Gears of War 2

[Hendo]

Big up to Franklin - he never dies.

Motherfucker's goin deeper. Shiiiiiiit.

[Oliath]

Yeah bit of a let down and also rubbish that the 'single player' expansion they release is infact just stuff that was too shit to put into the real game.

I also hate how you have to watch that TWAT cliffy talk about the scene every time you want to play it.... grrr

The new multiplayer/horde maps are very cool though. Lots of old favourites in there along with some nice new ones. My favourite is the map called nowhere which is some dusty ghost town in the middle of the desert complete with run down diner. Every so often a dust storm will kick up and obscure visibility making it a perfect time to run in closer to your enemy or get into position to flank them.

They also added exp into horde now so you can rank up even if you dont enjoy the online multiplayer which i think is a good feature.

[hinn888]

Still playing Gears of War 2 online? Good. Then this piece of news is for you. Epic has released a huge title update for the game, fixing a whole list of issues relating to exploits, game types, weaponry and more.

You might also notice that Epic is planning a dramatic reduction to the cost of the All Fronts Collection too.

There's a long, long list of fixes, so we'll keep this bit short. The patch should be available in about a week according to Gears of War forum posts.

* Adds a new public multiplayer match option called Social Xbox LIVE (aka player matches), open to anyone who owns all downloadable maps (that is, All Fronts Collection). We’ll be having a promotion that will dramatically reduce the cost of the All Fronts Collection.

* You can join Social Matches in progress and can quit any time without penalty, although players who quit a match early don’t receive earned experience (XP) from that match.

* Social matchmaking lets your party join a match in progress. If a match is not found, your party hosts a new match, filling any empty player slots with bots.

* Social Matches automatically cycle to the next map without further matchmaking.

* Teams are rebalanced between matches based on XP level without splitting parties.

* If you quit, your spot is taken by a bot until a new player joins the match. That new player can join while the match is in progress.

* If you join a match in progress, you are assigned a team based on XP level and party size.

* If you join a match in progress, you replace a bot at the earliest opportunity: at the first bot’s death for respawning game types (for example, Annex) and at round completion for Warzone, Execution, and Wingman.

* Social leaderboards become part of the War Journal.

* Renames Public Matches to Ranked Xbox LIVE Matches to differentiate these from Social Xbox LIVE Matches, and adds some improvements to these matches.

* Improved host selection using bandwidth testing and previous hosting data has been added.

* Before the match begins, teams are balanced based on XP without splitting parties.

* Renames Private Matches to Custom Xbox LIVE Matches and makes these matches invite-only.

* Adds the ability to join Horde sessions that are in progress.

* In Social Horde, you can join a session in progress through matchmaking and you are able to continue your session from the last wave you failed without starting over.

* In Ranked Horde, you can join a session in progress only through invites.

* If you join a session in progress, at the end of the session you receive the score you achieved during the time you spent in the session.

* Improves the precision of weapon selection using the D-pad.

* Improves client-side hit detection for ballistic weapons.

Exploit Fixes

Title Update 6 fixes these possible exploits, where under certain circumstances:

* Execution rules could be ignored when using certain weapon types.

* On the Subway map, you could get outside of the playable environment by sliding into cover and rolling between a train car and the side of tracks.

* On the Blood Drive map, you could get outside of the playable environment in various locations.

* Players could grief other players on Submission, Annex, King of the Hill, and Guardian games by preventing the objective from being completed while racking up experience. Title Update 6 adds match time limits to each of these game types to prevent this practice.

General Fixes

Title Update 6 fixes these other issues as well:

* An issue that could cause your profile to be overwritten, erasing XP level, and achievement progress.

* An issue that could cause a campaign save slot to be overwritten if you previously chose to continue without saving and then signed in.

Balancing

Title Update 6 makes these balancing changes:

* Changes the Gnasher Shotgun pellet pattern to increase hit consistency.

* Changes the Guardian game type to select the leader based upon XP level (highest to lowest).

[Sly Reflex]

That's good news.

[retroed]

Funnily enough, I started playing the single player of this again this morning after picking it up on the cheap. I've carried on from where I left off in November 2008, at the start of Chapter 3. I'm now at the driving section of that chapter, and am right back into it. I'm not quite sure why I stopped playing it back then, and I ended up getting rid of it because I was going through a hardcore purging stage a few months back. I've been after it for a while to finish off the campaign, the multiplayer holds no interest to me.

