Gearheads of War

This holiday season, you'll be hard pressed to find someone who doesn't have to make sacrifices to their gaming wish-list.  Furthermore, some of the quality of these games are in question, from the exceptional (Gears of War 2 and Little Big Planet) to the disappointing (Tom Clancy's EndWar), yet its usually too late as you load the disk into the tray.  Furthermore, the PC is lacking that holiday mascot, with the beautiful Far Cry 2 and Crysis: Warhead a bit lackluster in gameplay.  Yet, after spending time with Valve's zombie apocalypse simulation, Left 4 Dead, I can guarantee that not only has the PC found its Rudolph, but that it will be worth every penny.

The story is fairly basic.  Two weeks after the initial outbreak of some mutant strain of rabies, four survivors abandon their hideout in an attempt to get out of the city.  Unfortunately for them, some of the infected have mutated into vile creatures, from the athletic Hunter to the Hulk-like Tank, making their escape even more treacherous.  The story will span 4 acts, which are divided into chapters through various 'maps'.

Just 5 minutes ago I happened on this piece detailing some Aussie Gears of War 2 event and interview with Cliff.  There's a bit of reading with the middle being a little dry of anything interesting, but there are two things to note.  First, is an awesome Gears style chopper and second, a bit of discussion on Cliff's high school game project, "Over Fiend."  I've heard the name a few times but I believe this is the first I've had the chance to hear, well...read, the details.  I suggest taking a look.

http://xboxoz360gamer.com/2008/11/02...

On October 8th, E-Day will hit the comic racks courtesy of Joshua Ortega and Liam Sharp as issue #1 of the Gears of War comic series is released. Remember, there are six issues to get your artwork fixen before Gears 2 is released.  So far...I love it already.  "The Hollow Part 1" opens up with the tales of "The Boogeymen," pulling out the COG's childhood fears, something only hinted in some of the earliest trailers for the first game.

For more panels, check out IGN's preview: http://comics.ign.com/articles/908/908491p1.html

This is some camera footage of Warzone on Security.  There are no new weapons shown, but we do see the effects of the smoke grenades concussion blast first hand and the new victory/loss pop up and team roster.  Bullet lag still seems to be present, but there's still 2-3 months of development left.  The bullet stoppage is nice though.

I almost complained about near the end, because I didn't see the chainsodomy on the last player the first time around. I caught it the second viewing though, so no cries of shenanigans grace these diaries...yet.
Other news around the net, one from IGN, states that the leader in Guardian can only be taken down by an execution.  I'm sure that has been revealed before, but its always nice to mention things again every now and then.

First off the list is probably the biggest feature at PAX: Fallout 3.  A chopped up demo, played by Todd Howard of Bethesda Games, is split into 5 parts.  It is the first time the public has seen gameplay footage of the main quest in Megaton where you're approached to wipe the town off the face of the planet.  You get to see a new type of enemy, called Mire lurks, which are large, humanoid crabs whose weakness is a shot to the eye.  Character and NPC interactions are also worthwhile to note.

The 5 videos are now all available on Xbox Live Marketplace. Or you can jump to http://gamevideos.1up.com/, which has all 5 videos available, with the 3rd a front page feature.  I highly recommend checking them out.

IGN just released a preview (http://pc.ign.com/articles/906/906845p1.html) where they do a bit of exploration, most notably in the subway system which holds a new character, surgeon Ryan Briggs.

Gamespy 360 (http://xbox360.gamespy.com/xbox-360/fallout-3/906761p2.html) introduces us to the town of "Minefield," a sniping old codger, and a power station full of glowing ghouls.

TeamXbox (http://previews.teamxbox.com/xbox-360/2103/Fallout-3/p2/) reveals some of the side quests in Megaton. Oddly, they call the town of "Minefield" "Landmine" instead, unless they are two different towns of similar sadistic qualities.

