Gears 2 is an awesome game, no one can deny this. But, you also cannot deny that it has its flaws, which are glaring in the matchmaking. As of early this morning, Epic released a patch that promises to fix the issues that were driving gamers nuts. Here is what they fixed:
- Adjustments to make Public matchmaking faster, especially in the single player party and the four player party case. Some of these adjustments should be felt immediately and some will play out over several days as our update enables us to reduce player segmentation by reducing the number of servers required to do matchmaking. This will increase the number of possible matches available for you to join.
- A tweak that should prevent us from losing some of our additional detailed stats data that we gather for gearsofwar.com. Due to the large number of concurrent matches, our stats gathering servers were not able to collect data for every single match played. The Xbox LIVE leaderboards are 100% accurate but our existing stats web pages may have some missing data prior to the update.
- A fix to address the issue where some players were unable to start the story-based campaign if Xbox LIVE was down or unavailable.
I have not had a chance to play the game since the update due to traveling, but if any of you have, let us know if the updates did anything.
We all know that developers and publishers aren’t the biggest fans of used game sales. It cuts into their revenue stream, but makes GameStop and stores like it a ton of cash every year. Many publishers are finding ways to add value to the new game sales to discourage gamers from picking up used copies.
I recently read an article from Stephen Totilo over at MTV’s Multiplayer Blog with his proposal on how developers and publishers can stop used game sales by adding Achievements/Trophies for purchasing a new copy of the game. While I like the idea, I realized that Microsoft and Epic had already implemented their own system when I opened my copy of Gears of War 2.
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Is the Xbox 360 already almost outdated? Are developers alreday looking towards Xbox 720? I hope not. In a recent interview, Epic senior producer Rod Fergusson shared some recent thoughts on where he thinks the Xbox 360 is going and they were not a rousing battle cry to say the least.
I mean, I’m not the technical guy… all I know is that with the two to three more years of optimization that we’ve had, we’re much further along than I think, three years ago, we thought we were going to get.
So I think we’re certainly approaching the upper end of it, as far as what developers are able to do with it, but just looking at all the demos we saw today — ours and others — it’s clear that all the games just keep improving, and keep pushing that bar.
I think it’s just a matter of, you know, it’s a slow cycle; you only get a kick at it every couple years, and so it takes a while for people to see that progress.
There will be games in development that won’t ship until 2010, and I’m sure they’ll look killer, just because, again, they’ll have more time with it, and learn from mistakes and optimizations of others. So, I don’t know; I think we’re getting up there, but I still think there’s room to grow.”
Ok. So does this mean that the best possible games we are going to see on the 360 are almost here and we can expect everything to plateau until the next next gen shows up? I doubt MS appreciates this and I’m sure a response is imminent.
This one got me a bit excited. I’m a huge fan of gaming and sci-fi related books and have read all the Halo novels. It pleases me to hear that Gears of War will be getting a trilogy set of books in the near future. The first book, written by Karen Traviss, will go on sale October 28th, 2008.
In GEARS OF WAR: THE BATTLE OF ASPHO FIELDS, the last human stronghold on Sera braces itself for another onslaught from the Locust Horde, as ghosts come back to haunt Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago. For Marcus — decorated war hero, convicted traitor — the return of an old comrade threatens to dredge up an agonizing secret he’s sworn to keep. As the beleaguered soldiers of the Coalition of Ordered Governments take a last stand to save humankind from extermination, the harrowing decisions made at Aspho Fields have to be relived and made again. Marcus and Dom can take anything the Locust Horde throws at them — but will their friendship survive the truth about Dom’s brother Carlos?
Sounds good to me. I’m sure I’ll pick this one up to check out while I’m playing Gears of War 2 this Fall.
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Some say this was taken out of context, but he said what he said.
“Games aren’t movies and aren’t consumed in a single sitting” explains Bleszinski, “Metal Gear Solid is our example of the game we’re not doing. Passive entertainment is on its way out.”
I would not expect extended cutscenes and active camo in Gears 2. We all knew this already, so why did he take a shot or sorts at what some consider the greatest game of this generation? Some people like run and gun and some like crawl and gun. I, personally just like really fun games. Gears 2 has to be a killer, and I mean, killer app because with GTA IV and MGS4, he could be looking at a bronze medal for Game of the Year at best.
Epic Studios has the Herculean task of improving on one of the most beloved games of this generation. How do they fix what some people called near perfection? Easy. Make the game a shit ton bigger. Cliffy B, head of Epic had this to say when asked about the upcoming blockbuster:
“[Unreal Engine has] never stopped evolving,” Cliff told CVG in San Francisco last week. “The character lighting is vastly improved, the environment is chippable and the tress get knocked down as physics objects.
“There’s just so much shit going on, it’s five times bigger this time. I think it shows the engines got smoother.”
We can all expect something to behold this holiday season when we continue to fight the Locust horde. How much to expect is still in question but everyone involved in the project is convinced GoW2 will be the game to play this Christmas.
[via CVG]
We’ve seen the trailers, we’ve seen the interviews, now we have some pretty screenshots on which to gaze our eyes.
We’ve really only scratched the surface of the game in terms of what has been released and already the hype is extremely high. I hope the final product holds up.
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It seems that every gaming studio is starting to voice their opinions when prompted. The times of biting one’s tongue as to not piss of the powers that be are no longer here. The latest salvo in shit talkin’ goes to Epic president, Michael Capps. When asked if Epic would make software for the Wii, well, just read:
Comparing the Wii to a virus, he explained the epidemic as a chain reaction of sort.When someone sees a Wii, they’ll think it looks cool, buy it, and then stop playing it after two months. But, a friend will see their Wii, think it looks fun, and buy one for themselves. The cycle continues, even though people stop playing their Wiis once the novelty wears off.
Wow. Giant teabag dropped right thurr. Sadly, I have to agree in part here. I acquired a Wii through eBay and probably overpaid. I put a ton of time into Zelda and played a bunch of Smash, but thats it. It looks good in my home entertainent system, yet its collecting dust. Aside from the killer aps, their is not that much to do on it. Online multiplayer is non-existant and besides some drunken bowling, I have not played it much at all. I do have hope for the Wii, but GTA and MGS4 are going to be monsters and for the next few months, many Wii’s will be collecting dust.
Thanks to Fragloser for the tip.
Want to see some locusts get jacked up in cool art styles? Your chance is coming as DC Comics will be brining Marcus, Dom, and all your favorite chainsaw wielding heroes to the comics. The series is set to come from DC’s WildStorm publishing imprint in October.
“Big guns and monsters — what a perfect comic book for WildStorm! We have an opportunity to work closely with Epic to add to the canon of the Gears of War mythos, so you can imagine how excited we all are, said Hank Kanalz, VP – General Manager, WildStorm. “Epic sets the bar very high, in graphics, story, and gameplay — and expect no less from our series, starting with our lead-in arc that fills in the gaps between the first game and the upcoming sequel.”
Could be good. Hopefully they come up with a good storyline and don’t just take what’s in the games.
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Epic is pushing out a huge update for Unreal Tournament 3 on the PS3. The update will come March 27th for both the US and Europe. Most notably, the US and EU versions will be brought up to speed so you can play each other across the pond.
Other fixes include making it easier to import mods, bug fixes, keyboard support fixes, and a ton of other stuff. The list is huge, so check it out after the jump. And make sure to fire up your copy of UT3 on March 27th to get all the new goodies.
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