o Fixed translocator discs being able to get embedded in geometry with zero extent collision on but box collision off.
o Fixed deployable exploit (run over deployable while firing weapon, get in vehicle while still firing, and never switch to deployable).
o Fixed trans discs getting stuck on instigator’s head.
o Fixed redeemer bug where redeemers impacting ceiling sometimes had explosion center imbedded in ceiling, affecting damage dealt.
o Fixed stinger alt-fire stops with 1 ammo.
o Fix for rare stinger shard crash when shard tries to impale two overlapping dead bodies at the same time.
o Fixed fast avril firing exploit.
AI:
o Added Drop Flag/Orb command (accessible through voice menu) to get bot teammates to drop the flag they are carrying.
o Improved bot handling of navigation failures, don’t stay stuck.
o Bots understand ducking under obstacles with the Darkwalker.
o Bots understand getting off hoverboard to use a lift.
o Adjusted bot new enemy acquistion speed.
o Low skill bots don’t slow down if carrying flag.
o Bots understand how to effectively use Orbs in Warfare much better.
o Bots use the hoverboard more effectively.
o Improved bot AI for using Translocator.
o Improved AI for picking best weapon to use.
o Improved AI for Leviathan, including aiming with the leviathan, and navigating the Leviathan.
o Improved AI for using the Hellfire SPMA.
o Improved Scorpion AI for trying to run over enemy foot soldiers and self destruct into big vehicles.
o Improved Manta/Viper AI for trying to run over enemy foot soldiers.
o Improved stealth vehicle deployment AI.
o Improved bots yelling “same team” when player is actually trying to hit nearby enemy.
o Fixed bots not able to get in Darkwalker secondary turret in some cases.
o Fixed bot AI issues in secondary turrets.
o Bots go after countdown nodes if core can’t be attacked.
o Fixed bots grabbing orb without getting all the way to orb spawner.
o Improved AI for bots deciding whether to get out of vehicles and continue on foot.
o Automatic fix for not letting bots in vehicles try to go into areas that are blocked for vehicles by turnaroundvolumes.
o Bots are move aggressive about driving vehicles without slowing down too much for slight turns.
o Bots fully understand kismet disabled nodes.
o Improved bot AI for fighting enemies in Slow Fields.
o Improved bot understanding of targeting occluded powernodes.
Demo Recording:
o Added support for clientside demo recording.
o Demo playback is now delayed until precaching completes.
o Fixed SPMA camera crash during demo playback.
o Fixed demo playback log spam.
o Added DemoFF and DemoSlomo console commands. Can be bound to a key in UTInput.ini. DemoFF toggles between 1x, 3.3x, and 10x fast forward. DemoSlomo takes a float between 0.1 and 10 which adjusts playback speed by that factor.
Networking:
o Fixed localization of certain networking messages received from different language server.
o Improved dynamic netspeed system based on player counts.
o Improved hoverboard smoothness in net games.
o Friend following now attempts to place friends on the same team.
o Added team balancing between matches.
o Fixed reachspecs occasionally keeping level references across seamless travel, causing levels not to be properly unloaded.
o Increased net priority of movers with viewer based on them. Reduces mover popping in large playercount games.
o Networking bandwidth use optimizations.
o Improved prioritization of actor replication.
o Improved network pawn position update smoothing using mesh translation.
o Tweaked finding floors for simulated falling pawns.
o Yaw and pitch change smoothing for other players on clients.
o Fixed character mesh not getting onto hoverboard right away in high player count games.
o Improved turret replication in high player count games.
o Fixed remaining cases where team color skins weren’t being properly set.
o Fixed clients auto-switching to better weapon when they stop firing.
o Don’t dynamically adjust listen server client netspeed above max client has requested (for modem clients).
o Make sure all audio components get cleaned up on seamless travel.
o Fixed various exploits.
o Try multiple STUN servers if first one fails. Fixes users incorrectly getting the “Your network configuration may not be compatible…” warning.
o Fixed spectator choppiness when camera is following a player.
o No spectating bar when spectating in first person.
Server Administration:
o Removed download speed limitations, when hosting LAN servers.
o Implemented auto-reconnect code for Gamespy uplink and advertising. Servers now continuously try to advertise to the master server upon failure.
o Fixed buggy URL parsing function, which was breaking mutator advertising
o Added code to recreate serveractors after seamless travel
o Fixed case insensitivity issue with admin and game passwords
o Added session banning, with the command: AdminSessionBan
o Security fixes.
o Added config variable ‘SpawnProtectionTime’ to UTGame.ini.
o Optimized stats sending bandwidth.
o Support ‘n as n in MOTD.
Engine:
o Collision Octree optimizations
o Particle system optimizations
o Safe handling of inversing nil matrices. Addresses rare ragdoll physics crashes.
o Removed unnecessary profile saves, improved saving progress when player expects it.
o Improved Garbage collection performance.
o Optimized decals.
o Warfare Teleporter portal rendering updates are now disabled by default, even for high end systems (for performance reasons). To enable, add the following to your UTGame.ini file