Finally, Xbox360 Achievements (http://www.xbox360achievements.org/achievements.php?gameID=261) has the full list of Fallout 3's 50 Achievements.  There are spoilers though, so I'll just give you guys the rundown of the achievement structure.  

-30 Quest-based achievements
-9 Karma(Good, neutral, evil)-based achievements for levels 8, 14, and 20)
-1 custom weapon building achievement
-3 kill count based achievements
-3 skill-based achievements
-2 Bobble head collecting achievements
-2 Miscellaneous achievements

If these achievements can show one thing, it is that it may take perhaps 3-5 playthroughs to get all the achievements.  None of them seem difficult however, which is a good thing in my books.

Finally, many folks had gotten a hold of one of the heavy weapons, the flamethrower, which has become a favorite of sorts already.

Oh, and props for Bethesda for having the best booth and shwag at PAX.

[Update] This video...well, there are no words for this: (http://kotaku.com/5044018/a-sea-of-pip-boys-rock-out-to-april-wine) [Update 2.0]

GameInformer (http://www.gameinformer.com/News/Story/200808/N08.0828.1708.59976.htm) has the largest piece, and it follows 3 different people as they take their own paths in the post-apocalyptic world. Some new information includes: The whole town may attack you if you make the wrong move as in the original Fallouts, drug addiction is detailed, switching between shooting and using VATs, shenanigans (Jeff: One odd thing with V.A.T.S. is when I’d shoot a dude at point-blank range and miss sometimes.), the item repair system which has to do with stacking duplicates or something in that matter, and plenty of other amazing features.

GOTY anyone?

^Looks almost like a baby Brumak^

Ok now to business...

No one has posted to this yet to my knowledge and I ran across it last night on the very few times I delve into G4s video stash.

The video is, as the title states, the Gears of War 2 panel at Leipzig GC, hosted by Mike Capps of Epic.  The panel, The Making of Gears of War 2 (So far), covers from their planning process to possibly a demo at the end (I haven't finished watching it for the following reason).  The video is fairly long, clocking just under 48 minutes, but it has a wealth of information and insight.

http://www.g4tv.com/thepile/videos/27921/Leipzig_Making_of_Gears_of_War_2.html

Here's an outline of the entire video:

Gears of War and planning the sequel

-What worked and didn't work in Gears of War.
-How to win an arms race.
-The PA comic about Epic making a 'train rifle' or w/e the heck it was called.
-Cliff backhanding Capps whenever he's upset.
-New, Better, More slogan in comparison to Bigger, Better, More Badass.

*Gameplay Themes

-The multitude of enemies is explained a bit better so that no one isn't being mislead.  There will be a multitude of enemies in the background, like in both the GC and E3 demos, which are on a fixed path and have similar animations, etc etc.
-Destruction of cover
-More, yet-less in your face, emphasis on the theme of destroyed beauty, such as the new Gridlock and destructible cover

*Co-op

-Co-op control on monster trucks (Centaur probably) and Reavers.
-Mentioning of the party system, individual difficulties in co-op, more save slots, and jump-in/drop-out in co-op.
-More asymmetry in co-op, aka more splitting up.
-More co-op puzzles
-More flanking paths, such as flanking a troika

*Multiplayer

-The success of Gears of War multiplayer
-AI Bot support...can train with bots on your own.
-Wingman > Deathmatch
-Meatflag...er, Submission, > CTF
-Better matchmaking
-Better and simpler party system (Bold claim)
-They wanted 16vs16 so Gears would be more level with UT, but it didn't quite fit the playing style well, so it was brought down to 5v5.
-Mike Capps, whether to be purposely misleading or it was a slip up, mentioned the Centaur in multiplayer...wouldn't look too much into it though.
-Horde mode

*Gameplay

-What Gears was known for
-Chainsaw Duels
-Dynamic cover: Meatshield (Capps says 'Meatbag'), Rockworms, and the Boomshield
-About 400 improvement tweaks to the cover system
-More options during the down-but-not-out sequences
-Better friendly A.I. *cough Dom cough
-More minibosses such as the Reavers, Maulers...but no reveals of the big bosses!
-More executions
-Enemy variety
-Ladders!

