Alright Gearheads, daddy's gone and big brother's in charge... soo....let's PARTAAAAAAYYYYYY!!! ;)

In light of all the Gears 2 news I thinks its only appropriate we play some Gears.  When, however is up to you....Of course we could start with some GTA and move to Gears later but with all the Gears love going around I dont't know if we'll want to play anything else. :)

So sign up if you can make it and put your game of choice...(cough~halo 3!...cough) ;)

On a side note I'm sending this from my phone because I'm on my way to see Iron Man!!!  

Update [2008-5-16 18:9:21 by SweetTea] Hey guys! Just so you know I'll be hopping on around 9 PST =)

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Gearheads, I apologize for not getting this up sooner.  I've been really busy lately and my wife had a death in the family and we went to the funeral on Monday.  It's been a busy time.  I'm also going out of town for a few days now as well so I won't be joining FFF this week.  SweetTea will be opening the FFF sign up thread tomorrow.

Any way I wanted to let you know that you can now make the donation for the redesign of Gearheads of War to bleszinski - at - gmail - dot - com through paypal.  Don't feel pressured to give anything if you can't afford it.  I know most of you are students and don't exactly earn a ton of money.

Gearheads will actually be moving to a new server shortly as well.

I just wanted to thank everyone in advance for helping make this, what I consider, the best gaming community online.

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Ok guys & gals, there's a lot of info that have surfaced in the past couple of days, so I put up this diary to keep us abreast of everything.  These details are things that we've learned about outside of the latest Game Informer article.  Big ups to Average for starting the bulleted details (forgive me if I've edited some of them & added more info)!  I copied & pasted some of my previous gameplay reveal analysis list as well.  **NOTE: I'll be constantly updating this diary with any new info as it rolls in, so refer to this frequently!

---CAMPAIGN---

•Framerate will not dip under 30 FPS promised Cliffy.
•Carmine is back (Carmine died in the first game & Cliffy acknowledged this, but wouldn’t give any further description as to why or how he returned.   Just that Carmine was a weird fan favorite so they brought him back).  Hmmm, shades of Halo's Sgt. Johnson maybe or perhaps something like South Park's Kenny? ;)
•COG "redshirts" have a minor redesigned helmet & appear to have a beefier build.
•New Locust enemy-types: Kantus (healer/necromancer), small Locust-type that plants roadside IEDs & throws grappling hooks for boarding Derricks, Rockworms that provide moving cover.  Nemacyst mortars actually spread their tentacles & dive bomb toward vehicles (takes out the King Raven & Derrick).  New version of masked Locust is seen being pummeled by the new fisticuffs execution.
•“The chainsaw duel itself, moment for moment, takes about as long as the old chainsaw action does because what we do we actually make the actual act of chainsawing somebody at the end of the duel extremely quick,” states Cliffy.  You will no longer be invincible/god mode when chainsawing.  Attacks can be interrupted in mid-duel.
•You're locked into the chainsaw duel-win or lose.  It can also wind up being a draw in which you can grapple to re-engage in another duel.
•The Lancer has a longer barrel that extends a bit farther than the chainsaw attachment, blue targeting cross-hair on the iron sights, new muzzle flashes, and firing sound effects.  Also, new active-reload HUD display animation were seen for the Lancer and Hammerburst.
•Retooled Hammerburst sounds beefier and has the ability for semi-automatic.  It now has a barrel extension.
•Gnasher shottie has not been nerfed.
•When using the left trigger aim feature, the perspective is tighter than in Gears 1.  Peripheral vision is now decreased much more than originally.
•Sidearms are now shown on COG thighs instead of magically appearing (Gorgon Burst pistol on Marcus' thigh).  Gorgon Burst Pistol has four-six round burst shots in each clip.
•The smoke from the pistol barrel actually floats quickly towards the back of the Derrick, showing some impressive wind physics- Thanks Crunk!
•Active reloads have expanded.  Cliffy gave a few examples: Boltok pistol will fire faster in AR, better accuracy & certain weapons will have better range when AR is pulled off.
•New weapon-specific executions: Chainsaw to the back-"Taint to the throat", Meatshield option when your sidearm is out, "Fun use of Torque Bow blades," according to Cliffy, and UFC beatdown dubbed "GnP" by Major Silva & Degrees!
•Meatshields will deteriorate under fire, as well as drip blood on the floor as you drag them mercifully along.  As they leak blood onto the ground, they will leave trails.
•Once you are taken as a meatshield, you are automatically dead.  According to Cliffy, you are now a lifeless husk & you'll either respawn or wait in the lobby to spectate depending on the gameplay mode that was chosen.  So this sounds like meatshields are allowed in multiplayer!
•When people are down, but not out; they can tap the A-button and try to crawl away.
•When you're injured & moving along the wall, the blood will drip down the wall.
•Curb stomp returns.
•Destructible cover.  "No more hiding behind that crate taking loads of fire," according to Tsunoda.
•The A-button usage has now been expanded for the slide/slam into cover.  By pressing it again & depending on the orientation of the thumbstick, you can change the angle approach, back up, or stop mid-slide.
•According to Cliffy,"The hundreds of Locusts pouring out of the emergence holes can be killed if you want."  However, on the gameplay reveal, the reticule doesn't turn red which might indicate that the multitude of enemies are window dressing.  Also, several Boomers are interspersed among Drones.
•New COG vehicles: Derrick and Centaur.  Derricks towing Grind Lifts need to be positioned at specific locations in order to drill & insert the two-man grinder pods.  The Centaur is a combination of a tank/monster truck(seen shooting two rounds into the face of a Brumak on the gameplay reveal).  There will be a level dedicated to driving one & the Centaur will have an active reload!
•More vehicular sections were promised.
•Campaign will also be longer than Gears 1. More variety of locust, more weapons an more vehicle sections.
•"Thirty percent of the campaign is underground.  Cave games are cool, but this is not a spelunking game."

