Gearheads of War

I haven't even had a chance to download it, but those of you who have...What are your impressions?!

I'll be copy and pasting some of your impressions here on the front page, so be sure to post your thoughts! Also, be sure to post a pic of your avatar for use in a special little project Suns and I will be working on...=)

GearHeads:
Grymm: Personally, I thought I was gonna HATE the Avatars, but since I got somewhat of an acurate look-alike for me (only thing that's really different is the tattoo, eyebrow piercing, and my hair's a bit longer) I'm enjoying it quite a bit.

Blankman: The installation of games onto your hard drive is just gravy.  It ranges on the time it takes to install onto the HDD anywhere from six minutes (Left4Dead) to seven/eight minutes (Gears 2 & Fable 2, respectively).  Less wear and tear on your disc drive, less power consumption, and less heat generated.  Nice!

Robbins: So far, the avatar creation is A LOT better than I was expecting. There are tons of things to customize your little guy with, and it definitely impressed me. The whole dashboard in general now flows a lot smoother than the previous (thank GOD!).

The Wife and Kids…
Blankman: I explained it to my wife and she's pretty excited about it too.  In fact, Sherri even designed her own avatar.  LOL
Chris: I really enjoyed making mine and had a lot of fun watching my kids make their avatars.  They both did it all by themselves.
Windowlicker: My girlfriend got home and I showed her and helped her make a profile she loved it and she hates games.

Thanks for your thoughts, GearHeads- Keep 'em coming!

Apparently some pics of a previously unseen multiplayer map have surfaced on Flickr.  The map looks to revolve around Imulsion and shows off a bit of destroyed beauty.  

Xbox360Fanboy has an article asking the obvious: DLC Coming soon?!?

With evidence of DLC based on Gears 2 environments, are you excited or would you rather be looking at some new Gears 1 maps to download?

It's 4:30 AM.  I just got done playing Horde, Warzone, Submission, Meatflag, Wingman and then even MORE Horde. A journey that started around 10 PM CST and ended SIX hours later.

THIS IS FRAGFEST!!!

I played just about every gametype Gears 2 had to offer with David, Jason, JayFresh and more hailing from California representing the 1UP Community.  Also by my side for the night was our good friend N'Gai Croal from Newsweek's LevelUp blog and my Wingman partner 'till the end, Chantal who kept me company for the hour or so we tried to get Xbox Live to work. (And who left me ammo-less ;)

This was a night of laughs, stolen ammo, 28 rounds of Horde on hardcore, bloody locusts and broken internetz...Truly, only Avatars could have made this experience more enjoyable.

But the best part was going to bed around 4:30 AM and still seeing 14 GearHeads online playing Gears 2. Oooooh yeaah baby!

I've got some hilarious stories and cool pics from the night inside.
So, what's your story?

Gearheads, I finished Gears of War 2's campaign last night.  Yes, I did.  And wow, I'll just say that it was amazing.  I'll have a review coming sometime next week.  I'm trying to hold off writing the review until I think that everyone here has completed the game because I want to talk about the story in great detail.

So that leaves the campaign co-op on insane with a willing participant, Horde and multiplayer.  I want to experience more Horde this Friday.  I did it on Normal last week with Kenai, silent strike and tyrus.  I figure I want to up the experience to hardcore this time and start from the beginning.  So if that sounds good to you, sign up below for that.  Or if you'd rather play some of the other MP modes, you can sign up for that too.  But I really want to do more Horde this week now that I've beaten the campaign.

I'll be on starting around 8-8:30 p.m. PST as usual.  Oh and congrats to my bro and the entire Epic team for having epic sales of Gears.  The game has already surpassed two million sold.  It took about a full month to do that last time.  I couldn't be more proud of my little bro.

I had the good fortune last week of going to Universal City on Thursday night for the big launch party for Gears of War 2.  I felt very proud to be sharing this night with my little brother.  It was a lot of fun as I got to see so many people dressed in Gears clothes.  One little kid was actually in a home made Marcus Fenix outfit.  He couldn't have been more than nine years old.

Still, the voice talent from the game was there and I took some photos with my phone.  For some stupid reason, I didn't think to bring my camera with me.  I really should've to commemorate such a great night for my brother.  I'll be kicking myself for that for a while.

Any way, here are the photos I was able to capture.

Yeah, the dudes from Nightmare studios were there in full garb.

This is Carmine.  Yeah, can you believe it?  I couldn't either.  I thought the guy was a 16-year-old.  Not so much.

This is a photo of my bro playing some Gears fans.  I took it on the big screen.  In the background is the voice of Hoffmann.

Cliff and Major Nelson on the big screen.

So Jessica Chobot was there doing interviews for Fuel TV.  She walked around all night doing interviews with the voice talent and Cliff with that big green piece of plastic.  I think it was supposed to be cover or something.  Those wacky TV personalities.

