Gears of War Realm

This weekend Live Free or Die Hard made it’s debut. Along with it was a great cameo that was almost impossible to miss.

During two scenes you got to see our favorite game, Gears of War. Early in the film you see a soon-to-be deceased hacker’s roommate playing the game for about a minute. The game gets a lot of screen time and includes a few good bloody battle shots. Actually more bloody than most the movie is (due to PG-13 rating).

And then later in the film you see that Warlock has the game’s main menu on one of his basement “command center’s” many TVs. Warlock is a cyber-expert who lives in his mom’s basement. He is played perfectly by writer/director/comedic god Kevin Smith.

I say everyone should go out and see the movie, it exceeded my expectations. While different than the other Die Hards, it still fits in among them as one of the better ones.

Tomorrow, June 14th 2007, Microsoft and Epic Games will be delivering a new auto update for Gears of War. This update includes eight new achievements worth 250 more points to be had along with various fixes. It even includes more of Epic Games’ trademark pop culture references for achievement names.

Here is the complete list of new Achievements:

• “THIS! IS! ANNEX!” – Complete 100 multiplayer matches of 3+ rounds in Annex and capture 3 objectives in each match – 40
• “Inconceivable!” – Win 20 rounds of multiplayer matches in Annex by fewer than 5 points – 30
• “Nub Pwn3r” – Win 20 rounds of multiplayer matches in Annex by shutting out the opposing team – 30
• “You Down With E.P.I.C?” – Win a multiplayer match of 3+ rounds in any game type on 6 different downloadable maps – 30
• “Green Thumb” – Win 20 multiplayer matches of 3+ rounds in any game type on the Garden multiplayer map – 30
• “Mind the Gap” – Win 20 multiplayer matches of 3+ rounds in any game type on the Subway multiplayer map – 30
• “All That Juice” – Win 20 multiplayer matches of 3+ rounds in any game type on the Process multiplayer map – 30
• “Purdy Mouth” – Win 20 multiplayer matches of 3+ rounds in any game type on the Bullet Marsh multiplayer map – 30

Along with the new achievements, Epic Games fixed some exploits and random bug fixes. Also it seems they implemented the previously mentioned Roadie Run improvements.

Here are the complete Release Notes for this auto update:

• New Achievements added! Eight new achievements worth a total of 250 points created for playing Annex and the Hidden Fronts Multiplayer Map Pack
• Improved Roadie Run to reduce getting snagged on cover
• Tweaked up the amount of damage done by the Lancer Assault Rifle in multiplayer
• Fixed split-screen players interrupting the other player’s actions when they die
• Stopped Annex scoring whenever a “Connection Error” dialog box is displayed
• Reduced the duration that corpses remain visible when hosting an Annex match
• Reduced the range of possible Annex bleed-out times selectable by host
• Addressed a number of multiplayer exploits
• Addressed other general housekeeping

Well we had heard about new maps being completed and waiting for us, but no release date was ever mentioned. Well it’s now been revealed that Thursday, May 3rd is the release date for the new maps. They will cost us 800 Microsoft Points, unless you wait until September 3rd after which they will be free.

Below is the official press release from Microsoft:

On Thursday, May 3, at 9 a.m. GMT, Xbox LIVE® gamers should ready their weapons and prepare for battle as “Gears of War®”, rated M for Mature, releases four new action-packed multiplayer maps in the thrilling “Hidden Fronts” Multiplayer Map Pack. For 800 Microsoft points, COG soldiers and the Locust Horde will clash once again for control of these four dynamic new areas, including Bullet Marsh, Garden, Process and Subway.

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.

The “Hidden Fronts” Multiplayer Map Pack will explode onto Xbox LIVE Marketplace on May 3 for 800 Microsoft Points as gamers steady their aim, pull the pin from their grenades and get ready to battle once more! All four of the new maps will be made available at no cost over Xbox LIVE on Sept. 3, 2007.

I guess I know what I’ll be doing on Thursday night, how about the rest of you?

Have you wanted to run your own online tournament with friends? Ever annoyed at trying to manage the ladder, matches, etc on paper? Well some impressive work has been done to make this easier on you by bringing you the website, gearsofwartournaments.com.

Here is a quick description of the website from one of the creators.

GearsOfWarTournaments is a 100% user-run tournament site, hosting any flavour of GOW match (1v1 through 4v4, Annex/other modes/anything) with a ranking system for teams and users. It manages the matchups, tourney progress and then xp from your wins/losses, while letting you blog, create tournaments and join on your own.

I think it’s really handy and can be of a real use for those wanting to run a tournament. Be sure to give them your feedback too so they can continue to evolve their site.

On that note, how would people feel about managing a local tournament with other Gears Of War Realm readers?

Was anyone wondering why the leaderboards were not reset for the Gears of War Tournament that was to start on April 9th? Well today we got the answer, it seems the leaderboards did not get reset as planned so the tournament will restart tomorrow, April 20th, 2007. Thusly, the tournament end date has been pushed back until May 13th, 2007. Here are the details straight from Microsoft themselves with further details.