---MULTIPLAYER---

•Multiplayer is 5 vs 5.
•Online functionality will also be very competitive to other titles.
•Party system has been confirmed.
•Kotaku's Crecente got Tsunoda to use the terms: "co-op", "tactical", & ""squad" when asking him about the number of players in co-op play.  Possible four player co-op.
•They are shipping with more multiplayer maps out of the box than Gears 1 and many more multiplayer modes.
•"As far as the multiplayer goes, we're shipping with at least ... well, I don't know what the embargo is ... but we're shipping with a lot more f#cking multiplayer maps this time time around. A lot more multiplayer modes.  So when you look at the matrix of maps to modes, it's literally hundreds of hours of gameplay.  And there's also some fun stuff that we haven't announced yet in regards to co-op."  Ah, leave it to Cliffy to amp up the multiplayer love!
•Early adopter tax (buy now, free after a set amount of time) & sponsored DLC multiplayer maps are bring explored.  Remember the Discovery Channel's Future Weapons' sponsorship for Old Bones & Raven Down? :D
•Achievement whores will be mitigated.  "If you're going for headshots," he gave as an example, "you get one headshot that counts and any other headshots won't count towards your Achievement, so players don't just play to get headshots the entire round just to get Achievements."
•Achievement progress is now simplified & will be tracked in real-time which is viewable thru a menu.
•Cliffy talks about how each player can play on a different difficulty setting in co-op.  "It's just a number of tweaks, number-wise, behind the scenes as far as player health and player weapon damage.  We know which pawn is which, and we know what all the variables behind the scenes, so we can control all that.  We have the splits, where one player goes one way and one goes another way.  Those co-op splits, that's where it really kicks into high gear as far as players being able to be in their own difficulty.  We found in Gears 1 that a lot of players had a tough time, dying during those splits. We're making casual difficulty truly casual."
•Dizzy's character model will be available in multiplayer.  You can even shoot off his cowboy hat!

