Mailbag is Open!! The Planet Gears of War mailbag is once again open! Feel free to bombard us with your random crap and we'll answer your questions (or suggestions) here on the site! More >
Gears Reviews! Gears of War is out (almost) everywhere, and we've posted our full review of the game to find out the good and bad about the game.
We've also got a selection of fan reviews posted over here, so you can see what the people on the Internet think. And that's always good to know. More >
Test Drive Beta Test Take a spin with the closed PC beta of Test Drive Unlimited, only on FilePlanet!
Epic Games Interviewed We talk to Mark Rein + CliffyB about the past, present and future of Gears.
Gears of War Weapon Guide We look at the fragging potential of each of the weapons in Gears, as well as where you’ll want to use them, and where you won’t.
Gears Scores Four VGA Awards 13:21 PST | RaptoR | Print News | Mail News While blockbuster RPG Oblivion scored the top prize at last night's 2006 VGA Awards, Gears of War came away with an impressive four wins - Best Shooter, Studio of the Year (Epic Games), Best Graphics and Best Multi-Player Game.
In other news, Daedra worship is reportedly becoming increasingly prevalent on the Sumerset Isle.
Gears Tournament At The CPL 21:42 PST | redef | Print News | Mail News The Video Gamers League has announced that they will be holding a series of console-based tournament at this year’s CPL 2006 Championship Finals. Naturally Gears is set to be one of the tournament games and is scheduled to occur December 18 at 10:30 am in Dallas, Texas. For some additional details check out the Video Gamers League website.
Planet Gears of War: In terms of pure hardware horsepower, how much of the 360’s power does Gears use? Are we seeing the limits of what the console’s capable of?
Cliff: The games that leverage the most of any console are always later in the cycle of the system’s life. This is the first Xbox 360 game that Epic Games has shipped. I somehow suspect that future Epic and Unreal Engine titles will be even more beautiful and compelling on the platform.
Mark: I think we pushed the 360 as hard as we knew how to push it during the development of Gears but, even as principle tech development on Gears finished this fall, we’ve already identified areas of improvement and further optimization we can make on Xbox360 so, as Cliff points out, we’ll get better and better throughout the entire generation. We’ve now got the same kind of learning/development curve going on with UT on PlayStation3 as well.
More here, including Brumak, giant spiders and the "umbilical crackpipe".
The music used in the Gears of War ad is by Michael Andrews, performed by Gary Jules, from the 2001 "Donnie Darko" Motion Picture Soundtrack. Gearheads of War noted that "Mad World" reached the number one spot on the iTunes "Top Songs" last week. At the time of this writing, it was still within the top charts, at number 12 on the list of iTunes purchases.
Tuesday, 5 December, 2006 – Gears of War News
CliffyB: Gears > Girls 16:59 PST | redef | Print News | Mail News One unfortunate Gears fan has found himself in a rather unfortunate situation, forced to choose between his girlfriend of five years and our beloved Gears of War. As any true gamer would, Jymtarr has sought some advice in the official Gears forums, where none other than CliffyB has offered some wisdom:
On November 7, 2006, Microsoft released six new games for Xbox, including the highly anticipated release of Gears of War, which sold 1-million copies in the first two weeks.
This spike in Xbox Live traffic following the launch of a highly anticipated game is reminiscent of Halo II's release in 2004, marking the first boom in online gaming and resulting in the sustainable popularity of Xbox Live.
RoboBlitz on XBLA Tomorrow 6:02 PST | RaptoR | Print News | Mail News A little game called RoboBlitz will be released onto Xbox Live Arcade tomorrow (Wednesday) at 1AM PST. The game is an immensely fun physics-based puzzler which uses the same Unreal Engine 3 technology that powers Gears of War. I played the PC version when it was released a few weeks ago, and despite my crappy pre-release Vista graphics drivers and bizarre display bordering it was a lot of fun.
The game is set to cost 1200 MS points. Head to the dashboard tomorrow for more info, and the download!
Unforgettable Gears Moments 5:55 PST | RaptoR | Print News | Mail News GamerHelp has a list of the top 30 unforgettable Gears of War moments. Be warned, there's some spoilerific stuff in there, so you might want to skip this if you haven't finished the single-player campaign yet.
Close Enough To Smell A Berserker's Butt Breath This burly beast has only one thing on his mind and that is to slam into you with all of its weight, shattering all of the bones in your body. The Berserker is blind, not too bright, and more pissed than a bull on Mars. Even more frightening than the devastation this freak can cause are the strange squeals they make while lunging at a target.
Normally, I am the first guy to complain about the lack of creativity in today's games. I've argued many times that games are being held back by publishers who refuse to experiment -- and insist on sticking to the same five or six numbingly familiar genres. Shouldn't we be breaking ground with risky new forms of play? Do we really need yet another run-and-gun shooter?
Well, Gears of War convinces me that jeez, maybe we do. That's because creativity does not come only from a daring, new art form or weird new genre. It also comes from a dog-eared, well-worn genre that is proven to work -- and is constantly tweaked by artists who love it.
The Curb-Stomp #1: Sonic the Hedgehog 8:12 PST | RaptoR | Print News | Mail News In the first of a series of curb-stompings, Myrmidion has the very dubious honor of taking a look at the new Sonic the Hedgehog game, which first "graced" the Xbox 360 a couple of weeks ago.
Like me, I’m fairly certain that most of you had Sonic the Hedgehog to entertain you during your youth, and I hope that those distant memories of holding down right and trying to avoid falling off the level are still keeping you warm, because they’re not about to get any closer. Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 takes the worst bits of 3D platformers and combines it with a plot that would make Square Enix hold of their hands and plead ‘not guilty’. You want to know what it is?
Head over here to find out, or skip to the end and see the curb-stomping!
New Poll: Favorite Multiplayer Map 8:07 PST | RaptoR | Print News | Mail News This week's poll lets you choose your favorite Geas of War multiplayer map. Head over to the right sidebar and tell us if you're a Mansion man or a Gridlock girl.
Last week's poll saw the Cole Train making a runaway victory. Thanks to everyone that voted!
The controller features a thumbstick on the front and the other on the back, positioned on an extension and able to be used on your leg or against a table. All of the buttons are on the underside as well, able to be manipulated by your fingers. Overall, it's a pretty brilliant design. While there are no plans for this design to hit stores at the moment, I wouldn't be surprised if some company picked the design up.
Chainsaw Yourself! 7:54 PST | RaptoR | Print News | Mail News From the depths of YouTube comes a video of how to chainsaw yourself in Gears of War. Not the most useful ability in the world, but there you go. Thanks AndyB.
