Epic Games has put out the 5th title update for its third person shooter Gears of War 2 resolving a slew of glitches and a security hole that arose in the fourth patch. Plus, just in time for the Halloween Holiday, Epic is also treating gamers to another double XP weekend event Friday, October 30, through Monday, November 2.

Hit the jump for the full list of release notes via the official Gears forum.

Improvements

Title Update 5 makes these new improvements:

• Adds the ability to view friendly-planted grenades in Tac/Com.
• Removes the cringe caused when a smoke grenade forces a player to drop a meatshield.
• Adds bonus points to the winning leader’s score in the Guardian game mode if the leader successfully survives the winning round.
• Changes the postmatch Invite button to only invite former teammates, so a player can create parties more easily instead of trying to create a Private Match that includes both teams from the former match.
• Returns the roadie-run camera movements to the way they were in Gears of War 1 by decreasing the dampening values.

Exploit Fixes

Title Update 5 fixes these possible exploits, where under certain circumstances:

• A player could modify the game’s behavior due to a security vulnerability introduced in an earlier title update.
• A player could use a turbo controller to artificially maximize their rate of fire.
• A player could mantle a planted shield in competitive multiplayer to hide inside geometry or to travel outside of the map. The ability to mantle shields was removed in competitive multiplayer but remains in Horde and Campaign.

Title Update 5 also fixes a number of other, lesser-known exploits.

General Fixes

Title Update 5 fixes these other issues as well:

• An issue that contributed to the “sticky walk” problem, where a player’s avatar could stutter after the player picks up a weapon.
• An issue that could prevent players from hearing the “boom” telegraph from Boomers.
• An issue that could cause looping audio to continue playing after the player who triggered that sound is killed.
• An issue that could cause multiple names to be highlighted yellow on the scoreboard instead of the name of the player viewing the scoreboard.
• An issue that prevented the game from granting the earned experience points from the fiftieth wave of Horde.
• An issue that caused players at level 100 to see the “congratulations” message after every match.

Source: gearsofwar.xbox.com

Guys and commitment do not usually go hand in hand. Most of us cringe at the idea of a five yea car loan — so how would we feel about a ten year long ride involving the mass murder of Locust? I’m pretty sure we could deal with that.

In a recent discussion durring the New York Comic-Con Gears of War Panel, Gears scribe Joshua Ortega had the following to say about the franchise:

“You will not be disappointed in the next ten years … It’s a ten-year plan. Gears is long-term. The lancer is the new lightsaber.”

Interesting. A ten year plan. I’m not sure where the guys at Epic are thinking of taking the game next. I mean, lets be honest here, one can only dig so far beneath the earths surface before ending up in China. What do you think? Will another seven years or so of “Gears Badassness” be more Roadie Run than we can handle?

Source: IGN

Epic Games’ Gears forum received a post from company VP Mark Rein a few minutes before 1AM today. In that post Mark makes mention of a title update for the Gears sequel that they hope to release in January. The laundry list of issues being addressed include the ability to wield an invisible shield, infinite lancer ammo, melee through walls, and more.

Hit the jump for Mark’s post in its entirety.

A brief status report on the next Gears2 title update

First of all I hope all of you had a safe and happy holiday season.

As I mentioned before the break we’ve been working on a major title update for Gears of War 2. This update will address bugs and exploits as well as add some new achievements related to downloadable content. We don’t have an exact date for it but all indicators are it will go live within January. If that changes we’ll let you know.

We’re fixing a whole bunch of online exploits. For example we’ve fixed the ability to wield an invisible shield, melee through some walls, gain infinite Lancer ammo and equip a shield and a two-handed weapon simultaneously plus many more.

We’re also making several small changes to improve the overall online gameplay experience. A few of the ones that might interest you are; increased penalties for quitting matches early, adding additional spawn protection against planted grenades and chainsaw attacks, and adding the ability to see the Submission flag carrier destination by using Tac/Com.