"Buckets and Buckets of blood," according to Cliffy.  Hell, bring a mop as well!  LOL

Update [2008-5-17 0:6:41 by Blankman]

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This is just a quick warning to everyone on the site. Earlier today, my xbox 360 elite broke.

So i put my 120gb hard drive into my other 360 (a pro unit) and i load up GTA4... only to find out ALL OF MY SAVES WERE GONE.

Apparently your saves don't stay on your hard drive.

Ouch.

Anyone have any suggestions?

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Creeping up on us is Microsoft's Gamers Day...It's here and Microsoft's press conference will be starting something soon...until then, this is what we know so far...

Stop what your doing and watch this VIDEO!
From the GamerScore blog, It highlights everything going on at the gamer's day and briefly shows Marcus beating the crap out of a locust UFC style!!!
Special thanks to MDK for the tip!

1UP's Gamers Day Live Blog! Constantly being updated with impressions from the event. (Including Gears!)

Games:

GEARS 2: You can beat the crap out of a downed foe UFC style! Also there will be Weapon Specific Executions! (Xbox360Fanboy)
Epic will be showing off more campaign stuff later...RIGHT NOW! =)

From 1UP's LiveBlog:

2:45pm SHANE: Cliffy B takes the stage to show off Gears of War 2! Man, how many subwoofers are in this room? Is this running at 60 frames per second? Holy shit, look at all that juice!

GARNETT: So, here's the scoop; that little section of singleplayer you've seen, Cliffy's playing the whole damn thing for us. Starts out on rig 314, that's one of these derrick things that burrow your team into the planet's core to fight the locust on their own turf. There's a catch (natch) that these things have to be positioned in specific places before they start drilling.
We're on the ride out to one such location now. Reminds me a lot of the train sequence at the end of the first game. Started off with just some bombardment and flying enemies but it's all gone to hell now with locust coming from every direction. They even hijacked one one of the other rigs and are trying to run us off the road. One thing that really stands out to me about the gunfire is this excellent tracer effect; it's particularly noticeable on the machine guns. The tracers blur and smear as they spray out of the gun. Helps a ton in being able to see the spread of your fire. Oh, and bloody hell, this ride has now seen us face pretty much every big bad

SHANE: OK, I just asked Cliffy whether or not this will run at 60 fps. No dice, but he promises that it will stay above 30 throughout. Also, Cliff had to be a bit of a dick by repeating my question as, "When is Gears 2 coming out for the PS3?" Funny, real funny.

MORE AT 1UP'S LIVEBLOG!!!

Ninja Gaiden 2: New TRAILER

Too Human: Release date set at August 19! New Co-op TRAILER; Now only 2 player Co-op

1UP TOURS RARE gives us loads of Viva 2 INFO

Viva Pinata 2 Trouble in Paradise: To be released in September; 2 Player Drop-in Drop-Out Co-op. Visit "Rare/Fable 2 news" below for more info.

Banjo: Nuts and Bolts Coming this November; TRAILER; To feature online co-op and multiplayer play (Xbox360Fanboy)

Fable 2:Peter Molyneux VIDEO INTERVIEW; Tons of info in the story below, Coming this Holiday
Fable 2 IN ACTION!

Ninja Gaiden 2: Released June 3

Penny Arcade: This arcade game will hit May 21SOURCE

Alone in the Dark: NEW TRAILER!

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed: Freaking Amazing NEW SCREENS

Left for Dead: IMPRESSIONS

Unless posted otherwise, all sources come from: KOTAKU

Stay Tuned! There should be tons of info hitting soon...if it's not posted yet, put it in as a comment and I'll add it!
Thanks, guys

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Creeping up on is, Microsoft's gamers day is here!
Pre-Official announcement stuff here:

Fable 2 looks like it might actually live up to Fable 1 and finally take emotion in gaming to the next level:

From Gaf-
“The build we saw was from the 7th of may. The game is content complete and about 5000 bugs from completion.