*DEMO!!!

-Was one shown behind closed doors at E3
-Please work! is the hope.
-Some changes were made, or improvements if you're politically correct.
-Get a look at the main menu and pause menu
-Oh...its the same Sinkhole level.
-This time it is being played live...hence Capps pausing every 3 seconds to explain that.
-The video is unfocused at some of the better parts.
-UFC execution
-The Grenadier after the Reaver encounter needs some work on his A.I...pretty hilarious actually.
-Dom died (committed suicide Cliff style), yet Capps is still playing, so perhaps you can continue throughout the level until player 1 or the last player dies.
-Charring effect from the Scorcher is still in play.
-Ticker blast radius seems to be toned down.
-Dom appears at the next checkpoint, so players won't have to go through the entire level alone if all their A.I. buddies get whacked early on.
-First time the Kantus' special ability of reviving the fallen is shown.
-Battery pack dying in Capps' controller
-200 rounds can be seen in the Gorgon Burst, though that was probably an exploit for the purpose of the demo.
-Oh, the monster truck reference may be the Brumak, not the Centaur.  Kinda hard to tell with Capps being drowned out by the game.

http://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/showthread.php?t=85568

There's a healthy amount of achievements here, most being worth 5-10 points.

Now, besides the Orgy achievement, which was quite the surprise, there's nothing really outlandish here.

You can get a job in the game, the silver keys return, kill bunnies, and there seem to be 3 character endings and 3 character routes.  Hit the link for more details.

Just a reminder, the Pub games will be available Wednesday on Xbox Live, though I can't say the same for the Pre-Order discs.

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=39460741&blogID=422176315

I'm not sure if his profile is private, so here's the link to the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nv_8Am1koWM

Now one must ask, what would've Blank done in this situation?

http://www.sonypictures.com/homevideo/residentevildegeneration/

The official site is finally up and boy does it reveal some goods.  First, those, like myself, who found it disappointing to see no sign of the film at E3 will get their Degeneration fix Friday the 25th at Comic Con.

Oh and here's the latest synopsis:

The "Umbrella Incident" that took place in Raccoon City was ended with the eradication of the deadly virus by a missile attack ordered by the government. As its operations were suspended on a global scale, Umbrella Corporation stock plummeted. This serious blow to the business giant resulted in its complete dissolution.

7 years later, at an airport somewhere in the United States. An ordinary autumn afternoon. One zombie is unleashed into this peaceful scene to attack everyone. In the airport starting to fill up with the undead, the horrific disaster is about to be repeat itself...

Those who don't remember, the film will feature Leon after the events of Resident Evil 4 and Chris Redfield's sister, Claire.

http://wii.ign.com/articles/890/890700p1.html

Why make a true sequel to the new classic zombie photography game when you can port it to a system where the majority of owners are little kids, moms, and the odd grandma, right?  Obviously, Capcom is trying to take advantage of the Wii's amazing sales (shortage my ass) and try to gather the mainstream crowd.  Still though, what mother or grandma looking for their little boy or girl's birthday present will take a second look at the game after looking at the cover or on the back?  The good news: Add one more hardcore title to the Wii.  Thing is, if they want to play it so bad, why not just go out and buy a 360 for the real version, that also has, though albeit useless, DC?  Probably won't stop Nintendo fanboys at gloating that Dead Rising is no longer a Microsoft exclusive though.

[update]

The combat will be more in-line with RE 4s combat system aka aiming with the Wiimote. You'll move the Wiimote to use melee weapons and to shake off zombies as well. I will say though: It looks pretty damn good on the Wii.

Anyways, its available for download at Xbox Live Marketplace.