We know you folks love achievements so on the achievement side we’re adding achievement progress numbers to the War Journal, increasing the frequency of in-game Achievement progression notifications and adding some new Achievements for DLC.

This is just a very small list of some of the things that will be in the next title update but one more item which has been talked about a lot in our forums deserves a special call out…

About that shotgun…

We fixed the client side hit detection on the shotgun so that in a high-latency (i.e. “laggy”) match, the shotgun will be more reliable. We’ve also fixed another bug whereby shotgun and boomshot rounds could strike the ground when firing from the hip.

So there’s a brief status report on the next title update. At some point I expect we’ll post a more detailed list but I assure you we’re working hard to get this out the door and once it’s done we’ll start working on the next update. We’ll try to do a better job keeping you informed of our progress on future updates and we’ll try to be a little more active in the forums once this update is released.

Source: gearsforums.epicgames.com

If you’ve ever played Gears multiplayer with me, you probably heard me scream “he’s freaking glitching!” on more than one occasion. Well the Gears of War sequel was in attendance at Glitch Fest 2000. Check out the full list of glitches features in the video above.

I can’t decide if the maker(s) of this video loved the game or hated it. I personally loved it and wasn’t bothered by (nor do I remember) any of these glitches features. I will admit that after the first minute, I tabbed into another application and listened to the audio from the clip. Enjoy.

Source: Kotaku

Tired of boring breakfast cereal? Thinking of remodeling your kitchen? Well, if you answered yes to both of these questions, Cole Train has the breakfast pick-me-up you’ve been looking for baby! Hit the jump for a COG sized scoop of sugary goodness.

Anabolic steriods as a free prize in the box? It’s a shame we didn’t all have something this awesome for breakfast growing up.

Some of you may already be familiar with the fact that I didn’t play through the campaign mode of the original Gears of War the first time around, and instead spent countless hours lost in the game’s multiplayer mode. Well, being that I was going to review Gears of War 2, I felt the need to go back and complete Gears of War 1 first.

With the assistance of Dan Landis, I cleared through the Gears 1 campaign in co-op mode, and then played through the Gears 2 campaign in single player mode over the course of two nights. In terms of multiplayer, I ran through a few of the classic formats and tested out Horde Mode with Dan, Zung, Dlyan, and some 14 year old kid I’ll refer to as “Superman” because he almost always decided to run off and save the world from Locust on his own.

Alright, enough small talk, let’s “dig in baby”.

Level Design & Gameplay Variety

Gears 2 looks great. That said, I’m not one to scrutinize textures or lines of resolution. I tend to focus on the overall impact of an environment’s design as a whole. In doing so, I’d have to say that Gears 2 features some of the best map designs you’ll see in a video game today. The combination of lighting, color, structure, and interactive elements is well thought out and does its part to engross you in the fictional world.

Without giving too much away, you will be treated to a mix of different level types. Some will focus more on enemy interaction, while others will pit you against the level itself, combining aspects of puzzle solving and timed movement. I found that the change of pace was enough to keeps things moving along. The variety helped to battle any boredom that may have otherwise set in without the addition of a campaign co-op partner.

Weapon Selection

The weapons in Gears 2 feature a few new additions, but I usually found myself clinging to a sniper rifle and a lancer throughout most of the game. In the name of experimentation however, I did from time to time pick up items like the flamethrower, toasting tickers for shits and giggles. It was fun, but not something I’d let supplant my trusty longshot — not by a long shot (see what I did there?).

Other, non replacement items (won’t force you to drop a main weapon), such as the mulcher, mortar, and boomshield were definitely worth picking up when given the chance.

The mulcher is a no brainer, as its slow walking human turret capability easily plows through pretty much anything that gets in your way. The boomshield is great for situational cover on the go, and the mortar can do some serious damage with a little practice. Think of it as an alternative to the hammer of dawn that can be used indoors.

