Video Games Today

Earlier this week, we reported a rumor that Gears of War 3 would be announced on CliffyB's late night appearance. Well, Clffy's been rescheduled to this upcoming Monday...but I guess someone forgot to tell the Inside Xbox crew. The Xbox team prematurely put the release date of Gears 3 on the Xbox Dashboard of Xbox Live members, because CliffyB was supposed to announce it the night before. This "leak" has now been removed from your Xbox, and Microsoft is refusing to comment. But we'd say it looks like our rumor was true. The "leak" does not mention specific dates, besides April 2011; but it is safe to assume, since our sources have been right so far, that April 11th, 2011 is the EPIC date.

Source: http://www.joystiq.com/2010/04/09/gears-of-war-3-announced-by-your-xbox/

Enjoy!
The VGToday Crew

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Wondering when your favorite chainsaw wielding friends will be returning? Well, we might have a clue. According to "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon", EPIC Games' game developer Cliff Bleszinski will be appearing this Thursday night to announce "his next game". Could this be Gears of War 3, or is this bogus? Hit the jump to find out!

First, let's start out with a quote from the Kotaku article on this appearance on "Late Night":

The host of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon writes that the design director for popular Xbox 360 exclusive Gears of War will be on his show next week to debut his next game.

Game developer Cliff Bleszinski, who worked on both Gears of War and Gears of War 2, has not yet talked about when the final game in the trilogy will hit the Xbox 360. And it may not be Gears of War 3 that Bleszinski will be talking about.

Reached for comment this evening, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon producer Gavin Purcell told Kotaku that Bleszinski's appearance will include a chat with the show's host. He declined to say what game they would be talking about, but said it is very exciting.

In addition, we spotted this on Jimmy's twitter:

Game designer Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) debuts his new game on Late Night next Thur. Set your TiVos! And your Xboxes.

This could spark some interest? Notice how Fallon specified "Xboxes", and how Gears of War has been an Xbox Exclusive game thus far. Now, we'd like to mention that it seems only natural that Bleszinski's next game is Gears of War 3, because of the current Microsoft release schedule. Normally, Microsoft likes to spread out it's exclusive games, and have one major one a year. Here's how it's went so far:

• November 7th, 2006 - Gears of War
• September 25th, 2007 - Halo 3
• November 7th, 2008 - Gears of War 2
• September 22nd, 2009 - Halo 3: ODST
• -[?]-, 2010 - Gears of War 3?
  

So, you see how it makes sense to release Gears 3 this year, maybe on November 7th like the other two. One problem, Halo: Reach. Does it seem likely that Microsoft would release a Halo title, and a Gears of War title in the same year, or even in Q4 together? Very unlikely.

On to evidence #2. Edge Online reported in March that EPIC would release a trailer for Gears 3 on April 8th. April 8th? Yes, that is correct. That is the night CliffyB is expected to be on Jimmy Fallon. Interesting?

Well, Edge also continues to say that "Gears Of War 3 Releasing April 2011", and:

We understand that the game could be completed as early as this year, but that Microsoft is keen to release it during a different window to Halo: Reach – rumoured to be launching in September 2010 – and Natal, which is set to arrive this holiday.

“Microsoft’s keen to avoid a clash with Halo: Reach and wants Natal to own Christmas. That’s why we won’t be seeing Gears Of War 3 until next year, but expect a major marketing push ahead of its release,” said our source.

So now this is starting to make sense, to avoid the Halo and Gears collision in Q4 2010 (Like we described above). This evidence is also supported by what EPIC's Vice-President, Mark Rein, had to say to G4TV:

"We don't have any games coming out in 2010," said Rein, "so from a games standpoint, it's more about our customers' games, right? Already this year we've seen some pretty great games this year...so that'll be kinda cool."

So, to us, it seems like Gears 3 will have to wait until 2011 to make it's bloody debut. Although, these are just rumors. Don't take all of this like it's confirmed. We are just giving you the information out there, you make your own conclusions! But just in case, set your calenders for April 11th 2011!

Enjoy!
The VGToday Crew

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Enjoy!
The VGToday Crew

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A sad day for those who spent an actual 10$ just to get the golden lancer that was supposed to be exclusive to the Limited Edition. EPIC and Microsoft have released the gold plated lancer for free to all Gold and Silver Xbox Live members to use. No word on if the Midnight Mayhem Exclusive Golden Hammerburst will be coming for free soon.

Download: http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/games/media/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d8024d53082d/?p=1&of=6&sb=1&did=0ccf0001-0000-4000-8000-00004d53082d

EDIT: Microsoft goes "oops!"! They said adding the lancer to the marketplace was a mistake, and will be removed shortly. More information on this soon, once it happens!

