Gears of War 2

[stoobie]

theres 2 already and people would be annoyed if everyone just could get it in the end

What are the current gold weapons for? I played horde with someone who had a gold chainsaw one.

[hinn888]

Gold Lancer if you have Limited Edition GoW2

Gold Hammerburst if you went to the midnight mayhem GoW2 opening.

[Oliath]

Yeah i guess.

They suck too... i used to want one but now i dont at all.

They make you stick out like a sore thumb and turn you into a target ha ha... I always rush to take out the guy with the gold lancer and then pick it up and use it myself ha ha

[hinn888]

Gears of War 2 TU3 and New Maps Dated (More Achievements Confirmed)

Written Friday, March 13, 2009 by Alan Pettit

Gears of War Title Update 3 will be applied March 24th. It will include the following:

* New experience-based ranking system: The new system gives you 100 levels of player experience, gained through scoring in Public matches. The game still uses TrueSkill to set up the most competitive matches possible, but skill ranks are now hidden. Players who quit matches early see their experience docked as a penalty.

* Public Match autobalancing: Bots now automatically join a Public Match to fill any slots left vacant by players who quit early or disconnect.

* Improvements: You get region preference for matchmaking, improved standby detection, playlist optimization, plus nine new achievements—six of which require the Snowblind Map Pack—worth a total of 250 points.

* Exploit fixes: Title Update 3 eliminates the ability to mantle greater distances by swapping weapons during cover slide and to melee attack through walls while holding an enemy weapon, plus adding many more fixes.

* General fixes: These include more reliable chainsaw interruption detection, improved headshot detection for certain character model heads, improved flag AI in Submission games, plus other fixes.

* Balancing: Title Update 3 makes changes to Subway weapon spawns for greater balance, reductions to smoke-grenade stun duration, an increase to the forward angle that triggers chainsaw duels, and several other balance revisions.

The nine new achievements are as follows (the first three can be earned by anyone, the last six require the Snowblind Map Pack) and will bring the Gears of War 2 total to the odd 1425:

* "Rookie Gear" (10 points): Earn enough multiplayer experience to reach level 5 (Public only).

* "Seasoned Gear" (20 points): Earn enough multiplayer experience to reach level 15 (Public only).

* "Battle-Tested Gear" (30 points): Earn enough multiplayer experience to reach level 25 (Public only).

* "Battle-Hardened Gear" (50 points): Reach level 50 and play a match on each of the four Snowblind Map Pack maps (Public only).

* "Veteran Gear" (75 points): Reach level 100 and win a match on each of the four Snowblind Map Pack maps (Public only).

* "Never Eat Red Snow" (20 points): Complete waves 1 through 10 on all Snowblind Map Pack maps in Horde (any difficulty).

* "Icy Dead People" (25 points): Complete waves 1 through 50 on any Snowblind Map Pack map in Horde (any difficulty).

* "Frigid Body Dynamics" (5 points): Play a multiplayer match on each of the four Snowblind Map Pack maps (any mode).

* "The Weather Outside Is Lethal" (15 points): Win a multiplayer match on each of the four Snowblind Map Pack maps (any mode).

The second map pack titled "Snowblind" will include the following and arrive one week later on March 31st. No price has been set, but assume 800MSP like the Combustible pack.

* Grind Yard, a massive industrial complex with low bunkers and high sniping positions.

* Under Hill, which takes players through snowbound tunnels and beyond.

* Courtyard, a wide-open battle royale.

* Fuel Depot, a Gears 1 remake, back with a blast of winter courtesy of Mother Nature, aka Epic Games.

Judging by the point add-on progression, I am inclined to believe we will be seeing a third map pack before all is said and done. MP1 added 175 points, MP2 will add 250 and if you follow the progression, MP3 would add 325 to bring the grand total in line with Halo 3's 1750. This is of course just my speculation, but it sounds good, yeah?

Actually someone who posted in the comments made a good point (which is sadly a rare occasion). Back in February we reported about Gears writer Joshua Ortega letting slip that there would be Single Player DLC in the future sometime. Perhaps instead of a third map pack, the last 325 points will instead come from whatever SP DLC Epic has in store?