Gamers aiming to participate in the “Gears of War” Global Xbox LIVE Tournament can lower their weapons and start training behind the scenes as technical issues have delayed the Leaderboard re-set previously scheduled for 12:01 a.m. GMT on April 9, 2007. Tournament play has been scheduled to resume on or about 12:01 a.m. GMT on Friday, April 20, 2007, and the tournament will continue until 11:59 p.m. GMT on Sunday, May 13, 2007. Additionally, tournament registration has been extended until Saturday, May 12, ending at 11:59 p.m. GMT.

Good luck to all those involved, and hope the first two weeks of the tournament served for a good practice run for you!

After playing some Annex over the weekend, I noticed a lot of people complaining about getting stuck to walls. It happened to me a few times as well, but I thought it was just because I hadn’t played in such a long time. Well it appears the recent update made some changes to the rules revolving getting into cover while doing the Roadie Run. Because users were used to the old system, they would wind up sticking into cover like Velcro if they got too close.

To save the day and end the debates, Rod Fergusson the Producer of Gears of War popped over to the forums to made a posting over at Epic Games’ Gears of War Forums about it. He basically said they made changes to improve it, but after the complaints will go yet another direction. Now they will be testing out combining the old way with aspects of the new way to get the best of both worlds.

I’m sure we’ll hear more about this as the next update gets closer to release, which I’m sure will be quite a ways off.

[From Xbox 360 Fanboy]

As promised here is the video of the new Gears of War gametype Annex. Below you can find an easy streaming Flash video, along with Quicktime HD, iPod and PSP formats for video playback.

Get the latest Flash Player to see this player.

Downloadable Video Formats

(Right Click To Save File To Your Computer)

I just got an email from the folks at Microsoft indicating that the Gears of War title update was to hit last night, April 9th 2007, at 4pm PDT. Since I was out seeing Grindhouse, kick ass movie btw, I missed this email and the update. I’ll check the update out tonight, and report back.

Here is the official list of fixes in the Gears of War April Title Update, most of the game play elements were changed for the multiplayer game for game balance reasons.

• Annex: 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.
• VGA Cable Support: Monitor resolution widths greater than or equal to 1280 now render as letterbox. In particular VGA users running at 1280×1024 will now see the game in full 720p (1280×720) resolution in letterboxed form.
• Adjusted Assassination Multiplayer Gametype: Leader no longer has to unlock weapons and now has to be executed to die.
• Adjusted Boomshot: Splash damage to be more effective rendering targets down-but-not-out
• Adjusted Hammer of Dawn: Aiming will be more forgiving of moving targets
• Adjusted Roadie Run: Reduced frequency of accidently grabbing cover while running
• Kill Message Ticker: Ticker can now be seen while down-but-not-out and spectating
• General: Addressed a number of possible exploits in multiplayer

I’ll also be updating the Gears of War Wiki with anything that may need updating in relation to this update.

UPDATE 11:00AM CST – Here are a few screenshots sent to us by Microsoft. They also sent along some video which I am working on encoding up for everyone as I type this, I should have that up tonight if all goes well. Click the thumbnails below for some High Resolution 720p shots.

The folks over at the 1UP Yours Podcast called up the Epic Games‘ founder and CEO Tim Sweeny to discuss Gears of War. During the interview, Tim mentioned some additional content coming up for Gears of War. They have an additional four maps that they have created and want to give away, but Microsoft is not seeing eye to eye with Epic Games. He also made mention of the upcoming Gears of War update, saying the update (that includes the new game type Annex) will be free, as we expected. But no date of release is currently known, as it’s still going through the certification process at Microsoft.

Here is the quote of what Tim had to say on the podcast:

With Gears of War we’ve gone through our own effort and built a bunch of different maps that are free for download. We already released two and we have four more maps that we’ve built. We’ve been willing to give them away for a long time, but actually Microsoft has been pushing back on us. They’re trying to build this business model around selling additional content for games and and that’s a valid idea, but we would definitely like to release more stuff for free, and we haven’t been able to do so yet, which is unfortunate, I mean there are a lot of good business reasons for releasing free content for a game. First of all you want to increase the player base and keep the game alive and the business reason, right now trade-ins of console games are a big issue. If people hold on to our game longer, or forever because we release more stuff over a time for free than that’s a good business incentive for us. But we haven’t been able to do that so far because of Microsoft’s business strategy around selling content.

[From: Game Stooge]

Last week, news hit mentioning a new Gears of War. Among the bug fixes, like more VGA tweaks, word was a new multiplayer game type called Annex.

Well today more details on that game type has come to light. It is a “King of the Hill” variant, that actually appears to be very similar to Halo 2′s Team Crazy King game type. The game type will feature respawning, which is a first for Gears of War, every fifteen seconds and also unlimited lives.

A nice addition is that the map’s “hills” are going to be located around key weapons in the map. Giving the team controlling the hill access to that weapon. Each map will have as little as 2 or as many as 5 “hills.” For more details check

This makes a good addition just in time for next week’s Global Tournament.