[UTOnslaughtNodeTeleporter] bRealtimeCapture=true
o Reduced non-warfare teleporter update range if bRealTimeCapture is false.
o Added a dialog warning users of nvidia driver version that are known to crash UT3, and to upgrade.
o Fixed Engine.* localization files being in the wrong location
Game:
o Option to allow for custom characters to load at all times (no default characters, but may get hitches when new players join).
o CTF flag is hidden for player carrying it.
o Can no longer teleport to node that is under attack.
o Improved victim death messages (precise cause of death).
o In game types using weaponlockers, players spawn with weapons from nearest weapon locker.
o Fixed scoreboard issues during seamless travel.
o Fixed lifts returning if you jump or get shot while on them.
o Play taunts on upper body only for moving players.
o Fixed black boxes on Leviathan shock balls.
o Fixed lighting on first person spidermine death effect
o Improved code for leaning players which are going around turns.
o Reduced foot jittering on stairs.
o No team change penalty for automatic swaps.
o Improved lighting for characters.
o Reduced mesh offsetting on slopes, removing exploit allowing players to hide.
o Fixed winner pawn rotating after round ends.
o Fixed sender not hearing autotaunts.
o Fixed krall missing footstep sound notifies.
o Fixed bots leaving game affecting TDM team score.
o Fixed bad low LOD meshes (spiky when feigning or dead).
o Fixed gamespy rank query results. Now always properly centers the querying player in the returned list.
o Added GameInfo.bForceNoSeamlessTravel config var to completely disable seamless travel
Mod support:
o UTHUD now responsible for drawing player and vehicle beacons, making it easier to support custom beacons for custom game types.
o Added support for stretching IK limbs (see SkelControlLimb.uc).
o Merged PC version script functionality to PS3 to improve mod compatibility for mods on PS3.
o Added spectator notification hooks to Mutator.uc:
o AllowBecomeActivePlayer: Allows mutators to prevent spectators from joining the game
o AllowBecomeSpectator: Allows mutators to block players from spectating (not fully implemented).
o NotifyBecomeActivePlayer: Notifies mutators when a spectator successfully becomes an active player
o NotifyBecomeSpectator: Notifies mutators when a player becomes a spectator (not fully implemented)
o Added two new functions to Object.uc, ‘IsNetScript’ which returns true if the current code was remotely executed, and ‘GetNetFuncName’ which returns the name of the replicated function where script execution began
o Added a new function flag, ‘DemoRecording’, which replicates the function into the demo file when recording demos NOTE: Implicitly flags the function as simulated
o Added the ability for mods to specify custom settings scenes, through new values in UTUIDataProvider_GameModeInfo.uc:
o ‘ModGameSettingsScene’, allows mods to specify a custom settings scene which is accessible through a ‘Mod Settings’ button in the Instant Action and Host Game menus
o ‘ModClientSettingsScene’, allows mods to specify a custom settings scene which is accessible through the main menu settings page, and the mid game menu settings
o Added ClearConfig and StaticClearConfig functions to Object.uc
o Added team change notification hooks to Mutator.uc
o AllowChangeTeam: Allows mutators to prevent players from changing team
o NotifySetTeam: Notifies mutators when a player successfully changes team
o Added bCanRagdoll flag to UTPawn for mod authors.
o Added slight player glow support for darkmatch (maps with DARKMATCH at start of worldinfo name
o Made UIObject ‘ResolveStyles’ function accessible to script.
o Added support for loading a Splash.bmp in a mod directory.
o Fixed server browser not being able to filter custom gametypes; in the gametype data provider, set ‘GameSearchClass’ to: UTGameSearchCustom
o Added code to reinitialize ServerActors after seamless travel
o Added editable ‘MouseBounds’ property to UIScene, which allows you to configure mouse boundaries for the current scene
o ‘MouseBounds.BoundaryObject’ is set through the ‘Set Mouse Boundary’ submenu in the UIEditor context menu
o Also added a selection to the UIEditor View menu, ‘Mouse Boundaries Outline’, for viewing the current mouse boundaries
o Mouse boundaries can be changed during runtime using ‘UIScene::SetMouseBounds’ and ‘UIScene::ResetMouseBounds’
o Now writes mod config files to mod directory, and auto-find config files in moddirconfig or moddir.
o Now autofinds localization files in moddirlocalization.
o Now finds splash image in moddirsplash.
o Supports compiling script code with -mod
o Supports publishing with -mod
o Fixed not being able to publish default (startup) map
o No longer copies RefShaderCache files when publishing
o Supports Bink movies in -mod dir (ModDirMovies)
o Fixed problem with completely overriding UTCustomChar.ini in the mod config directory
o Added -solomod option to restrict game looking in non-loaded .ini files for maps/gametypes/etc
o When using -mod, LocalShaderCache is ignored, instead it uses ModShad

Epic Gears of War 2 Patch Wishlist

Chad Lakkis — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 03:28:48 +0000

The Gear loving crew over at G4TV spent their weekend “working” very hard in the name of better gameplay. Yes, this means they played lots and lots of Gears of War 2. The list after the jump outlines the issues they came across while playing single/co-op campaign, straight up multiplayer, and horde mode.

Bugs:

Weapon Sliding – Weapon sliding (picking up weapons while moving) appears to be back and definitely ruins the map balance. The game is designed in a way that makes picking up a power weapon immediately usually results in a quick death as the pickup animation plays. Being able to grab the Boomshot while moving into cover hurts the multiplayer, especially since this was a bug in the first Gears of War…

Voice Chat With Dead Players Between Rounds – This is a minor bug that we think will be definitely be fixed, but between rounds dead players cannot converse with players that survived the round. Again, this is a Gears of War 1 launch bug and we’re sad to see it crop up again. We’re not suggesting dead players should talk with the living while the game is being played, but they shouldn’t be restricted from chatting between rounds.

Annex / King of the Hill Framerate – Games of Annex and King of the Hill tend to suffer from framerate drops and lag as the pile of body parts surrounding the capture point grows and grows. To us, this seems like there should just be a hard limit on the amount of gibs allowed at any one time.

Invite All In What’s Up? - Hitting the Back Button in the What’s Up? Menu (which we love, by the way) sends game invites to everybody on your friend list whether they be online in Gears, online in any other game, and even offline… we’re assuming it’s only meant to invite friends currently playing Gears of War 2.

Removed Gears of War Features

Matchmaking is a very welcome addition to Gears, but we noticed some dropped features from the original that we’d like back.