Character Development, Storyline, Enemies, and Boss Fights

Having played both the original and the sequel back to back, I felt like I was in a pretty good position to compare any advances made in the overall plot and character development.

The original Gears was pretty straight forward but it did a great job of introducing you to the various COG personalities. Gears 2 builds on that foundation, adding depth and additional insight into each character’s background. Some attempts are better illustrated than others, but considering the pace at which things move, I felt the team at Epic did a great job here.

The story itself, continues where Gears 1 left off, as you must once again team up with your fellow COG soldiers to foil the plans of the Locust horde and their demanding Queen. New enemies are introduced — both big and small — requiring you to think on your feet and employ different strategies to take them down.

I found the boss fights to be creative and climactic for the most part. The high speed chase sequences kept me on the edge of my seat, and the the environmental interaction required during certain battles forced me to stay on my toes and be aware of my surroundings.

As the game nears completion, I felt that one of the final battles (though multilayered and exciting) could have been executed better on the tail end. Something as simple as an additional camera shot clearly reestablishing the villain would have been enough to do the trick in my opinion. Instead I was left asking myself “Was he on that? Did I just kill him?”

Character Design, Animation, & Controls

The character design in Gears 2 fits the world, and subtle animation/interactions between characters add a layer of believability to their dialogue. New enemies and new allies alike are well designed and act/move as you would expect them to.

In terms of control, the game responded well, and the scheme was in line with the previous Gears setup — a simple one button mentality which makes most movements second nature and easy to perform. The result is that I rarely thought about controls, which left me free to focus on the actual gameplay.

Multiplayer and Horde Mode

Multiplayer offers up several modes and is more fun than ever, but if you want to thoroughly enjoy it against others, you will need to dedicate yourself to the art. Exploits are still there to be had, and it’s better to know them than it is to die by them. The introduction of environmental interaction during levels like Avalanche (self explanatory) make a nice addition.

Guardian, Wingman, and Submission modes are all fun in their own right. Guardian asks one player to designate themselves leader of the group, tying respawn ability to that individual. Once downed, a team will no longer be able to respawn. Wingman is a point based battle broken into multiple rounds consisting of up to five two man teams, and Submission is the meat shield version of capture the flag.

Wrapping up the multiplayer discussion is the addition of Horde Mode. A battle of up to five players against wave after wave of progressively more challenging groups of locust. If you buy this game and have internet access, Horde Mode is something you have to try. Fun times.

Closing Thoughts

Gears 2 combines practically everything I loved about being a kid into a video game. It’s G.I. Joes riding Tonka Trucks through the mud while fighting a massive army of beefed up albino Skeletor clones. It more than borrows from our pop culture past, and I don’t mind it one bit.

You will often be reminded of moments from Star Wars, and some may even see the influence of Disney’s Pinocchio — crazy, I know, but it works.

One thing you won’t be able to deny is that Gears of War 2 is a roller coaster ride of variety that keeps things fresh and fun. The action is fast paced, and the story/dialogue offers just enough depth to make you care about your cast of COGs, and motivate you to kill anything that gets in their way. If you own a 360, Gears of War 2 is a must buy.

Keane’s Take	9.5
I was never the biggest fan of the first Gears of War. The actual gameplay always appealed to me hugely. Gears gets all the little things right in a big way – the way every gun feels heavy and powerful, the satisfying crunch of slamming into cover. But I was never sold on the near-broken multiplayer, much less the campaign’s seemingly boneheaded tale of aliens vs. jocks. It was a huge surprise, then, that I found myself head over heels in love with Gears of War 2.  Chad’s already broken it down in the text above: it’s perfectly paced, the visuals are splendid, and the levels varied and action-packed. Most of all, there’s just something so fundamentally fun about it that I’d say that any gamer, regardless of prejudices, will find something to love at the core of this game. Even the story won me over. My main issue with the game is that it manages to keep up such a perfect flow of action for most of the game that when it hits an occasional snag, it’s really freaking annoying. A handful of vehicular sections and other objectives that require you to do some serious trial-and-error to get past them drag the whole thing down. But that’s really a flaw that only manifests itself because the rest of the game sets a higher standard. Overall, Gears of War 2’s one of the best action games in recent memory, and an example of gaming (on any platform) at its finest: ceaselessly entertaining, visceral and satisfying, a blast to play from start to finish.

