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Gears of War COG and Locust Armor coming to Xbox Live Avatars

by Kevin Kelly { Jul 25th 2009 at 9:10PM }

During the Gearsiverse panel at Comic-Con, Epic's Cliff Bleszinski and Ron Fergusson revealed that there will be Gears of War-themed armor of both the COG and Locust variety coming to XBL Avatars soon. One rule that Microsoft imposes on Avatar clothing and models is that they "can't look inhuman," according to Bleszinski. So they pieced together a workaround set of Locust armor that you can check out beyond the break.

Look for these new Avatar upgrades to be available when the next Xbox Live dashboard update becomes available soon. Meanwhile, we're going to scurry out to our preview builds to see if they're already available. Be sure and peep the Locust image, just around the corner.

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Joystiq at the Gears of War 2 launchapalooza

by Kevin Kelly { Nov 7th 2008 at 5:15PM }

This is an extremely hard post to finish. Not because the Los Angeles Gears of War 2 launch party sucked (it didn't), not because we didn't get enough photos (took plenty), and not because we didn't get good interviews (CliffyB Cliff Bleszkinski and John DiMaggio, the voice of Marcus Fenix AND Bender, and others ... coming to you very soon). No, it's because we got the game, came home and slid it into the 360, and thought, "Hey, it'll be fun to try this Horde mode out!" Now it's 9:15 am, and it feels like one of those days where you wake up and realize you have a chemistry test in two hours that you didn't study for at all.

Gallery: Gears of War 2 Launch: Los Angeles

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Gears 2 'Last Day' trailer, the new 'Mad World'?

by Richard Mitchell { Oct 23rd 2008 at 2:30PM }

A brand new ad for Gears of War 2, which hits shelves in two weeks, has just been released. Entitled "Last Day," it features Marcus Fenix and his fellow COG soldiers spending their last moments above ground before an underground assault on the Locust's home turf. The song featured in the trailer is "How It Ends" by DeVotchKa and tells viewers "You already know how this will end," as Dom and Marcus descend below the surface. Let there be no doubt, the commercial is definitely well produced.

We can't help but be reminded of the famous (infamous?) "Mad World" ad that promoted the first Gears of War, which makes sense considering it was created by the same team. Like the "Mad World" ad, "Last Day" is a radical departure from most action game advertising. Of course, that's precisely what makes it stand out. Find the ad after the break.

Our only question now is how long it will take for enterprising filmmakers to start remixing the ad with different music, or throwing the music onto other game commercials. Get to it, internets!

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New Gears 2 footage from GameStop tourny

by Richard Mitchell { Jul 24th 2008 at 1:15PM }

Don't ask how -- because we don't know -- but Joystiq managed to snag the video that will kick off the GameStop Gears of War 2 tournament this Friday. In the video, Epic's Cliff Bleszinski tells GOW fanboys what they can expect from the new game. We also get some nice footage featuring new Locust enemies. Enough talk though, time to watch. Find the video after the break.

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The Gears of War 2 reception in pictures

by Richard Mitchell { Jul 15th 2008 at 1:15AM }

click to embiggen

We're still getting our Gears of War 2 reception at E3. We've gotten a chance to play the game's multiplayer. So far, it's good stuff, and we imagine Gears fans will be pleased. We need to soak up a little bit more before we write up our impressions. In the meantime, check out a gallery of the event itself. Sorry, we're totally barred from capturing any shots of the screens, so you'll have to settle for pictures of the swanky club, Ciudad, where the event is being held in LA. Enjoy.

We'll add more pictures to the gallery when we get a chance.

Gallery: E308: Microsoft Gears of War 2 Reception

X3F at the Gears of War 2 reception

by Richard Mitchell { Jul 14th 2008 at 11:55PM }

You see that? You know what that is? That's a Dustin Burg experiencing pure elation. We're at Microsoft's Gears of War 2 reception. We are playing Gears of War 2. Specifically, we're checking out multiplayer, including the new survival co-op mode called Horde. We'll have impressions up sometime tonight, along with a gallery of the proceedings. You've been warned.

Lots of new Gears 2 footage

by Terrence Stasse { Jul 13th 2008 at 11:30PM }

So the media blitz begins. GameTrailers just put up quite a few new Gears of War 2 videos, kicking off the massive amount of video that's going to hit the tubes during E3. The above video is about 5 minutes of multiplayer gameplay complete with curb stomping and meat shields. The rest of the videos (posted after the break) consist of a single old-map new-map comparison (Gridlock) and map fly-throughs for River, Security, Gridlock, and Day One. Oh, and be wary, this'll use up some serious bandwith.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Rumor: Gears page hints GOW2 release as Nov 9

by Terrence Stasse { Jul 8th 2008 at 4:30PM }

Alright kiddies time for some sleuthing courtesy of the Gears of War Official Forums. The Gears site has a new splash page up (above) and in Marcus' hand are some Dog (Cog?) Tags. Immediately upon discovery, there was the speculation that this meant death and loss would play some larger part in the game's story. But then someone decided to take a closer look at the number sequence visible on the tag: 033-116-117-126-071.

Seemingly random right? Nope. Match those numbers with one of these ASCII tables, and you'll get yourself the following letter string: "ESC N O V 9". We'd love to beleive that this was simply thrown in there to mess with the community, but it seems to be too much of a coincidence to be something wholly meaningless. Is this an early "word" on the release date? We sure hope so.

Hit the break for a closer look at the tags.