Map Rotation / Cycle – In the first game, private multiplayer games followed the classic map cycle format with a lobby before the game started. While Epic has made it easier to change up options without having to re-host a game it currently knocks everyone back to the pre-map lobby after each game. This drastically slows the action down as everyone is forced to reconnect to the host. Most of the time the host just hits start right away to choose the next map. Why not give the host the power to “Return To Lobby After This Game” or “Return To Lobby Now”, but bring map cycles back?

“Ready” Icon – With 10 people in a private game (or even a party of 5 for Horde) it’s tough to tell who’s ready and who has stepped away to grab a drink or go to the bathroom.

Game Balance

This is a very subjective section, but we definitely stand by our initial impressions of the new game balance so far:

Super Powered Chainsaw - We aren’t sure if its the new netcode or if Epic just really wants the Lancer and chainsaw to be the new shotgun, but it’s staggering how hard it is to shoot someone out of the chainsaw before they hit you right now. In our tests, it’s really only reliable to counter a chainsaw charge with a chainsaw of your own. We’ve started dropping our shotguns for power weapons now instead of the Lancer. Chainsaw charging is the new shotgun charging.

Shotgun – The shotgun seems drastically underpowered at close range and is unreliable. Blind-firing it is inaccurate, but that isn’t our problem. At a few steps away, the shotgun sometimes takes 3 hits to down somebody. This is a big change from the original and we want our trusty shotty back. Epic already threw in stopping power to stop somebody from roadie running right up to you and one-shotting you, but was it really necessary to tone the shotgun down at the same time?

Mortar – The mortar fires way to quickly and can be fired from cover. By the time the shells are falling, the mortar operator can be lining up his next shot while his targets scramble to a nearby building. We’re not saying that it should be removed, but the risk of use needs to be increased beyond a slow move speed, especially on maps like Day One where the mortar spawns on a catwalk with ample cover overlooking a giant open map… it’s placed well on Jacinto and Avalanche. Actually, just move it on Day One. Thanks.

Grenades – Grenades seem much more powerful, which is fine, but we have an issue. Shooting wall-planted grenades takes too long and is often difficult from a safe distance. The explosion from a planted ‘nade is so quick that it’s nearly impossible to avoid if you get caught by one. We’d like to be able to clear them safely for having the foresight to check for them.

I’ve been playing campaign and horde mode for the most part, but from what I have seen, the G4TV list seems to be pretty accurate. If you’ve seen anything not mentioned on this list, feel free to share it in our comment section below.

Source: G4TV

Sessler Talks Reality Behind Exclusives, Lays Into New Yorker CliffyB Editorial

Chad Lakkis — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 02:36:58 +0000

G4TV’s Adam Sessler shares his words of wisdom with us once again in the latest edition of Sessler’s Soapbox. The gloves come off as Adam delves into the often shady reality of exclusive content and washes it down with a tall glass of New Yorker/Gears of War kick-ass. Sessler in COG armor is enough to scare even the biggest locust back underground.

Hit the jump and prepare to be rant-ified.

Gears 2 Sponsored Documentary “The Last Stand” Discusses Real Life Alien Invasion

Chad Lakkis — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 10:51:31 +0000

If a mob of Locust rushed you while playing Gears of War 2, chances are you’d know exactly what to do, but what if a similar creature kicked in the door to your bedroom interrupting your dream right as Jessica Alba was about to say “I do”? My guess is you’d shit your pants, and I’d be right there with you. Not literally, although a Jessica Alba dream does sound nice.

What’s this all about you ask? Well, I noticed an advert on our site for something called “The Last Stand” sponsored by Gears of War 2. Eventually curiosity kicked in. What the hell, I hit “unmute” and started to watch the documentary which polls various experts (and a Gears 2 scribe for good measure) on future threats to the human race such as a biological warfare and extraterrestrial invasions.

If the guys over at Epic were looking to scare us up a bit in time for Halloween — mission accomplished. My lancers on order and my can of Lysol is well within reach. Check out the first part of the documentary after the jump and let me know what you think.

Ripten’s Gears of War Movie Poster Fan Art

Chad Lakkis — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 08:24:37 +0000

So yeah, I was bored and the lack of news coming over the wire convinced me to pop open Adobe Photoshop and mess around for a while. One thing lead to another, and a few hours later I ended up with my own little Gears of War Movie poster. Dan Landis added his two cents on the casting over Skype.

Yes, we know that Kilmer is currently a bit on the heavy side, and Batista may not be the best actor on the face of the planet, but we figured what the fuck — they sure as hell look the part. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Lester “Terry Tate” Speight were obvious choices. To be perfectly clear, the Gears of War movie has NOT been officially cast yet, these are merely our “shooting the shit” selections.

Hit the jump for a high res version and make sure to let me know what you think of it in the comment section below. Thanks guys.

(CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE)

Gears of Acquirement: Legendary Pictures in Talks to Buy Epic Games?

Wade Larson — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 03:17:48 +0000

The word on the Locust infested streets of Sera is that Legendary Pictures is looking to purchase Epic Games. No clue as to whether or not the companies would change their name, but they might as well go for “Uber,” I can’t really think of any thing else that tops Epic or Legendary (Artifact perhaps?)

The two studios have been working closely with each other on the film adaptation of Gears of War, and apparently have bonded over a love of Chainsaw Bayonets, leading to speculation that the purchase is at the very least being discussed seriously.

Legendary Pictures’ chairman Thomas Tull has shown interest in video games before, as he was co-founder of publisher Brass Entertainment, but subsequently left, as the company was focused on Hollywood licensed productions, and we all know how those tend to go.

So perhaps Tull has gotten a taste for gaming and is looking for a real company to get involved with. He could certainly do much worse than Epic, which owns the Gears of War franchise and the Unreal Engine.

Legendary offered no comment but Epic had some nice things to say about Legendary, which at least indicates they play well together, so getting hitched isn’t totally out of the question.

“We have publicly announced that Epic and Legendary are partnering on the “Gears of War” movie. We’re very excited about that project and have the highest regard for Thomas Tull and his organization,” said a spokesperson for Epic.