Gears of War 2 Image Gallery – Click Here To View

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

I clicked on a pending article with the title “CNN: Microsoft Xbox had a 95% Failure Rate” because it sounded interesting. Much to my displeasure, once I got to the article page, I was met with a paragraph outlining what I assume is the ending of Gears of War 2.

My second run-in was when I spotted an article in the “incoming news” section. This asshole was bolder than the first, putting spoilers in the actual title. He also seemed to be smarter, as he had worded it in an odd way, I assume to get around some sort of keyword blocker.

I was talking to our editor-in-chief Chad Lakkis about the ordeal. And by talking, I mean that I was yelling at him because the internet has pissed me off. He brought up a good point and one that ultimately depresses me. N4G has a pretty rigorous process that one must go through to become able to submit news. That means that these people put in the time and effort to reach this status, just to post this bullshit.

Chad also brought up another great point. Remember this whole MetaCritic user ratings debacle that happened over Little Big Planet and Gears 2? In response to the incident, MetaCritic is planning to institute an approval process for fans that want to rank games. Well, that obviously isn’t stopping the bullshit on N4G, so how much is it going to do for MetaCritic?

Both spoiler stories that I encountered have since been deleted off of the site, but you can be sure that more will pop up, so be careful.

UPDATE: People have been getting PMs on N4G containing spoilers as well, so be cautious when opening anonymous PMs. People have also been leaving spoilers in the comments section of the N4G post regarding this story, as was expected, so I wouldn’t read that either.

The two minute Gears of War 2 cinematic intro paints a picture of human ignorance fueled by a “hunger for power” — soldiers marching without hesitation into a war that the narrative suggests they brought upon themselves. Pretty darn deep for a game centered around albino skinned monsters who live underground.

Hit the jump for face full of Locust and things that go BOOM!

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.

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

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.

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

SERIOUS SPOILER ALERT. If you’re super-sensitive about Gears of War 2 spoilers, do not click the jump. You’ll feel horrible about what you’ve done afterward. Trust me.

If you’re curious about what lies next for the Gears saga, and have maybe snuck a peek at the leaked footage of the Gears 2 ending, well, then come on in. Don’t say we didn’t warn you though.

You know how after every Metal Gear Solid game, the credits roll and then the logo pops up, and there’s a little conversation after that, usually with Ocelot? Well Cliffy’s stealing one from Hideo’s book.

After the Gears of War 2 credits roll, the logo hits the screen. Suddenly a voice message starts playing. It’s static-y as hell, and the person on the other side of the line sounds like he’s in some serious shit.

This is Adam Fenix. Is anyone out there? Can you hear me? This is Adam Fenix. Can you hear me? What have you done?

Adam Fenix was Marcus Fenix’ pa, and he was a military scientist who discovered a complete mapping of the underground Locust tunnels where the “bad guys” of the Gears universe have been shacking up. What does he mean by “what have you done”? Well, that’s the mystery, isn’t it?

Source: Gears of War 2 Fans

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

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.”

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?

With the release of Gears 2 quickly approaching, I decided that it might be a good time for me to take a quick roadie run down Sera Lane — one that involves a three-hour “I refuse to accept no as an answer” road trip. Those who know me won’t be surprised, but looking back, even I wonder what the hell I was thinking.

When the first Gears was announced, I was probably one of the few people that hadn’t been aware of the game’s hype. Epic’s new IP was brought to my attention by a friend I had spent countless hours playing Call of Duty 2 with on Xbox LIVE.