[Sly Reflex]

You should at least give Horde a go, it da bomb.

[Oliath]

Funnily enough, I started playing the single player of this again this morning after picking it up on the cheap. I've carried on from where I left off in November 2008, at the start of Chapter 3. I'm now at the driving section of that chapter, and am right back into it. I'm not quite sure why I stopped playing it back then, and I ended up getting rid of it because I was going through a hardcore purging stage a few months back. I've been after it for a while to finish off the campaign, the multiplayer holds no interest to me.

Eerie. Becuase i have done exactly the same.

Also the patch is fantastic. Before i could not find a single game in Singapore. Even if i left it searching for an hour.

Now i can hop into a game in minutes and really dont suffer from lag too badly.

Turns out in a previous patch Epic decided the best way to fix the lag was to put a ping limit on the game search so anyone higher than 150 was cut out of multiplayer. Fantastic for people not in America. Utter bloody disgrace too cutting off customers like that.

Thankfully this new patch has more than redeemed themselves and the multiplayer is worth a look at for anyone that was remotely interested in it before.

[retroed]

I played through all of Act 4, and the first chapter of the final act, tonight. It's good, throw your brain to one side and enjoy the ride fun, and that's exactly what I need from time to time. I should have it wrapped up by the weekend. I like to take my time with these things, you may have noticed.

[Hendo]

A mate that I went through Gears 1 with (and made me want to buy a 360 for) has finally decided to finish this so we've carried on from where we were and we're not far from the end - last chapter of Act 5, Cole did his Queen-baiting speech.

It's surprising that I've noticed the graphical differences between this and Gears 3, also a fuck ton less things and characters to unlock.

Depresses me though that I have only 9 achievements left. One of them is the Seriously one though and I'm currently sitting at 8540 kills out of 100,000 so it's never going to happen.

Also, I miss being able to spot enemies.

[dante76]

Just shout "They're over there" at the TV. About as effective.

[Hendo]

Yeah but there's something satisfying about clicking in the stick over an enemy's head.

[bellow]

A quality bump, I'm sure you'll agree?.

 

I wasn't going to bother digging up this thread. Thought I'd just get thru the game and mention it in 'completed games' but it's just so feckin' epic. I can't even think of a game I've played that has this kind of flamboyant scale. God knows what the budget was. Doesn't look that bad either, considering the version you get on gamepass is just the straight up 360 cut. No ultimate version this time.

 

It doesn't really need it.

[bellow]

Yeah, I grabbed an unused base model Xbox one off a mate so I could carry on with my various Xbox adventures (Gears being a big part of that). It looks ok. I'm playing ori as well, but that looks and plays more or less the same as on the S. I'm going to play some older games until I collar an X, but, dammit, it's dry out there. 

[mfnick]

Glad you’re enjoying this. I remember back when it came out thinking it was a huge step up over the first in every conceivable way. Bigger, better and more badass indeed. 

[bellow]

I wonder how much of this you guys remember. Like fighting your way out of the innards of an enormous, dune-esque worm.

 

Game's off its nut. ?

[mfnick]

Oh yea, definitely remember that bit. ? Giant Worm became a bit of a meme. 

[Sly Reflex]

WHO WANTS TOAST?

 

I like mine crispy!

[bellow]

I got that flame thrower last night. I've also been using a very powerful scoped rifle, which I can't remember from the first game. That thing can 'de-bug' with a single bullet.

 

Is this known to be easier than the first? I don't seem to be dying much, and have consequently been taking more risks, like charging in like an idiot and doing that close up dodge roll dance of death when I get too close to a grub. Can't remember being able to be so cavalier in the first game.

[mfnick]

The sniper rifle in the gears series is probably my favourite in any game ever. So satisfying & it’s the only one I’ve ever reliably got headshots with. 
 

[Sly Reflex]

Generally the weapons in Gears are superbly designed. I've not played 4 or 5 so I can't say anything of any weapons they introduced there, the only real missteps were the sawed off and the retro lancer in MP. Even then they feel nice to use.