The pairing would provide Epic with whole helluva lotta money, and Legendary would get an epic game studio (sorry, couldn’t resist.)

Stay tuned for more info as it comes.

Source: Variety

PS3 Fanboys Strike Back: Gears 2 Metacritic User Score Lowered to 4.1

Chad Lakkis — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 20:06:27 +0000

I recently interviewed Metacrtic founder, Marc Doyle, about what many were calling a suspiciously low LittleBigPlanet user score of 6.3 on his site. Those unfamiliar with Metacritic need only to know that it aggregates the scores given by critics on various websites around the web into one “metascore” and also allows users to submit their own scores which are aggregated into a separate user score.

The total amount of users who had submitted a score for LBP at the time of my article was upwards of 2,200 and the result apparently motivated a group PlayStation 3 fanboys to retaliate. The current user score for the upcoming Xbox 360 exclusive, Gears of War 2, is a laughable 4.1 comprised of roughly 375 submissions.

Marc’s comment regarding the LBP controversy is applicable once again:

“Over the years, people have, by and large, not exploited the fact that you can vote early. Only recently have people started voting en masse for (and against) games like they’ve done with LBP.”

It seems that fanboys on both sides will continue to disregard the negative effect they have on individuals who actually depend on the user scores given by those they deem to be their peers. Marc spoke breify about the future of Metacritic, stating that they plan to include a more thorough registration process in hopes of reducing the fanboy effect. In the mean time, I think we could all benefit from a little more self restraint.

Gears of War 2 “Last Day” Trailer Combines Anger, Perspective, & Remorse Into One Powerful Minute

Chad Lakkis — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 11:15:26 +0000

Where to begin. I had originally assumed that the “Rendezvous with Death” trailer was going to be commercial that introduced the world to Gears 2, but I was wrong. As Keane pointed out earlier, the “Last Day” spot is without a doubt Epic’s sequel to “Mad World”.

As an enormous fan of the commercial that started it all, I wasn’t initially as impressed by Last Day, but after watching it over a few times and realizing the level of depth the creative team was able to portray in such a short period of time, I quickly changed my tune. Speaking of tune, the Last Day trailer features a song titled “How It Ends” which follows the trend set by Mad World and cranks it up a notch.

Last Day is hands-down, the best Gears of War trailer yet. It’s one minute of pure emotion from start to finish. I enjoyed it so much that I wanted to share my impressions as well as a brief run down of the events that take place in it. Here goes.

The camera slowly fixes in on Marcus, his back pressed up against a tree as he gazes into the sky. What appears to be an eagle soars high above him, and you get the sense that he is searching for hope, yet full of anger, as he pans his head from side to side seemingly in disapproval of the lack of intervention from above.

Not deep enough yet? Alright. Focus then switches to a reddish-orange flower surrounded on both sides by two others who have long been stripped of their life. The camera shifts again, this time to Cole as he lifts his head away from the scope of his sniper rifle. He lays prone, thinking about the flower he just saw, and you get the feeling that a greater sense of perspective has set in.

Perhaps the most gut-wrenching moment is the final shot before they head underground. This involves Dom grasping a photo of he and his wife, looking it over with remorse, possibly sensing that he may never see her again. They all then get together, enter into a giant capsule like drill, and forcefully break through the earths surface. Marcus shoots one last stare in the direction of Dom as if to say “are you ready?” He then reaches down for the handle and pries the door open. The screen fades to black and reveals the Gears 2 logo.

Considering all of the factors outlined above, I can say that without a doubt, this commercial has supplanted Mad World as number one on my list. It should be illegal or a commercial to provoke the level of emotion this bad boy does.

Watch both the Mad World and Last Day below. I will likely be checking this page multiple times over the course of the day to watch them again and again so please share your thoughts and opinions in the comments section.

Gears of War 2: Last Day Trailer

Gears of War: Mad World Trailer

New Gears of War 2 “Last Day” Trailer’s A Winner, But Does It Pass The Girlfriend Test?

Keane Ng — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 00:31:48 +0000

There’s a new Gears 2 TV spot/trailer that hit today – it’s another minute-long meditative piece in the vein of Gears 1’s “Mad World” spot that captured the hearts of so many. It’s got the same somber but pretty soundtrack, Marcus looking glum, minimal exposition, the works. Personally I think it’s a much better piece of advertisement than its predecessor, but the jury’s out on the larger consensus among gamers.

Now, the Gears of War franchise being something that’s very male, I wondered if maybe this ad would have enough artistic sway to win someone over who’s not exactly into big dudes with soul patches and chainsaw bayonets. Someone like my girlfriend. After all that’s what these ads are designed to do – make the game seem like something more sophisticated than dudes killin other dudes.

Hit the jump to watch the clip, and to hear what my better half has to say.

So here’s the ad:

My initial thought was “this isn’t going to work like ‘Mad World’ did for people who don’t know anything about the game” because people aren’t going to get that these guys are riding drills underground to go fight aliens. I thought it assumed a little too much and failed for that, even though I thought it was artistically and emotionally more powerful than “Mad World”.

So I showed it to my girlfriend. Her name is changed for anonymity’s sake:

(4:27:58 PM) Mary Beth: i found it quite appealing
(4:28:02 PM) Mary Beth: it was mysterious
(4:28:17 PM) Mary Beth: and i liked the intro
(4:28:25 PM) Mary Beth: personal touches and stuff
(4:28:56 PM) Mary Beth: the big guns weren’t as deterring as they could have been
(4:29:02 PM) Mary Beth: cause i really felt the sense of mission

Sounds like it worked the way it was made to. The personal and emotional qualities shone through and pulled her in even though she hates guns. But what about the aforementioned confusion about the drills and such?