He kept telling me about this “Mad World” commercial that I just had to see. I repeatedly brushed it off with responses like, “Yeah OK, let’s go play some more COD2.” Then one day while channel surfing, I stumbled on the commercial he had been harping about.

There haven’t been many gaming-related “oh shit” moments for me that took place prior to actually playing a game, but this commercial was certainly one of them. The Gears of War “Mad World” trailer combined a soothing melody with harsh visuals to create what I found to be a near-perfect balance of inner peace and outer chaos.

No less than ten minutes later, I was on YouTube replaying it over and over, and the next few weeks of XBL buddy chat consisted of me singing the Mad World theme song into the ears of my extremely patient online friends. The TV spot piqued my interest in the game, and it wasn’t long before I found myself reserving it at my local GameStop. Reservation? Check! Everything under control? Not so much.

I woke one morning (it was probably more like noon) to the sound of my cell phone alerting me of a new voicemail message. After playing the excited message from my friend, who had just got his copy, I realized that some GameStop locations were selling their pre-orders before others. A quick call to the one I had reserved my copy at opened my eyes to two things: 1) my GameStop had yet to get the games, and 2) GameStop reservations are not transferable to other locations.

My reservation was made at a location just outside of Boston, and while the location actually in Boston got the game, they wouldn’t honor the reservation I made at the other location. I was told, “Sorry, there’s no way you can play the game today.” Wrong answer.

I got on the horn and started calling every GameStop that I could find until I found one that was willing to help me out. That was the good news. The bad news was that it was about three hours away in Connecticut. So I gathered up some food and drink, hopped into my car, drove from Massachusetts to Connecticut, purchased the game, shared my story with a few Gears fans in-store, exchanged gamertags, got back in my car, and drove back with the following scene from Road Trip looping through my head.

Tell me not to play? I think not! After all of that, you would think I got home and played the hell out of the game, right? Wrong. I powered up my 360 and didn’t even make it through the intro tutorial before a sense of disappointment set in. It might have been the fact that I was exhausted, but I wasn’t really feeling the controls (which is funny looking back on it now), and so I powered my system down and didn’t play the game again for days.

Eventually, I got a call to take the game online and experience Gears multiplayer with some buddies. I never looked back. From that point forward, I became “Cole Train”, belting out “woot woot baby” after every kill. The controls, which where admittedly different, grew on me and became second nature. Anything that got in my way was greeted by a roadie run/diving roll combo, topped off with a shotgun blast to the face!

To put things into perspective, my friends and I spent an ungodly amount of time playing COD2 online, but even that paled in comparison to the amount of time we invested into Gears multiplayer. Innovative weapons like the Torque Bow, Hammer of Dawn, and Chainsaw Bayonet kept us coming back for more.

New maps were eventually released, and updates were made to fix some issues gamers ran into as gameplay evolved (i.e. sticky bomb abuse, roadie run exploits, etc.), but like any game, over time people moved on to newer titles.

Bethesda began their marketing campaign for FallOut 3, and I found myself comparing their initial commercial to the Gears “Mad World” TV spot, even going as far as asking readers which cinematic presentation they preferred. Around that same time, rumors began to circulate about a sequel to Gears (imagine that) and interests started to perk again. Nothing could be confirmed, and speculation set in that an announcement would be made at the upcoming Game Developers Conference.

It wasn’t long before I found myself in the front row of the Microsoft GDC Keynote, and as expected, the Gears sequel talk cut through the crowd like a chainsaw tearing open a Locust’s chest. I overheard a crew member for another site confirm that the game would be announced as he directed his camera man to “make sure he got the shot of Cliffy coming on stage at the end.” So, like any good blogger, I called the tip in to the home team and “Gears 2 Confirmed” hit the front page of our site.

Since then, a lot has happened. The dueling chainsaw feature we predicted from GDC was confirmed, and a slew of new features were revealed. Five-man team support, meat shields, revamped executions, new weapons, achievements, and an in-game achievement tracker have got the Gears community buzzing at an all time high.