Enjoy!
The VGToday Crew

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First off, welcome to VGtoday's new little "column" that will be published weekly, or biweekly, that will give you tips and/or guides on how to get those precious achievements. This week we discuss how to rack up a good 175 gamerscore easy, with the new Gears of War 2 DLC Achievements!

More Mystery, Less History (15g): For this you need to win a multiplayer match on each Flashback map pack and it cannot be Wingman. Just go into a private match and put 1 bot on casual on execution, and make the round limit "1". Do this for each map, and you will have the achievement in about 5 minutes.
Bound by a Shared Past (15g): This is the same thing as "More Mystery, Less History" except you must win on each map on Wingman. Just put the settings on 9 bots on casual and round limit on "10" and you should have the achievements in no time.
The Roof! The Roof! The Roof... (15g): Read "More Mystery, Less History" and just do that on the combustible maps.
Forged in the Fire (15g): Read "Bound by a Shared Past" and just do that on the combustible maps.
Skeletons in your Closet (20g) & Trial by, and on, Fire (20g): These are some of the more time consuming achievements on this DLC pack. If you put the Horde mode on casual you should reach wave 10 in about 15-25 minutes depnding on how fast you go. You must do it on each map so 15-25 minutes on 8 maps should take you roughly 2 Hours - 3 Hours 20 Minutes for 40 gamerscore.
Annex: Now With Execution Rules (75G) : Note, this is the ONLY achievement in this bunch that MUST be played in a public match, which means you CANNOT boost this in private matches. Just load up the Flashback or Combustable map pack and try and get annex. It should not be too difficult because EPIC increased the chances of annex showing up in those playlists.

Good Luck!
The VGToday Crew

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That is right, for people who did not get the code in their copy of Gears 2 or if you bought the game used, you're in luck! The Map Pack is now available on the XBLM for a cheap price of 5$ (400 Microsoft Points). Sure, it should be free...but for those that got the game used (Priced at 54.00$ Used), you saved 1$ overall! Here at VGToday wish that Epic would just migrate the Flashback maps into the normal playlists and not have a seperate playlist just for Flashback...same for combustable, but thats never going to happen.


Enjoy!
The VGToday Crew

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You heard it right, Epic is acknowledging the bugs in the currently multiplayer game and promises to fix them. Included are fixes for melee through walls, shotgun and boomshot blasts going straight down when fired from the hip, and much more! Mark Rein from Epic made the announcement on the Epic Forums, here is what he had to say:

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.

Enjoy!
The VGToday Crew

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You heard it right, Soulja Boy has created a Gears of War 2 montage that was posted on his official youtube channel. Whether or not this is really "Soulja Boy" playing, is yet to be confirmed. If you are interested in seeing your "favorite" hip-hop artist playing Gears 2, be sure to watch the above video.

Enjoy!
The VGToday Crew

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Even though this is merely an internet prank, I thought it to be funny enough to post it for everyone to see...and get GearsRoll'd at. Be sure to spread it around.

Enjoy!
The VGToday Crew

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1. Leavers/Long Matchmaking Times: The multiplayer in Gears 2 is broken, as most people are aware. It takes a long while to find a game without a full party of five people, even then, on some playlists it takes a long time with the party. If you can get past the wait, then you get to the real problem with this matchmaking system. In contrast to popular opinion, I like the Halo-esque matchmaking for Gears, and the voting makes good variation in gametypes and maps. In Gears 1 you only ever saw Warzone on Gridlock, now it is randomly voted on. The real problem though is if someone leaves the game. Epic tried to stop people from leaving games by making no "Quit" button in the start menu. This is easily overcome by going to the dashboard, or just turning off your xbox. Unlike games like Call of Duty, when you lose a player on your team...a new player that is matchmaking CANNOT jump into the game in progress. This effectively makes games broken if someone leaves, and increases Matchmaking times. Epic seems to think that the matchmaking is a bug in the coding or networking, it is not. I have come to the conclusion that the wait times happen because people cannot jump into games in progress. Most of the time, when playing a CoD Series game, you will get in a game in progress rather than a brand new one. This makes the load extremely short. Maybe Epic should learn from CoD.
2. Laziness From Epic: As seen in Gears 1, Epic never cares about fixing major game breaking bugs as long as they rake in some "hard earned" cash. Epic is all about profit, as seen from the map packs...but I'll talk about that later down this post. An example is that in Gears 1, "crab-walking" was never fixed. This was a glitch where a user could run and shoot at the same time, effectively breaking the multiplayer experience. In Gears 2, it has similar issues. I will not go into great detail in this section, so I'll give one example. The shield glitch is my example for today. The shield glitch is where a user can pick up the shield and hold his shot gun at the same time. Normally, you can only have a pistol out with your shield, making the shield fair. With a shotgun, you can see how the game become broken. Do not get me wrong, I know all games have bugs and glitches when released, but it is inexcusable when the game has GAME BREAKING glitches/bugs. And if there is a game breaking bug, it should be fixed promptly by the developer. Many people say to give Epic time, but we did that with the crab walking, but it is still there.
3. Lack of Playtesting: This expands on the laziness of Epic, and/or shows that Microsoft makes developers rush products out...as we all know they do. Over the past week numerous problems have arisen that SHOULD have been seen and fixed during playtesting. One of these things has to do with walls having no density. On most walls in multiplayer matches, if they are relatively thin, you can melee right through them at an enemy on the other side of the wall. (Here is the link to the video) I am not going to go on, and on, about this topic since the video clearly conveys my point.
4. Lag Switching: This is probably the single, largest problem with the multiplayer aspect of the game. In case none of you know what this is, it is when someone turns their modem on Standby and everyone in the game lags, except the person on standby. Effectively making them win the game 9 times out of 10. This has happened numerous time to me when playing RANKED matches, where my stats count. This gets me irritated, how can Epic ignore such a HUGE problem? This should also have been known about in playtesting, or fixed immediatly after release. It is breaking the online experience, and makes me want to sell my game back for something that I know is quality. Let's just hope Microsoft jumps on the banhammer for these cheaters, and be sure to file a complaint for "System Tempering" if a lag switching occurs to you.
5. All the Little Things:

• Host Advantage: Epic said it was fixed from Gears 1, they lied. Host advantage is not as profound in Gears 2 due to the new matchmaking system...but it still exists. The problem mainly occurs when you shoot someone at the same time, or a little bit before or after.
  
• Chainsaw: Before someone comes and complains that get killed by the chainsaw alot, and I'm just complaining...well, I am. The chainsaw is utterly ridiculous in this game. In Gears 1 I had NO problem getting killed by the "noob" one hit kill weapons, because I had a chance to stop it! In Gears 2, I have unloaded nearly 4 shotgun blasts into the target and he still walks right up to me and chainsaws.
• Chainsaw Lunges: When did the chainsaw become the Energy Sword Epic? Now, when in multiplayer matches, if you are within a foot or two of a chainsaw, the player revving his chainsaw will literally "lunge" at you and kill you. For a better example, think of the Halo 3 Energy Sword. A player can lunge at an enemy with the sword to kill him from a fair distance away, this should NOT happen with the chainsaw. This makes it so you cannot dive or run away from the chainsaw.
• Alot of other stuff: Frankly, I'm tired of talking about Gears 2 right now. I know there is alot more stuff to talk about, but I am done. Do not get me wrong, Gears 2 is a fun game and I have logged in over 30 hours playtime in the game. Sometimes the game just makes me want to sell it back, because some of these faults are inexcusable...and should NOT have been released with the game. Shame on Epic.

Disagree, or agree, with me? Leave a comment with your opinions! We love to hear from the community.

Enjoy!
The VGToday Crew

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Epic Game's latest blockbuster release Gears of War 2 only held it's grip on the number one seat of the xbox live charts for a short while. It has now fallen down to the number four seat. Halo 3 is back to the number one, followed by CoD:WaW and CoD4...then Gears 2. This also means even slower matchmaking for the Gears folks. Hopefully those Christmas Sales will boost Cliffy B's confidence again, and ours!

Enjoy!
The VGToday Crew

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Enjoy!
The VGToday Crew

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Gears of War 2 is one of this year's most anticipated Xbox 360 exclusive titles. Gears 2 is designed by Epic Games and published by Microsoft Game Studios. This is a sequel to the Xbox 360 blockbuster, Gears of War. The game was announced during the 2008 Game Developers Conference by Cliff "Cliffy B" Bleszinski to be "Bigger, Better, and more Badass".

You play as Marcus Fenix, as in the first game, with your partner Dom Santiago. The game has added an extra mode of difficultly to try and sell some of the more "casual" gamers. "Casual" mode from Gears of War is now called "Normal", and "Casual" in Gears 2 is basically the easiest mode in a shooter you will ever encounter. The game starts you out in the last human refuge, Jacinto. Jacinto is the one city that cannot be sunk by the Locust, or so we are to think. You are told the Locust are advancing on Jacinto, and are becoming more "desperate". You are then put in command of Benjamen Carmine. This Carmine is one of the brothers of Anthony Carmine, from Gears of War.