[Thanks Laron Alexander]

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CliffyB: No party system in GOW2 would be "a pretty big f*ckup"

by Richard Mitchell { May 14th 2008 at 1:30PM }

Joystiq managed to grab a second of Cliff Bleszinski's time at Microsoft's Spring Showcase yesterday (seems like everyone did). Naturally, the discussion centered around Epic's bigger, badder, more badass sequel to Gears of War, which they have wisely dubbed Gears of War 2. Lots of things are discussed in the interview, ranging from merchandising to how Gears of War pacing will work with hundreds of enemies on screen. The biggest tidbit in the interview, however, centers around the game's online functionality. When asked whether or not Gears of War 2 will feature a party system, Cliffy responded, "I think that if we were not to have a feature like that, it would probably be a pretty big fuckup."

Yeah, that should be enough to pique your interest. Head over to Joystiq for the full interview.

No demo planned for Gears of War 2

by Scott Jon Siegel { Apr 21st 2008 at 2:43PM }

Epic fans hoping for a little pre-release Locust-slaying action will be disappointed to hear that no demo is planned for Gears of War 2. The first taste of the roadie-running action title will have to come when the full version is released sometime in November.

According to associate producer Tanya Jessen, producing a demo takes valuable time out of a game's development cycle, and with a two-year turnaround for Gears 2 a demo was simply not feasible. The first Gears of War also lacked a demo version, and with recent reports that demos aren't as great as publishers think they are, we have to trust that the folks at Epic know exactly what they're doing.

Amazon ceases taking Gears of War 2 pre-orders [update]

by Kyle Orland { Dec 18th 2007 at 1:15PM }

~~Today's~~ Today was the day. After being "announced" over a year ago, Gears of War 2 ~~is now~~ was available for pre-order from Amazon.com. Millions of voracious gamers have reportedly flooded the site in the moments since the announcement, hopeful that their early action will guarantee them a copy of the highly anticipated game. The title is expected to be in incredibly short supply when it's released Nov. 15, 2008.

OK, we'll come clean -- everything in the last paragraph is pretty much made up (except for the [brief] Amazon pre-order, oddly enough). While a Gears sequel seems like a no-brainer (and has been hinted at a few times), the game hasn't been officially announced yet. And while Amazon ~~lists~~ did list Nov. 15, 2008 as the release date, you have just as good a chance at picking the right date by taking a dart to a calendar of Q4 2008. Whenever the release comes, though, we're relatively confident that hundreds of copies will be available at your local Best Buy, making pre-ordering 11 months in advance kind of pointless. Then again, posting "FIRST!" in comments threads is pretty pointless too, and people still do that, so go nuts!

[Original headline: "Pre-order Gears of War 2 ridiculously early"]

Gears of War will be roadie running onto Macs

by Dustin Burg { Jul 17th 2007 at 10:00AM }

We thought we heard the extent of how far Gears of War was willing to stray from its Xbox 360 roots, but now we're hearing about an even further departure. In an interview with Game Head's Geoff Keighley, Mark Rein talked up Unreal Tournament 3 and Gears of War and accidentally let the news slip that both games were headed to the Mac platform. Rein confirmed Gears' Mac-bound status when answering Keighley stating that "yes, Gears is going to come to the Mac and so is UT". The news was not followed by a release date or how far in development the Mac versions are.

Anyone willing to bet that Gears Mac will have even more content than Gears PC all of which won't be available to 360 owners? Anyone? Nobody? Shucks ...

New GoW PC content not coming to the 360

by Dustin Burg { Jul 13th 2007 at 12:30PM }

The Advanced Media Network sat down with Epic's Mark Rein and Cliffy B to chat about their big E3 announcements and learned some sad news about the new Gears of War PC content. When questioned about whether or not the new campaign missions or multiplayer maps announced for the PC version would be headed to the Xbox 360, Rein said it was "unlikely [that] we will bring that content to 360". Cliffy B further emphasized their doubt by stating that "if we didn't have any sort of exclusive on the PC, why would people buy the PC version?". The Epic crew explained that bringing the PC content over to the 360 would be an extremely time consuming task and that they're currently focused on other projects like Unreal Tournament 3.

Being the Gears fan that I am it's hard to hear that new, exciting multiplayer AND campaign content will be available, but not for 360 owners. And no, there's no way I'm personally buying a beefy computer to run Gears of War PC just to experience the new content. No matter how you slice the news it sucks for 360 owners and Gears enthusiasts ... it's simple as that. Now, I'm going to go cry myself to sleep.

[Thanks, Jason S]

Gears of War soundtrack drops July 31st

by Dustin Burg { Jul 6th 2007 at 11:45AM }

Gears fanboys will be excited to know that the sweet, sweet sounds of our beloved Gears of War will soon be lovingly lasered onto a piece of media plastic. The official Gears of War Soundtrack was announced yesterday and will hit major retailers and be available online July 31st. The CD will feature 28 musical tracks that will chronologically take listeners through Gears' campaign and feature the Northwest Symphonia orchestra. Think of the soundtrack as a musical version of the whole "destroyed beauty" motif. Complete list of all 28 tracks are viewable after the break including our favorites "I Will Kryll You" and "Running With Boomers".

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Fanswag: Gears of War Modeling Book Winners

by Dustin Burg { Jul 2nd 2007 at 3:00PM }

Our Gears of War Modeling Book Contest has come to an end and we had some talented folks send in some great Locust creations. Not only did we have some great entries, but we also received entries that weren't really entries. Looking in our inbox we received emails from out of the country (this is a US only contest), entries that didn't include any attached artwork, and entries that were out of the country AND didn't include artwork. Those emails made us laugh and exercise our "delete email" finger. But, in the end, we came away satisfied with the creations our fellow fanboys submitted. So, we bet you are wondering which three entries were chosen to win a copy of Ballistic Publishing's d'artiste: Character Modeling 2, what the Locust creations look like, and if Epic Games will be using the winning designs in the Gears of War sequel. Well, the answers to all those questions and more are posted after the break. Click along and come join our Locust art gallery fun.