(4:29:32 PM) Me: people were saying “nobody’s going to get this ad because they have no idea that they’re going underground to fight aliens”
(4:29:40 PM) Mary Beth: i figured that out
(4:29:46 PM) Me: uhh
(4:29:55 PM) Mary Beth: i mean, i saw the other things going underground
(4:29:58 PM) Mary Beth: and then they got in one
(4:30:07 PM) Me: but how did you figure there’d be aliens
(4:30:08 PM) Mary Beth: and they always fight aliens, don’t they?
(4:30:19 PM) Mary Beth: it looked weird down there
(4:30:23 PM) Mary Beth: aliens would make sense

Microsoft has a hell of an advertising team. They’re smart enough to know that maybe holding off on some exposition works, too. Because it’s always aliens. You can count on people to assume that.

Memphis Security Guard Caught Stealing Gears 2 and Fable 2 from Technicolor Plant

Justin Arnold — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 18:47:05 +0000

Mere days after Gears of War 2 began popping up on various torrent sites there has been an arrest made in the case.

Rodney Gray, 43, is a security guard employed by Technicolor, the Memphis Tennessee company that packages and distributes games and DVD’s in the U.S.

According to a Memphis Police Department affidavit, Gray stole hundreds of copies of Gears of War 2, as well as Fable II, and was selling them on the black market. He and another unidentified person of interest are currently under investigation for stealing and selling the games from the plant, but neither have been formally charged as of yet.

Detectives followed Gray from a Memphis apartment and pulled him over for driving related offenses. After doing so, they performed a cursory search of the vehicle and discovered 31 games in a red bag.

Memphis P.D. estimates the net worth of the theft to be more than $60,000.

Source: commercialappeal.com

Gears 2 COG Tag Mystery Lost Me At Hello

Chad Lakkis — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 22:55:32 +0000

I’m sorry to say that while I consider myself a fairly loyal Gears of War fan, it’s my opinion that the gang at Epic overcomplicated their most recent attempt to market Gears 2.

I have tried to focus long enough to figure out what the hell the mystery COG tags point to, but despite the multitude of posts around the web claiming to have all the answers, I simply can’t bring myself to give a fuck any longer.

Seriously, unless cracking the code grants me a few hours alone in the Playboy Mansion grotto with two handfuls (you read that right) of Playboy Bunnies, it’s just too much work.

What do you think? Are you interested in complex marketing attempts, or would you prefer that companies “keep it simple stupid.”

CliffyB Promotes Gears of War 2 By Being Too Sexy For His Shirt

Chelsea Thompson — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 00:48:28 +0000

In a previous interview with DasGamer.com, Cliff Bleszinski mentioned in passing that he thought the Dom and Maria act along with pace of gameplay was what might attract a female audience for the Gears games. He said his “gut feeling” was that women love Gears, judging this of course by the number of friend requests on his MySpace.

Cliffy B has pushed the campaign further and launched into the world of nude male modeling in an effort to win over the ladies. He also made sure to tag the photo with “sexy” and “awesome” for clarification.

The above “photo” was spotted on Cliff’s twitter a couple hours ago. What’s even better is that it appears after several tweets about how poor Cliffy’s pick-up lines aren’t being received well by the ladies:

Going to the club later tonight. The ladies are gonna be on me like ports on the Wii. 06:17 PM October 10, 2008 from web

Note to self: “Emergence Hole” pick-up line does NOT work. 09:30 PM October 10, 2008 from web

Neither does the “Hammer of Dawn” line. 10:07 PM October 10, 2008 from web

Since all of his updates were from the web, I have to question if the pick up lines were really to blame. Who goes to a club and then proceeds to sit on a computer? Cliff, do you have some sort of MMO addiction that we should be worried about?

I’m not sure if this has made my life better or worse. On the one hand, every time I play a Gears of War game I won’t be able to get this image out of my mind. On the other hand… do I want to?

Neogaf User Launches Gears 2 Live Stream

Chad Lakkis — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 15:56:11 +0000

Just a few hours ago, we reported that Dreammastah, a Neogaf forum user, posted photos of himself holding up a Gears of War 2 disc and playing it on his Xbox 360. The release date breaking renegade took it a step further today.

In an effort to accommodate the requests made by other users on the Neogaf forum, Dreammastah is currently offering a live stream of himself playing Gears 2.

Have at it after the jump.

The live feed above went offline a few moments ago. It may or may not resume, so in an effort to help make your visit to this page somewhat informative, I will be uploading clips from the stream as they become available and posting them below.

New Gears of War 2 Developer Diary Video: Epic Talks Multiplayer Enhancements

Chad Lakkis — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 09:00:41 +0000

The latest installment of the Gears of War 2 Developer Diaries, titled “Never Fight Alone”, gives us an inside look at some of the changes made by Epic to improve the mulitplayer aspect of Gears 2.

Highlights include the addition of stopping power when firing at advancing targets, crawling when you’re down, new multiplayer modes, maps, and a candid discussion regarding the influence of psychological warfare.

Have at the video after the jump.

Gears of War 2 Full Achievment List Unlocked

Dylan Duarte — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 23:45:44 +0000

Gears of War 2 hits shelves in a little over two months now. With the release date quickly approaching, the full achievement list has now been revealed, as well as the rewards for the previously revealed linked achievements.

Check them out after the break.

The rewards for the three linked achievements will be multiplayer skins. If you completed Act 1 in Gears of War, found 10 COG tags, or defeated RAAM, you’ll unlock the multiplayer skins for Anthony Carmine, Minh Young Kim, and RAAM, respectively.

Here’s the list of achievements, each followed by the number of gamer points it’s worth.

