Today Midway announced that the Xbox 360 version of Unreal Tournament 3 will hit stores July 7. The Xbox 360 version comes with some pretty nifty exclusive features, including: five maps, two new characters, previously-released DLC and a “never before seen” video preview of Gears of War 2.
Sounds pretty cool, but seeing this game come out so late begs the question, “Do multi-platform games have to be released at the same time to stay relevant?” Feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts.
Hit the jump for the full press release. Continued…
Today details on the Gear of War reissue surfaced. While still not confirmed by Microsoft, GameStop has confirmed that these details are true.
The Gear of War reissue will cost you $39.99 and comes pack with features. Almost all of the features included we have seen before in the form of map packs or Xbox themes; however in the past they have cost money. Now they are included on the disk. Also included on the disk are some Gears of War 2 goodies.
For the full list of features, hit the jump. Continued…
Today at GDC, during the Microsoft keynote, Gears of War 2 was announced. Little is know about the title other than it will be an Xbox 360 exclusive and it will be out in November.
No details on the storyline or co-op modes have been released, but it would be a travesty if Epic and Microsoft proceeded without them. The only thing I hope they add would be more multiplayer modes. Either way, shooter fans everywhere can rejoice that Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago will be back. I know I’m excited.
Expect another post as soon as new information is released.
Read: GDC08: Microsoft and Epic announce Gears of War 2 for Nov. ‘08.
The latest issue of GamePro has news about Microsoft closing a deal to acquire Gears of War developer Epic Games; allegedly, the deal could cost as much as as $1 billion dollars.
Hold on, let me get my giant mound of salt. Okay.
If this turns out to be true, Microsoft would own the much hyped and Epic-developed Unreal Engine 3, used in the already mentioned Gears of War and Unreal Tournament 3.
Right now, this is just a rumor due to many reasons, obviously, and the price is only one of them. DevelopMag has Internet quote machine (and Epic VP) Mark Rein saying that the billion dollar rumor is only half of what Epic is really worth. Continued…
After last week’s Call of Duty 4 takeover, I was ready to sound the bell and end the fight between two of the most popular shooters to ever be released on consoles.
It seems I jumped the gun. Halo 3 retook the number one spot on the Xbox LIVE list this week (measured by unique users), bumping CoD4 down to #2. My personal favorite, Gears of War, is now #5. Whether or not these numbers were directly skewed by the XBL outage is up for debate. However, the olive branch extended by MS definitely affected the results; see below.
Here are the top five:
1. Halo 3
2. Call of Duty 4
3. Guitar Hero III
4. Undertow
5. Gears of War
Curse you, free Undertow!
Read: LIVE Activity for week of 1/21
The M249 SAW is mightier than the plasma grenade according to Xbox 360 users. You’ve voted with your gamepads and it turns out that Call of Duty 4 is now more popular on LIVE than Halo 3.
Here are the top five Xbox 360 games by unique user according to Major Nelson’s blog:
1. Call of Duty 4
2. Halo 3
3. Guitar Hero III
4. Gears of War
5. Rock Band
Perhaps the real surprise is the longevity of Gears of War. I really loved that game and I’m glad it’s still in the top five most played games on LIVE, over a year after its release. That sort of staying power is rare in the console scene, in my opinion.
Maybe Gears will give birth to the next bitterly hardcore e-sports community? Having played extensively, I think it’s a tactical enough game for it to happen.
Read: LIVE Activity for week of 1/14
Despite being a fantastic game, Gears of War had a pretty flimsy story. You take control of Marcus Fenix as he is let out of prison by his friend Dom. Why was he there? Something about a war crime or abandonment or something.
Anyway, Marcus and Dom’s past will be sorted out in the form of a novel. Penned by videogame author Steven L. Kent (The Ultimate History of Videogames and Clone novels), Gears of War - The Pendulum Wars: The Battle of Aspho Fields will be a prequel to the events in the Gears of War game. The first of three books will be released in August where Kent hopes to shed some light on our favorite grub blasting bad asses.
What really intrigues me about this news item is not the actual Gears of War story line, but the idea of novels based in videogame worlds. Does having an established world that kids are familiar with help encourage kids to read? I know when I was younger I picked up a few books that were based in the Starcraft and Diablo universe. What are your thoughts on these books? Lets us know by dropping a comment.
Source: Gears of War gets Novel Prequel
Cliffy B’s Gears of War took home four awards, including Ultimate Game of the Year, in the 25th Annual Golden Joystick Awards at London’s Park Lane Hilton on Friday.
The game also took Xbox Game of the Year, the Editor’s Choice and the Nuts All-Nighter awards.
The winners:
Ultimate Game of the Year: Gears of War
Xbox Game of the Year: Gears of War
PC Game of the Year: The Lord of the Rings: Shadows of Angmar
PlayStation Game of the Year: God of War II
Nintendo Game of the Year: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess Continued…
Videogame artist Jerry O’Flaherty will direct the upcoming computer-animated Thundercats feature film, based on the popular ’80s Saturday morning cartoon series.
O’Flaherty was art director on Gears of War, Unreal Tournament 3 and the Command & Conquer series. Continued…
The World Cyber Games group draw was completed today. This means that not only do we know who meets who in the early stages of the tournament, but also make realistic projections of who will play who in the very final of each competition.
Not all the qualifiers have taken place so far (some of them will be held in late September), but we already know where particular teams and players will be allotted in the group stage. Continued…
Epic Games has acquired a majority stake in People Can Fly, the developer behind Painkiller. The two companies first began collaborating on the PC version of Gears of War.
Besides GoW PC, the Epic and PCF are working on an undisclosed IP, which will be previewed to publishers at the Lepzig Games Convention. Continued…