More and more stuff.

More and more reasons to buy points

[illdog]

Map specific achievements are shit.

Anybody got the Combustible Map Pack? I need to Horde it up.

[stoobie]

I have - I downloaded them but have yet to play on them or Gears since I did!

[hinn888]

Thanks to Rod Fergusson, Executive Producer of Gears of War 2, we all have a full listing of the updates that we will see in Title Update 3 for Gears of War 2. Mr. Fergusson posted the full list over at the Gears of War 2 forum, all of which can be seen below. The update will launch Tuesday, March 24th (tomorrow) at approximately 2 AM PST/5 AM EST.

Improvements

Title Update 3 makes these new improvements:

* Adds 100 levels of player experience that you can gain based on your score in Public matches. The game still uses Trueskill for matchmaking to find the most competitive matches, but the skill rank is now hidden. The new level of experience appears next to your gamertag, with levels 1 through 99 displayed as numbers and level 100 displayed as an icon. The game normalizes experience based on match type so that players earn an equivalent amount of experience across all modes.

* Adds an experience penalty for players quitting before a match is complete.

* Adds bots automatically to a Public Match if players quit and cause unbalanced teams. This ability has always existed in Private Matches if the bot count is set higher than zero.

* Optimizes playlists to only have two modes per playlist. Ties are decided by random selection.

* Adds the ability for teams to talk to each other between rounds in a Private Match.

* Adds the ability to save Public and Private Horde high scores after each complete wave, in case the host loses connection before failing or completing all fifty waves.

* Makes minor changes to general bandwidth usage.

* Adds region preference to matchmaking.

* Improves standby detection.

* Adds nine new achievements worth 250 points. Progress toward them starts after Title Update 3 is applied. Six of the new achievements require the Snowblind Map Pack, a set of four new maps to be released soon. The nine new achievements: o "Rookie Gear" (10 points): Earn enough multiplayer experience to reach level 5 (Public only).

o "Seasoned Gear" (20 points): Earn enough multiplayer experience to reach level 15 (Public only).

o "Battle-Tested Gear" (30 points): Earn enough multiplayer experience to reach level 25 (Public only).

o "Battle-Hardened Gear" (50 points): Reach level 50 and play a match on each of the four Snowblind Map Pack maps (Public only).

o "Veteran Gear" (75 points): Reach level 100 and win a match on each of the four Snowblind Map Pack maps (Public only).

o "Never Eat Red Snow" (20 points): Complete waves 1 through 10 on all Snowblind Map Pack maps in Horde (any difficulty).

o "Icy Dead People" (25 points): Complete waves 1 through 50 on any Snowblind Map Pack map in Horde (any difficulty).

o "Frigid Body Dynamics" (5 points): Play a multiplayer match on each of the four Snowblind Map Pack maps (any mode).

o "The Weather Outside Is Lethal" (15 points): Win a multiplayer match on each of the four Snowblind Map Pack maps (any mode).

Exploit Fixes

Title Update 3 fixes these possible exploits, where under certain circumstances:

* A player could swap from a pistol to a two-handed weapon during a cover slide and then mantle greater distances.

* Players could kill themselves in Wingman to avoid giving their opponents more points. Now, suicides and team killing will reduce team score.

* A player holding a meatshield could melee through some walls.

* A player could equip a two-handed weapon with a shield using either the Boltok or the Gorgon pistol.

* A player could equip a two-handed weapon with a meatshield using either the Boltok or the Gorgon pistol.

* A player could prevent planted shields from being picked up by other players.

* Players could launch themselves into the air with a smoke grenade while mantling.

General Fixes

Title Update 3 fixes these other issues as well:

* An issue that caused chainsaw interruption when a player is shot to be less reliable in some body positions than in others.

* An issue where a third player could join a Public Wingman party lobby and remove another player from the game.

* An issue in Submission games where occasionally the meatflag would immediately run back to the spawn point after being dropped.

* An issue where players that were knocked down but not out (DBNO) while planting the Boomshield would appear to be standing.

* An elevation-based issue where the detection for a headshot might not align properly with certain character model heads.

* An issue that could cause Wingman teammates to have different character models.

