Canadian retailer FutureShop has bundled a pair of titles, valued at $99, with every purchase of an Arcade or 60GB Xbox 360 console. For a limited time Gears of War and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed will be included with each console purchase. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is the key title included in this bundle as it has just been released and is receiving mostly positive buzz.
Buyers note that the version of Gears of War included in the bundle appears to be the original version and not the recently released special edition which includes new multiplayer maps among other treats.
Update: Toys R Us has their own Force Unleashed offer, giving away a $20 gift card with an in-store purchase of the game. (Thanks Jonathan)
We're trying something different this week with our analysis of the week's best gaming deals. We're going to present them in one, long, run-on sentence that may or may not be readable. So, here we go ...
There's a free t-shirt with a Force Unleashed purchase at Best Buy and over at Circuit City they have a free t-shirt and $5 gift card with Force Unleashed, free t-shirt with Rock Band 2, 10% off all Rock Band accessories, Gears PC for $15, $5 off a 12-month Xbox Live subscription, and $10 off a wireless adapter which, again, are ALL deals at Circuit City with absolutely nothing going on at Target this week. PHEW! Deep breath and now it's time to pass out on the kitchen floor.
Today, team Capcom just announced some interesting Resident Evil 5 information regarding the game's control scheme. More specifically, they're looking to overhaul the current RE5 control formula by replacing the classic stop and shoot mechanic with a more Gears inspired cover system. What's the reason? RE5 producer Jun Takeuchi feels that the cover system controls will slow down the tension that could potentially bring a new horror element into the mix. Expect to see a completely new RE5 unveiling during the Tokyo Game Show in October.
A supposedly leaked list of the achievements for Gears of War 2 has been circling the web today. IGN has learned from Microsoft that the the list is not official, adding that it is "not complete and only contains about 60% of the actual achievements." IGN states that it will have the official list of Gears of War 2 achievements tomorrow at 10 AM (Eastern Time, presumably). In the meantime, check out the leaked list after the break and see if you can figure out which ones are missing.
Remember the creepy Xbox 360 alligator case mod? Creator dfw monkie is back again with a brand new mod and this time it's actually related to an Xbox 360 game. The game in question is Gears of War and dfw monkie has put together a very impressive mod. The mod features raised textures and a glowing Gears of War logo. The only feature we think we would have trouble adjusting to is the glowing red ring of light. How will you know when the Xbox 360 is broken? Will you get the Green Rings of Death? Check out a video of the console in action after the break.
Variety reports that Legendary Pictures has signed on to co-finance and co-produce the upcoming Gears of War film adaptation. This comes in the wake of Legendary financing another film based on a little game called World of Warcraft. Legendary also recently had its hand in The Dark Knight, which is currently tearing up the box office. Epic guru Mark Rein said of the deal, "Legendary's appetite for the synthesis of gaming, film and pop culture meshes perfectly with our own." Well, that's good. We all like it when appetites for synthesis mesh.
Don't ask how -- because we don't know -- but Joystiq managed to snag the video that will kick off the GameStop Gears of War 2 tournament this Friday. In the video, Epic's Cliff Bleszinski tells GOW fanboys what they can expect from the new game. We also get some nice footage featuring new Locust enemies. Enough talk though, time to watch. Find the video after the break.
Posted Jul 21st 2008 3:30PM by Dustin Burg
Filed under: News
The Gears of War novel we heard about earlier this year, a prequel titled The Pendulum Wars, has now been officially announced by Microsoft and Epic Games, but has since gone through a name change, author change and release date change.
Gears of War: The Battle of Aspho Fields is the novel's new title, and gone is the original writer Steven L. Kent, replaced by Karen Traviss. The prequel will now officially hit store shelves later this Fall on October 28th, prior to Gears of War 2's release. Truly Epic.
We're still getting our Gears of War 2 reception at E3. We've gotten a chance to play the game's multiplayer. So far, it's good stuff, and we imagine Gears fans will be pleased. We need to soak up a little bit more before we write up our impressions. In the meantime, check out a gallery of the event itself. Sorry, we're totally barred from capturing any shots of the screens, so you'll have to settle for pictures of the swanky club, Ciudad, where the event is being held in LA. Enjoy.