With the original Gears of War “Mad World” trailer deemed an instant classic by many, including myself, Epic was tasked with introducing the world to Gears 2 with the same level of quality and cinematic flair. While different in its approach, the “Rendezvous with Death” trailer is both well-executed and multi-purposed as it prominently highlights one of the game’s new features: the meat shield.

In addition to the TV spot, Epic went all out with online and offline marketing as well. Unleashing splash page mystery images, developer diaries, and most recently sending various media outlets their own brand of giant decoder rings in the form of metal COG tags. With everything from Gears of War shoes, to books, to user-designed case mods, it’s obvious that Marcus and the boys are in high demand.

The game that was once referred to as “bigger, better, and more badass” by the lead designer himself may no longer be officially represented as such, but it doesn’t mean that it won’t be all of those things. In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I am extremely excited about the Gears of War 2 release and will make sure that I’m fully prepared to terminate Locust come November 7th. See you online beeshes!!!

Title: Gears of War 2 Publisher: Microsoft Rating: Mature Content: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language Platforms: Xbox 360 The gears of war continue to turn as Marcus Fenix and his squad of Cogs go back into action in the sequel to Microsoft and developer Epic Games’ blockbuster action title.

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.

Today in WTF! news, Gears of War 2 is announced as having gone gold (which means the game has been finalized), and just a few hours after that, the game surfaces in the hand of a mysterious figure on the popular Neogaf gaming forum.

Coincidence? Bullshit? It doesn’t matter. What matters is that every time something like this happens the collective butt-cheeks of software executives clench in unison.

Eventually, games will come with remote detonators that sense a premature case ejection. Removing a game from its container before the specified release date will cause it to explode violently, and affected individual will have a hard time convincing anyone that they didn’t deserve every piece of gaming shrapnel they end up having to dislodge from their face.

Hey, I love reporting news and rumors as much as the next guy, but if continuously pushed, it’s not far fetched to think that developers will find better ways to protect themselves and the media they create at the expense of time and resources that could have been spent developing better content. Everything comes with a price.

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.

Two off-screen videos featuring Gears of War 2 multiplayer gameplay footage have made their way onto the web. Imagine that.

From memory, it appears that the scope design when zooming in for a sniper shot has been redone, but that may just be the lack of any recent Gears 1 gameplay speaking.

The sequel packs a decent amount of new features, and for that reason, I am really excited about the upcoming release of the game — but to be completely honest, these two videos did very little for me. The meat shield is utilized early on in the first clip and the second features some snazzy arcade machines, but other than that the gameplay looks a lot like the original.

Hit the jump to see for yourself.

Source: scrawlfx.com

E for All is underway, and while the Gears of War 2 booth is dishing out coin sized COG tags, they pale in comparison to the one shown above which surfaced on the web October 1st.

A twitter hint posted by Gears 2 community manager, SixOkay, recommended that fans take a closer look at the latest Gears 2 trailer on their website. Upon doing so, you will notice that the aforementioned COG flashes on the screen at the 1:07 mark in the clip. Interesting — let’s continue.

The caption on the image clearly reads “every tag tells a tale”, which directly relates to the title of a post made on the official Gears of War 2 website yesterday (shown below).

EVERY TAG TELLS A TALE

Issued to every Gear serving the Coalition of Ordered Governments, the COG Tag is a formidable piece of identification. These metal gears, worn on a chain, are sometimes all that’s left to identify fallen comrades. Every COG Tag is imprinted with a unique ID code, the last words on the last day of a solider’s story. Since Emergence Day, thousands of COG Tags have been recovered from solitary pools of blood on battlefields throughout Sera.