* Additional miscellaneous bug fixes.

Balancing

Title Update 3 makes these balancing changes:

* Reduces stun duration of smoke grenades. Currently, characters always start to get up after 2 seconds.

* Gives melee the same delay after roadie running that shooting received in Title Update 2.

* Removes spawn protection from the Horde in Horde mode.

* Increased the forward angle that triggers chainsaw duels so that players with Lancers equipped won't be sawn from the side without a duel.

* Reduces the delay before a player can climb up after entering low cover.

* Makes minor changes to weapon spawns on the Subway map to provide greater balance.

Definitely some great additions to Gears 2, which has been struggling as of late on Xbox Live. Will it bring back some of the playerbase that it has lost since it's release? It's certainly looking to suck me back in, simply to get the real Seriously 2.0, which is to reach level 100. Let's just hope that some of the major issues will be fixed, especially the smoke grenades and chainsaw problems.

Massive update!

[illdog]

Ok, i seriously think its time to get into multiplayer, that is a great update.

[Oliath]

Nope..

Its a terrible update.

The game is now officially broken.

Before it was fun... it worked... just had a few exploits.

NOW... every single game i play is laggy.

I actually ended up ripping the plug out the back of my xbox the other day i was so frustrated by a match...... that sort of stuff never happens to me... but this game and the new update can do that.

Such a shame.

[Oliath]

Aannnnnnnnnnnnnnd it's back.

Not sure wether it was the update propagating accross the network..... ok i made that up but it seems to be what people say nowadays when stuff in the IT world is taking a long time.

Anyway....gave it another shot last night and the lag seemed to have been gone.

Just taking me a while to adjust to some tweaks they made... like the fact you can't mele / fire immediately after a roadie run.

Its a good tweak though as it prevents people from trying to rush you...

HAHA the amount of times someone charged me and i calmly aimed the shotgun SPLAT.

They seem to have set it up so that when someone IS charging you they are more vulnerable. Maybe its just because their head is more exposed but in most cases its a very easy kill..

Anyone getting the new maps / mining some horde achievements?

[illdog]

Anyone getting the new maps / mining some horde achievements?

If M$ ever except my card update im all over this biaaaatch.

[hinn888]

Downloaded them yday, so i should be hording them up soon.

[stoobie]

Someone is selling this as limited collectors ed for £29. Should I?

Its only 20 quid on Amazon if you arent bothered about collectors edition.

I would get it - I thought it wouldnt be my kind of game at all but I ended up loving it. Plus Horde is cool.

[Oliath]

Yeah horde is the best.

Especially with people off these forums.

Not so fun with randoms though.

[stoobie]

I played this last night for the firtst time in ages (downloaded the snowblind maps). Took me a while to get the controls again - I kept trying to stamp on downed enemies a la Dead Space. Still a great game tho - altho I coudnt find the option to play Horde on the Snowblind maps when playing with randoms.

[Hendo]

Me and ill continued this on Insane earlier - got to the icy vehicle level before having to stop.

Both of us nearly threw proper strops on the bit where you have to walk with the bomb while getting pelted with Wretches, until realising that you can melee them when they're close to you, which made it piss easy.

[Sly Reflex]

Good luck on the vehicle section boys. That tower section is a right bastard, and if your anything like us, you'll encounter bugs. Lots and lots of bugs. Good old driving sections. When will they learn that they are universally hated because of their shitness.

[illdog]

We just got over the Ice Lake so the Tower section is next, i was expecting it to blow super sower balls. I shouldnt be dissapointed then.

Still love the game tho!

Oh, ai played all the Snowblind maps with bots his morning before work, i actually like them the best so far, snow is awesome if it doesnt make you slip and slide.

[spatular]

(refering to mr reflex) ^ yeah we had bugs there too, our games went completely out of sync, i was in the turret shooting the baddies on my screen, and on my friends screen the baddies were in completely different places so he was complaining because i wasn't shooting them, we still got through it somehow.

[Hendo]

In all honesty, I've never had any problem with a vehicle section in either of the Gears games. We are on Insane after all, so it shouldn't be easy but I hope we don't get any bugs - I can take hard but impossible because of bugs is not fun.