Gearheads of War

Fellas, I am in the process of getting a new PC and establishing my personal domain at the house.  I'm upgrading my study to accommodate both the PC and 360, but am not sure about what monitor to get.  I was thinking of getting a monitor with 2ms refresh and 1920 x 1200 graphics, but I wanted to use the same monitor for both the PC and 360.  Can a monitor be used with the 360 console?  I've always used a television (DLP or CRT) cause that is what I thought consoles normally hook up to, right?  Is there any reason why you wouldn't want to hook your console to a PC monitor?  Is it as easy as selecting which input the monitor displays, or is there another step or hardware required?  Recommendations are welcomed.  

FYI Gearheads!

On www.aintitcool.com they have a second clip from Neil Blokamp with ODSTs, Warthog, and Brutes!  Have a look before its gone.

Since coming to Gearheads I've seen a lot of red ring of death lamentations.  So, I'm curious to know.  How many red ring of death episodes have you each incurred that resulted in the repair/replacement of your xbox360.  I'm on my second failure right now, and am waiting to get my second replacement through MS Warranty.  

Here is a little poll for us to tally the carnage:

Waking to a harsh let down!  Oh, boy =( I sure hope someone at MS is being burned at the stake right now. Cause, if you want in to the beta thru Crapdown.  You're in for a rough morning.

What gives gang?  Not a good intro.  Any speculation or fact explaining this situation?

I hope none of you skipped work for this....

ALRIGHT, I HAVEN'T SEEN THE MOVIE, YET, BUT IF STONE COLD SHOWS SOME GOOD ACTING CHOPS IN "THE CONDEMNED", THEN YOU MIGHT HAVE TO CONSIDER THE 6'1" 235# WRESTLER AS A POTENTIAL MARCUS PHOENIX.  HIS GOT THE BUILD, THE GRIT, AND A VOICE TO MATCH MARCUS'S RUMBLE.  

NOW, I'M NO WWE OR RAW FAN, BUT IF YOU ARE GOING TO MAKE A MOVIE LIKE GEARS, YOU ARE GOING TO NEED SOME BIG PHYSICAL BODIES.  BREAK OUT THE CASTING RING CLIFFY, CAUSE I THINK I HEAR STONE COLD KNOCKING AND I THINK HE WANTS IN!

Hey Gearheads, over at EPIC's Gears of War site, they have posted the specifics on the up and coming multiplayer gametype, "Annex".  You'll all be happy to know that "Annex" and several needed patches will be available for download on April 9, 2007.  

Now, when do we get some maps and how much is it gonna cost us?

Alright, I've been AWOL for the last couple weeks, but I'm back.  I've been surfing the net to get back in touch with the goings on out there, and I came across something interesting.  It could be innocent PR of some other nature, but it could be a fun bit of viral campaigning.  Have a look at www.aintitcool.com and you will find a script for "PIMPS AT SEA".  Now, it says its some pirate spoof, but we all know that those things Halo-ish have gone by such a name.  It could be complete bogus and high hopes on my part, but have a look and tell me what ya'll see.  

Here is the sign up sheet for Friday Night FragFest.  No specialty matches going this week, just some good fun Gearheads versus Gearheads competition.  I'll be hosting a group, so I hope to see some familiar and some new faces there.  I'm in Texas, so ya'll can start looking for my matches around 9:30PM(Central).  Hope that isn't too late for some of you Eastenders, but I like to have a beer at the end of my work week before going home.

Oh, Happy St. Patrick's Day, and may the Luck of the Irish be Upon You and a good beer be in You!

I saw the post asking how to best mod your 360 and controller with sweet looks, but that isn't what I'm talking about.  What I am refering to is customizing your controllers to suit your style of play.  On several posts I have seen comments from gamers lamenting their fumbling with control sets between games or just wanting to tweek this or that button.  I have suffered the same fumbling. So, why do we have to suffer these structured control sets?  I mean really, there all just buttons.  Grant it, the sticks are fundamental so I'll not go there, but really, can't we pick and choose what everything else does?  I know the game developers go to great lengths to map their controls, and for some, it just makes sense, but shouldnt we be the final judge?

At the end of the day, shooters are all doing the same thing.  Some games add an action, the mysterious "x" button for Halo 3, or the game adds a new unique feature, like active reload in gears, but even that could be mapped to an alternate button.  And, if the game isn't a shooter, then mapping your own buttons helps you handle the situation.

