Shortly after we’ve all wrapped up in the Unscripted Nights event tonight, Epic Games will unleash the very first look at actual gameplay from Gears of War 2. The trailer is set to hit the Xbox Live Marketplace tonight following the 10PM PST / 1AM EST premiere on Spike TV’s “Gametrailers TV with Geoff Keighley”. It’s supposedly a 2-minute trailer featuring a look at some insane chainsaw duels. I’m really excited to see the new Unreal Engine 3 in action!
It should be one hell of a night tonight with a little thuggin’ with Unscripted Nights followed by some good old fashioned COG Town action to wrap things up. Be ready to thug it up and then download the world premiere gameplay trailer for Gears of War 2 tonight!
[Update] - Check out the video below
Here’s the Gears of War 2 trailer shown at GDC and available in the Xbox Live Marketplace currently. COG TOWN!
The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is about to get interesting finally. It looks like Epic Games and Microsoft are getting ready to unleash Gears of War 2 upon the world. And they’re looking to do that this year…in November! I don’t think anyone doubted this would be a franchise but it’s a bit surprising that November 2008 is the release. I guess Epic works pretty fast.
I imagine we’ll see the first trailer for this game during Microsoft’s keynote and soon thereafter in the Xbox Live Marketplace as part of the Bringing It Home campaign.
Prepare for another Emergence Day!
Epic’s Mark Rein has a little something to say about the noise going around concerning an upcoming issue of Gamepro magazine slated to spill the beans on Gears of War 2. This is madness! Or rather complete nonsense as Mr. Rein put it.
“It is complete nonsense. We have not announced a sequel to Gears of War to Gamepro or anyone else for that matter.” - Mark Rein, Epic Games
I’m sure there is going to be a sequel but it looks like Epic isn’t ready to dish out any details of what we all know is a certainty. Until they’re ready, all of you eager Gears of War 2 heads will have to wait.
Hello. My name is Deacon and welcome to ‘Why I Want Gears of War PC’ or at least why I want a computer that can run Gears of Wars PC. I know that it’s supposed to work with Windows XP (which I have) but that won’t give me the uber experience needed for this game. On top of the visual upgrade and the chance to battle different monsters, Gears of Wars for Games for Windows has a ridiculous level editor called Unreal Editor that gave me a goose bump or two.
I know you don’t believe me so that’s why I attached this video below. It was narrated by Epic Lead Designer Jim Brown. (no not the football player) Take a look at it and you’ll understand why I want to get my little hands on this design tool. Can someone say include this in Gears of War 2 Cliffy?
Video: Gears of War Unreal Editor (Games for Windows)
Major League Gaming (MLG) is the largest organized league and international sanctioning body for the world’s fastest growing competitive sport: professional video gaming and it’s headed to Deacon’s stomping grounds this weekend, July 20-22nd. In the words of The Rock, “Finally, MLG Has Come Back…to Dallas”.
I’ll be headed out to the event at various times to grab some footage of it so I can share with the U360 crowd. If you’re in my area and you want to tag along, send me a message. Or if you’re from Dallas and you’ll be participating, let me know. You can all be a part of the U360 media entourage to help me cover the event for the listeners and readers out there.
Players will be battling across Halo 2, Rainbow Six Vegas and Gears of War from Friday - Sunday. The top prize is up to $20,000! Who’s going to take the crown from Dallas? This is the 3rd event for the 2007 season of MLG. Players are battling for their place in the National Championships. It should be a lot of fun and I’m excited about watching players compete.
It’s time to dust off those Locust Horde killing boots out there! (yeah as if you ever too them off) Xbox LIVE gamers should ready their weapons and prepare for the release of four new action-packed multiplayer maps in the thrilling Hidden Fronts Multiplayer Map Pack including Bullet Marsh, Garden, Process and Subway.
Screenshots: Hidden Fronts Multiplayer Map Pack
Bullet Marsh: In this Kryll-infested swamp, an old generator still powers the area lights. A few stray bullets could easily knock out the generator, leaving combatants to fend for themselves against the Kryll.
Garden: This overgrown and crumbling conservatory still has a working fertilization and pesticide system. This system can pose a serious hazard to anyone who ventures into the greenhouse without first venting the air.
Process: Teams must fight for control of this subterranean Imulsion processing plant, still active despite the cessation of the Pendulum wars.
