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Gears of War For-Pay Map Pack Available Free Today

Posted by Paul Hamilton Categories: Downloadable Content, Third Person Shooters, Xbox 360, Xbox Live Marketplace,

Gears of War's Marcus Fenix The Hidden Fronts map pack for the popular Xbox Live title Gears of War, originally offered for 800 Microsoft Points several months back over some protestations from gamers and Epic themselves, is now available for free as promised.

Hidden Fronts includes four new multiplayer maps, Bullet Marsh, Garden, Process and Subway. For those looking to stretch a bit more life out of their Xbox Live multiplayer experience until Halo 3 hits, this may be the way to do it.

Dyack Still Firm on 2008 Release For Too Human

Posted by Paul Hamilton Categories: Microsoft, Release Dates, Xbox 360,

Too Human “It is always darkest before the dawn.”

Those were Denis Dyack‘s melodramatic words in a forum post as a reply to someone expressing frustration and disappointment over the outspoken Silicon Knights founder’s latest project, Too Human. After a disappointing show at the 2006 E3, Too Human fell from view and was conspicuously absent from this year’s E3 aside from a logo displayed during Microsoft’s press conference.

Then, shortly after E3, Silicon Knights filed suit against Epic over their Unreal 3 Engine, licensed by SK, claiming among other things that Epic had withheld valuable resources in favor of working on their own projects like Unreal Tournament 3 and Gears of War. Epic countersued claiming that Silicon Knights was misrepresenting the original contract and lots of public trash-talking and childishness ensued.

Click to continue reading Dyack Still Firm on 2008 Release For Too Human

E3 2007: Check Out The Vehicles In This Unreal Tournament 3 Gameplay Video

Posted by Chris Pereira Categories: E3, First Person Shooters, PC, PlayStation 3, Trailers,

I’m a huge, huge fan of Unreal Tournament – I have been ever since the original was released on PCs nearly a decade ago. It’s about time we got a true sequel, as opposed to the incremental upgrade of Unreal Tournament 2004 (it’s been what, nearly five years since the true sequel in UT 2003?). The gameplay footage above focuses on vehicles quite a bit, but you can tell that this is still the same fast-paced, crazy shooter that made the original game so special. I can’t wait for some next-gen Instagib.

E3 2007: Sony’s Press Conference Recap And Impressions

Posted by Chris Pereira Categories: Action, Activision, Adventure, CAPCOM, Corporate News, Driving, E3, Electronic Arts, First Person Shooters, Hardware, Internet, LucasArts, MMORPG, Mods/Hacks, Music, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PSP, Release Dates, Role Playing Games, SEGA, Sony, Special Editions, Sports, Trailers, Ubisoft,

I’m going to come right out and say it: I’m coming away from Sony’s presentation more impressed than I was either Nintendo’s or Microsoft’s. They were very straightforward and showed exactly what we all wanted to see: the games.

In fact, this was one of the more impressive E3 press conferences in recent memory – check inside to find out why.

Click to continue reading E3 2007: Sony’s Press Conference Recap And Impressions

Gears of War Getting More Achievements With New Title Update

Posted by Chris Pereira Categories: Action, Microsoft, Third Person Shooters, Xbox 360, Xbox Live,

Void of any achievements related to the added-after-the-fact Annex mode or Hidden Fronts maps, Epic will be releasing a title update for Gears of War tomorrow, Thursday, at 2 a.m. GMT (which is 9 p.m. EST tonight, if I’m not mistaken). It will add eight new achievements worth 250 points, improve (read: un-break) the Roadie Run controls, prevent glitches in exploits in the multiplayer, and other various tidbits.

If you’re a real achievement whore and haven’t already picked up the Hidden Fronts map pack (which goes for 800 Microsoft Points, or $10), you might be tempted to do so now. But keep in mind that all four maps included in it will be released for free on September 3.

For release notes and details on the new achievements, check after the break.

Click to continue reading Gears of War Getting More Achievements With New Title Update

New Gears Of War Maps, Patch Coming

Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Internet, Third Person Shooters, Xbox 360, Xbox Live, Xbox Live Marketplace,

Epic will be offering two new free multiplayer maps along with a software patch for Gears of War in the upcoming days. First, on January 9, a software update for the game will be made available. According to a posting from Mark Rein on the Gears forums, the following changes will be made:

Fixed aspect ratio distortion when using VGA cable with 4:3 displays at resolutions higher than 640x480
Fixed voice issue with new players joining Player Match games in progress
Players can now get the Achievement for “Dish Best Served Cold” when using Troika turret to kill RAAM
Fixed rare situation where host could loop countdown and never start match
Fixed rare situation where players could get stuck after chainsawing in multiplayer
Reduced Grenade Tag melee distance
Enabled “Strict” NAT check on host to prevent possible connection issues
Optimized server browser queries to return results more quickly and prevent scroll bars from hiding quality of service icons
Reduced number of possible revives in Execution to match Warzone
Removed host name from Ranked match server browser
Disabled security cameras in Ranked matches
Ranked matches now require balanced teams (3v3 or 4v4)
Increased penalty for quitting a Ranked match to -50 points
Added additional cheat detection code
Additional housekeeping updates

In addition, January 10th will bring two new multiplayer maps, Raven Down and Old Bones. According to John Porcaro at Microsoft’s Gamerscoreblog, the map downloads will be free, thanks to a sponsorship from the Discovery Channel. Gamerscoreblog has descriptions of the maps as well as four screenshots of the new content.

New Gears Of War Promo Site Live

Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Screenshots, Third Person Shooters, Xbox 360,

Gears 48Hrs A new Gears of War promo site has been launched, and gamers that navigate through the creepy interface will be able to find four preview videos of the game, giving more insight into the world of Gears. The link to the site was given through an e-mail sent to gamers that signed up for updates on the Gears of War official site. For those that don’t want to bother going through the interface, Xboxyde has extracted the videos and made them available for streaming on their site.
Read More | Xboxyde

Click to continue reading New Gears Of War Promo Site Live

Gears Of War: $10 Million To Produce

Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Third Person Shooters, Xbox 360,

Mark Rein, VP at Epic Games, recently discussed game budgets at the London Game Summit. According to GamesIndustry.biz, Rein claimed that Gears of War production has cost around $10 million. Rein also put the Gears of War development team at around 20 to 30 people, with a development time of two years.

Rein used this as an example of game development that didn’t require “20, 30 million” dollars like other studios have claimed, but Rein doesn’t include the engine development costs in his estimate; since Epic used the Unreal Engine 3 for the game, they basically got that for free. Rein claimed further savings were achieved by outsourcing development. Rein also slid in a slam at other developers claiming that their budget was held tight because “…smart developers don’t go over [deadline].”

Given the uneven feedback that Gears of War has seen, perhaps they might have wanted to go over their deadline for this release. And for all the independent developers out there looking at breaking into the industry, apparently for an A-list title, all that is needed is $10 million, a free next-generation game engine, and a little outsourced development work.

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