We'll add more pictures to the gallery when we get a chance.
You see that? You know what that is? That's a Dustin Burg experiencing pure elation. We're at Microsoft's Gears of War 2 reception. We are playing Gears of War 2. Specifically, we're checking out multiplayer, including the new survival co-op mode called Horde. We'll have impressions up sometime tonight, along with a gallery of the proceedings. You've been warned.
So the media blitz begins. GameTrailers just put up quite a few new Gears of War 2 videos, kicking off the massive amount of video that's going to hit the tubes during E3. The above video is about 5 minutes of multiplayer gameplay complete with curb stomping and meat shields. The rest of the videos (posted after the break) consist of a single old-map new-map comparison (Gridlock) and map fly-throughs for River, Security, Gridlock, and Day One. Oh, and be wary, this'll use up some serious bandwith.
Hopefully you've saved up enough weekly allowance or have been busy collecting aluminum cans, because it's time to cash in and put your hard earned money towards those long awaitedGears of War replicas.
Available for pre-order from TriForce Sales is a lifesize, three foot long, fifteen pound, blood stained and wicked "badass" Gears of War Lancer replica. And it's only $949.99. If weapons are too NRA for you, you can plop down your $549.99 in pre-order cash on a twenty pound Locust Drone bust that comes complete with stand, a fleshy gray coat of paint and a smattering of glistening drool. Both products will be shipping sometime during Q4 2008. But, as you can see, TriForce isn't offering up any COG armor like they originally promised. Maybe it was too expensive to develop or maybe they're still perfecting the look. Yeah, they must be perfecting the look. View all the photographic goods below.
Alright kiddies time for some sleuthing courtesy of the Gears of War Official Forums. The Gears site has a new splash page up (above) and in Marcus' hand are some Dog (Cog?) Tags. Immediately upon discovery, there was the speculation that this meant death and loss would play some larger part in the game's story. But then someone decided to take a closer look at the number sequence visible on the tag: 033-116-117-126-071.
Seemingly random right? Nope. Match those numbers with one of these ASCII tables, and you'll get yourself the following letter string: "ESC N O V 9". We'd love to beleive that this was simply thrown in there to mess with the community, but it seems to be too much of a coincidence to be something wholly meaningless. Is this an early "word" on the release date? We sure hope so.
The Gears of War 2 footage is flowing again, only this time, it's all Epic approved (and direct feed). We've got a Gears of War 2 gameplay mashup, an interview with lead designer Cliff Bleszinski, and also a high quality version of the video included on the Unreal Tournament III disc. In Cliff's interview, he notes that he wants Gears 2 to be very memorable, stating, "We really want players to feel like they're playing a Hollywood blockbuster experience start to finish." In addition, he says that the environments in the game will be more varied than the first, ranging from underground tunnels (old!) to snow covered mountains (new!). Also mentioned in the interview, over 400 "tweaks" have been made to improve the cover system. Finally, the chainsaw can be used to cut through obstructions and reach new areas.
But enough reading. Start watching! Find the other two videos after the break.
While there are technically two games coming out this week, there's really only one. You see, one of them is the Gears of War re-release (which we thought came out last week). That's all well and good for the folks who have yet to pick up Epic's super gory and very playable shooter. Just remember to watch out for that host shotty. Strangely enough, the new game releasing this week isn't all that new either. It's Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, which is, you guessed it, Guitar Hero with a lot of Aerosmith tracks. Whether or not you regard that as a good thing is entirely up to you. One point in defense of Aerosmith: they did give us Alicia Silverstone.
Update: Toys R Us has their own Force Unleashed offer, giving away a $20 gift card with an in-store purchase of the game. (Thanks Jonathan)
The Gears of War novel we heard about earlier this year, a prequel titled The Pendulum Wars, has now been officially announced by Microsoft and Epic Games, but has since gone through a name change, author change and release date change.