Subway: Timgad’s Central Subway station used to serve as a central hub for commuters. Now the tunnels are crawling with Locust.
When: Thursday, May 3, at 9 a.m. GMT
How much: 800 Microsoft Points*
*All four of the new maps will be made available at no cost over Xbox LIVE on Sept. 3, 2007.
The next time you fire up Gears of War, you’ll be prompted for an automatic update that will include the new multiplayer mode, Annex (update going live at 4PM PST). You remember me saying something about this right? I have a few screenshots of the COGs and Locust in action.
In Annex, gamers seize victory by keeping control over key map locations, or objectives, long enough to collect a winning number of points. Every map contains two to five identified objectives available for capture, with one objective active at a time. Objectives are based on map weapon-spawn locations and have a potential value of 60 points toward either team’s score. Teams collect those points by maintaining ownership of an objective until all 60 points have been distributed. Every second that a team controls an objective, the team gets one point. When an objective falls to zero points, the next objective is selected at random.
Screenshots: Gears of War Annex
The update will also include several other adjustments to make your Gears of War experience that much better. These include adjustments to VGA cable support, Assassination Multiplayer Gametype, Adjusted Boomshot and many more. Complete details of the update can be found here for discussion.
Gears of War continues to tear through many of our nights over Xbox Live. We’ve played just about every way imagineable it seems or at least we thought. Soon there will be a new way to play Gears of War. Epic plans to release a new game type called Annex on April 9 hopefully in time for the next Unscripted Nights! Here are a few details about Annex.
Objective: Capture and hold key locations to collect enough points to win the round.
Description: In Annex, you win by keeping control over key map locations, or objectives, long enough to collect a winning number of points. Every map has two to five identified objectives available for capture, with one objective active at a time. Objectives are based on map weapon-spawn locations and have a potential value of 60 points toward either team’s score.
The figures are in for last year’s top selling games according to the NDP Group. These sales are total combined sales of a particular game across every platform that it may be available on. There are some interesting titles making their way to this list. Keep in mind that these are U.S. retail sales only. (i’ll share more on this below) I also highlighted the lone Xbox 360 exclusive in the list. Where’s Viva Piñata? You guys better get out and try that game. Shame on you calling yourselves Piñatatans! These are the 2006 Combined Top 10 Video Game Titles, Sorted by Units.
1 Madden NFL 07* 360,Wii,PS3,PSP,NDS, XBX,PS2,GCN,GBA Electronic Arts
2 Cars 360,Wii,PSP,NDS, XBX,PS2,GCN,GBA THQ
3 Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy 360,PSP,NDS, XBX,PS2,GCN,GBA LucasArts
4 NCAA Football 07 360,PSP,XBX,PS2 Electronic Arts
5 New Super Mario Brothers NDS Nintendo
6 Need for Speed: Most Wanted 360,PSP,NDS, XBX,PS2,GCN,GBA Electronic Arts
7 Gears of War** 360 Microsoft
8 Call Of Duty 3 360,Wii, PS3, XBX,PS2,GCN,GBA Activision
9 Lego Star Wars XBX, PS2,GCN,GBA LucasArts
10 Fight Night Round 3 360,PS3,PSP,XBX,PS2 Electronic Arts
*Includes Hall of Fame Edition **Includes Collector’s Edition
I also wanted to share a quote from the NPD Group’s Senior Marketing Manager, David Riley. He shared this with me and I thought I’d pass it along as I saw something in the community today from a member asking about units sold versus shipped. Hopefully this helps a few of you get a better understanding of what the NPD Group does.
“Our data service for our clients helps them understand the U.S. market from the perspective of what is selling to consumers, and gives them an insight into consumer demographics and competitive benchmarking. The hardware manufacturers talk largely to what they have shipped, and often speak to those numbers on a multi-territory basis. The difference between what is shipped to multiple territories from what is sold through to consumers in the U.S. can be one or more of several things. Inventory in transit, inventory in the channel, inventory deployed outside the U.S. - all three of these can contribute to the difference. One thing that doesn’t contribute to the difference is a lack of coverage of any particular retail channel. While we collect actual sales data from a number of significant retail partners, that data is projected to cover the entire U.S. market at 100%, including the “mom & pop” stores. “