Green as Grass: Train the rook (any difficulty) : 10
It’s a Trap!: Story progression in Act 1, Chapter 2 : 10
Escort Service: Story progression in Act 1, Chapter 4 : 10
Girl About Town: Story progression in Act 1, Chapter 6 : 10
That Sinking Feeling: Story progression in Act 2, Chapter 4 : 10
Freebaird!: Story progression in Act 2, Chapter 5 : 10
Heartbroken: Story progression in Act 2, Chapter 6 : 10
Longitude and Attitude: Story progression in Act 3, Chapter 3 : 10
Tanks for the Memories: Story progression in Act 3, Chapter 4 : 10
Water Sports: Story progression in Act 3, Chapter 6 : 10
There’s a Time for Us: Story progression in Act 4, Chapter 2 : 10
Better Wrapped in Beacon: Story progression in Act 4, Chapter 3 : 10
Have Fun Storming the Castle: Story progression in Act 4, Chapter 6 : 10
And the Horse You Rode in On: Story progression in Act 5, Chapter 1 : 10
You Are the Support, Son: Story progression in Act 5, Chapter 2 : 10
Brumak Rodeo: Story progression in Act 5, Chapter 4 : 10
Does This Look Infected to You?: Story progression in Act 5, Chapter 5 : 10
Tourist of Duty: Complete all campaign acts on Casual Difficulty : 25
Guerilla Tactician: Complete all campaign acts on Normal Difficulty : 50
Artist of War: Complete all campaign acts on Hardcore Difficulty : 75
Suicide Missionary: Complete all campaign acts on Insane Difficulty : 150
Collector: Recover 5 collectibles (any difficulty) : 5
Pack Rat: Recover 20 collectibles (any difficulty) : 15
Completionist: Recover all 41 collectibles (any difficulty) : 30
One-Night Stand: Complete 1 chapter in co-op on any difficulty (Marcus/Dom) : 10
Open Relationship: Complete 10 chapters in co-op on any difficulty (Marcus/Dom) : 30
Friends with Benefits: Complete all acts in co-op on any difficulty (Marcus/Dom) : 50
Once More, With Feeling: Perform 30 perfect active reloads (any mode) : 10
Takes a Licking: Melee 30 Tickers (any mode) : 30
Organ Grinder: Kill 30 enemies with a cover mounted Mulcher (any mode) : 10
Shock and Awe: Kill 30 enemies with the heavy Mortar (any mode) : 10
Said the Spider to the Fly: Kill 10 enemies with a planted grenade (any mode) : 10
Crowd Control: Melee 10 enemies down with Boomshield equipped (any mode) : 10
Smells Like Victory: Kill 30 enemies with the Scorcher Flamethrower (any mode) : 10
Variety Is the Spice of Death: Kill enemy with every weapon in game (any mode) : 30
Seriously 2.0: Kill 100,000 enemies (any mode) : 50
Standing Here, Beside Myself: Win 3 matches of Wingman (public) : 10
Beat the Meatflag: Capture 10 meatflags in Submission (public) : 10
It’s Good to be the King: Win 10 rounds of Guardian as the leader (public) : 10
You Go Ahead, I’ll Be Fine: Win three matches of King of the Hill (public) : 10
Back to Basic: Successfully complete 5 lessons of multiplayer Training Grounds : 10
Party Like It’s 1999: Play 1999 rounds of multiplayer (any mode) : 30
Around the World, Again: Win a multiplayer match on each map (any mode) : 30
Dirty, Dirty Horde: Survive the first 10 waves of Horde (any difficulty, any map) : 20
Hoard the Horde: Survive all 50 waves of Horde (any difficulty, any map) : 30
Crossed Swords: Win 10 Chainsaw duels (any mode) : 10
A Parting Gift: Kill 10 enemies with a grenade while down but not out (any mode) : 20
Pound of Flesh: Use a meatshield to save your life 10 times (any mode) : 10
Photojournalist: Submit a spectator photo : 10
Kick’Em When They’re Down: Perform all 11 unique executions on downed enemy : 10

Well there you have it. I’m really glad that so many achievements can be earned in both single and multiplayer modes. I always hate it when games restrict certain achievements to certain modes for no apparent reason.

I’m looking at you, Battlefield: Bad Company.

Source: IGN

Gears of War 2 to be Playable at PAX

Rangebar Merani — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 22:13:19 +0000

According to the official Gears of War website, the Microsoft booth will be hosting 5V5 Gears of War 2 multiplayer matches during this weekend’s Penny Arcade Expo.

Along with the playable matches, there will also be an on-stage demo of the “Sinkhole” level from Gears 2 and both Gears writer Joshua Ortega and Gears artist Pete Hayes will be making an appearance at PAX for a quick Q&A session and autograph signing.

Now this kind of pisses me off because I’m not going to PAX, but I did go to E3 last month, and Microsoft didn’t have Gears 2 playable. That’s not fair at all.

You can check out all the days and times for the Gears of War 2 showcase at PAX at the official Gears of War website.

Source: Gears of War

Marcus 09? EA Publishing New Epic Games IP

Dylan Duarte — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 00:13:52 +0000

Electronic Arts has just signed a deal to publish an all-new IP from Epic Games, the creators of the Gears of War and Unreal series. The new IP is currently being developed by Epic’s People Can Fly studio in Poland, the team behind Painkiller and the Gears of War PC port.

These kind words came from Epic Games Vice President Mark Rein.

“Epic is excited to work with EA Partners to launch our next big IP on the global stage. EA Partners gives independent developers like Epic the muscle of a global publisher like EA, along with the focus and flexibility of a smaller team committed to working with our individual needs.”

Frank Gibeau, President of the EA Games Label, returned the favor by saying:

“Epic brings first class talent and technology to the development of this new title. We are very proud to have Epic join the growing roster of EA Partners.”

Geeked-Out: Epic Gears of War 360 Case Mod

Chad Lakkis — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 08:27:42 +0000

There are case mods, and then there are freaking epic case mods. This bad boy not only screams Gears of War, it looks like it belongs in the damn game itself. Dark and gritty with a fiery glow inside — if I didn’t know any better, I’d think it had a few Locust inside ready to surface at any moment.