How about this argument.  Pretty soon, console players are going to be competing with PC players.  PC players are going to have a more flexible control scheme and may even have the choice to map buttons for operations that console gamers won't.  Consoles will need some means to customize in order to eck out whatever advantage a gamer can.  Maybe once Shadowrun hits we will have a chance to see true comparisons between consoles and keyboards.  Then, if rumors are true, we will see Gears on PC.  When that happens, we may see either a trend of PCs competing against consoles, just like MicroSoft (MS) has been leading up to with 'Live Anywhere'.

If you say this can't be done, just because, then I need more convincing.  MS has created a gaming platform and given game developers criteri to fit the platform and meet basic xboxlive expectations.  So, why cant' they require game developers to allow gamers with full control of their button mapping?

 

Gearheads,

Papi is on the road today, so I'm setting up the sign up for Friday.  Until we get something more official, here is my attempt to organize.  We will begin the FFF at 8:30 PM (PST).  Of course, earlier birds are welcome to get things going early as you see Gearheads log on.  In the case of the planned group, I will begin it as host and eliminate any host advantage issues.  We're keeping an eye on MDK and Zoso with their magical Lancer and Shotty, respectively.  

Papi's only other request is to be left the 8th position in the sign up.  We all want a chance to kibble Papi, so I'm sure everyone is cool with that.  Therefore, the next 6 signees that reply to this will be on the priority invite.

Now, as FFF grows we dont want to leave others, so if the First group is signed up, we will need another Gearhead to volunteer as 2nd Host.  When that person recognizes themselves, the 2nd wave of GH's can reply under his/her message.  

Also, last time we did attempt to establish a rotation based on the last two point earners stepping out for a bit.  We may try this again, or attempt a volunteer rotation so that everyone gets a chace to wack on Papi or whomever it is your gunning for.

Alright, lets' have fun out there.  Now!  Get on the ready line!

Alright, months after launch and millions of copies sold, Epic's juggernaut is out and on the rampage.  So what's next?  More Gears of War of course, but we all realize that is going to take time.  That's ok, we're expecting downloadable content to sate our appetites and keep us playing till the next coming.  OK, does that mean we have all that we can have or want?  Nah.  We want more.  What we want to see is EPIC come alive and out of their cocoon.  How can they do that you wonder?  Well, if you don't, I'm going to lay out an appeal to EPIC anyways.  

I enjoy our site here, and have been happy to see the steady contributions of our regulars and fresh POVs from newcomers to Gearheads of War.  Our site has become a vibrant sounding board for all things Gears and diverse enough to handle many things in between.  Here, there is a steady flow of topics, news, speculation, and discussion that draws people here.  All of this good brings to my attention the stark contrast to Epic's own Gears of War website.  Since Emergence Day it has been largely left dormant and inactive.  

My "beef" with things as they are is this.  EPIC, you now have a legit full-on like Donkey Kong Juggernaut in Gears of War.  It is the killer ap every game developer is craving to have.  Now that you got it what do you do?  Well, after pushing it like crack prior to launch, you can't just sit back and let that high go by.  No.  You got to keep the baby looking fresh.  

What I'm saying is how about some updates to your own website. Fellas, that site has been abandoned like a mange infested stray dog.  Prior to Emergence Day (launch) that site was the tip of the spear.  We could look there for updates, communications, highlights, and trailers.  Now, its all old news not updated in ages.  You guys have got a game on your hands, but you got a community out here with us that wants to get more.  Bring us in like Bungie has.  That's right, I said it, bring us in like Bungie has.  Your big time now and I think all of us here and out there would like to see EPIC give new life and purpose to their own Gears of War site.  

Make your site the tip of the spear again.

This may apply in the future.  I kicked off some Halo 2 in preparation of the Rule of 3.  It has been awhile so I was not surprised to see a prompt from Bungie to download a patch to play.  I followed thru, but at the end I received a message from xbox that it was a bad download and should be retried.  Here's my problem.  Each time a reboot with Halo2 I no longer receive a prompt to download the patch.  How do I retry the necessary patch.  I have all the map packs.  When I check my memory the only options I have are map packs.

Does someone out there know what I need to do to download the necessary patch after it was fudged the first time?  I get a message on Halo2 each time I log in to play that I have a bad patch download.

Help.