Yes, this is the one, the only, Terry Tate, office linebacker, AKA Augustus "Cole Train" Cole.  The dude is frickin' ginormous and could easily fill that same role in the movie.

This is the one and only Dominic Santiago.  It was really funny when he walked up on stage and said, "S'up bitches?"  The crowd went bananas.

Marcus Fenix...the one and only.  Yep, John DiMaggio who had more energy than seemingly anyone there.

This is the actor who plays the Brazilian on Heroes.  There was also the star of Chuck there.

All in all, it was an amazing personal night just to simply see something that my brother created have such a fervent following.

I'm not sure if anyone has written about this yet, but I haven't seen it.  Stephen Totilo, who joined SweetTea and I for one of the best Gearheads podcasts I think we ever did, wrote a piece basically saying that Gears of War 2 is pretty much what Nintendo legend Miyamoto would have made had he ever made a bloody shooter.  And if you think he's being over-the-top gushing about it, well, I beg to differ.

I haven't finished the game yet, so I'm not going to discuss the campaign in detail until I finish it.  I just don't think that it's fair and I don't want to spoil it for others who haven't had a chance to get through it yet.  But in this game, more than Gears 1, you can see it being a horizontal, 3-D platformer.  

This part, in particular, is especially true.

The best Miyamoto games have always been exceptional at teaching their players to do extraordinary things, one enjoyable, playable step at a time. You’re first encouraged to jump in "Super Mario Bros." so you can avoid a Goomba. As soon as you master that, you’re using that jump to break a brick. As soon as you’re good at breaking bricks, you find that breaking bricks lets you find secret passages. And so on. In every "Zelda" dungeon ever made, you’re given a new tool that you’re forced to use, usually initially, just to get out of the room you found it in. Then you usually have to use it to beat that dungeon’s boss. And after that, with that on-the-job training done, you’re usually good enough to start improvising.

I know somewhere my brother is smiling because Miyamoto was one of his great heroes growing up.  I know that of anything that will be written about Gears of War 2 in the weeks and months and years ahead, that post will touch him more than anything else.  The best part is that I fully believe it's true, especially if you've ever studied Miyamoto's game design and how he's sucked us all into those experiences for so many years.  It may seem strange to compare a game about sticking explosive arrows in your opponents' derriere to that plumber who grows by eating mushrooms and shoots fireballs out of his hands by eating a flower, but the essential foundation of both games is there as Totilo points out.

Now to finally try and get closer to the end of the game.

Community Gears Stuff/My Gears 2 Impressions

First and foremost, if you haven't already- check out the new stuff from TriForce! The detail in their latest stuff is intense and if you follow the above link, you'll see a Locust Drone's head that weighs a whopping 15 pounds! Sweeeeet.

Also GameShark has posted their review. While they didn't seem to care for the story (at all) it's good to get a different viewpoint on a game we all love; And it's a solid read so be sure to check it out.

Now for some Gears 2 impressions...Or in more accurate words- How Gears 2 is my new Halo.

I was skeptical. How could Epic fix the enormous problems the original Gears had online? Was Horde all we heard it was going to be?

As I sit here and type this while watching my sister play Gears 2, I can't help but smile knowing that Epic has seriously delivered.

I feel as though I've barely scratched the surface of multiplayer (even though I've put in countless hours) and I can't get enough of Horde. It is easily my favorite feature from what I've played thus far.

I played Horde all day on Saturday with several GearHeads (too many to mention, but thanks Boris for help in setting it up!) including Chantal. Who by the way is great at stealing ammo. ;) Anyway, a big thanks to her for
playing with us! We were constantly throwing jabs back and forth at each other while decapitating Locusts and reviving fallen comrades; The definition of teamwork, right?

Boris said it best when he compared Horde to the Lord of the Rings when Legolas and Gimli were shouting out how many foes they had killed in the heat of battle. What a great comparison!

Now, because I feel like it is pointless to ask a hardcore Gears community whether a Gears game lived up to the hype, I do want to know what your favorite thing about it is.

I added a poll, but feel free to post your thoughts! Are you with me in thinking Horde is the new gametype of choice, or do you still prefer the classic multiplayer? Or, maybe you
can't get enough of the new gametypes...Whatever the case- State your claim!

No matter what part of Gears 2 you love, one thing is certain: The true New Xbox Experience came a few weeks early!

Since, I'm probably the first one up today (late night brother) I will start off the FFF recap.

Wow!

I got online around 10pm eastern and I have 45 Friends showing online and almost All of them were playing Gears 2.

I have never seen that with any other launch game.

And Launch last night..  We did!

What stories do you have?!

There were so many of us, that we couldn't possibly organinze getting rooms together.  Didn't need to, it was organic.  Just join up with someone and play all night.

Papi, Tyrus, Silentstryker, (Tyrus's friend) forgot his name... and I played Horde.

