Earning achievements in the first Gears of War will, as Epic has now revealed, unlock some extra goodies in Gears of War 2 multiplayer. It hasn't be announced whether all the unlockable content will only be related to multiplayer as only three of the 'linked achievements' have become public so far.
Legendary Pictures have hopped onboard to co-finance and co-produce the upcoming adaption of Epic Games' Gear of War with New Line cinema. The movie is expected to land summer 2010 with Epic's own 'Cliffy B' as a creative go-between to help the flick stay true to the Gears of War universe.
While the first game did eventually make its way to keyboard and mouse, Bleszinski seems quite adamant that GoW2 won't follow. He says that Gears of War is "first and foremost" a great franchise for Xbox 360 and that's why they're not going to bother with a port "this time around," pity.
In an extensive Q&A with Cliff Bleszinski, Design Director for Epic, Develop revealed that the primary focus for the entire Epic organization will be the Gears of War franchise. Bleszinski said "The person who is savvy enough to upgrade their PC and buy decent video cards, are the same people who know about bit torrent and all other means to pirate PC games. So the high-end computer games are suffering on the PC." He added, "Unreal Tournament III is a game we really care about and it reviewed very well. But Gears is now our primary franchise."
Epic Community Manager SixOkay has published a list of known problems for Gears of War 2 on the official Epic forums, including acknowledgement for the slow matchmaking issues that many gamers have been experiencing. "Please help us out. If you see someone posting or asking about something on this list, direct them to this thread. Also, if your issue isn't on this list, please add it in this thread. It'll help everyone stay organized, and help us track things down MUCH faster."
Gamers have been complaining of having to wait rather long times to get in on the multiplayer action through Gears of War 2's public matchmaking. Epic Games have acknowledged the issue and are working on "some solutions" to sort the mess out but add it's a "complicated issue" as there isn't any one cause.
Epic have announced the arrival of their first patch for Gears of War 2 and believes it "should help with the current matchmaking issues." Some still report woes. Single-player and four-player parties were experiencing the worst of the matchmaking problems as the system struggled to cope. These issues may still last "several days".
The Microsoft Game Studios boss has claimed on Major Nelson's recent podcast that the latest Gears of War game is closing in on 3 million copies sold. Gears of War 2 cleared over 2 million units the weekend it went on sale at the beginning of last month. It joins Fable II as being the most recent of Xbox 360 exclusive titles.
Rumours from US mag EGM that the developer is already hip deep in GoW3 are "total nonsense" says Epic's VP Mark Rein. EGM claim it'll star a "five player co-op experience" and be ready for Christmas 2010. Rein refutes the notion explaining that they're still improving Gears of War 2 at the moment.
Having shown off the map pack DLC during the Spike VGAs, the three maps are now available to grab and have been since the early hours. The "Combustible Map Pack" contains three new maps and the pack is priced at 800 MS points. 'Flood', 'Gold Rush' and 'Fuel Station' are Epic's latest multiplayer offerings.
Epic Games vice president Mark Rein has published a New Year post on the official Gears of War 2 forums, which reveals more information on the previously announced patch for Gears of War 2. "As I mentioned before the break we've been working on a major title update for Gears of War 2," said Rein. "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."
The second Gears of War 2 update has landed today, with online improvements and the fixing of many minor exploits in mind. After yesterday's announcement of new multiplayer achievements, the patch doesn't come as a huge surprise.
Owners of Gears of War for PC have come to discover a problem as from January 28th 2009, the game ceases to play. The games digital certificate has expired, an embarrassing oversight, and one that Epic is keen to sweep away. They're "trying to figure out how and why it happened" says the team.
Garrett Moehring, senior producer at Atari, said they realised the Ghostbusters game needed polishing the moment they nabbed it. The team "didn't add a ton" because of that, but they did work to make it "much more accessible." It's "an action-shooter" with a Gears of War vein to it, though "not as complex."
Epic Games have spilled that players will be able to earn experience in Horde mode, a title update is nearing completion that'll add it in. It was revealed so when some gameplay popped up with earned experience, leading Epic to be grilled on why this was so in Horde mode. There's no time frame for the title update yet.
Recently there's been some whisperings around Gears of War 2, more specifically that it could be blasting Locust on desktops, following in the original's footsteps. Rod Fergusson, Epic man, has confirmed this to be total tosh. He's sorry but there's no hope to be had, reiterating they've said many times there "will not be a Gears 2 PC."
Title update 4 for Epic's Gears of War 2 is done but its "not yet passed certification" and so there's no release date to be announced for the moment. Meanwhile, to appease the fans, executive producer Rod Fergusson has listed the swathe of changes being implemented by the new update. It has general and exploit fixes naturally.
Activision and Infinity Ward obviously thought fans deserved something a little extra, extra special in their Prestige Edition for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. So special in fact it'll help you scope out that mysterious 'bump' in the night, because you videogamer, will be packing your own Night Vision goggles; "fully working, as you'd expect".
The special editions of the top notch games will be retailing this September 18th in Europe, and both games contain all their respective DLC additions bundled on disc. Gears of War 2 will include All Fronts Collection and Road to Ruin DLC, which adds 19 multiplayer maps and a new campaign respectively. Fable II will have Knothole Island and See the Future.
Epic Games' Mike Capps, the big boss, broke many a heart when he declared the next Gears of War instalment won't be arriving until the next lot of consoles did. Luckily he's admitted that was inaccurate to say. Capps has clarified that if a new Gears of War was to arrive in the next "four to five years" it would be on current gen consoles. Panic over.