You can buy every single house in the game. Each house will unlock something new. Either a sidequest, item or a skill The game is 20-30 times larger then Fable 1.

The weather is completely dynamic, and will change as time progress. There will be different seasons.

He talked about how he was flirting with a girl, and her husband came by. And the husband became so pissed, he began kicking your dog. And Peter actually felt bad for flirting with the girl. He wants gamers to feel like he did.

Click “Read More” and scroll down to “Fable 2” for the rest of the info taken straight from NeoGafer Vinterbird. (Thank you!)

SOURCE
-------------------------------------------
RARE
Viva Pinata 2: Trouble in Paradise

• Improved interactivity between the pinata's and the environments.
  
• Pinata's will mimic each others action and follow the leader around the garden.
  
• They'll be adding toys for the pinatas to play with like musical instruments, spaced themed toys, and trains that the pinata's will ride around the garden.
  

Banjo Kazooie 3

• GI says their first vehicles was a 4 wheeled kart with a spring attached to the bottom that allowed them to jump things. They later found a helicopter blade that allowed their kart to fly. Later they added balloons to the vehicle and put the blade on the back and created a hovercraft.
  
• Rare showed them a vehicle that was a monster truck that was able to detach its chasis to become a mini bike. When the bike ramped off a cliff it revealed collapsible glider wings and started flying.
  
  

Click "Read More" for the rest...

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Hey guys!

In trying to enhance your experience on the site I'm going to start featuring cool websites you should check out when I come across them.  Sites that offer cool content both gaming and non-game related.

I'm basically pimping other cool sites on the net, sending you away from us; But that's ok, I know you'll be back...

Enjoy ;)

----------------------------------------------------
The first is Pandora...
http://pandora.com/

This is a music related site where by typing in an artist or song, the site instantly creates a radio station with songs and artists that sound similar to the content you entered.  So by typing in "Led Zeppelin" you'll get more Zeppelin, some Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd etc.
You can also save these radio stations and create new ones that will be there whenever you return.  To not get cut off after a 15 minutes or so create a free account and get your online radio on.

----------------------------------------------------
Next we have Hulu...
http://www.hulu.com/

This one is a little easier to explain as it offers countless TV Shows and some movies to watch online for free.  Everything from the Simpsons, Family Guy, House, Saturday Night Live, Battlestar Galactica, The Office and more.  Again all this video is free to watch and brand new episodes air on the site around 24 hours after the episode airs online.  This is where I'll be getting my "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia fix...

----------------------------------------------------
And lastly, GamesRadar...
http://www.gamesradar.com/

This hilarious video game site offers your average daily news stories along with hilarious articles and videos.  Somehow connected to OXM, PSM etc. this web site has come a really long way and offers some really great content that always has me laughing.

Some of my favorite articles:

Top 7 Cutesy Video Game Characters We Want to Beat the Crap Out of

100 Reasons to hate the PS3

More great ARTICLES
----------------------------------------------------

One more thing~ I hear THIS is a really sweet place to visit for video game media......

ENJOY THESE WEBGEMS!

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It was anything but quiet last night at our weekly Friday Night Fragfest as the Gears 2 footage stole the show.  GTA4? No. Perhaps some Halo 3 No way. And don't even mention COD4...the GearHeads were all about Gears of War last night and our playtime showed it.  We had some great matches throughout the night although I can't honestly remember much of what happened as I am still processing how awesome the Gears 2 gameplay was.

There were some minor things that I didn't love about the gameplay video (Chainsaw dueling looks like cheap button mashing and the animation didn't look very good at all)but both of those could be fixed with actual play time and the further development of the game.

