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”. Read more…

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! Read more…

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. Read more…

This is what we have all been waiting for … a battle for the ages, and the time is now. We have assembled 32 of the finest video game characters that have ever called a console home, and a five round single elimination tournament of speed, skill, strength, and determination stands between them and being named pixel for pixel the baddest that ever was, the “King of the Game”.

Can Marcus Fenix roadie run his way through a bullet blazing, one liner laden, no holds barred battle with the one and only Duke Nukem? Will Metal Gear’s main man Snake slither his way to victory against the Splinter Cells triclops, Sam Fisher? Metriod’s Samus Aran, or the combat evolved Master Chief? The king of cold: Sub Zero or the queen of hot: Lara Croft?

We here at ripten have been working for over two months, researching, arguing, and eating lots of junk food, all in the name of bringing you an accurate account of each characters quest for video game immortality. Read more…