Gearheads of War

Gears 2 has gone GOLD!!!

Do I make you horny?- Austin Powers

This announcement deserves to be on the front page! Since the admins can't bump the section diaries to the front page just yet due to the site's re-design bugs, I created a new diary. Big ups go to dongcopter for being the first to inform us! Only 28 days left!!!

Here's the official announcement:

Microsoft TGS Keynote: Xbox Experience Coming Nov 19!

Totally missing my radar (and likely many of yours) is the Tokyo Game Show in Japan. Microsoft's Keynote will be starting in about 30 minutes (8:00 PM Pacific!) and we're sure to get some surprises. There are rumors (and even more denials) that there will be a Bungie announcement, that the new Xbox Experience will be featured, possibly some brand new games and more...

Here is a smorgasbord, yes smorgasbord of Liveblog's covering the Microsoft Keynote....Enjoy!

1UP
Joystiq
Major Nelson

I'll be here to chat with you all as it happens thanks to our new "Autorefresh" feature. =)

Don't forget, we'll be playing Halo 3 at around 9:30 PST!

Begin chatting!

The Publisher of the Season?

They're HEEEEEERRRRRE. Yes, folks, the fall season of mad gaming releases have arrived. It started, IMO, with Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway. Then coming very soon over the next couple of weeks will be Far Cry 2, Dead Space, Fallout 3 and Fable 2, just to name a few key Xbox 360 titles.

That also doesn't include Gears 2 or Resistance 2.

So my question is, which of the publishers has the best lineup this fall?

Is it Activision with Guitar Hero World Tour and Call of Duty: World of War? Is it Ubisoft with Far Cry 2, Brothers in Arms and Prince of Persia? Is it EA with Dead Space, Left 4 Dead, Mirror's Edge and a whole bunch of cool sports games like NBA Live, NHL 09 and FIFA 09? Or could it be Microsoft with Gears 2 and Fable 2?

I would have to say that my initial instinct tells me that Ubisoft has the games I'm the most interested in when taken as a whole. But I'll probably spend the most money on EA Games. I've already purchased NHL 09 and will be getting FIFA 09 and Left 4 Dead. I'm guessing many of you will say that Microsoft if your number on choice simply for Gears 2. But I'm talking more about the volume of releases you're excited about.

So what is it? Who is your favorite publishing horse this upcoming season? I added a poll to make your voice heard.

One GearHead's Horde Impressions!

Recently, one of our own had the chance to play Gears 2 "Horde" at E for All. Here are his impressions!
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Hello everyone MDK here, I just got back from the first day of E for All. I got the chance to play Gears of War 2 and while I was there I got to play the highly anticipated Horde Mode.

Horde mode is the five person cooperative mode where it puts you and four friends against wave after wave of locust with an increasing harder difficulty with each level completed. The Horde mode was playable on three different maps: Day One, Pavilion, and River. Pavilion is the newest map to be shown to the public; you can find it in the video documentary Every Gun Has a Story. Pavilion is the map with the autumn type feel to it with falling leaves and a light orange/yellow tint with a city background.

While playing horde I had noticed the achievement tracker was active and after the day a few people got some achievements. Speaking of achievements, at the beginning of the day the highest level of horde I managed to complete was level ten and towards the end of the day after people got used to playing was level seventeen. It seemed that the best level out the three available was Day One because of the high ground advantage and ability to get the power weapons.

The first few waves were easy to complete and started with wretches and normal locust grunts, but as people progressed through farther the difficulty quickly started to ramp up then butchers (Huge locust with meat cleavers) and scorchers (Huge locust with the flamethrower backpacks) started to appear . Then around wave six the Kantus makes an appearance and starts reviving his fallen comrades. The farthest I got was about level 10 and that is when the Blood mounts started showing up...

...causing lots of problems killing all of us very quickly. The AI in Horde isn't dumb when it comes to picking up their fallen team mates and grouping up on you especially if you're in a corner. One thing I noticed was the Hammer of Dawn has about four shots of energy in it to use before its empty.

While at the booth the difficulty was set to Hardcore, which a lot of people had fun with it and mostly the better players were getting around or past level ten before dying. Horde can be played on all difficulties including insane, which I was told the best players at Epic have only gotten to level seven on insane difficulty. Looks like we have a goal to shoot for when the game comes out.

Link to more pictures: http://s38.photobucket.com/albums/e1...
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Huge thanks to MDK for sending in his impressions! So after reading this and other previews, what are you most looking forward to about Horde?!

Back In Black...Phase 2!

As I'm sure you've all noticed (or read) GearHeads has received its first major upgrade: Ajax! After a rather...lets say, hectic late summer, I've been analyzing how we can return to our former glory.

You know- the constant love towards each other, the playing together almost daily, the exiting contests...etc. Well ladies and gentlegears, I’m happy to announce that its allll baccck.

Through the "Back in Black" initiative, we will hopefully all be playing, posting and loving more. We’ll take care of that first one and then tackle the other two in the near future.

Playing.

Remember when we had ForgeFest on top of our usually awesome FragFest? A room of 10 plus GearHeads blowing each other up and then laughing at the film afterward? Add a night of NHL and other game-centered nights and you’ll get the idea.
Starting THIS Wednesday night we'll have our next night of "ForgeFest". Details will come Tuesday and if that night doesn't work, we can change it.

The goal in this initiative is for GearHeads to have the opportunity to play the games they want, with the people they want. So every week we're going to designate certain nights to play a certain game together. Friday nights, I'd assume will still be dominated by Gears but for those wanting to go back to some COD4, GTA etc. just post your desire to play a certain game on a certain night of the week and then take charge. This way we're getting a good mix of games to play, until Gears 2 at least...;)

So how 'bout it? Is there anyone willing to step up and take charge of gaming a certain night? Or if the leadership aspect isn't for you, are there some games you would all like to start playing again?

Speak up and welcome back GearHeads!

Welcome to the New and Improved Gearheads of War!

Gearheads, welcome to your new community. You'll notice that the facelift is pretty damn dramatic. There is a whole new look while retaining that trademarked "Gearheads" vibe to it. I know a few have commented that they don't like the ads in the middle, but I'm trying to bring a little more revenue to the blog so I can pay the guys who actually put a lot of time and effort into making the big upgrade.

A few of the new things you'll notice, well, probably the biggest thing you'll notice other than the new look is the auto-refreshing comments. Comments will appear as people make them, effectively making this more like a chat room when you realize that folks are on the site commenting immediately back and forth with you. We did spend some time on the readability of the site and hope that that is a significant improvement too. There is also tagging stories that will help people more easily find older stories and help with search engine optimization.

Over the next few days there will be quite a few tweaks made here and there by the guys who helped me do this (a huge thank you to Jon and Jeremy for basically committing their free time to getting this done for no pay at all). But the foundation of the new community is now in place. I hope you enjoy playing around with it. If you find any bugs or anything funky, go ahead and mention them in the comments below as I know Jon and Jeremy will be checking in over the next few days.

And finally, I wanted to thank Suns, Blankman, Kenai, Hellfire, Polandstyle, Machete, Degrees and SweetTea for their very kind donations that helped make this happen. You helped pay for the designer who created this new look. The Gearheads owe you a big thank you for your contributions. And I'm sorry if I embarrass you by calling you out, but you have a ton of gratitude from me. Thank you.

Downtime Approaches

Blez has given us the go-ahead to upgrade the site tonight to a better format. Stay tuned, changes are afoot. You might notice some static and distorted picture during the next several hours.

Please do not adjust your set.