Gears 2 Combustible Map Pack Available Tomorrow

It had been rumored before, but it was just confirmed on Spike TV's Video Game Awards - a new Gears of War 2 map pack will be available for download on Xbox Live tomorrow(technically midnight PST).

The Combustible Map Pack will include three new maps for use in multiplayer.

Flood is a map filled with imulsion which rises throughout your game, causing the safe areas to shift. Fuel Station takes place around a gas station. Gold Rush seems to have a lot of high ground/low ground.

No official word about the price of these maps, but rumor prices it at 800 Microsoft points.

Gears of War 2 Update

Some more information has come out about Gears of War 2. At the current time, some is confirmed and some is rumored. But read on for information on the Limited Edition and "linked achievements."

For some confirmed news, we'll talk about linked achievements. Basically obtaining some achievements in Gears of War 1 will unlock things in Gears of War 2 like playable characters. Some of the unlockable playable characters that were announced are Carmine, General RAAM and Minh Young Kim.

Now the Limited Edition contents right now are rumored, but they are supposedly credible. The rumors say that the Limited Edition will cost $130 and come with a miniature replica Lancer. How miniature? Nobody seems to know as of yet. But it's safe to assume it won't be the size of that Lancer Cliffy B likes to wave around.

Unreal III Will Have Dedicated Servers

Epic has announced that Unreal Tournament III will have dedicated servers for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. Unreal Tournament III will release in North America July 7th.

I like this. Dedicated servers are great. I think this might be the first game for the Xbox 360 that will actually have their own dedicated servers.

Gears of War 2 Trailer

From the GDC Epic announced Gears of War 2 for the Xbox 360. There's a trailer on GameVideos.com which announces the release date for November 2008.

There's no in game footage, but there is a part where Fenix flips his gunsaw over to kill a Locust, so hopefully that is something you can do in the game. Andy, Santana, and Charlie are we getting the old crew back together to get smashed in the gaming leagues?

Cliffy B hates Bill Gates

... and eats puppies! Ok, those statements might be exaggerated, but Gears of War designer Cliff Bleszinski has been quoted as talking about porting Gears to the PS3.

So far this is just noise, and Microsoft isn't having any of it. Sources say that this is the result of the recent fights between Microsoft and Epic, mainly Epic keeps wanting to put out free content for Gears of War and Microsoft keeps wanting to charge for it.

While overall, Epic's give free shit away strategy has made them a fan favorite, but this talk of helping out "the enemy" with a port is causing some fanboys to rebel against Epic.

And this might all be a case of wanna be rockstar Cliffy B shooting off his mouth when he shouldn't have been. After all, everyone knows you don't cross Mr. Gates.

Another Gears update on the way

Mark Rein, VP of Epic, has announced that there will be a free auto update sometime soon. Part of it will be another attempt at fixing the roadie run/sticking to walls problems. Part of it is supposed to take care of some other bugs/exploits. But the most exciting part? New achievements!

250 points worth of achievements, to be exact. Some of which will deal with Annex and some of which will deal with the newest maps. So as long as you have all the updates and maps, the achievements are free. Otherwise, you'll have to wait until September for the maps to be free.

Epic's VP Apologizes

I would like to think that I single handedly got the VP of Epic, Mark Rein, to apologize for the I-Hate-Freedom department at Epic. I shot an e-mail to Mark telling him that I thought it was totally stupid that his lawyers sent the letter to Emilio Lopez. Mark actually replied with the message that he sent out to the fan sites. Check it out.

Ugh. Our lawyers are trying to do their job and protect our trademarks but I guess they didn't realize this wasn't a commercial project and they fired off a standard form letter. It is unfortunate when this happens but the problem with trademarks is you HAVE to protect them and Emilio's work looks so amazingly professional, right down to a cool package!, that they probably failed to notice this was a one-off gift for non-commercial use. What we need to do is come up with some sort of permission letter for things like these so that we're properly protecting our future commercial rights but not stopping people from doing cool fan art like this.

On behalf of Epic I apologize to Emilio and anyone who was offended by this.


Mark Rein
Epic Games, Inc.

Way to go Mark. *Gives Mark a soft punch to the arm*

Epic Lawyers Hate Freedom

Epic representative, Zachary R. Bishop (The Douchebagger), has sent a letter to an Emilio Lopez to remove any Gears of War logos from a Munny doll he made or they will take legal action. A Munny is a figurine that you can customize to your liking, but apparently Epic's I-Hate-Freedom department says that fans of the game and franchise aren't allowed to do such "illegal" acts. Everyone should write Marc Rein, VP of Epic Games, and tell him that he should put a big Gears of War style boot in the ass of Zach.

Hey Epic, do like Bungie and allow your fans to have the freedom to do things with your precious IP. Without your fans you wouldn't have a Gears of War franchise. And fire that Zach Douchebag guy.