While the mod looks like it was forged on the blood stained soil of Sera itself, the highly detailed work is that of 24 year old Dallas Texas based artist, Frank Gonzales (DFW Monkie). Kudos to Frank. This is hands down the best Gears case mod I’ve ever seen.

Hit the jump for a video and a few more detailed photos of the case.

Have something you think we should show on Geeked-Out? Email it to us.

Source: forums.llamma.com

The A-Team: Gears of War Style

Chad Lakkis — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 18:46:19 +0000

The 1980s gave birth to Murdock, B. A. Baracus, Hannibal, and Faceman — better known as The A-Team. An elite special forces unit, shunned by the military they served, for a “crime they didn’t commit”. Sound familiar Marcus fans?

Well, some creative minds took the original audio from the A-Team intro, and mixed in various Gears of War footage. The result is something worth checking out. In fact, I “pity the fool” who refuses to watch this video!

Via: videosift.com

Comic-Con 08: Cliff Bleszinksi Has High Hopes For Gears of War Movie

Dylan Duarte — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 03:22:39 +0000

Continuing our coverage of Comic-Con 2008, during a Gears of War panel, the developer formerly known as CliffyB was asked about the upcoming film adaptation of his beloved shooter. Read what he had to say after the break.

Everyone knows that videogame-to-film adaptations have a pretty awful track record, so Cliff started off by addressing just that.

“Look, we know that video game movies have been pretty bad, but just think how bad comic book movies were for such a long time.”

With The Dark Knight getting rave reviews and smashing box office records left and right, it’s a great time to point that out. Cliff then goes on to say that they aren’t just looking at any buff, meaty guys to fill the roles.

“I know people have ideas where they want to see some wrestler, some huge buff guy. The thing we care most about is charisma, someone you’d want to watch for two hours.”

It’s an odd choice of words, as professional wrestlers are very charismatic. Still, I get what he’s saying.

Gears of War is currently set to hit theaters Summer 2010.

Gears of War To Get The Novel Treatment

Wade Larson — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 18:44:43 +0000

Destined to be a coffee table classic…

While most game-to-movie translations suck harder than a Hoover on overdrive, there is one medium that seems to be very friendly to game translations: books.

Be it graphic novels, short stories, or full-on novels, books tend to better success fleshing out the worlds created in games than any other medium, which is why news that Gears of War will be the next series to get novelized resonated with two of the main nerd nerves in my body: reading and gaming.

This announcement comes courtesy of Epic Games and Del Rey, with author Karen Traviss taking up the task of fleshing out the back story for Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago.

The first of three planned novels, Gears of War: The Battle of Aspho Fields, will be available October 28, 2008, just in time to get readers geared up for GoW2, which drops on the 7th of November. The novel will tell the story of the battle of Aspho fields, which was briefly mentioned in the first game.

From the press release:

In Gears Of War: The Battle of Aspho Fields, the last human stronghold on Sera braces itself for another onslaught from the Locust Horde, as ghosts come back to haunt Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago. For Marcus — decorated war hero, convicted traitor — the return of an old comrade threatens to dredge up an agonizing secret he’s sworn to keep. As the beleaguered soldiers of the Coalition of Ordered Governments take a last stand to save humankind from extermination, the harrowing decisions made at Aspho Fields have to be relived and made again. Marcus and Dom can take anything the Locust Horde throws at them — but will their friendship survive the truth about Dom’s brother Carlos?

Dom’s brother Carlos? Aspho Fields? More gritty, scarred roided warriors wielding chainsaw guns? Seems like it. Looks like gamers are going to get plenty of Gears of War this fall.

Now I put a question to you, dear readers: Which game franchise deserves a book next? And what game-based book series is the best? Halo? Star Wars: Republic Commando? StarCraft? Voice your opinion! That’s an order.

CliffyB Calls Metal Gear Solid “Passive Entertainment”

Dan Landis — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 19:50:18 +0000

Cliff Bleszinski, lead game designer of Gears of War 2, cites Metal Gear Solid as the kind of game Epic doesn’t want to make. What were his exact words? Read on to find out.

In a recent interview with IGN, CliffyB was quoted in saying the following:

“Metal Gear Solid is our example of the game we’re not doing. Passive entertainment is on its way out.”

The story itself is just IGN’s preview of Gears multiplayer, which is interesting, but CliffyB’s quote kinda came out of nowhere. Am I sensationalizing this, or did CliffyB just totally dis Metal Gear Solid?

Source: xbox360.ign.com

First Ever Gears of War 2 Gameplay Footage

Dylan Duarte — Mon, 12 May 2008 08:32:05 +0000

So the first gameplay footage has been released and is making the online rounds. Hit the jump for the video and my thoughts.

Hell.

Yes.

This is what I wanted from the first Gears. Call me a blasphemer if you must (seriously, the comments section is below), but I wasn’t the biggest fan of the first game. It was pretty good, no doubt, but I found it to be way, way too short and after that, not very memorable.

After the awesome teaser – the one that showed a ruined dystopia while Gary Jules’ Mad World played in the background – I was expecting something epic. What I got was a game that looked good, had a neat premise, and was fun to play, but stopped just shy of greatness.

Gears 2 looks to remedy by really cranking up the scale. Sure, Gears 1 had its jaw-dropping moments, but if this trailer is any indication, the entirety of Gears 2 will have your jaw on the floor.

It Just Keeps Getting Better: Epic Loves on Steam

Roly Reyes — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 01:26:43 +0000

Steam has just announced that virtually the entire Unreal collection has made its way onto the Steam train. Brick and mortar stores everywhere must be going insane.

This actually is a little Unreal – get it? Okay, okay, I’ll stop. But in all seriousness, will this ever end? Valve’s Steam initiative has been giving us stuff to report on an almost eerie regular basis.