The single player experience is a great improvement over the first installment. It is longer, and generally more of an actual experience. The first game was, and still is, criticized for the sever lack of story. Gears 2 follows the fight against the Locust, along with the side story of Dom and his long-lost wife Maria. The game should take you around 8-14 hours of game time to finish, depending on the level of difficultly you are on. Also, if you wish to get the 1000/1000 gamerscore for the game, you must play through a second time to play on the "Insane" difficultly mode. The difficultly of Insane seems "pumped" up from the first game, due to the improved AI and certain weapon balancing. The Lancer now nearly stops an opponent in his tracks due to "Stopping Power", and the shot gun only gets a "1 hit kill" if you are right next to the enemy. No longer will you see shotgun battles.

The story may not be a classic, but it atleast gives players a reason to be interested in why things are happening. The ending of the game does seem to come to an end abruptly, but it worked. Do not expect a Halo 2, stopping in the middle of a cut scene ending. The story leaves the series wide open for Gears of War 3.

The multiplayer is where this game really excels. Epic has brought in a new Matchmaking System, similar to the Halo 3 matchmaking, replacing the old lobby system seen in Gears of War. The system has had it's problems, including the long waits to find matches when you are alone, or in a four person group. Epic recently released a title update to Gears 2 that seems to have fixed that issue. There is also a ranking system on this installment. It is based off of Microsoft's True Skill, and includes 5 different ranks. These ranks, since they use True Skill, are only based on Wins and Loses in public matches. So no need to cry over a kill being stolen.


Overall, Gears 2 is not a "Gears 1.5". It is it's own single player experience that expands off of the original "story", or lack of one, and makes a really great single player campaign that wants you coming back for the next installment. Also, the multiplayer is a great improvement and will hold lots of fun for a long time to come, along with Horde mode keeping you entertained for hours on end.

Gears of War 2 gets an:
A
Pass -- Rent -- Buy
Enjoy,
Max Burke
VGToday Management; Review Crew

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7-Eleven once again is breaking street dates for video games. As reported two weeks ago, 7-Eleven leaked several Gears of War 2 copies. These leaks were due to the sales persons not reading the "Do Not Sell Before ****" sticker. Now, this week, reports of World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King being sold at 7-Eleven are up. Apparently, another unaware sales person sold a copy of the game without reading the sticker on the box that clearly stated NOT to sell the game before the said release date. Sarcastic Gamer's Lono reported going to a local 7-Eleven and asking for a copy of Gears of War 2 before the intended release date. He says he asked for a copy of the game and the sales person was going to sell it to him, but she could not find where the copies were.

So if you're looking for games before their release, head over to 7-Eleven the week of release and see if you can a faulty sales person. Microsoft and 7-Eleven have not made any statements thus far.

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Epic Games released this statement on the multiplayer matchmaking issue on Gears of War 2:

This is an issue that’s affecting some folks, and [we] are...looking into it. I'll let you know more details as I have them. In the mean time, try to go back to the dashboard and use it to test the network connection. Re-sign in to see if you have better results. This has worked for some people for the time being.

Hopefully they can fix this issue, as many people have reported waiting up to 40 minutes for a single game. To help improve matchmaking times try these tips:

• Choose the "Player's Choice" or "Horde" matchmaking playlists.
• Go check your NAT, if it is not "Open" that may be your problem. Call Xbox Support at: 1-800-4MYXBOX
• Search for a game, wait 2 minutes, cancel matchmaking, wait on menu's for 2 minutes, resume matchmaking.
• Unplug, then plug in your router.

If those do not help, then you will have to wait for Epic and Microsoft to release a patch.

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After one day (24 Hours) of no Xbox Live worldwide, it is back. Incase you didnt know what this update was, here is what Major Nelson said:

On Monday, 9/29/2008 from 12:01 AM PST for up to 24 hours, Xbox Live will be offline for maintenance. As a result, Xbox LIVE and the ‘My Xbox’ section of Xbox.com will be unavailable, and the Xbox forums will be in read only mode (you won’t be able to post.) The remainder of Xbox.com will be available with limited interruptions.

This service maintenance is in preparation for the new Xbox experience which will be available later this fall.

Let me reiterate: When the service returns, you will not have any new features and you will not have the new Xbox experience update. That will happen later this Fall.

So I will once again say for everyone that you will NOT be getting the new experience when you turn on your Xbox today.

Anyways, Xbox Live is back online and hit me up if you want to play, my gamertag is at the right.

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Welcome to my new blog. I have been in the "blogging business" for awhile now, and have blogs on Affiliate Marketing, and a blog on just general things I want to rant about. I closed those down so I could open up my own blog here and focus primarily on it.

This blog will contain reviews, previews, interviews (Hopefully!), editorials, and much more. I hope you will stick around and bare with me as I get some blogs up to start me off. I'd appreciate to have you subscribe to the blog, and/or even "follow" me, if you are a Blogger.com user.

That is it for my opening post, hope to write more soon. Until then,
Lava~

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