But seriously in the scheme of all the awesome things in the video I can't complain at all.  Locusts shields, snapping thier necks, new Chainsaw annimation, battles that aren't the size of a McDonalds playplace...

If Gears 2 lives up to that video I'm seriously wondering how GTA 4 could come close to topping it for Game of the Year.

But what did you think?

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VIDEO IS LIVE!!!

GEARS 2 VIA GAMEVIDEOS!!!

GEARS 2 Footage with GameVideos Analysis!

GEARS 2 FOOTAGE-NO INTRO

Gears 2 GameTrailers Analysis

Having trouble, try this:
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3167745

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Alright GearHeads, the day has finally come...Tonight we will see Gears 2 in all its glory for the first time. Below are the two outlets through which you will be able to see the footage and their times. Check out 1UP's countdown to get you even more in the mood....;)

1UP: GEARS 2 Air time: 10:30 PST
Countdown-
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3167745&p=44

I'm not sure how it works on the other end of the gaming spectrum but Spike TV will be airing their show at 1:00 AM (Time zone?)
and then on GameTrailers:
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/33625.html

See you all tonight!

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OK, so I think I'm going to get some time with the single player of GTA IV today.  I played for a little yesterday and got a firearm for the first time.  So I'm working towards getting deeper into GTA.

I still haven't tried the multiplayer and I'm thinking what better way to do than with a bunch of Gearheads during a FFF.  I'll be on starting around 8:30 p.m. PST or so and we can go from there.  I'll let someone else host since I haven't played MP yet.

Sign up below and perhaps we'll take a break part way through the game to view us some Gears of War 2 game play trailer.

See you tomorrow!  

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So I don't really have ADD.  It's more just the kind of thing that everyone seems to have that has grown up in the MTV generation.  

Why am I writing about this? Simple.  I haven't been able to get into GTA IV just yet.  Before you go grabbing the pitchforks and the torches and get ready to show up at my front door to tar and feather me, I'll just say that I'm not qualified to say much about GTA IV simply because I've probably only played about six percent or so of the game.  I haven't even got to a point where I have a firearm yet.  Life has just been really busy lately and combine that with the fact that my daughter was sick Monday and Tuesday, it's meant really very little time where I could play GTA.

But my initial impressions of the game has so far been, "What's the big deal, it's another GTA?"  Like I said, you have to take what I say with a grain of salt so far just because I'm not very far into the game, but they've basically taken the concept of all the GTA's of the past and refined them, given them a nicer polish and put them on the new platforms.

Don't get me wrong, I've loved GTA games in the past but I've never finished one.  Part of my issue with the games of the past has always been control and I don't find that much has changed in GTA IV, at least in terms of control over the main character and the vehicles.  I wound up talking with Zoso about this over AIM and his reply to me was, "Just wait until you get like five hours in.  It really gets great."

That's all well and good, but I have a wife and a daughter and a full-time job.  I need my games to grab me by the balls immediately and not let go.  People can continue to criticize Gears of War for the lacking story, but that was a game that seized you by the gonads and didn't let go.  Call of Duty 4 was the same way.  I don't know whether it's because I have ADD or whatnot, but I have little patience for games these days that don't immediately give you some action.  The story could get remarkable down the road, but I'm just not the kind of gamer who loves to "put the time in."  I remember Shane Bettenhausen once saying about Zelda: Twilight Princess that the game got awesome after the first couple of dungeons.  I just don't have the time to wait for games to get awesome.  Design a freaking game that grabs me from the beginning.  I mean, you don't typically say, "Hell if you sit through the first crappy hour and a half of this movie, the last hour is just amazing!"

Like I said, take my criticism of GTA with a grain of salt.  I haven't played multi-player yet and I've barely scratched the surface of the single-player.  But I don't see why people are dropping such remarkable scores on it yet.

By the way, I know a lot of you guys like Yahtzee. Check out his blast back at some of the Nintendo fanboys out there.  It's a thing of pure beauty.

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