To celebrate the launch of Epic on Steam, all games will be priced down 10%. If you’ve been on the fence, thinking about grabbing some UT3 for yourself, there may not be a better time than this – but there’s no rush, because the offer is good until March 24th, 2008.

Maybe you’ve been a long time Unreal fan, and you just want to ditch your disks. If that’s you, then you can purchase the “Unreal Deal Pack”, which includes every Unreal game to date – not to be confused with Unreal Engine powered games – available for purchase for $59.95, and if you grab it before March 24th it’ll run you a sweet $53.95.

Surprisingly enough, Steam isn’t getting any love from the Blaznatz camp of Epic and no mention is made of Gears of War hitting Steam, neither now nor in the future. Most likely due to the clusterfuck that is the Games for Windows initiative, chances are Microsoft has exclusive publishing rights to Gears of War, on the PC and 360.

It’s a shame.

Source: Steam

Unreal Tournament III PS3 Review

Ian Ennis — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 21:44:43 +0000

To coincide with the European release of Unreal Tournament III, I gave it a spin to find out whether it’s worth your cash. I’m a hardcore console gamer– always was, and always will be. So when Midway announced that Unreal Tournament III was going multi-platform instead of staying PC exclusive, I was one happy camper.

I always thought of Unreal Tournament as one of those games that stayed exclusive to a platform just because of its evolution on the PC, or maybe because the developers just couldn’t see that type of fast-paced FPS played with a joypad. If you’re new to the series like me, some things will be apparent the first time you pick up a controller. The first thing you will have to get used to is the controls, since they are not mapped very well to the Sixaxis, and some buttons have no purpose, or are just duplicates.

The second thing I noticed is that the single player mode is extremely dull. There are six teams: Ronin, Thundercrash, Krall, Liandri, Iron Gaurd and the Black Legion. You play as a Reaper from team Ronin, and as the title suggests, all teams are competing in Unreal Tournament for the championship title.

Before each mission you are given a briefing, and also the illusion that there is actually an objective for what you are doing, but really you’re just playing “kill ‘em all”. Since Epic and the Unreal Engine were involved, I was expecting a cinematic experience with an intense story, massive explosions, and body parts flying around the screen.

In reality, you’re paired up with dumb AI and equally dumb opponents. To be honest, it’s like a dumbed-down version of the online play. The story is also as thin as rice paper, and while there are some nice cut-scenes to get you pumped up before each round, when you begin playing it is just a repetitive letdown.

There are no levels, just maps. The same maps in single player are used online as well, and if you are ever bored enough to complete the single player, you won’t find anything new online (unless you’re playing a user created map).

The single player may be a letdown in nearly every department except one, and that’s visually. This is where Epic really shows how they can work their magic with Unreal Engine. Everything has a unique look, whether it’s a shiny wall dripping slime or your favourite gun charging up with bio waste, it’s all a pleasure to the eyes.

Each team has a different look and there’s no surprise that Unreal Engine compliments them all. Every colour and texture has been looked after in this game, and visually it is one of the more impressive-looking games on the market today.

Once you grow bored of the Campaign mode, the online mode is definitely worth the money you paid for this game. Before I went online, I had a look around the options menu and found a nice little feature that enabled me to install the game on my HDD and cut out all the loading times. This was a great help and emphasized what Mark Rein was saying about how he wanted all the perks of the PC version left intact on the console version.

I’ve always heard that Unreal Tournament is a series with online play that is hard to rival, and once I selected online multiplayer the fun times started to roll. When you begin, you may select and customize your character, then jump straight into the servers.

Be careful, though, because all of the perks of the PC come with the bad. If you jump into any game near full capacity, you’re 99% sure to find lag. Not a little lag, but a full-blown 10 second delay, where you won’t know who you killed or who killed you.

In other words, it’s unplayable. I learned this the hard way, but soon found that the un-ranked games are less full and a good game can always be found there.

Another PC perk, and the best of them all, are the mods. These are user generated content for the game itself, and just like on the PC it’s all free with no strings attached. Mods can come in any shape or form, such as weapons, maps, or new perks. They are not limited to what the developer can think of, but what the community wants.

I got around to installing one mod and it’s as easy as pie. All you need is a memory stick and two minutes of your time. If you can’t be bothered to do it, that’s no problem either– if you join a game using mods you will automatically download them to keep.

And some mods can really elevate the game to another level, with new third person camera angles (an over the shoulder Gears of War look) and new game modes – some of which you wish were in the game from the outset.

There is also the use of keyboard and mouse, if you wish to call that a mod. It’s just plug-and-play, but after using it I still prefer the Sixaxis, mainly because it’s not very practical stretching the USB cables and trying to get comfy in the couch. I didn’t want to sit directly in front of my 32” LCD and burn my eyes out of their sockets, but for some players, keyboard and mouse support is a godsend, especially if you buy yourself a wireless bluetooth keyboard and mouse.

So far my online experiences have been nothing but great, but I have noticed a few things as I’ve continued playing. Apart from the lag in ranked games, which can make the game unplayable, there is as yet no voice chat. This can be a killer to anyone starting a clan or just looking to find online friends to play regularly with. A ranking system would be a god send as well.

A combination of great online play and a ranking system kept me coming back again and again in Call of Duty 4, and Unreal Tournament III has the online play factor but a ranking system would really help with the whole “I need to get just one more rank” factor of the game.

Unleashing the game on consoles for the first time meant UT3 had two roads it could go down. It could change completely for new fans and adapt to the console life, or stick to its roots and keep all the older fans while making some new ones.

So does Unreal Tournament III make the cut? Yes, since the fact that this game has so much going for it in the multiplayer department makes it easy to overlook the lag and poor single campaign, which in all honesty could have been dropped. I played this game religiously online and loved the visuals. It also shows what consoles can do if the developers put their minds to it, with lots of mods and no load times. Forget the campaign mode and get online!

What does this score mean? Check out our review scoring breakdown.