Seeking some answers, Joystiq met up with the Gears 2 community manager at the show, and was told the following:

“Wait… did you see this image recently? A huge COG tag that’s thick and made out of metal? Yeah, there’s a big announcement about that coming out. I can’t say anything about it really, but keep watching the website all weekend. And no, it’s not something you can buy. It’s made of metal, is thick, and weighs about two pounds.”

So, we can’t buy it and its made of metal weighing in at roughly two pounds. The video doesn’t explain it and the site which first unearthed it says very little about its origin either — unless you consider a drool inducing reaction pertinent information. I wouldn’t mind seeing Flavor Flav rocking one of these bad boys in place of his signature time piece.

As it stands now, Epic has all the answers, and the rest of us will just need to sit tight and check their site over the weekend like the man says.

Honestly, if you want to see the design of the booklet (like me) then this may amuse you, but beyond that I am not sure it has much use — unless you want to practice the button combos to prepare yourself for the upcoming challenge. If so, you may want to throw on some Eye of the Tiger and do a few laps around your living room to build up a sweat before you dig in like a mad man.

Of course, there is the slim chance these are not real, so bear that in mind as you drool. Scans available after the jump.

Source: gowfans.com

By now you have likely heard that the highly anticipated Gears of War 2 will not be making its way to your PC. Assuming that you wanted to play it there in the first place, the news may have come as a disappointment to you.

Personally, I don’t play very many games on my PC, with the exception of an obscure MMO called World of Warcraft that you may or may not have heard of. Regardless, according to the PC Gaming Alliance, which I had the opportunity to speak to at the past GDC, the PC gaming population is alive and growing. Epic Games VP, Mark Rein, is a member of this alliance which also includes representatives from NVIDIA, Dell, Intel, Gateway, and others.

That said, I decided to reach out to Mark and ask him personally about his company’s decision to not release Gears 2 on the PC. Specifically, I reiterated the statements made in a recent interview, by his lead designer (CliffyB if you live under a rock), where he had cited piracy concerns as the reason for the focus on the 360.

Here’s the problem right now; the person who is savvy enough to want to have a good PC to upgrade their video card, is a person who is savvy enough to know BitTorrent to know all the elements so they can pirate software. Therefore, high-end videogames are suffering very much on the PC.

Right now, it makes sense for us to focus on Xbox 360 for a number of reasons. Not least PCs with multiple configurations and piracy.

I asked Mark to respond to the statements made by his designer, stating “Your lead designer has been quoted saying that piracy is the main concern”, to which he responded:

The reason we decided not to develop Gears 2 for PC was so that we could focus our resources on making Gears 2 the best possible Xbox 360 game it could be rather than splitting them across multiple platforms like we did with the first one. I think Gears 2 will be a better game for it and that this was the right decision.

Mark’s response makes no mention of piracy as a deterrent in the game’s creation for the PC, and by not doing so it almost directly contradicts it as the motive. Taking Mark at his word, it is still hard pill to swallow for PC gamers.

Regardless of whether or not you agree with Cliff’s savvy consumer analogy, you can hardly disagree that piracy adversely effects the bottom line of digitally distributed media creators. Some may argue both points as rubbish, and it would be their right to do so, but I can understand the logic behind both.

Finally, I asked Mark about the piracy concern in general on PC’s and if he and the PCGA had any plans to deal with the concern in the future, to which he responded:

“This issue is something we’re looking at as a group …”

He then added that I would be better served contacting the group’s Intel representative for further insight into their plans, which I fully intend to do. There was a time not long ago when piracy was a major concern for consoles, but due to technology advances, that has become less of a mainstream problem. Here’s to hoping a solution is arrived upon for the PC sooner rather than later.

A new Gears of War 2 game footage video has made its way onto the web, further confirming in my opinion that the sequel will be better than the original and revealing a few new features as well.

In addition to the meat shield ability which lets you use your enemy’s body to absorb bullets fired in your direction, the video highlights what appears to be a new feature allowing you to reposition in game items and create cover on the fly. Specifically, Marcus flips a table onto its side during a fire fight with the Locust. Pretty cool.