For the Horde!!

We played on casual (yes, we are lame..)

But brother let me tell you..  By the time we got to Forty, it was Tough!!

Two or three torque bows were needed to kill some of those ugly bastards!

At 2:30 am, we finished level fifty.  We were exhausted!

Papi and Tyrus were Just Carrying us other three through the waves.

Time and time again, it was those two finishing off the wave.  With us watching in hope ;-)

The ghost cam became my good friend. I spent so much time there that I got pretty good at taking pictures.  Oh well, dying is good for something I guess.. ;-)

After you have fully written out your spoiler-free thoughts on what you've played of Gears 2 so far  in 3Suns diary, compile your thoughts into one sentence and share the love!

What is one sentence that can sum up your thoughts of Gears 2 thus far?

Mine would actually have to be a quote from my mom while watching me play:

"Whoooohahahahahah! You shot off his head and he just stood there! Hahahaha!"

Weird I know, but that "Holy crap! I can't believe it!" followed by some intense laughing pretty much sums up the fun to be had in Gears 2. I love it!

Also, feel free to post any pics you've taken from multiplayer, because according to suns, the site for that is up!

Gearheads, it's the day you've been waiting for for two years.  Gears of War 2 officially releases tonight at midnight.  Some people have been fortunate enough to pick it up early thanks to some clueless 7-11 clerks, but almost every Gearhead should have a copy of the game in their hands tomorrow.  

I'm assuming most folks will want to work their way through the campaign before touching the multiplayer, but I also know that most people that I've talked to have taken the day off from work tomorrow just to play Gears 2.  It's like a national holiday up in this joint.  Any way, I'm working my way through the Gears 2 campaign and I do plan on trying MP for the first time during FFF tomorrow night.  It will be breaking me in and there's no other group of people that I'd rather do it with. We can try a bunch of the new modes such Meat flag (sorry, no calling is submission here) and Wing man. We can even break off into teams of five and try the new Horde mode.

I'm pretty damn excited.  I think it's going to be a ton of fun for everyone involved.  I'm planning on starting my multiplayer adventure around 8 or 8:30 p.m. PST.  So sign up below and let's get going on this.  We enter a new era of Gearheads starting at midnight tonight.  Are you guys fired up or what?

For midnight launch line chat follow this read lettering!

Ladies and Gentlegears, the day is here!

In just HOURS we will be standing in line, waiting for Gear of War 2. Heck, some GearHeads are playing it RIGHT NOW! Like all of you, I am giddy in anticipation and can't wait to get my hands on the game tonight.

As these hours will seem like days as we wait for the game to launch, use this story to chat with fellow GearHeads about what you'll be doing tonight. Going to a big event? Participating in a tournament? Let us know!

Also, for those of you who can post on GearHeads via your phone or your laptop while in line, let's use this to chat it up as we wait!

I'll be sending updates to my Twitter as well if you all want something interesting to read while you wait. =)

http://twitter.com/SweetTea023

Also, AOL is premeiring the Gears 2 soundtrack to listen to online! Haven't tried it yet but if it works, we can listen to the Gears 2 soundtrack while we wait, online!

Just hours now, GearHeads! HOUUUUUUURSSS!

READ OTHER GEARHEAD IMPRESSIONS INSIDE!!!

As many of you may or may not know, i got Gears of War 2 yesterday at my local 7 Eleven.

First and foremost, may all the thankfulness of the world go to David Ellis, who is a legend among men.

Now to the good stuff. I have to right this before heading off to the same old grind today, so i am going to list facts about Gears 2 (opinions?) based on my time with the game.

Less' do dis.

• Graphics: Omg. There seems to be little additions to everything that make the game seriously shine. Especially with all the new variations in environments. The amount of blood is also crazy. Super colorful! And on top of it all, little touches like destructable environments add A LOT. Lots of new animations as well!
• Gameplay: Playing the game for the first time, it felt Different. But after 5-10 minutes, it was unbelievable and i was in constant awe. This is one of the best feeling shooter games. Picking a dude up as a meat sheild is the most efficient tactic in the game so far.
• Multiplayer: Have barely played any, BUT... Machete hosted a game that i joined, and i had no bullet lag at all. He is in New Jersey, I am in Washington.
• Audio: MY FAVORITE ADDITION. Every gun holds so much more weight. The snob pistol sounds ridiculous EVERY SHOT. And you watch the bullet trail.

The cutscenes are amazing, the guns are SICK. Everything is balanced and solid. Matchmaking is like Halo's system, where you are all in a lobby before campaign, horde etc.

This is the best game i have ever played. Bar none.

There will be no going back to Gears of War 1. There would be no reason at all. This is everything that game represented and MORE.

Peace and Love!

READ OTHER GEARHEAD IMPRESSIONS INSIDE!!!