Another new addition in Gears 2 is what looks like in-game achievement status update system. You can see an example of this at the 42 second mark in the clip.

If you don’t mind seeing a few spoilers in the way of cut scenes, have at the video after the jump.

To quote Cole Train (my favorite Gears character) “Who loves ya, baby?” The answer — CliffyB loves you baby. And to prove it, he is apparently giving Gears fans five original Gears 1 maps in Gears 2. The list, according to the latest issue of GamePro magazine, includes Gridlock, Subway, Canals, Mansion (my hands down favorite), and Tyro Station.

To get your hands on this release date DLC for free you will need to turn in the voucher code included with each new purchase of Gears 2.

Source: evilavatar.com

Joystiq’s Dustin Burg is reporting that lead Gears of War 2 scribe, Josh Ortega, promises that the highly anticipated sequel will have “a fulfilling ending.”

The apparent concern voiced by Joystiq was whether or not the game would follow in the footsteps of Halo 2 (not sure why they thought it would but lets go with it), and the answer they received from Ortega was essentially no. He stated that the game would “get nice closure”, but was quick to add that it would not get “too much [closure]” in the event they wanted to “expand” on the franchise yet again.

So it seems that the guys behind Gears are confident that we will like their ending. I am not this is really shocking news, but at least it gives us a set of feet we can hold to the fire in the event we hate it.

Source: Joystiq

PAX has begun, and with it has stirred the communal gamer vibe that continues to make it the gamer event of the year. The Washington Convention Center is crawling with gamers of every stripe and every developer worth a toss has shown up to show off.

The gaming press was allowed early entry into the exhibition hall and we quickly devolved into a heaving pack of sibilant monkeys as we ran from booth to booth. With so much to look at, we were afflicted, if momentarily, by a communal form of ADD.

But all that glimmers is not gold, and some offerings were better than others. In fact, some exhibitors seemed intent on showing up to fail. However, there was enough genius offerings to keep even the most jaded of gamers stamped with a permanent smile.

Fallout 3 was on display, and without a doubt Bethesda is taking home the gold with the best PAX booth for this year. They are taking a chance, letting anyone and everyone play Fallout 3 before its street date but from what I played, I think they’ll be fine.

Gears of War 2 was on site, and from what I saw it looked to be 2v2 combat – though they were still setting up, ignoring my pleas to play the game. I believe at one point someone threw a rock at me. Though what he was doing with a rock in his pocket is beyond me.

One game that I very much wanted to play, but a line had formed and my time grew short, was “Demigod.” Watching the game play, you control a hulking behemoth lending its aid to its chosen people, those who worship you – much like the way I am worshiped by the French. I watched one fellow stomp across a generic map, stomping on milling enemies and I was reminded of going one-on-one with my Warcraft III hero against another in a LAN. While the publisher has said there are many demigods to choose from, the only one that I saw was the fellow that looked like a walking castle – not that I am complaining, because he does indeed look as cool as he should. After all, he is a demigod.

More to report on Sunday afternoon, hopefully I will not be assailed by cosplay kiddies. Again.

On Nov. 7, Amazon.com is offering a special promotion with the yet to be released Gears of War 2: a replica COG Lancer Assault Rifle.

Evidently no replica Locust torso is available to saw through. Bollocks.

The replica Lancer comes complete with the infamous chainsaw bayonet and what appears to be Locust blood spattered liberally.

According to J. Mennella, who commented on the Amazon.com offer, he/she/it claims that they were able to handle it at the San Diego Comic Con and that “it lights up and makes noises. And its pretty heavy too.”

While Gears of War fans may be panting over the offer, I’m waiting for Games Workshop to offer a working chainsword for Dawn of War II. Though nothing of the kind has been announced, I can only wait with baited breath for such a thing to be available to all budding Space Marines, lumberjacks, and Canadian bus riders.

Link: amazon.com